小学英语阅读100篇「前10篇」
"He is gone forever now, and he will forget my sister. How dare the poor little boy want to marry my sister? It is common to die during a trip, so nobody will suspect me of murdering him." The brother brushed up his clothes and disappeared.
The elf woke up and found she was in the middle of a dark forest. "Oh my! The forest is moving!" But it was not a forest. It was the hair of the young lady's brother. She shivered with fear and anger.
When they got in the house, the young lady from the garden was crying. The man looked at his sister and gave her a chilly smile, and went to bed. "Oh my lover, my dear fiance, please come back safely." She sobbed sadly and fell asleep.
The elf sat down quietly spreading her wings and told the young lady what she saw that day. "What I am trying to say now is not a dream. If you dig under the linden-tree in the garden, you will find your fiance. It is your brother who killed him." The beautiful young lady woke up. She secretly went out of her room and dug under the linden-tree as the elf had said.
Her lover was lying in the ground, cold dead. She cried out sadly and killed herself right next to her fiance. After some time passed, a flower called, 'Jasmine' came into bloom at the place where the two lovers had died. The Jasmine had big white flowers on the branch and had a sweet smell.
Incidentally, the young lady's brother was walking down the road and he pulled off a branch of the jasmine and put it near his bedside. When night fell, two bees with poison stingers came out of the jasmine flowers and bit the brother's ears and mouth, and then they vanished.
5 The Ugly Duckling
A mother duck was brooding on her eggs near the margin of a pond. A flock of lovely baby ducks was soon born, making sweet peeping sounds when the eggs were broken. But one egg remained unbroken. "It is strange. Why has this egg not broken?"
The mother duck continued her brooding. At last, the egg was broken and a baby duck was born. However that baby duck was very ugly compared to the other baby ducks.
The mother duck was worried, but still she took the baby ducks near the water and taught them how to swim. The ugly duckling also swam with his brothers and sisters, moving his legs eagerly. "It is lucky though. That baby swims well." Still his brothers pecked at the ugly duckling with their bills.
"How hideous this baby duck is. We don't want to see you. Go to a cat." His brothers gave a very hard time to the poor duckling. "Stop it, don't do that!" The mother duck sighed and said, "Ah! I wish that this baby could live happily at another place."
The baby duck heard what his mother said and dropped tears of sorrow saying, "Mom, I will leave. Good-bye." The ugly duckling left his nest beyond the pond.
When he entered the forest, other birds were frightened by the baby duck and ran away. "Why do they run away? Is it because I am so awful?" The baby duck became sadder and plodded along the field.
Near the water beside the field, two wild ducks were playing around. "Yah, what is that ugly duck? Let's make fun of him." The two wild ducks flew up in the air and threw stones at the baby duck.
"Bang! Bang!" At that time, a hunter shot his gun. The two wild ducks fell down dead to the ground. "Uh? What is this small bird?" The hunter took home the awkward little baby duck along with the two wild ducks.
"Dad, what is this poor-looking bird?" "I took it with me in order to give it to you, my son. It was trembling with fear in the water." The children gave a hard time to the baby duck by pulling its wings and tail.
"That hurts! Ow!" The baby duck spilled a jug of milk while running away from the cruel hands of the children. The dishes on the table were also broken. The angry hunter sent out the baby duck with a flourish of his broomstick. And so the after being cast out from the house of the hunter, the ugly duckling spent a long and cold winter alone.
Finally spring came. The baby duck had a good stretch and flew up in the air vigorously. "Uh! I am flying!"
Upon the lake, a flock of white and pretty swans were playing around while swimming. "They are indeed pretty birds." The baby duck became sad. "Those birds may not like me as I am so ugly."
The baby duck tried to run away from the group of beautiful swans. "Hi! Where are you going? Come and play around with us!" The baby duck approached the swans hesitatingly. At that moment, the baby duck saw his own appearance reflected to the lake. There was one more beautiful swan gliding gracefully across the water.
The ugly duckling who overcame all suffering had finally become a beautiful swan. And so he lived happily ever after.
6 Nightingale
A long time ago in China there lived an emperor. The emperor loved to read books. One day, in the book he was reading, it wrote, "The most beautiful precious treasure is the bird nightingale."
