Transcript
If youβre looking for online language classes, I recommend italki. There, you can find teachers from around the world, and get lessons at a time that suits you.
If you go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/italki and sign up, youβll get $10 of free classes when you spend money. So go on, book some classes, and get learning! When you use that link, Iβll also get some money. Thanks!
So thatβs EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/italki.
OK, letβs start the episode.
[introduction music]
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. Todayβs story is for beginners. The name of the story is The Very Hungry Dragon. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/DragonL1. Thatβs EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/DragonL1. This is a levelled-down version of an intermediate story. You can listen to the intermediate-level version of The Very Hungry Dragon at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dragon.
OK, Iβll just explain some words that are in todayβs story.

Various jewels (Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash)
A jewel is a type of treasure. Jewels are special stones that are very pretty and cost a lot of money. Diamonds are the most expensive jewels, but there are also rubies, which are red, emeralds, which are green, amethysts, which are purple, and so on. These days, people put jewels in earrings and on dresses to make them look nice.

A statue of a dragon (Photo by Ravit Sages on Unsplash)
A dragon is a magical animal, an animal that is not real. However, we find stories of dragons in all cultures around the world. Dragons can breathe fire and fly, and they like to eat people. Dragons like to collect treasure, gold and jewels, and hide it in their home. In Game of Thrones, Daenerys had several dragons.
Taste is how food feels in your mouth. Basically, it is whether it is good food or not. For example, I think McDonaldβs tastes good, but some people think it tastes bad. I think dark chocolate tastes better than milk chocolate, but you might think the opposite. If something tastes of nothing, then it does not have a strong taste.
When you spit, and the past tense is spat, you throw water or food out of your mouth. In the UK, people don’t spit outside, but in the past, people used to eat tobacco and spit it out. If you eat some very bad food, you might spit it out.
Smell is when you go [sniff sniff]. The past tense is smelled or smelt. You smell with your nose. Usually, you smell without thinking. If food smells very bad, you shouldnβt eat it. If a person smells very bad, you shouldnβt kiss them!
Ignore is when you donβt look at something or donβt listen to something. For example, you might see someone you know outside, but you donβt like them. You ignore them. You think, βI donβt see you!β but you really do see them. It is very bad to ignore someone when they are talking to you!

A cart pulled by hand (RΓ©mi Kaupp CC BY-SA 3.0)
A cart is a small vehicle, like a car, but it doesnβt use petrol or electricity to move. Usually an animal like a horse pulls a cart, and it is used to move food and goods for sale. These days, carts are not very common. People use lorries instead.
When you eat or drink something all in one go, you eat it very fast. For example, maybe you have a bar of chocolate, and you put it all in your mouth and eat it as one piece. Usually, you would break up the chocolate, but this time youβre eating it all in one go. Of course, if you eat lots of things all in one go, you might hurt yourself!
Your reputation is what people think about you. If you have a good reputation, then people think you are good, and if you have a bad reputation, then people think you are bad. If you want to change your reputation, then you have to change how you look, how you talk and what you do.

A very cold freezer with ice cream in it (Photo by Dev Benjamin on Unsplash)
A freezer is a piece of furniture in the kitchen. Freezers make things very cold, colder than a fridge. If you put water in a freezer, it turns into ice. You also put ice cream in a freezer. Many fridges have freezers in them.
When you see a friend or someone from your family, you might hug them. You put your arms around them and hold them very close. In some countries, people hug more than in others. In Spain, people hug a lot, and kiss each othersβ cheeks. In Japan, people donβt hug very often.
From now on means βstarting from nowβ. Letβs say that in the past, you never had chocolate in the house. But your boyfriend loves chocolate, and when he doesnβt have chocolate, he gets very sad. So you decide that you will start buying one bar of chocolate for him a week, and he can eat it all. From now on, you will buy one bar of chocolate a week. God, Iβm really talking a lot about chocolate today, arenβt I?
Iβm recording the rest of this yearβs episodes in advance, so I donβt have any new Patreon supporters to announce today. So Iβll just say thank you to everyone whoβs supporting me now, or has supported me in the past! Iβve been doing the Patreon for over a year now, and itβs been really wonderful to see it grow and interact with you all on there.
OK, so listen and enjoy!
The Very Hungry Dragon
Once, there was a very hungry dragon. She was called Grella. Every day, Grella ate five meals. For breakfast she had ten bananas, five eggs and three slices of toast. For her eleven oβclock snack she had twenty chocolate biscuits and three cups of tea. For lunch she had twenty bowls of soup and thirty loaves of bread. After lunch, she was very tired, so she slept for an hour, and when she woke up she had some pickles. Finally, for supper she had a roast pig with honey.
This was all good. Grella was a dragon, and dragons are always hungry. But it was strange, because Grella never ate jewels.
