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I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for beginners. The name of the story is The Giant Turnip. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/GiantTurnip. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/GiantTurnip. There, you can also download the episode as a PDF.
I’ll just start by reading out some reviews from listeners.
S Ab Baset Rahmani says: Keep going dear Mr. Goodbody. Very nice stories with a professional statement. I enjoyed them very much. Your passionate Listener from Afghanistan
Thank you so much, S Ab Baset! I believe this is the second review I’ve read from you. Thank you for being a passionate listener.
nikolaystavrogin from Turkey says: I just find this podcast and i must say that i love it! Thank you for your work it’s so helpfull. ❤️
Thank you, nikolay! I hope you stay around for a long time and that the podcast keeps being useful for you.
And finally, bcgoneces from Russia says: I’ve been listening to podcast for about 1 year and I’m gripped with it a lot! Stories are vitally interesting and captivating, love it. Thank u for making this project, it’s incredibly cool♥️
Thank you so much, bcgoneces! There’s some great vocabulary that you’ve used there. When we say we are ‘gripped’ by a story, it means we can’t stop reading it. Hopefully, you’ll like today’s story as well!
And if you want me to read out your message on the podcast, you can leave me a review on Apple Podcasts! I look forward to hearing from you.
OK, I’ll just explain some words that are in today’s story.
Giant means very, very big. Giants are also magic people from stories who are very big. In Harry Potter, Hagrid is half-giant. If you make a giant pancake, it will take a long timeto eat it.
A turnip is a big white vegetable that grows in the ground. Turnips are mostly white but have purple bits as well. Turnips are like carrots or potatoes – they are hard and you have to cook them for a long time.
Weak means not strong. So you might be weak because you are ill, because you never do exercise, or you might be weak because you don’t eat enough food. Hopefully, you’re all strong!
The ground is the floor, but outside. Plants and flowers grow in the ground. If you walk on the ground without shoes and socks, your feet will get dirty. It can feel really nice to sit on the ground.
When you pull on something, you want to move it or take it out of something, so you pull on it. In this story, there is a turnip in the ground and people are pulling on it because they want to take it out of the ground.
A llama is an animal that lives in South America, in countries such as Peru and Chile. Llamas are similar to camels, but also goats. Llamas have soft hair that is used to make clothes.
A snake charmer is someone who does magic with snakes. A snake sits in a pot and the snake charmer plays a flute. When they play the flute, the snake comes out of the pot and dances. Charm means to make someone like you, so the snake charmer charms the snake by playing the flute.
A nanny is a woman who looks after children for other people. Usually, it is rich families who have nannies for their children. Sometimes, this is because both parents have jobs. But in the past in the UK, it was common for families to have nannies even when the mother did not work.
If you waste something, you do not use it and it can’t be used anymore. If you buy food but you don’t eat it, the food will go bad. Then you can’t eat it anymore – you have wasted the food. Wasting food is very bad for the environment, and when you waste food, you also waste your money!
Granny is another word for ‘grandma’ or ‘grandmother’. Granny is used more in some parts of the UK. For example, I called my grandparents ‘granny and grandpa’. In other places, they might say ‘nana’, for example.
OK, so listen and enjoy!
The Giant Turnip
Once, there was a woman. She lived with her husband in a small house with a big garden. While her husband looked after the children, the woman looked after her garden. He cooked for the children, she watered the flowers. He taught the children to read, she sang songs to her plants. He put the children to bed, she sat with her vegetables until the sun went down.
Everyone called her ‘the mother of plants’, and there was one plant that was her favourite child: a turnip.
The woman had grown the turnip for years. At first, it was small and weak, but she watered it and told it stories, and over the years, it got bigger and bigger. Finally, the turnip was giant!
One day, the woman told the turnip her last story, and she knew that it could not grow any more. She had loved her child, and now it was time for the turnip to leave the ground and become food.
So the mother came inside and said, ‘Husband, it is time to pull out the turnip.’
