Jumat, 11 Januari 2013

Narrative Text: Two Friends who tried to empty the sea

Once upon a time, there were two good friends. They promised to help each other if they were-in trouble. Soon, one of them married a very good woman but the other married a bad one.
One night, the man with the good wife said, 'How shall we make a living?'
'What would you like to do his wife asked. 'You can order me to do anything and I'll obey you.'
A few nights later, the husband said, 'Wife, I've thought of a plan which will make us rich. We'll have silver and gold and golden plates and trays.'
'What is your plan’
'A long time ago,' her husband said, 'there were many rich ships on the sea. Some were lucky and crossed the sea safely. Others sank to the bottom with all their gold and silver. Now, let's go to the shore and take all the water from the sea. When the sea is empty, we'll find all kinds of gold and silver and fish on the bottom. Tomorrow morning, boil some rice and we'll start off early for the shore.'
The next day they went down to the shore together. The man took a basket and his wife took another. They began to lift water out of the sea onto the beach. They worked hard, carrying up the water, 'Sloosh, sloosh, sloosh,' until it was time to eat. When they had finished eating, they started to work again. In the afternoon, they went home and the next morning they came back. They worked hard for five days. Then the husband looked out across the sea. 'Look,' he said, 'the sea is lower al­ready.'

 
'Good,' said his wife. 'Let's keep on working and in two weeks the sea will be quite dry. Then we'll have fish to eat and fish to sell and all the gold and silver from the ships at the bot­tom.'
In the evening they went home, and returned to the shore the next morning. While they worked, they said again, 'In two weeks the sea will be quite dry. Then we can take all the fish and gold and silver.'
The fish in the sea heard them and became frightened. They said to each other, 'If that is true, we'll all be dead very soon. We must go and speak to the king of the fish. Perhaps lie can save us.'
They swam off to see the king of the fish. They told him what had happened. The king listened to them and then said, "Take five jars of gold and five of silver and some golden trays. Tell the man and woman that if they stop taking the water out of the sea, you will give theta gold and the silver.'
The fish did what the king said.
When the man and his wife received the gold and silver, they were very happy. From then on, they never took any water out of the sea.
A few months later, the man with the bad wife remembered his friend. He decided to visit him. When he arrived, he found his friend was as polite and friendly as before. But he was richer now.
'My friend was very poor before,' he thought. 'I wonder what he's done to become so rich.' He said to his friend, 'I've become very poor but you are rich now. How did you do it
'Well,' said his friend, 'I got rich by taking water out of the sea. My wife and I did it alone. She boiled some rice before day­light and we went to the shore at sunrise. In the afternoon we came home. The king of fish became frightened. He told the fish to give us jars of gold and silver to stop us from emptying the sea.'
The man with the bad wife said goodbye to his friend and went home. That night, he said to his wife, 'Boil some rice be­fore daylight and we'll start off early for the shore. We're going to empty the sea.'
But, in the morning, his wife got up late. She boiled the rice so carelessly that half of it was spilt. They left home when the sun was already high in the sky.
Day after day, they lifted the water out of the sea with their baskets. But the work was hard and they soon became angry. The fish were frightened again. They waited near the shore. They watched the man and woman_ and listened to what they said.
On the fifth day, the wife threw down her basket and said, ' We've worked here for five days and I haven't seen any gold or silver. I'm not a fool. I'm going to stop.'
When he heard this, her husband was angry. They began to quarrel. They shouted at each other. Then they started fight­ing. They fought so hard that the woman tore off her husband's sarong and he tore off hers. There they stood, naked on the beach, tired and ashamed.
'We've always been slaves,' they said, 'and we always will be. We won't become rich like this. Let's stop.'
When the fish saw them naked and ashamed on the shore, they jumped out of the water and laughed. They were very happy because they did not have to give away their gold and silver.
One fish laughed so hard that it stretched its mouth and that is why some fish now have big mouths.

Narrative Text: The Glass Diamond



Nai Chamnan was a famous jeweller in Bangkok. He knew the value of every jewel. He sold many diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.

Now also living in Bangkok at that time was a man called Krua Dee. Krua Dee was very clever. He made money by fooling other people. Oddly enough, Nai Chamnan and Krua Dee had been friends when they were boys. And they still saw each other from time to time.

One day Krua Dee found a glass bottle stopper He carefully cut and polished the stopper. Soon it glittered in the sunlight. Then Krua Dee went to Nai Chamnan's shop.

"I have a jewel here that I want to sell," he said to Nai Chamnan. "My mother gave it to me, and I want to sell it for a thousand baht."

Nai Chamnan looked at the 'jewel'. "Fool!" he said. 'This is just an old bottle stopper. Nobody would buy it. I wouldn't pay you even one baht for it."

Krua Dee looked very unhappy when he heard this. He looked so unhappy that Nai Chamnan said he would do his best to sell the glass bottle stopper.

Several months passed. Krua Dee and Nai Chamnan didn't see each other, and Nai Chamnan almost forgot about the glass stopper.

Then one day a very rich man came into the shop. He said the prince of Laos was looking for a jewel. He wanted to give it to his wife. Naturally. Nai Chamnan was pleased to have such a customer. He showed the man fine emeralds and rubies. He showed him sapphires and diamonds. But none of these jewels pleased the man. He found something wrong with every one of them.

Finally Nai Chamnan brought out the glass bottle stopper. The man looked at it. "This is the perfect jewel for the prince," he said. "How much is it?"

Now Nai Chamnan knew that the man was a fool, so he de­cided to charge a fool's price for the bottle stopper. "You must pay me two thousand baht for such a fine jewel," he said.

"That's a fair price," said the man. "But I must get the money from the prince. I'll come back in about a week. Now, don't sell the jewel to anyone else."