βI donβt understand!β said Grellaβs mother. βSoup and pickles and pig are all good, but you need jewels! Jewels are very important.β
But Grella hated jewels. They were hard, and they tasted of nothing. At every meal, her mother gave her a plate of jewels, but she never ate them. Sometimes, her mother made her eat them, but she spat them out later. So her mother tried changing how the jewels looked. She made them look like vegetables. But Grella smelled them and knew they were not the right food, and threw them on the floor.
One day, Grellaβs mother got angry.
βGrella, if you donβt eat your jewels, then you canβt eat anything else.β
She took away the bananas, and the eggs, and the bread and the biscuits and the pickles. She filled every cupboard with fresh jewels, and for every meal the family only had jewels.
βNow, eat your dinner, Grella.β
Grella looked at the plate of green jewels in front of her.
βI wonβt.β She flew to her room and shut the door.
For a few days, she stayed in her room. Her mother left plates of jewels outside her door but she ignored them. She thought that her mother would get very worried and bring her toast, but this did not happen. For several days, Grella stayed in her room and got more and more hungry.
Finally, she could not stop herself. One night, she went into the kitchen.
She picked up a jewel and looked at it. It just looked so strange. But all the other dragons in the world ate themβ¦
Grella ate the jewel. It tasted horrible!
βEugh!β she said.
But she felt less hungry, so she ate another, and then another.
By the next morning, Grella had eaten all the jewels in the house. Her mother was very happy.
βWonderful, just wonderful! Wait here, Grella. I will go and get some more jewels for breakfast.β
Her mother brought three bowls of jewels back with her. She said she stole them from a kingβs castle. It was enough for a whole family for a week. But when Grellaβs mother wasnβt there, Grella ate all of the jewels herself.
βGrella!β said her mother. βYou didnβt eat all those jewels, did you?β
βI did,β said Grella. βAnd I want more. Whereβs dessert?β
βThose were all the jewels I got!β said her mother. βLook, I can go and make some toast if you want.β
But Grella could only think about eating jewels. She needed more, and she needed them now.
Grella ran to the window and jumped out, flying away.
βGrella, where are you going?!β shouted her mother. βItβs a school day!β
But Grella didnβt hear her. She flew through the air, and far away, she smelled jewels. She followed the smell, flying over the mountains where they lived. Finally, she found a road. On the road, there was a cart with some people.
And the cart was full of jewels.
Grellaβs family had taught her to be a good dragon. She knew that it was bad to kill people, because then they would come and kill dragons. But she just wanted to have some fun.
She flew down and took the roof off the cart. The people with the cart saw her and ran away. Grella laughed, and picked up the cart in her hand. She emptied it into her mouth, eating all of the jewels in one go.
Grella understood now. Her mother had been right. Jewels were amazing. They made her feel wonderful inside, like there was a party inside her stomach.
Grella flew off to find more food.
Grella flew around for a whole week, stealing all kinds of jewels. People soon found out about her. Young dragons thought she was amazing, so they started stealing jewels like her. Of course, the adult dragons thought she was very bad. Grella was giving them a bad reputation, and doing very dangerous things. Anyway, she should really be in school!
Finally, after eating so many jewels, Grella grew fat and heavy, so she flew home to sleep.
But her mother wanted to speak with her.
βGrella, I canβt believe you did that!β
βI thought you wanted me to eat jewels?β
βIβ Iβ Not like this! I was so worried about you, and now everyone is talking about our family and saying bad things. It was very bad of you!β
Grellaβs mother shouted at her, but Grella ignored her. She felt very tired, and she could not stop herself from closing her eyesβ¦
When she woke up, it was night. She had no idea how long she had slept, but she was sure it had been a very long time. She knew this because she was very hungry, so it was time to go and eat some jewels.
Grella went to the kitchen and opened the fridge.
No jewels there.
So she went and opened the cupboards.
No jewels there.
She looked in the freezer.
No jewels there!
She looked in the whole house, but she could not find a jewel anywhere!
But she did find something in her brotherβs room. Under his bed he had lots of food: pickles and biscuits and chocolate and bread and all sorts of soup. Grella pulled the food out, took it to the kitchen and looked at it.
They were not beautiful like jewels. They smelled strange. Some were hard, but some were really soft. They had all sorts of different colours. Slowly, she picked up a chocolate biscuit and ate it.
Oh, it tasted so good!
Grella started to eat. Several hours later, her parents woke up and came into the kitchen. Almost all the food was gone! Grella lay down on the floor and looked very happy.
βOh, my daughter!β said her mother. βMy daughter is back!β
She went and hugged Grella, and the young dragon felt a bit sick.
βI donβt understand you!β she said. βFirst you want me to eat jewels, then you shout at me for it, and now youβre happy that Iβm eating other food!β
βI know, I know. Iβm sorry. I was wrong.β
She started crying, and hugged Grella again. Mothers were so strange!
