Использование сказок при изучении английского языка.

As soon as Gelsomino opens his mouth, the ball flies into the net

This is a story about Gelsomino, told by himself. By the time I heard it to the end, I was almost deaf, even though I stuffed half a kilo of cotton wool into my ears. The fact is that Gelsomino has such a loud voice that even when he speaks in a low voice, he is heard by passengers of jet planes flying at an altitude of ten thousand meters above sea level.

Today Gelsomino is a famous tenor. He is known everywhere - from the North Pole to the South. After becoming an artist, he came up with a new sonorous and, perhaps, even somewhat magnificent name, which I will not mention here, because it probably came across hundreds of times in the newspapers. As a child, the boy's name was Gelsomino - Jasmine, and under this name he will remain in our story.

Gelsomino in the Land of Liars | Image - 1

So, once upon a time there was an ordinary boy, perhaps even smaller than other boys, but his voice was extremely deafening, which turned out as soon as he managed to make his first cry. When Gelsomino was born - and it happened in the dead of night - all the villagers jumped out of bed, thinking that they could hear the factory horn calling them to work. In fact, it was Gelsomino crying, trying out his voice, as all newly born babies do. Fortunately, he soon learned to sleep from evening to morning, as all decent people do, except for journalists and night watchmen. Now he started crying at exactly seven in the morning - just at the time when people need to wake up to go to work. Factory horns were not needed and soon rusted from inactivity.

Gelsomino in the Land of Liars | Image - 2

When Gelsomino was six years old, he went to school. During the roll call, the teacher reached the letter "D" and called him: - Gelsomino! - Here!  The new student happily replied. And immediately there was a crash: shards fell down, the classroom slate shattered into a thousand small pieces.

- Which one of you threw a stone at the board? - the teacher asked sternly, holding out his hand for the ruler.

Everyone was silent.

"Well, let's start the roll call from the beginning," the teacher said.

- Did you launch the stone? - he asked each student in order.

"Not me, not me," the frightened boys answered.

Gelsomino in the Land of Liars | Image - 3

When the teacher reached Gelsomino, he also stood up and answered quite sincerely:

"It's not me, Signor Wu... But no sooner had he uttered the word "teacher" than at the same moment the window panes fell to the floor with a loud clang. This time the teacher was watching the class closely and saw that none of his forty students had fired a slingshot. "Probably someone broke the window from the street," the teacher thought, "one of those naughty boys who, instead of going to school, ruin birds' nests. I'll catch him and take him by the ear to the police."

That was the end of it that morning. The next day, the teacher took up the roll call again and again reached the name Gelsomino.

- Here! - our hero answered, proud of having become a schoolboy. Bang-bang! - the window immediately responded. The glass, inserted only half an hour ago, fell to the pavement.

"It's a strange thing," said the teacher, "misfortunes happen every time I come to your name. Ah, everything is clear! Your voice, my boy, is too loud, your voice makes the air shake like during a cyclone. From now on, you must speak only in a low voice, otherwise the school and our entire village will turn into ruins. Agreed?

Blushing with shame and embarrassment, Gelsomino tried to object: - Signor teacher, it's not me! Bang-bang! - a new blackboard, just brought by the school janitor from the store, answered him.

"Here's the proof," the teacher said. However, noticing that the poor Gelsomino had big tears rolling down his cheeks, he got up from the table, approached the boy and gently stroked his head. - Listen to me carefully, son. Your voice can bring you either a lot of troubles or great fame. In the meantime, it's better that you use it as little as possible. Besides, everyone knows that the word is silver, and silence is gold. From that day on, hellish torments began for Gelsomino. At school, in order not to cause new troubles, he sat with a handkerchief in his mouth. And yet his voice sounded so loud that his classmates had to plug their ears. The teacher tried to ask him as little as possible. However, it must be said that Gelsomino was considered an exemplary student, and the teacher was sure that he would always be able to give the right answer. At home, after the first incident (he began to talk about what happened at school at the table, and only fragments remained from twelve glasses), he was strictly forbidden to open his mouth. To take his soul away, he had to go far away from the village: into the forest, to the shore of the lake or into the field. When he was sure that he was alone and at a respectful distance from the windows of his fellow villagers, he lay down on his face on the ground and began to sing. After a few minutes, the earth seemed to boil - moles, caterpillars, ants and other underground inhabitants climbed to the surface and ran away for many kilometers, thinking that an earthquake was starting.

Gelsomino in the Land of Liars | Image - 4

Only once did Gelsomino forget about his usual caution. It was Sunday at the stadium, during a crucial football match. Gelsomino was not an avid fan, but little by little the game captured him as well. And so, under the cheers of the fans, the team of his village went on the attack. (I don't know exactly what "go on the attack" means, since I don't understand anything about football, but Gelsomino used this expression in his story, and I'm sure you'll understand it - after all, you read sports newspapers!) - Come on! Come on! - the fans shouted. - Come on!  Gelsomino shouted at the top of his voice. Just at that moment, the rightmost was passing the ball to the center of the attack, but the ball changed direction halfway and, driven by some unknown force, flew into the opponent's goal, slipping between the goalkeeper's legs. "Goal!" the audience shouted. - What a blow!  someone exclaimed. - Did you see how he cut the ball? And what an accuracy! Everything is calculated to the millimeter. He has golden legs. But Gelsomino, coming to his senses, immediately realized what he had done. "There can be no doubt," he thought, "I scored this goal with my voice. I'll have to keep quiet, otherwise what will the sport turn into? No, perhaps, in order to equalize the score, we will have to score a goal in the other gate." In the second half, he had an opportunity. The opposing team rushed to the attack. Gelsomino screamed, and the ball flew into the goal of his fellow villagers. It is easy to understand that his heart was bleeding at the same time. Even many years later, telling me about this case, Gelsomino remarked: - I would rather have my finger cut off than score this goal, but there's nothing to be done, willy-nilly I had to score. Yes, someone else in his place would have played along with his favorite team, but not Gelsomino - he was honest, sincere and clean, like transparent spring water. That's how he grew up, and became a young man. He was, to tell the truth, not very tall, rather small in stature and rather thin than fat - in general, the name Jasmine suited him quite well. If he had a heavier name, maybe he would have made a hump by wearing it. Gelsomino left school a long time ago and began to do peasant labor, and he would have been doing it all his life, and I wouldn't have had to tell you about him if a very unpleasant story hadn't happened to him, which you will soon learn about.