ENJOY THE ENGLISH: septiembre 2010

My dear students this is the video about the tale: THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN,
Enjoy it

Questions about tale:The pied piper of Hamelin

1.Describe Hamelin
2.How where the houses?
3.How were the streets?
4.How was called the river?
5.What happened when every body was very happy in Hamelin?
6.What did the rats do?
7.How were the people of the town with the rats?
8.What did the people tell to the mayor?
9.who did arrive in the town?
10.Describe the Pipe piper
11. what did the Pipe Piper dance and sing?
12.What did the Pipe Piper say to mayor?
13.How was he going to finish with the rats?
14.How much money was he asking for it?
15.What did the piper do with his pipe?
16.What did a black rat do?
17.What happened with the rats?
18.what did Piper ask to Mayor?
19.What did Mayor answer to Pipe?
20.What did warlock say proudly?
21.what happened when the door opened?
22.what did not expect the piper?
23.What did the mayor say to piper?
24.What happened the next sunday?

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there was a beautiful happy town in Germany called Hamelin, where the houses were pretty, and were cool in summer and warm in Winter.

They had flowers in the spring all around them.
The streets were clean but narrow between the houses.
In the wall on one side of the town there was a river on the other side of it called the river Weser.

Everybody was very , very happy, till one day the rats came.
There were thousands and thousands of great black creatures that swarmed all over the houses, until the people in that town could not put hand or foot down anywhere without touching one.
All the houses and streets were full of them.

The rats ate everything. They ate all the cake, all the bread, all the cheese, all the meat. They killed all the chickens.

They were not afraid of the cats and dogs. Neither poison nor traps, helped, because the more rats they killed the more came.

Nothing could stop them. The people of the town were at first angry and then they became afraid.

“They have eaten all our food in the cupboards”
“Are we going to let them eat our babies too?” what can we do?”
They went to the town hall and told the mayor, that the rats were attacking all of them. ”none of us is free”, the mayor said. “The rats are in the town hall too”.
Then one Saturday there arrived in the town of Hamelin a young man. He was a tall, gawky man, dry and bronzed.
He had a long crooked nose, a rattail moustache, two yellow piercing and mocking eyes.
He was dressed in clothes of many colors and had a funny on his head.
He had a long, thin pipe in his hands. He played a short melody and sang this refrain:
“Who lives will see:
This is me,
The rat- catcher”.

Then he looked down at his feet and they jumped up and down as the melody went faster and faster.
That is how he may be seen to this day, painted on a window of the church of Hamelin.
The pipe piper danced quickly through the streets, and stopped in the marketplace before the town hall, he turned his back to the church and went on with his music, singing:
“Who lives will see:
This is me, the rat- catcher “

He stopped in front of the mayor and look off his hat.
“What do you want? Asked the mayor.
“I can help, I am the rat-catcher “, the piper said.
“If you make it worth my while, I will free you of all the rats before the day ends”
“How are you going to do it?” asked the mayor.
I´m going to do it by the melody of my pipe.
Then, one of the town counselors said: “he is a warlock!”
“We must beware of him, but warlock or not, if the pipe piper speaks the truth, we have to let him do it. Ask him how much money is he asking for it?”
If you pay me a penny for a head, I will free you all the rats in Hamelin, before night “said the piper.
“A lot of money, but we don´t like rats”. Said the mayor
The town counselor simply shrugged his shoulders and said to the piper: “It´s a deal!”
“The rats will be paid a penny for a head as you ask”.
When the town´s people heard of the agreement, they cried out: “It will cost us a lot of money!” “Leave it to the town counselor”, said the town mayor with a vicious air.

The pipe piper told the inhabitants that they should leave the streets free, and contents themselves with just looking out of their windows at the spectacle.
“So when are you going to do it? “Now”, the piper turned away and walked to the middle of the street.
People came to their windows to look and listen. The piper put his pipe to his mouth and first played short tune.
A big black rat that was in his hole, jumped to the street, kicked the ground twice, and then it danced.
Soon… from the bottom the nooks and corners of the houses … out came rats.
Then, when the street was quite full of rats, the pipe piper turned toward the river that runs at the foot of the walls of Hamelin.
The piper played his melody quickly, and his feet danced.
All the rats in town followed him through one street after another, and when they came to the end of the town the gate in the wall was open.
The water was deep and cold and the piper jumped in. “come into the water for swim”, he said.

And all the rats followed him to the river and drowned. After all the rats had drowned the town´s bells rang because the people were very happy.
“Now there aren´t rats any more, they have gone”, they shouted and carried the town.
“Hooray for the mayor. Hooray for the rat-catcher went to the town hall.
He waved to the crowd, took off his hat and said, “I´ve done my work”
The mayor asked, “Have you finished it?” “ yes, I have, they were nine hundred and ninety thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, and I guarantee that not one of them comes back and I want my money”. A penny for head. “But we haven´t got any money now”, the mayor said.

“Besides, where are the heads?”
The piper did not expect this trick.
He left with anger and said, “Look them up in the river”.
He said proudly. “If you do not pay me, I shall be paid by your children”
“I´m not going to wait”, the piper said. “Give me my money, or listen to a different tune” “play melody”, the mayor said, “but go away”. “You aren´t going to get any money from us”.

The piper turned away from the mayor and walked into the street again.
The next day was Sunday, the town`s people went to the church.
They never suspected the terrible waiting for them on their return home from church: No children anywhere! They were all gone! This is what happened. The piper put his pipe in his mouth and played a different melody.
A door opened and a small child came out.
It was a young boy. He was lame because one of his legs was shorter than the other one.
The lame boy´s sister came out of their house too.
She was younger than he was, and she stood near him in the street.
Then, a lot more children listened to the piper´s music. They came and danced round him, and they shouted and laughed and sang his tone.
After a few minutes, all the children of Hamelin were in the street.

The piper played faster and faster. His feet kicked and jumped.
He danced down to the end of the street, and all the boys and girls danced following the piper down one street to another, and he took them out of town.
The lame boy said, “He´s going to take us straight to the river”.
But the piper did not take them into the river.
He turned left. He danced along a road by the river. The lame could not follow them. His sister left him behind.
The other children were near the piper, but the lame boy´s sticks did not work well.
He was slow. After an hour or two, he was way behind the others.
They came to a big mountain late in the afternoon.

They climbed higher and higher up its side. Then they came to a big stone wall in front of them.
The piper did not stop. He played his tune more quickly, the wall opened, and the children went through the hole.
The piper danced through the hole in the stone wall and went straight into it.
The children followed him. The boys held the girl´s hands and all them danced in, through the door. The lame boy was late because he could not return fast enough.
His sister did not wait for him. She was happy. She went in, and played with her friends.

The lame boy was sad. He turned slowly on his sticks, and then he walked back down to Hamelin.
Hamelin was not a happy town now, because it did not have any children.
The people of Hamelin were rich again. They had food again, and they did not have any rats, but they were sad, because their sons and daughters were not there.
The mayor´s daughter was in the mountain too.
Her father sent people everywhere in the country. They looked for her and the piper, but they did not find them.
The piper did not visit Hamelin again, and the children did not come back.
The schools were empty. New children were born, and some more came to Hamelin from other towns after a few years, but they were not like the lame boy was sad, alone and lonely.
The years passed slowly, and when he got older he wrote this story.

THE END...