Read the book: «Little Prince. A1 / Маленький принц»

Name: Little Prince. A1 / Маленький принц
Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
ISBN: 978-5-17-155565-8

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© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2023

Chapter 1

I am six years old. I see a nice picture. The picture is in a book. It is a picture of a big snake. The snake eats an animal. Here is the picture.

The book says, “Snakes eat thewhole animal. And they sleep for six months.” I think about the life in the forest. I make my first picture. This is my picture number one.

Ishow my fantastic picture to one person. And I ask this person, “Are you scared?” This person answers, “How can I be scared? It is a hat.” My picture is not a picture of a hat. It is a picture of a big snake. An elephant is inside the snake. Then I make my picture number two. The picture shows the inside of the big snake. Now people understand. This is my picture number two.

Peopletell me what they think. They tell me that it is not good to make pictures. They tell me that it is better to study geography, history, maths and grammar. After these words, I don’t want to make pictures. I don’t want to make pictures because my picture number one and picture number two are not good for the people. People don’t understand simple things. And now, I am not a child. I am a big person. I have a job. I am a pilot. I fly planes. I fly in many countries. And it is true that geography is good for me. Geography can help me if I am lost in the night.

In my life, I work with people every day. The people areoften serious. Sometimes I meet a person who is a little normal. When I meet this person, I show him my picture number one. I always have this picture with me. I want to know if this person understands life. But the person always says, “It is a hat.” Then I never speak to this person about big snakes or forests or stars. And we speak about work, sport and family. And the person is happy. For him I am a normal man. I live alone. I don’t know people for an open conversation. But one day it all changes. I have an accident in the Sahara Desert. Something is broken in my plane. I have nobody in the plane with me. It is not easy to repair the plane alone. But I must do it. It is a question of life or death. I have water for only a week.

Glossary

whole – целый, полный

fantastic – фантастический

ask – спрашивать

scared – испуганный

answer – отвечать

hat – шляпа

inside – внутри

number – номер

show – показывать

understand – понимать

tell – говорить, рассказывать

think – думать

better – лучше

study – изучать

grammar – грамматика

after – после

simple – простой

true – правда

lost – потерянный

serious – серьезный

fly – летать

often – часто

sometimes – иногда

meet – встречать

a little – немного

never – никогда

star – звезда

alone – один

conversation – разговор

change – меняться

accident – несчастный случай, авария

broken – сломанный

easy – легко

repair – чинить

must – должен

question – вопрос

death – смерть

only – только

Chapter 2

Thefirst night, I sleep on the sand. I am a thousand miles from a land with people. I think that no people are around me. So I am shocked when somebody speaks to me in the morning.

I hear these words, “Please,draw me a sheep.”

“What?”

“Draw me a sheep!”

I jump up. I look around. And I see a little man.

This is the picture of the little man.

My picture is not very good. Theoriginal model is better. It is not my mistake. I know how to draw only two pictures. They are pictures of a snake from the outside and a snake from the inside.

I look at this little man. I amreally surprised. Don’t forget that I am a thousand miles from a land with people. Something is very interesting. This little man is not tired. He is not hungry. He is not thirsty. He is not scared. He doesn’tlooklost in the middle of the desert, a thousand miles from a land with people.

The little man says, veryslowly, “Please draw me a sheep.”

It is all verystrange to me. I am a thousand miles from a land with people. I am in danger of death. But I take a pen and paper from my pocket. I want to draw a picture. Then I remember that I know only geography, history, maths and grammar. And I tell the little man that I don’t know how to draw.

He says, “It is OK. Draw me a sheep.”

But I don’t know how to draw a sheep. So I draw him a picture which I can draw. It is a big snake from the outside. And I am shocked when the little man says, “No, I don’t want an elephant inside a big snake. A big snake is a very dangerous animal. And an elephant is very big for me. Where I live, everything is very small. I need a sheep. Draw me a sheep.”

So I make this picture.

The little man looks at the picture. Then he says, “No. This sheep isill. Make me another sheep.”

I draw another picture.

My friend smiles at me, “You must see it too. This is not a sheep. It is aram. It has horns.”

So I make another picture.

But this picture also isn’t good.

“This sheep is old. I want a sheepwhich can live a long time.”

It is not easy for me. I don’t have time for this. I must start my work on the plane. So I draw this picture.

And I say, “This is a box. The sheep is inside.”

I amsurprised when I see the light in his face, “This is what I want! Do you think that this sheep needs a lot of grass?”

“Why?”

“Because where I live, everything is very small.”

“I think that there is enough grass for the sheep. This is a very small sheep.”

