小學英語閱讀之第七篇

　　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, ase 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 comtely."

　　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."

　　They donned the knitted hoods they were turned back into Princes. The Princess told the Prince what had happened up to that time. Thereafter, the Prince and Princess Elisa lived happily together in their kingdom.

　　野天鵝

　　從前，在一個遙遠的國度里，有十一個王子和一個公主，名叫埃利莎。有一天，他們的母親死于一種疾病。

　　 終國王再次結婚。新王后討厭十二個孩子。

　　她狡猾地說:“埃莉莎很虛弱，她去鄉(xiāng)下療養(yǎng)對她有好處。”國王很感激王后，因為她似乎關心女兒的健康。因此，公主被送到了國家 偏遠的角落。

　　然后，女王用她的魔力把11個王子變成了天鵝，并把他們從皇宮中趕走。王子們悲傷地飛走了。“哦!我感覺很好。這是我的世界。”

　　過了一段時間，國王錯過了埃莉莎公主并派人去找她。女王讓埃莉莎公主穿了一件又臟又破的衣服。國王看到骯臟的公主埃莉莎很驚訝。“埃莉莎，你怎么打扮自己?”王后很快地說，

　　“親愛的上帝，看來埃莉莎公主已經(jīng)瘋了。國王勃然大怒，把公主趕走了。

　　“啊!我的兄弟在哪里?公主問一個路過的人說:“你見過11位王子嗎?”那人說:“我沒有見過十一個王子，但我見過十一只天鵝。”奇怪的是天鵝們戴著金王冠。你可以在河邊找到他們。”

　　埃莉莎公主在河邊等著她的兄弟們，希望能找到他們。晚上，十一只天鵝突然飛向地面，變成了王子的樣子。“我的兄弟們!”“Elisa !他們哭著擁抱著對方。

　　兄弟們被困在邪惡的王后的魔咒之下，被迫變成天鵝，飛到周圍尋找白天吃的東西。伊利莎懇切地祈禱:“親愛的上帝，請釋放我兄弟們的魔法詛咒。”那天晚上，在夢里，一個仙女出現(xiàn)了，說:“給你的兄弟們用大麻吧，讓他們戴上馬靴。”然而，你根本不應該說話，直到這些人完全被造出來。

　　王子們認為，沒有說話，只織毛衣的埃利莎已經(jīng)變得很奇怪了。一天，一位來自鄰國的王子在外出狩獵時看到了針織公主。王子帶伊利莎來到他的宮殿，對自己說:“她真是一位美麗的女士。”我要讓她快樂。”

　　但是埃莉莎什么也沒說，只是不停地編織。第二天傍晚，麻麻都用光了。埃利莎在一個墳墓附近撿了一些大麻，但被王子逮住了。王子說:“你竟敢在夜里去墓地?”你一定是個女巫。抓住這個女巫，把她燒死在火刑柱上!”

　　埃莉莎公主說不出話來，被監(jiān)禁了。埃利薩公主繼續(xù)編織，甚至在監(jiān)獄里也不休息。埃莉莎公主終于織起了第十一個斗篷，她被抬上一輛車去燃燒的地方。村民們朝她扔石頭，喊著:“那個女巫還在織毛衣。”把她燒死在火刑柱上!”

　　在那個精確的時刻，十一只天鵝飛了進來。埃莉莎公主向天鵝們?nèi)油晁�有的毛衣。只有這樣，埃莉莎公主才開口。“我現(xiàn)在可以說話。我不是女巫。”

　　他們戴上針織帽，重新回到王子們的身上。公主告訴王子那時候發(fā)生了什么事。此后，王子和公主在他們的王國里幸福地生活在一起。