The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats

Transcript

Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great.

I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for beginners. The name of the story is The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Goats. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Goats. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation before it.

So, autumn is here! The air is getting colder, the sky is getting cloudier, and it’s raining, raining, raining. I do not like this part of the year in the UK. The weather slowly gets worse and worse. It rains, it gets cold, it gets cloudy, and the winter in January and February is just horrible. It’s so mean and cold.

So to keep happy at this cold and sad time of year, I have a few strategies. As I mentioned in a previous episode, every morning when I wake up, I do yoga, but a new thing I do now, and I’ve only been doing it for a few days, is, after doing yoga, brushing my teeth, showering and getting ready, I go out for a walk. I’m quite lucky in that there’s a park near my house, so I go walk to the park, up a big hill, and walk around in nature for a bit.

This has several benefits. For one, I get out, I get fresh air, and I get sunlight, although today there was no sunlight at that time. I also get some exercise early in the morning that helps me keep awake throughout the day and also helps me keep warm. I think if I just stay inside in the morning I get very cold and I have to put on the heating, but if I exercise in the morning, I feel a lot better. Because it’s walking and not running it feels nice and relaxing. If I had to run every morning I would hate it so much!

One small problem is, though, when I get back home I find I am very hungry, but I think I will get used to this. After I do a few weeks of walking in the morning, I will feel better. Of course, another problem is, is that it adds another thing to do in the morning, so I really have to make sure I wake up early so I have time to do all of these things before I start working.

Anyway, even if I’m hungrier, I’m not as hungry as the wolf in this story.

And with that, let me introduce the words in today’s story. Let me explain some of the words.

A wolf is an animal similar to a dog. But wolves go round in big groups and you can’t keep a wolf as a pet, really. Wolves make a sound, they go awoooooooooooo! This is called a howl, and wolves howl to the moon.

A goat is another animal. They are quite small, they are very hairy, they have horns on their head, and they go baaaaaaa. Goats are also known for climbing mountains. They are very good at climbing.

Voice. I am speaking with my voice right now. You can have a high voice or you can have a low voice, a deep voice. I have to be very careful because I use my voice on the podcast. I have to look after my voice and not damage it in everyday life.

Dough. When you make a cake or you make bread, you first must make dough. So you mix together flour, water, eggs and maybe some other ingredients, and then you roll out the dough and you press the dough with your hands, and when the dough is ready you put the dough in the oven.

A baker is a person who makes bread and cakes as their job. So a baker works at a bakery. Baking is very important in French culture. There are bakers and bakeries pretty much everywhere [in France]. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many bakeries in my town, so sometimes I have to go quite far to get good-quality bread, unfortunately.

Needle and thread are two things that you use to make clothes. So a needle is a sharp tool and you put a thread through a needle and then you use them to sew clothes. So if you have a hole in your socks, you might sew it closed. Nowadays people usually use a machine, but you still need a thread for the machine, but most people don’t use a needle and thread on their own.Spiders also make threads. You might remember Arachne, the Spider Woman, a previous episode. Spiders make webs out of thread.

A stone is a big grey thing you find on the ground. Usually, when people pick up stones, they are going to throw them, to hurt someone or maybe to damage a building.

A bone is a hard part of your body. It’s inside you. So your skull is a bone. Your ribs are bones. Bones keep our body strong, and people believe that drinking milk is good for your bones because it contains calcium, although this isn’t actually really true. You can break your bone if you fall, perhaps, or you have a sporting accident, and when your bone repairs it grows back stronger.

If you enjoy the podcast and want more, you can support us on Patreon. For just $2 a month you can get exercises with each episode, and for $5 you get an extra story every month. You can support us at Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish. That’s Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish.

Thank you to two new patrons, Raissa Sales and Марк Партола. I hope I pronounced that right. It is written in Russian.

OK, so listen and enjoy!

The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats

Once there was an old goat. She had seven little goats. She loved them a lot. One day the mother goat went into the woods to find food for them. Before she left, she spoke to them all.

‘Dear children,’ she said. ‘I am going out into the wood. I will be gone for a while. There is a big bad wolf who lives near here. Be careful. If he comes inside the house, he will eat all of you. He often changes how he looks, so remember this: he has a deep voice and big black feet.’

‘Dear mother,’ said the little goats. ‘Do not worry. We will be safe.’

So the mother said goodbye, and went to find food.

A few hours later, there was a knock at the door.

‘Open the door, little children. Your mother is back, and she has some nice food for you.’