The little man looks at the picture. And he says, “The sheep is not very small. It is a very nice sheep.”

This is my first day with the little prince.

Glossary

first – первый

sand – песок

thousand – тысяча

mile – миля

around – вокруг

shocked – шокированный

draw – рисовать

original – оригинальный, исходный

mistake – ошибка

outside – снаружи

really – очень, действительно

surprised – удивленный

forget – забывать

tired – уставший

hungry – голодный

thirsty – жаждущий, хотеть пить

middle – середина

desert – пустыня

slowly – медленно

strange – странно

danger – опасность

pocket – карман

remember – помнить

ill – больной

another – другой

ram – баран

horns – рога

which – который

light – свет

face – лицо

grass – трава

Chapter 3

I want to knowmore about the little prince. I want to know where he lives. The little prince asks me many questions. I also ask him questions. But he doesn’t answer my questions. But when he speaks, I slowly start to understand many things.

For example, when he looks at my plane, he asks, “What is this thing?”

I answer, “It is a plane. It can fly. It is my plane.”

And I am happy when I tell him that I can fly. Then he says, “What? Are you from the sky?”

“Yes,” I say.

“It is funny!”

And the little prince starts tolaugh. I am angry. My situation is not good. How can somebody think that it is funny?

Then he says, “So you also come from theskyline me. What is your planet?”

At this moment I start to understand more about him. I ask, “Do you come from another planet?”

But he doesn‘t answer. He looks at my planeagain. Then he says, “On this thing, you can’t come from very far.”

And he starts to think. Then hetakes the picture with his sheep. And he looks at his sheep.

But I want to know more. So I ask again, “Where is your planet? Where do you want to take your sheep?”

He isquiet. Then he says, “The box is a good thing. At night, I can use the box as a house for the sheep.”

“Yes. And I can also give you arope. Then you can tie the sheep during the day.”

But the little prince isshocked when I say this, “Tie the sheep? It is a funny idea!”

“But if you don’t tie the sheep, thesheep can run away. You can lose the sheep.”

The little prince starts to laugh again.

“But where can the sheep go?”

“It can go tomany places. It can go left. It can go right.”

The little prince says, “The sheep can go away on my planet. It is OK. Where I live, everything is so small.” He isa little sad. Then he says, “Where I live, nobody can go very far.”

Now I know a secondimportant thing. The planet of the little prince is very small. It is like a house.

But it isn’t really a bigsurprise. I know that we don’t have only big planets like Earth, Mars or Jupiter. We have also hundreds of other planets. These planet are sometimes very small. If you want to see these planets, you need a very good telescope.

When anastronomer discovers such a planet, he doesn’t give the planet a name. He gives the planet only a number. The name of the planet is, for example, Asteroid 3251.

Glossary

more – больше

laugh – смеяться

angry – злой

funny – забавный

sky – небо

like – как

again – опять, снова

then – потом

thing – вещь

far – далеко

take – брать

quiet – спокойный, молчаливый

use – использовать

as – как, в качестве

rope – веревка

tie – привязывать

lose – потерять

important – важный

sometimes – иногда

telescope – телескоп

astronomer – астроном

discover – открывать

such – такой

Chapter 4

I think that the planet of the little prince is Asteroid B-612.

In 1909, one astronomer discovers this asteroid. The astronomer is fromTurkey.

He speaks about hisasteroid at a big conference. But nobody believes him because he has Turkish clothes. It is crazy but people do these things.

But there is something good for Asteroid B-612. A Turkishleader says that people in Turkey must have clothes like Europeans. The astronomer speaks about his asteroid again in 1920. He has very nice clothes. And now everybody believes him. I speak about Asteroid B-612 and I speak about its number because people like numbers. When you tell people that you have a new friend, they never ask you questions about important things. They never ask you, “Is his voice nice? What games does he play? Does he have butterflies at home?”

They ask, “How old is he? How many brothers does he have? How big is he? How muchmoney does his father have?” If they know these numbers, they think that they know this person.

If you say to the people, “I know a small red house. It has beautiful flowers in the windows. A lot of birds fly around the house,” the people can’timagine the house. You must say to the people, “I know a big house. It is very expensive. You can buy this house for one hundred thousand dollars.” Then the people say, “It is a nice house.”

If you say to the people, “The little princeexists because he laughs and he wants a sheep,” this information is not enough for the adults. They don’t believe you. They think that you live in a dream. But if you tell them, “The planet of the little prince is Asteroid B-612,” they believe you. This is how the people think.

If you understand life, you don’t need numbers. You need to hear a nice story. You like to hear, “The little prince lives on a small planet. The planet is very small. The little prince isalone. He wants to have a friend.” If you understand life, this is what you want to hear.

