Page 83 - Unit 2 - Exercise 1

Page 83 - Unit 2 - Exercise 1

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Hamelin is in Germany. It’s a rich town, but there’s a problem - thousands of rats.

The people go to the Mayor. ‘You must do something,’ says a woman. ‘They eat our food,’ says a man. ‘And they sleep in our beds!’ says the woman.

The Mayor and the councillors go into the town hall. ‘The people are angry,’ says the Mayor. ‘But what can we do?’ Someone knocks on the door. A strange man is standing outside. He’s wearing red and yellow clothes with a tall hat. He’s holding a flute. ‘I’m the Pied Piper,’ says the man, ‘And I can get rid of the rats. But you must pay me one thousand guilders. ‘A thousand?’ says the Mayor. ‘You can have fifty thousand!’ ‘No, I only want one thousand,’ says the Pied Piper.

He walks into the square and plays his flute.

‘What’s he doing?’ says a man. ‘Look!’ says a woman. ‘The rats are running out of all the buildings.’ ‘The piper’s going to the river now,’ says the man.

‘And all the rats are following him,’ says the woman.

At the river, the Pied Piper stops. ‘The rats are all jumping into the river,’ says the man. ‘Yes, they’re all drowning,’ says the woman.

Later at the town hall the Mayor says: ‘There aren’t any rats in Hamelin now. We .’. Then the door opens and the Pied Piper comes in. ‘I want my money, please,’ he says. ‘One thousand guilders.’ ‘A thousand guilders? That’s too much,’ says the Mayor.

A thousand guilders,’ says the Pied Piper. ‘Or .’

‘Or what?’ says the Mayor. ‘You can’t bring the rats back. Here’s fifty guilders. Now go away!’

The Pied Piper walks into the square and he plays his flute again.

‘Why is he playing his flute?’ says a woman. ‘There aren’t any rats now.’ ‘No,’ says a man. ‘But look. All the children are following him.’ ‘Oh no,’ says the woman. ‘Is he taking them to the river, too?’ ‘No, he isn’t,’ says the man. ‘He’s taking them to the mountain.

Stop, children, stop!’

But the children don’t listen. Soon they reach the mountain. ‘Look,’ says the woman. ‘A door is opening in the mountain and the children are following the Pied Piper through it.’ The door in the mountain closes. Nobody ever sees the children or the Pied Piper again.