Маугли / Mowgli

to decide, to vow, to spend, to forget, sure, villagers, cattle, to graze.

11

Mowgli set off towards the village. A young girl had just come out of the village gate with a pot of fire. Mowgli raced down the hill, snatched the pot away from the girl and disappeared into the jungle. The girl screamed and ran back into the village.

Bagheera was waiting for him.

“Quickly feed it with dry sticks,” he said. “That is what they do in the village.”

Mowgli collected a pile of dry sticks and kept feeding the fire. He carried the red flower, as Bagheera called it, to the Council Rock. Shere Khan was already there.

Mowgli asked the wolf pack, “Are you going to make a tiger your leader? Is he one of you?”

“You are not one of us,” shouted a young wolf. “Then why are you with our pack?”

“Leave the man-cub to me,” growled Shere Khan.

Before anyone could speak, Mowgli picked up his pot of fire and fed it with lots of dry sticks. The fire flared up. He laughed out loudly when he saw Shere Khan jump up and run behind a rock.

“Have you seen how brave your Shere Khan is?” he asked the pack. The wolves too, were trying to get as far away from the fire and Mowgli as they could.

Mowgli said, “I can see that you do not want me with you. I am leaving, but I shall come back, and when I do, I shall come with Shere Khan’s skin.”

He threw some burning sticks at Shere Khan. The tiger disappeared into the jungle. The young wolves hurried behind him.

Exercises

1. Переведите на английский язык:

ворота, холм, кормить, куча, вспыхнуть, зд. шкура.

2. Заполните пропуски словами из списка.

loudly, disappeared, ran back, collected, towards

1. Mowgli set off ______________ the village.

2. The girl screamed and _____________ into the village.

3. Mowgli ____________ a pile of sticks and kept feeding the fire.

4. He laughed out _____________ when he saw Shere Khan jump up and run behind a rock.

5. The tiger ___________ into the jungle.

3. Ответьте на вопросы:

1. What did Mowgli snatch from the girl?

2. Who was waiting for Mowgli?

3. What did Mowgli collect? Why?

4. What did Mowgli do when he took the red flower to the Council Rock?

5. Was Shere Khan afraid of the red flower?

4. Переведите на русский язык:

to set off, to race down, to snatch, dry sticks.

12

Mowgli walked to the village. When the villagers saw him at the village gate, they all came out to look at him.

“He’s a wolf-child,” some screamed. “Chase him away.”

But one woman named Messua came and hugged Mowgli.

“This is my child,” she said. “I had lost him when he was a baby.”

The villagers decided that she could keep him, so she took him to her hut. She fed him milk and cared for him. At night, she made a bed for him on a wooden cot. Mowgli lay down on it, but he had never slept on a cot before, so he went out of the hut and lay down outside.

In the middle of the night, he felt a cold nose rubbing his face. He looked up and saw Grey Brother, one of his wolf brothers.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Shere Khan has vowed to kill you.”

“Thank you, Grey Brother. Come again tomorrow night and tell me what is going on in the jungle.”

Grey Brother promised and disappeared into the jungle.

Mowgli was a bright boy, and soon learnt many things in the village. He learnt to speak like the other village boys. He was also allowed to sit at the meetings that the villagers held every evening.

“Just like the wolf pack,” thought Mowgli.

After some months, Mowgli was allowed to take a herd of buffaloes to graze. He was happy. At last he had been accepted as one of the village.

He sat on Rama, the fat, black buffalo, and followed the herd. The buffaloes grazed all through the day; the children played and then slept in the afternoon. They returned to the village before sunset.

One day Grey Wolf came and said, “Shere Khan is coming to kill you.”

“Now we shall have some action,” said Mowgli. “But we need others to help us.”

“I am here,” said a voice. Mowgli yelled with joy when he saw Akela.

“Oh Akela, you haven’t forgotten me! I have thought of you often. Thank you for coming. Now here is the plan,” Mowgli said to the two wolves. “We will divide the herd into two. Grey Brother, you take care of one and Akela, you take care of the other.”

The two wolves chased the buffaloes, as they had been told to do. They ran swiftly into the herd and separated it into two halves. The buffaloes, terrified to see the wolves after them, ran and crashed into one another, picked themselves up and ran on.

Mowgli was sitting on Rama’s back and watching. He heard Shere Khan’s growl. The tiger was ready to pounce on him, when he heard the deafening noise of the large herd of buffaloes running towards him from both sides.