Glossary

Turkey – Турция

Turkish – турецкий

asteroid – астероид

conference – конференция

believe – верить

clothes – одежда

crazy – сумасшедший

leader – лидер

everybody – каждый, все

voice – голос

butterfly – бабочка

money – деньги

imagine – представить

expensive – дорогой

exist – существовать

laugh – смеяться

information – информация

enough – достаточно

adult – взрослый

dream – мечта, сон

Chapter 5

It is six years after mymeeting with the little prince. When I think about him, I am sad. But I write about the little prince, because I don’t want to forget him. It is sad when you forget a friend. Not everybody has a friend.

This is thereason why I have paper and colours in my hands now. It is difficult to draw for me when I am old. But I want to do it.

I want to make my pictures very good. But I am notsure if I can do it. One picture is OK, but another picture is not very good. I make some mistakes in the size too. Here the little prince is very big. Here he is very small. Maybe the colour of his clothes is not correct. But I try to draw as well as possible.

But sometimes when my picture is notperfect, it is not my mistake. It is the little prince’s mistake. He never explains things to me. Maybe he thinks that I am like him. But unfortunately, I don’t see the sheep in the box.

Every day, new information about the little prince’s planet comes. Ialso know more and more about his journey to the Earth. The information comes very slowly. The information comes during moments when the little prince thinks about his past.

For example, on the third day, the little prince speaks about a problem with the baobabs. Baobabs are big trees. The conversation about baobabs starts when the little prince asks me a question about the sheep.

“Is it true that sheep eat little trees?”

“Yes. It is true.”

“It is good.”

I don’t understand why it is so important that sheep eat little trees. But the little prince says, “So they also eat baobabs?”

I tell the little prince that baobabs aren’t little trees, “The baobabs are big trees. The baobabs are very big. They are like houses. And, for example, if you put nine big elephants on your planet, these elephants can’t eat one baobab. The baobabs are so big.”

The idea of nine elephants is funny for the little prince. And he laughs, “On my planet, elephants must stand on elephants.”

But then he says something clever, “When the baobabs are young, they are very small.”

“It is true,” I say. “But why is it important that your sheep eats the little baobabs?”

He says, “It issimple. Think about it. It is not very difficult.”

So I start to think about the problems with baobabs. Soon, I have the answer.

Glossary

meeting – встреча

forget – забывать

reason – причина

sure – уверенный

mistake – ошибка

size – размер

correct – правильный

perfect – идеальный

explain – объяснять

unfortunately – к сожалению

also – также

journey – путешествие

during – во время

past – прошлое

for example – например

third – третий

difficult – сложный

Chapter 6

I think that on the little prince’s planet, there are goodplants and bad plants. It is normal for all planets. And of course, there are also good seeds of good plants and bad seeds of bad plants. But we can’t see seeds. They are in the ground. But one day, every seed wakes up. Then the seed starts to grow. The seed grows slowly to the sun.

When the plant is very small, you don’t know if the plant is somevegetable or a rose. And you can let the plant grow. But when you see that it is a bad plant, it is important to destroy the plant fast.

It is true that there are bad seeds on the planet of the little prince. They are the seeds of baobabs. The ground of the planet isfull of them. If you see a baobab too late, you can’t destroy it. Then the baobab grows over the whole planet. And if the planet is too small, two or three baobabs can destroy the planet.

“It is a question ofdiscipline,” the little prince tells me.

“When Iwash my face in the morning and when I put on my clothes, then it is time to clean my planet. It is necessary to pull the baobabs when I see them. Sometimes it isn’t easy because they are similar to roses when they are very young. It is a very boring job, but very easy.”

And one day he says to me, “You can draw a beautiful picture. The picture can show this situation to children. This information can help children when theytravel around the universe.

In life, it is sometimes OK to do your worklater. But when you do your work with baobabs later, it is always a big problem. I know a planet with a lazy man. Now he has a big problem. He has three big baobabs on his planet. He is not happy.”

And, when the little prince speaks about the planet, I make a picture of this planet.

People know onlya little about the problem with baobabs. And it is possible that one day when you are lost on an asteroid, you can have this problem too. I believe that it is important to know that baobabs can be very dangerous for a small planet.

I work sohard on this picture because I want to tell children about the problem which they don’t know.

I also make the picture very big. It is big because the problem with baobabs can be very big.

