Little Prince. A1 / Маленький принц

Chapter 3

I want to know more 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 to laugh. I am angry. My situation is not good. How can somebody think that it is funny?

Then he says, “So you also come from the skyline 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 plane again. Then he says, “On this thing, you can’t come from very far.”

And he starts to think. Then he takes 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 is quiet. 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 a rope. Then you can tie the sheep during the day.”

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

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

The little prince starts to laugh again.

“But where can the sheep go?”

“It can go to many 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 is a little sad. Then he says, “Where I live, nobody can go very far.”

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

But it isn’t really a big surprise. 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 an astronomer 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 from Turkey.

He speaks about his asteroid 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 Turkish leader 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 much money 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’t imagine 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 prince exists 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 is alone. 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