But the little goats knew it was the big bad wolf, because his voice was deep.

‘We won’t open the door!’ they cried. ‘You are not our mother. She has a sweet voice, and your voice is not sweet. You must be the wolf.’

The wolf thought about what to do. Usually, children were not clever at all, and he could eat them up without any problem. But these goats were quite clever. So he went into town and bought some honey. He ate the honey, so that his voice was nice and soft. Then he went back to the goats’ house and knocked at the door.

‘Open the door, little children. Your mother is back, and she has some nice food for you.’

The voice was much higher and sweeter than before. So the oldest goat looked under the door, and saw two big, black feet.

‘We won’t open the door!’ they cried. ‘You are not our mother. She has small, pretty feet, and your feet are big and black. You must be the wolf.’

The wolf thought about what to do again. These children really were very clever. The wolf was very hungry, and he wanted to eat the little goats very much. So he went into town and went to the baker.

‘Baker,’ he said. ‘I have hurt my feet. Can you put some dough on them?’

The baker covered his feet in white dough. But the wolf still had big black hands, and he knew the children were very clever. So he said to the baker, ‘Baker, I have hurt my hands, as well. Put some dough on them.’

By now, the baker thought the wolf had a plan. Everyone in town knew about the wolf, and they knew that he was bad.

‘I won’t do it,’ said the baker.

‘If you don’t do it,’ said the wolf, ‘I’ll eat you up!’

The baker was afraid, so he covered the wolf’s hands with dough. And that shows you what men are like!

Now the wolf came to the goats’ house for the third time and knocked.

‘Open the door, little children. Your mother is back, and she has some nice food for you.’

‘First show us your hands,’ said the goats. ‘Then we can know if it is really you.’

So he put his hands on the window, and they saw that they were white.

‘Let us open the door,’ said the youngest goat.

‘No!’ said the oldest goat. ‘I want to make sure. Dear mother! Show us your feet. Then we can know if it is really you.’

So the wolf put his feet under the door, and they saw that they were white.

By now the little goats were quite hungry, and they wanted their food. But the oldest goat was still worried.

‘I don’t think it’s our mother. She doesn’t talk like that.’

‘Be quiet!’ said the others. ‘If we don’t open the door, mother will be very angry.’

So the oldest goat went and hid inside the big old clock in the house. The other goats opened the door, and when they saw it was the wolf, they ran away. One ran under the table, the second got into bed, the third got into the oven, the fourth went into the kitchen, the fifth went into the cupboard, and the sixth went under the sink.

Of course, the wolf saw them, so he went and ate all of them, one by one. He ate them all except for the oldest goat, who was hidden inside the old clock. The wolf was very happy and full now, so he went and sat under a tree outside and slept.

Less than an hour later, the mother goat came back from the wood. She couldn’t believe it! The door was open. All the furniture was on the floor. Everything was dirty. She looked for the children, but could not find them. She called out each of their names, and only the oldest spoke.

‘Here I am, mother,’ he cried. ‘In the old clock.’

So she helped him out, and he told her about the wolf. She cried and cried, and held the oldest little goat.

When they went outside, they quickly found the wolf sitting under the tree. The mother goat looked at him carefully, and saw that his stomach was moving.

‘Oh my! It looks like my children are still alive.’

So they went and got a pair of scissors, and a needle and thread. She cut the wolf’s stomach open, and all six little goats jumped out. They were all alive! The wolf had eaten so much that he slept and slept, and did not notice all of this.

‘Shh!’ said the mother. ‘Go and find some big, heavy stones.’

The little goats did not understand, but they did what she said. They brought her the stones, and she filled the wolf’s stomach with them. Then she used the needle and thread to put his stomach back together. The goats all went inside, and watched through the window.

When the wolf woke up, he felt very thirsty. So he went to the river. As he walked, the stones inside him made a loud noise. The wolf sang to himself:

‘What is this inside me

Hurting all my bones?

These animals are so lively

They were goats, and now they’re stones!’

The wolf did not really think they were stones. He just liked to sing. But the goats did feel much heavier than before.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘a good meal is a good meal. I won’t be hungry for a week after this.’

The wolf arrived at the river, and went to drink. But the stones were so heavy that he fell into the water. He tried to swim, but he couldn’t—he was too heavy!

‘Help! Help!’ said the wolf.

But nobody came to help him.

When it was over, the seven little goats ran to the river and sang, ‘The wolf is dead! The wolf is dead!’

They danced around with their mother. They never had to worry about big bad wolves ever again.

THE END

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