The children were playing and didn’t listen to her, but the father said, ‘Ah, now this will be interesting!’
He followed her outside and watched as she pulled on the turnip. Mother pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
‘Well, that’s a problem,’ said the mother. ‘Husband, help me.’
So the father stood behind her. The father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother and Father pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
‘Oh, my big boy!’ said the mother. ‘He is a giant who won’t leave the ground.’
‘I have a friend who can help,’ said the father, and he went and got his friend, the farmer.
The farmer pulled on the father and the father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother, Father and farmer pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
‘Well, I’ve never seen a turnip so giant!’ said the farmer. ‘But I think my animal can help.’
So the farmer got his llama.
‘Why do you have a llama?’ asked the father, but there was no time to think about that. There was a turnip that needed to leave the ground!
The llama pulled on the farmer and the farmer pulled on the father and the father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother, Father, farmer and llama pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
Now the children inside had heard what was happening, and they stopped playing. The brother said, ‘You’re all too weak! Let me help!’
The brother pulled on the llama and the llama pulled on the farmer and the farmer pulled on the father and the father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother, Father, farmer, llama and Brother pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
The sister said, ‘You’re doing it wrong! Let me help!’
The sister pulled on the brother and the brother pulled on the llama and the llama pulled on the farmer and the farmer pulled on the father and the father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother, Father, farmer, llama, Brother and Sister pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
Now, all this pulling made a lot of noise, and there was a snake charmer who was travelling near the house and heard it. The snake charmer went to them and said, ‘I am a snake charmer, and if I can charm a snake out of a pot, I’m sure I can charm a turnip out of the ground!’
The snake charmer pulled on the sister and the sister pulled on the brother and the brother pulled on the llama and the llama pulled on the farmer and the farmer pulled on the father and the father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother, Father, farmer, llama, Brother, Sister, snake charmer pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
The children had a nanny, who had been sleeping while they played. But she heard the snake charmer’s snake hissing and woke up. The nanny was afraid of snakes, but what she really hated was wasting food. If the children wasted any food, she got very angry. So when she saw that they couldn’t get the turnip out of the ground, she ran to help them.
‘We can’t waste that turnip!’ she said.
The nanny pulled on the snake charmer and the snake charmer pulled on the sister and the sister pulled on the brother and the brother pulled on the llama and the llama pulled on the farmer and the farmer pulled on the father and the father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother, Father, farmer, llama, Brother, Sister, snake charmer and Nanny pulled and pulled, but the turnip didn’t move!
Now they were all very tired and annoyed. All the mother wanted was to have her turnip!
At that moment, the children’s granny came to the house. She was just going for her daily walk, and saw all of them standing by the turnip.
‘Oh! You’re trying to pull that turnip out of the ground, are you?’ she said. ‘Let me help.’
‘Mum, you can’t,’ said the mother. ‘You’re old and weak. You’ll hurt yourself.’
The father, the farmer, the children, the snake charmer – even the llama – also thought that Granny shouldn’t help.
‘I’m helping,’ said Granny, ‘and you can’t stop me.’
So the granny pulled on the nanny and the nanny pulled on the snake charmer and the snake charmer pulled on the sister and the sister pulled on the brother and the brother pulled on the llama and the llama pulled on the farmer and the farmer pulled on the father and the father pulled on the mother and the mother pulled on the turnip. Mother, Father, farmer, llama, Brother, Sister, snake charmer, Nanny and Granny pulled and pulled and… POP! The turnip came out of the ground!
‘My turnip! My beautiful turnip!’ the mother cried.
And they ate turnip soup that night for dinner. And the day after that. And the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day…
THE END
If you enjoyed today’s episode and want to be able to read my stories in a physical format, then good news! I have a book of ten short stories called, well, Easy Stories in English. Get it on Amazon, Apple Books or Google Books, or go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Book to find out all the places it’s available. Thank you for listening, and see soon!