Menú

Home

Clases

Clases

Idioma

¿Cafetalk?
Clases
Tutores
Comentarios
Ofertas
Consultas (81)50-3647-0019
 

[Learn Chinese by reading]Gentle reading The Little Prince 1 温柔朗读 小王子1

Putao7

2023-08-31

ONCE WHEN I WAS six I saw a magnificent picture in a book about the jungle，called True Stories. It showed a boa constrictor swallowing a wild beast. Here is a copy of the picture. In the book it said： “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole，without chewing. Afterward they are no longer able to move，and they sleep during the six months of their digestion.” In those days I thought a lot about jungle adventures，and eventually managed to make my first drawing，using a colored pencil. My drawing Number One looked like this： I showed the grown-ups my masterpiece，and I asked them if my drawing scared them. They answered，“Why be scared of a hat？” My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. Then I drew the inside of the boa constrictor，so the grown-ups could understand. They always need explanations. My drawing Number Two looked like this： The grown-ups advised me to put away my drawings of boa constrictors，outside or inside，and apply myself instead to geography，history，arithmetic，and grammar. That is why I abandoned，at the age of six，a magnificent career as an artist. I had been discouraged by the failure of my drawing Number One and of my drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves，and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again. So then I had to choose another career，and I learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown almost everywhere in the world. And，as a matter of fact，geography has been a big help to me. I could tell China from Arizona at first glance，which is very useful if you get lost during the night. So I have had，in the course of my life，lots of encounters with lots of serious people. I have spent lots of time with grown-ups. I have seen them at close range ... which hasn’t much improved my opinion of them. Whenever I encountered a grown-up who seemed to me at all enlightened，I would experiment on him with my drawing Number One，which I have always kept. I wanted to see if he really understood anything. But he would always answer，“That’s a hat.” Then I wouldn’t talk about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. I would put myself on his level and talk about bridge and golf and politics and neckties. And my grown-up was glad to know such a reasonable person.

Added to Saved

View Saved Posts
This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

Nombre de la clase

Let's read The Little Prince together

50 min
1,900 Puntos

Comments (0)

Login to Comment Log in »
Putao7
Recommend ribbon

from:

in:

Mostrar categorías

Language Fluency

Chino   Native
Japonés   Near-Native
Inglés   Fluido
Coreano   Just a few words
Perfil (tutores)

Ranking de artículos del tutor

See This Tutor's All Columns
« Back to List of Tutor's Column
Got a question? Click to Chat