Glossary

plant – растение

of course – конечно

seed – семя

wake up – просыпаться

grow – расти

vegetable – овощ

important – важный

destroy – разрушить

full – полный

too – слишком

discipline – дисциплина

put on – надевать

necessary – необходимо

pull – вытаскивать, тянуть

similar – похожий

boring – скучный

travel – путешествовать

universe – Вселенная

later – позже

lazy – ленивый

possible – возможный

dangerous – опасный

hard – усердно, усиленно

Chapter 7

Step by step, I start to understand the secrets of the little prince’s life. For a long time his only fun is to watch beautiful sunsets.

This information comes on thefourth day in the morning. The little prince says, “I really like sunsets. Let’slook at a sunset now.”

“But we mustwait,” I say.

“Wait? Wait for what?”

“Wait for the moment when the sun is down.”

The little prince is very surprised. Then he laughs. And he says, “I am always thinking that I am at home.”

Everybody knows this. When it is noon in the United States, the sun is going down in France. If you can fly to France in one minute, you can watch the sunset.

But the little prince’s planet is very small. You only need topull your chair four or five metres. And you can watch the sunset when you want.

The little prince tells me about a day with forty-three sunsets. He says, “Whenyou are very sad, sunsets are great.”

“The day with forty-three sunsets must be a sad day. Is it true?” I ask. But the little prince doesn’t answer.

On thefifth day, new information about the little prince’s life comes. He asks me, “If a sheep eats little trees, does it eat flowers, too?”

“A sheep eats everything what is green,” I answer.

“Does a sheep eat flowers withthorns too?”

“Yes. The sheep eats flowers with thorns too.”

“I don’t understand,” says the little prince, “Why does the flower have thorns if a sheep can eat the flower?”

I don’t know. At that moment I am verybusy. I need to repair my plane. I am scared because my situation starts to be very serious. I have so little water. I think that my death is close.

“Why does the flower have thorns?”

The little prince always wants an answer to his question. But at that moment I amangry because I can’t repair my plane. I answer without thinking, “Thorns are good for nothing. Flowers have thorns because they want to hurt others.”

“Oh!”

The little prince is thinking for a moment. I see that he is a little angry. Then he says, “I don’t believe you! Flowers areweak. The thorns give them power. Flowers believe that their thorns are big weapons.”

I say nothing. I am very busy with my plane.

Glossary

step – шаг

secret – секрет, тайна

only – единственный

fun – развлечение

sunset – закат

fourth – четвертый

let’s – давай

wait – ждать

noon – полдень

great – прекрасный, великолепный

fifth – пятый

thorn – шип

busy – занятой

serious – серьезный

close – близкий

angry – злой

hurt – ранить, причинить боль

others – другие

weak – слабый

power – сила

weapons – оружие

Chapter 8

I am still repairing my plane when the little prince says, “Do you really believe that flowers have thorns because they want tohurt others?”

“No, I don’t believe it! But I don’t want to think about it. I am busy with my plane. It is a serious thing!”

He is shocked.

“Serious thing?”

He looks at me. My hands aretouching the engine. The engine is dirty. My hands are dirty too. The little prince doesn’t like the engine. But the engine is important for me.

“You talk like theadults!”

The little prince is not happy. I know that it is my mistake. I don’t feel OK. But the little princecontinues, “You mix everything together!”

The little prince isangry.

“I know a planet with agentleman with a red face. He doesn’t have a flower. He doesn’t look at stars. He doesn’t love other people. He only counts numbers. And all day he repeats again and again, like you, ‘I am a serious man! I am a serious man!’ And he is very proud. But he is not a man, he is a mushroom!”

“He is a what?”

“A mushroom!”

The little prince is now very angry. His face is white.

“Flowers have thorns. Sheep eat flowers. And you think that it is not good to try to understand why flowers have thorns. There is awar between the sheep and the flowers. And you think that it is not important?”

The little prince is still very angry. He continues.

“You think that the war between the sheep and the flowers is not more important than the numbers of the gentleman with a red face? I know a flower which isthe only flower in the world, which exists only on my planet. It is a flower which a little sheep can eat for breakfast. And you think that this is not important?”

His face is now red. He continues.

“If you love a flower which is in the sky, then you are happy when you look at the stars. You are happy because you know that your flower isup there. But if the sheep eats the flower, then the sky is very sad for you.”

He can’t say another word. He starts to cry. The night comes. Iput my tools on the ground. How important are my tools, my engine, my death now? On one planet, on my planet, the Earth, there is a little prince who needs me. I take him in my arms. I hold him. I say to him, “The flower which you love is not in danger. I can draw you something which can protect your flower. I can draw you a fence. You can put the fence around your flower. I can…”

I don’t know what to say to him. I don’t feelcomfortable. I don’t know how to talk to him, how to be his friend again. It is so strange when somebody cries.