βMy food!β said Grellaβs brother. βGrella, that was my food!β
βDonβt worry,β said their mother, drying her eyes. βFrom now on, we will have all kinds of food in this house. There will be jewels for dragons who want them, and other food for dragons who want that.β
And so everything was normal again. Every day, Grella ate five meals. For breakfast she had ten bananas, five eggs, and three slices of toast. For her eleven oβclock snack she had twenty chocolate biscuits and three cups of tea. For lunch she had twenty bowls of soup and thirty loaves of bread. After lunch, she was very tired, so she slept for an hour, and when she woke up she had some pickles. Finally, for supper she had a roast pig with honey.
Oh, and sometimes she even ate a jewel.
THE END
I hope you enjoyed todayβs story. Itβs one that I originally wrote quite a long time ago, but I really like it. You could probably hear in my voice, I really enjoy telling this story.
Anyway, recently Iβve been having βwinter brainβ. So winter is the coldest season of the year, and your brain is the big pink thing that sits in your head and helps you think. I talked more about it on Patreon, on Elevenses with Ariel, my other podcast.
But basically, itβs winter and Iβm sleeping more, eating more and socialising a lot less, Iβm talking to people a lot less.
Mainly, Iβm playing lots of video games. I donβt know about you, but I love video games. However, I donβt play them all the time. I usually only play two or three games a year, and Iβll play them really intensely for a few months, and then for the rest of the time I donβt play them so much.
So I was playing a video game called Hades for a while, and I was really obsessed with Hades. I think I played Hades for over 120 hours, so, oops!
At the moment, however, I am playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It is a strategy RPG. So basically, you have an army and you choose where they go and how they attack enemies and you have to think a lot and plan out your moves. Itβs a bit like chess, but in my opinion, itβs a lot more fun than chess.
Although, to be honest, Iβm not actually playing Fire Emblem so much now? In the past week, Iβve gotten really into baking. Iβve started baking loads. So Iβve been watching a great TV show called The Great British Bake Off, which is a baking competition show. Itβs actually really popular here and there are different versions in lots of different countries. So, yeah! But Iβll get back to the gaming, Iβm sure.
What about you? Are you a gamer? Come and let me know! Leave a comment on the transcript at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/DragonL1.
And, if youβre feeling generous, thereβs an orange button under the episode, or on EasyStoriesInEnglish.com, that says Buy me a coffee! If you click that button, you can send me $3 so that I can buy a coffeeβ¦ or a cupcake, or a hot chocolate, orβ¦ I donβt know! Lots of things. I guess there are lots of things you can get with that much money, huh?
Anyway, thank you for listening, I hope you enjoyed the episode, and Iβll see you next week. Bye!
i really like lesson like this bro, keep it up, i hope you continusly make lesson like this
I’m glad you enjoyed it, irham! π
Hi
Iβm a gamet to but actually i donβt have a time to play, sic.
In tnΔ pasy i was played in Heroes 3 WoG editions and The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Now I playing Ghost of Tshushima. I really recomend this games.
Tkank You for learning, very good job.
You are a wonderful speaker. One of my inspiration in studying english. I hope you notice me.
πΉπΉπΉπΉ
This is the best thing iβve ever seen and listened. So helpful to the people learning english. Will share it with all of my friends.
It has been one week since you havenβt posted story. Is there something wrong? I hope youβre Okay ππ
Hi George. If you go the podcast feed (for example here) you can hear an explanation of what’s going on.
Just stumbled upon your podcast and I absolutely LOVE it! I am a storyteller (and Primary school educator) from India and would love to retell your stories to my captive audience π I understand that you are the author of Grella’s story (just wish to confirm so that I may credit you correctly and give ur podcast a shout out). You can watch some of my telling on YouTube at https://youtube.com/c/KathaaByShraddha . Thank you and warm wishes for 2022 to continue this awesome effort! Best, Shraddha.
You’re very welcome to tell my stories in your class, Shraddha! And yes, I am the author π
Thanks so much Ariel!
Thank you very much for this wonderful content.
I started using your stories to teach my students over internet, I hope you don’t mind.
How do I use your stories exactly ?
I teach using zoom, I open this page and share my screen and ask my student to read it loud, I correct their pronunciation and tell them the meaning of some words they don’t know.
Then, I send them the link of this page and asked to read and listen the story every day for a week with themselves.
In the next week, we start to learn from another story.
What do you think?
Thanks for the comment, Omar! I wouldn’t do the pronunciation exercises myself, because there isn’t much research to support the idea that reading out loud is helpful for pronunciation in the long term. Reading and rereading the stories is a great way to learn, however! π
Love your story, thank you β€β€β€β€β€
You’re welcome, Nancy!
Thanks for these wonderful stories. They really improve our listening and reading skills.
You’re very welcome, Taher! π
thank you very enjoy story
You’re very welcome, ADALET π