1. Read the text.
The Tale of the Three Brothers
Part
1
There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely,
winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade
through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were
learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a
bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it
when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure.
And Death
spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims,
for travellers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He
pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic, and said that
each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.
So the oldest
brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in
existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a
wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks
of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave
it to the oldest brother.
Then the
second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate
Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So
Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother,
and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead.
And then Death
asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother
was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust
Death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from
that place without being followed by Death. And Death, most unwillingly, handed
over his own Cloak of Invisibility.
Then Death
stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way and they
did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death’s
gifts.
In due course
the brothers separated, each for his own destination.
J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard
2. Match the words in bold to their synonyms.
|
1. wade through
2. treacherous
3. cunning
4. evade
5. fashioned
6. enable
|
|
a) tricky
b) avoid
c) to walk with effort through a substance, such as water
d) designed
e) allow
f)
smart
|
3. 
Group work. What do you think will happen next? Where will they go? Who
will they meet? How will they use their magical prizes? Write your story
(90-100 words).
The first brother travelled on for a week or more, and reaching a
distant village, he sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel.
Naturally, with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel
that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother
proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had
snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible.
That very night, another wizard crept upon the
oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand
and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother’s throat.
And so Death took the first brother
for his own.
Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his
own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power
to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his
delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry before her untimely
death appeared at once before him.
Yet she was silent and cold, separated from him
as though by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not
truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with
hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.
And so Death took the second brother
for his own.
But though Death searched for the third brother
for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained
a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of
Invisibility and gave it to his son.
And then he greeted Death as an old
friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.
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