Nai Chamnan promised to keep the stopper for the man. He was very happy to have made such a clever sale.

Two days later Krua Dee came to Nai Chamnan's shop. "I want my jewel back," he said. "There's a rich Laotian in town and I think I can sell it to him."

"I'm glad you came in today, old friend," said Nai Chamnan. "I've been wanting to tell you that I made a mistake about the jewel you gave me. When I looked at it carefully, I saw that it was a fine diamond after all."

"Why, that's wonderful," said Krua Dee. "I can sell it to the Laotian for an even higher price."

Nai Chamnan said, "In fact, old friend, I was hoping to buy the jewel myself. I'll give you one thousand five hundred baht for it; and you won't have to bother about the Laotian."

Krua Dee thought about this. At last he decided to sell the bottle stopper to Nai Chamnan. The jeweller was pleased. He knew that he would make five hundred baht when he sold the jewel to the Laotian. Not bad, he thought, for a piece of glass.

Krua Dee took his money and went away to share it with his Lao friend.

Nai Chamnan waited for the Laotian to return. A week went by. Two weeks went by. Three more weeks went by. The Laotian never returned to the shop, and Nai Chamnan never found another buyer for the shiny glass 'diamond'.

Narrative Text: Stone in the road

Once upon a time, lived a rich and wise king. His palace was near a small village. He loved his people. The king did anything to help the villagers make their living. He also gave the children presents on their birthday. However, what the king did made the villagers lazy. They thought it was useless to work because the king would give them anything.
 
The king did not want his people become lazy. One day, he got up early in the morning and told his soldiers to put a big stone in the middle of the road near his palace and put a bag of some gold money under the stone. Then he waited to see what would happen.
 
A poor man came along riding a cow. He grumbled because the stone lay in his path. He walked around the stone and went on his way. Then a farmer came. He was on his way to the mill. He complained, too. He did the same thing like the previous man.
 
So the day passed. Everyone who came across the stone were grumbling and complaining about it because it was blocking their way. However, no one tried to move it, even touched it.
When the dusk came, a boy passed the road. He looked very tired because he had been working very hard at the mill that day.
 
"It is almost dark. Somebody may stumble over this stone in the night and perhaps will be badly hurt. I'll remove it off the way," said the boy.
So, he tugged the stone. It was a hard work because the stone was very heavy. However, the boy was quite tough. He pulled and pushed it all the way and finally the stone was successfully removed.
 
The boy was so surprised to find a bag under the stone. Upon the bag was written: "THIS GOLD BELONGS TO THE ONE WHO MOVES THE STONE!"
The boy went home happily and the king, relieved, went back to his palace. He was glad that finally he found someone who was not afraid of working hard.

Narrative Text: Why Pak Diro Remained Poor

Pak Diro was an ordinary farmer living in an ordinary village in an ordinary part of Java. But he dreamed of becoming rich and having a large house surrounded by beautiful flowers, with lovely girls to wait on him. In his dream world, he would have everything he wanted without lifting a finger.
 
His wife used to tell him, "Pak Diro, why don't you stop dreaming? You will get nothing without working for it."
"You know nothing about men's affairs."
Finally, Pak Diro asked his wife to accompany him to a mountain top where they could pray, eat vegetables, and live simply. "In this way," Pak Diro told his wife, "God will help us."
One day, while they were praying, an old man with a long white beard appeared in front of them.
 
"Pak Diro," said the holy man. "I know what you want. I shall grant you two wishes only."
'Yes, yes, Your Lordship," said Pak Diro. He was so excited that he could hardly speak. "Er…..er… I want...."
"Wait," ordered the holy man. "Think well before you say anything. You'd better talk it over with your wife."
 
"Everyone wants health, wealth, happiness and long life," Pak Diro told his wife. "Which two shall we choose?"
"I would like health and happiness," his wife replied.
"But the most important thing in all the world is riches! Even the clever serve the rich."
"What can you do with money if you are unhappy and sick?" asked his wife.
Pak' Diro became very angry with his wife. "I wish you would turn into a goat," he cried.
 
There was a blinding flash and a cloud of smoke. Pak Diro was knocked to the ground. When he got up, he found that his wish had been granted. His wife had been turned into a goat.
"Oh, what shall I do now?" he sobbed. 'I don't want to be married to a goat. Please return my wife to me."
 
The old man with a long white beard appeared again in front of him. 'This is your second wish, Pak Diro," he said. "I can bring your wife back to you but I cannot grant you another wish. You must be satisfied with what you have got. Work hard. Do your duty. Don't always think of money. You will then be happy and content."
 
The old man waved the stick he was carrying. The goat changed back into Pak Diro's wife. Pak Diro turned to thank the old man but he had disappeared.
Pak Diro never became rich but he followed the old man's advice, and he and his wife lived together happily ever after.

The Hole in the water (narrative text)

A young man who was alone in the world decided to get married. He was handsome and rich, but it seemed that in the whole land there was not the right wife for him: either they were too young, or too old. There remained just one lovely young maiden, whom he had met at the well, but she seemed to be a bit mad. Not only did she say that her stepmother was a fairy, but she also insisted that her stepmother would only allow her to marry a man who could perform a certain very difficult task. “What is that?” asked the young man.
 
“He has to make a hole in the water.”
“That’s impossible,” exclaimed the young man. “You will never find a husband.”
“Yes, I will find one,” replied the young girl. “My stepmother says that when someone is truly in love, they can even work miracles.”
 
The young man was truly in love, but he had no idea how to solve the problem. He sighed and suffered for a long time but he did not give up. Then one day he found that the well had frozen over. Suddenly he understood. Seizing a stout stick, he made a hole in the frozen surface ….. and so he was able to marry the beautiful maiden.