The emperor had never seen or heard of nightingale. "What is nightingale?" No one has ever seen or heard of it.
The emperor was very curious as to what nightingale was. "Bring nightingale to me at once". The servants were worried by the emperor's command. They looked here and there.
One day a little girl said that she knew of nightingale. She said that the bird she had was nightingale. It was a small cute bird. At once nightingale was brought to the emperor.
The emperor was very happy. "Ah ~ is this bird called nightingale?" For the first time in his life, he heard the beautiful voice and was impressed and deeply moved.
"Please give me nightingale and I will reward you handsomely." So nightingale came to live in the palace. Everyday Nightingale sang for the emperor.
Emperor was happy every time he heard Nightingale sing. He was so proud of Nightingale that he allowed the servants to hear it too. However, Nightingale was not happy. Nightingale felt trapped and had no freedom.
One day the neighboring country sent a gift to the emperor. It was a nightingale doll made of jewels and gold. Every time the doll was wound up it sang beautifully. Furthermore, the emperor if wanted could hear it everyday.
"It's really amazing. It's beauty is the finest in the world." The real Nightingale was sad. The real Nightingale decided to leave. It flew off into the forest of freedom.
The Nightingale doll kept on singing. One day the doll broke. No body was able to fix it. The emperor was heart broken.
The emperor became ill. He just laid there waiting to die. Just then, from the window, a beautiful song came flowing in. Everyone looked.
Sitting by the window, Nightingale began singing. Shortly after, the emperor became better. Nightingale was happy. Soon, the emperor's face was filled with happiness once again.
7 The Wild Swans
Once upon a time in a kingdom far away, there were eleven Princes and a single Princess, by the name of Elisa. One day, their mother died of a disease.
Eventually the King married again. The new Queen hated the twelve children.
She said craftily, "Elisa is weak, and it would be good for her to go to the country for recuperation." The King was grateful to the Queen, as she seemed to care for the health of his daughter. Therefore, the Princess was sent off to the remotest corner of the country.
The Queen then changed the eleven Princes into swans through her magic power, and sent them away from the royal palace. The Princes flew away crying sadly. "Oh! I feel good. It is my world now."
After some time, the King missed Princess Elisa and sent for her. The Queen had Princess Elisa wear a dirty and worn-out dress. The King was very surprised to see the dirty Princess Elisa. "Elisa, how do you dress yourself?" Then the Queen said quickly,
"Dear Lord, it seems that Princess Elisa has gone mad." The King was furious and sent the Princess away from him.
"Ah! Where are my brothers?" The Princess asked a man passing by, "Have you ever seen eleven Princes?" The man said, "I have not seen eleven Princes but I have seen eleven swans. Strangely the swans wore golden crowns. You may find them near the river."
Princess Elisa waited for her brothers near the river hoping to find them. At night, eleven swans swooped down to the ground and were turned into the form of Princes. "My brothers!" "Elisa!" They cried and embraced each other.
The brothers were trapped under the spell of the wicked Queen, and were forced to become swans and fly around to look for something to eat during the day. Elisa prayed earnestly, "Dear God, please release the magic curse from my brothers." In her dreams that night, a fairy appeared and said, "Make mantles for your brothers with hemp and have them wear the mantles. However, you should not speak at all until those mantles are made completely."
The Princes thought that Elisa, who did not speak and merely kept knitting, had become strange. One day, a Prince from a neighboring kingdom saw the knitting Princess when he was out hunting. The Prince took Elisa to his palace saying to himself, "She is a really beautiful lady. I am going to make her happy."
But Elisa did not say anything, and only kept knitting eagerly. At nightfall of the next day, the hemp was all used up. Elisa picked some more hemp near a grave but was caught by the Prince. The Prince said, "You dared to go to a grave at night? You must be a witch. Take this witch and burn her at the stake!"
Princess Elisa was unable to say anything and was imprisoned. Princess Elisa continued knitting without taking rest even in the prison. Princess Elisa was finally knitting the eleventh mantle, while being carried on a cart going to the burning place. The villagers threw stones at her while shouting, "That witch is still knitting. Burn her at the stake!"
At that precise moment, the eleven swans flew in. Princess Elisa threw the finished mantles to the swans. Only then, Princess Elisa opened her mouth. "I now can speak. I am not a witch."