Бабенко Надія Андріївна,

викладач англійської мови та літератури

ГПОУ «Донецький педагогічний коледж»

Тексти для домашнього читання англійською мовою для учнів початкової школи

Цю невелику книгу для дітей молодшого шкільного віку англійською мовою присвячую своїм батькам, а саме:

матері Бабенко Ганні Михайлівні та батькові Бабенко Андрію Олександровичу в знак подяки за Любов та Тепло, що завжди панували в родині, а також за Велику Підтримку та Віру в мене під час довгих та непростих років навчання.

Крім того, бажаю присвятити цю книжку своїй колезі, моєму наставникові за часи роботи протягом 25 років, людині з великої літери, методисту та професіоналу

Непомнящій Ларисі Євгенівні.

Text 1 Read and translate the text. Baby Elephant

Long, long ago there lived Baby Elephant in Africa. Elephants had no trunks then, and this Baby Elephant had a little black nose. He was a very funny Baby Elephant and wanted to know everything, and he asked so many questions that all his family and friends were angry with him. All the animals had no time to talk to him.

One morning Baby Elephant wanted to know what the Crocodile had for dinner. So he went to his tall aunt the Giraffe and said, «Dear aunt, what does the Crocodile have for dinner?»

But his tall aunt the Giraffe said, «Go away! I have no time to talk to you!» and she hit him.

Baby Elephant was very unhappy. But he went to his uncle the Monkey and said, «Dear uncle, what does the Crocodile have for dinner?»

The Monkey was eating a banana. He got very angry and cried, «Go away! I have no time to talk to you.» And he hit him too.

Baby Elephant was very, very unhappy, and he didn’t know what to do. Suddenly he saw his friend the Kolokolo Bird. She was sitting on a tree. Baby Elephant said, «Dear Bird, what does the Crocodile have for dinner?».

The Kolokolo Bird was very clever, and she said, «If you want to know that, you must go to the big grey-green Limpopo River and ask the Crocodile».

«Thank you very much», - said Baby Elephant. Then he said goodbye to his family and friends and went to the big grey-green Limpopo River. He walked and walked for a long time. At last he came to the Limpopo River. There he met a big Snake and asked him, «Does the Crocodile live in this river?».

The Snake said, «If you want to see the Crocodile, there he is». Baby Elephant saw the big Crocodile. He was in the green water of the Limpopo River. Baby Elephant said, «Good morning, Sir. Are you the Crocodile?».

The Crocodile opened one of his little eyes and said, «Good morning. Yes, I am the Crocodile, and what do you want?». «Please, tell me what you have for dinner!», - said the Baby Elephant. «Come here! I can show you».

So Baby Elephant came up to the Crocodile. Then the Crocodile opened his big mouth with many teeth in it and caught Baby Elephant by his little nose and said, «I think I’ll have a Baby Elephant for dinner today». And he began to pull Baby Elephant into the water. Baby Elephant did not like this, and he cried, «Let me go! Don’t eat me!».

Then the Big Snake came down from the tree very quickly and cried, «My little friend, you must pull too».

So Baby Elephant began to pull too, but the Crocodile was stronger. He pulled and pulled, and pulled, and Baby Elephant’s little nose began to get longer… and longer… The Big Snake said, «My little friend, let us pull together or the Crocodile will have you for dinner». So the Snake pulled, and Baby Elephant pulled too, and The Crocodile pulled. They pulled for a very long time, and Baby Elephant’s nose got longer and longer.

At last the Crocodile let go, and Baby Elephant fell down. He was very unhappy because his funny little nose was a big long trunk, and began to cry.

«Don’t cry, don’t cry!» said the Snake. «Your trunk isn’t so bad. It’s very nice!». But Baby Elephant cried and cried.

Suddenly a fly sat down on his head, and Baby Elephant killed the fly with trunk. «You see how nice your trunk is», - said the Snake. «You could not do that with a little nose».

Then Baby Elephant picked some grass with his trunk and put it in his mouth.

Baby Elephant began to like his new trunk. He thanked the Snake and said, «Now it’s time to go home. Goodbye, dear Snake». So Baby Elephant went home. On his way he sang merrily. When he was hungry, he picked bananas from the tall trees and ate them. When he came home, his family laughed at his long trunk and said, «You are so funny with your new nose!». But when he hit all his family with his new trunk, they didn’t laugh after that. All his brothers and sisters ran to the big grey-grey Limpopo River to get new noses from the Crocodile.

Then they came back with big trunks too. And from that day all the elephants have long trunks.