-
Important news
-
News
-
Shenzhen
-
China
-
World
-
Opinion
-
Sports
-
Kaleidoscope
-
Photos
-
Business
-
Markets
-
Business/Markets
-
World Economy
-
Speak Shenzhen
-
Health
-
Leisure
-
Culture
-
Travel
-
Entertainment
-
Digital Paper
-
In-Depth
-
Weekend
-
Newsmaker
-
Lifestyle
-
Diversions
-
Movies
-
Hotels and Food
-
Special Report
-
Yes Teens!
-
News Picks
-
Tech and Science
-
Glamour
-
Campus
-
Budding Writers
-
Fun
-
Qianhai
-
Advertorial
-
CHTF Special
-
Futian Today
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen -> 
Rumpelstiltskin
    2021-01-18  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

James Baquet


Few story collections are better known than those of the Grimm Brothers. One of my favorites is the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, a warning to those who take shortcuts.


A miller brags to a king that his daughter can turn straw into gold in a spinning wheel. “That’s a talent worth having,” the king said, and bade the miller bring his daughter in for a test.


When the girl arrived, he locked her in a room full of straw with a spinning wheel and told her, “Spin all night. If by dawn you haven’t spun all this straw into gold, you shall die.” The distraught girl sat down and began at once to cry. But suddenly, the door opened and a funny-looking little man stepped in and asked, “Why are you crying so bitterly?” When she told him her problem, he asked what she would give him, and in exchange for her necklace, he sat down at once and “whir, whir, whir!” by morning the room was full of gold.


The king was astonished to see what had transpired. The second night things went the same, only the room was much bigger, with much more straw, and the girl gave the ugly little man her ring.


The king’s greed was not yet satisfied. Another night, another bigger room, but this time the king promised to marry the girl if she succeeded. The girl had nothing left to give the little man, so he agreed to do it in exchange for her first-born child. Thinking only of the moment, the girl agreed. Again he spun, and the girl became a queen.


When her first son was born and the little man arrived to fetch him, she tried everything, but to no avail. At last she sobbed so bitterly that he made her this deal: If she guessed his name within three days, he would let her keep her son.


On the first night she guessed every name she had ever heard — and none hit the mark. On the second, she tried the names of all the people of the realm. Nothing.


But on the third evening, a messenger reported having seen a man dancing in the woods, singing:


Tomorrow I brew, today I bake,


And then the child away I’ll take.


The queen will never win this game


For Rumpelstiltskin is my name!


That night, the queen guessed: “Is it Conrad?” No. “Harry?” No. “Perhaps, Rumpelstiltskin?” And in a rage the little man tore himself in two!



Vocabulary:


Which word above means:


1. extremely upset


2. cried


3. sound like a turning wheel


4. dried grain stalks


5. person who turns grain into flour


6. commanded; ordered


7. happened, passed


8. extreme anger


9. make yarn or thread from plant fibers


10. get, retrieve



ANSWERS: 1. distraught 2. sobbed 3. whir 4. straw 5. miller 6. bade

7. transpired 8. rage 9. spin

10. fetch

深圳报业集团版权所有, 未经授权禁止复制; Copyright 2010-2020, All Rights Reserved.
Shenzhen Daily E-mail:szdaily@126.com