Tintin in: The Black Island #15
Tintin in: The Black Island
Episode 15
Beginner
Hi, my name is Ben, and welcome to Ben's Language Lab. Stories are one of the best methods to improve at a language, and stories with pictures are even better. And so today, we're going to read a comic together. This video is meant for beginner-level English learners, and if you need, there are subtitles available, or you can see the entire transcript on benslanguagelab.com. Make sure you subscribe for more videos like this one. Your job is to watch, listen, and enjoy. Right now, we're reading Tintin and the Black Island. If you haven't seen the other episodes, click the link below and watch from the beginning. Alright, let's start learning. If you remember, we're almost finished with the comic. We're on page 55 out of 63. We're almost there. And we were just watching the plane with Thompson and Thompson in it and the engineer. He's not a pilot. And they're going all over the place. And one of them fell out. What's going to happen? Let's find out. He's falling out of the airplane, but then they go around and under him, and his partner catches him into his arms. He stretches out his arms, he stands up, and he falls right into his arms. Phew, that was close. And now we see back on the TV, whew, what a stunt, that really had us fooled. And this time he's coming down, he's going to land, he's cut the motor, he touches down, the plane bounces, and goes one, does one last hair-raising somersault before coming to a rest in the center of the field. And so the announcer is saying that, oh man, that was close. You almost had us fooled. When you fool someone, it's when you trick someone. And so in this case, they tricked them that he fell out and then, boom, they caught him again. They almost had them fooled. But this time he's really coming down to land. He's going to... land the plane. He's cut the motor. When you cut something like that, like a usually a machine of some sort, it's when you turn it off. Right, so he turned off the motor. He cut the motor, completely cut it off. He touches down, the plane bounces, he touches down, boom and bounces, and then does one last somersault. A somersault is where you go around and over. Typically it's when a kid goes on their head like that, and they kind of go around. That's a somersault. And then it comes to a rest in the center of the field. And then we see somebody coming out with a big old trophy like that saying, a clear victory. The judges are unanimous. The acrobatic, the aerobatic championship is yours. He comes out with a big trophy to give to them. Here's your trophy. And we see somebody waving at them from over here. So unanimous, judges, and is yours, I guess, are some vocab words that we might want to talk about. So the judges are the people that are watching and giving points, right? Hmm, good job, yes, did that, 10 out of 20, that was not very good, but 15 out of 20, good job, right? That's judging, and so the judges are the people that do that. Unanimous is when everybody agrees, right? So all the judges, one, two, three, four, five, they all say, yes, they win. It's unanimous. Or in unison, you can kind of think as a similar thing. And then when something is yours, it means you've won, right? And so the aerobatic championship is yours. You've won. Good job. And so they, and the poor pilot over here, the engineer rather, have won the championship. Let's get back to Tintin though. And so Tintin, remember, is in the secret lair of the bad guys. He's on the Black Island. And he says, I mustn't waste time. Let's see what else they've got. So I can't waste my time. I can't sit here watching TV. I have to go find what's going on. I have to go searching, investigating. And so he goes into this room. He walks in with a gun held and says, oh, a radio transmitter. I'm in luck. Perfect, I have something to talk to the other people with because remember he's out in the water, right? Here's a this is a map, right? This is a map and he's out in the water somewhere. He can't go just run somewhere. He has to find somebody to talk to with a radio transmitter. SOS, SOS, calling the police, calling the police. This is an emergency. Are you receiving me? So SOS is a way to say, help, save me, right? It stands for save our ship, I think. I actually don't know if that's true or not, but that's a way to think about it. And a ship is a boat, right? And so if you have a boat out there, you might be calling for, if you're going to go down, oh, there's the water, right? You might call SOS, SOS, help. And so Tintin is calling the police, and he's saying, this is an emergency. This is important. Are you receiving me? Do you hear me? Can you hear what I'm saying? And then we see them here. He says, police control, police control. We are receiving you loud and clear. Come in, please. And then he says, it's that secret transmitter, the one we've been hunting for the past three months. And so it looks like they've been trying to figure out where this is. They can hear sometimes this radio, but they don't know where it is. Is it there, there? I don't know. It's been secret. And so he says, yes, we can hear you loud and clear, like my voice right now. But they've been looking for this. They've been hunting it for three whole months. And then Tinjan goes, oh, great. They can hear me. Wonderful. And of course Snowy is sitting there, very polite. And then Tintin says, Tintin calling the police. Tintin calling. I'm on the black island off of Kiltoch. I've rounded up a gang of foragers and I'm holding them here. Can you send a squad over to pick them up? Over. So first, over, is how you end something on a radio. Because you have to talk and then listen separately. You can't do it at the same time. And so there was a way to say that I'm done talking. Da da da da da da da, over. Da da da da da da da, over. Right, sort of saying I'm done talking, you talk now. And so Tintin is calling the police. He's at the Black Island, and he's rounded up. He's collected. He's rounded up. He's gotten this gang of criminals, and he has them all tied up. They can't get away. And they're of foragers. Remember, to forge something is to make something that's not real seem real, to make a fake version, right? And so he's got a gang of foragers, and he's holding them here, right? He has them here. He's not literally holding them here. It's a way to say that you're keeping somebody here even though they want to escape, they want to get away. And so then he asks for a squad to come pick them up. A squad is a group of people, right? One, two, three, four, five people that work together. They're working together as a group, as a squad. It's also got some meaning behind a police squad of some kind, but that's a squad. And then he says, police control, police control, message received and understood. We will send help at once, right away. Good luck, Tintin. We'll keep in touch with you over and out. And that's to end the conversation. Over and out. Goodbye. And so they're going to send people. They understood his message. And they're going to send people to go to Tintin to help him, because they know where he is on the Black Island off Kiltoch. And so then Tintin goes, well, that's that. Done that. Good job, Tintin. The police will be here soon. Then we'll be able to say goodbye to the Black Island, right? They want to leave. They want to go away, right? They don't want to be there anymore. And then because Snowy says, about time, too. I've had enough of this medieval menagerie. A menagerie is another rare word. It's where you keep a bunch of animals. It's a bunch of things going on, typically lots of animals. And medieval is from long, long ago, thousands of years ago, or no, hundreds of years ago, right? In like the, no, yeah, earlier, sort of like 800, 700, so 1,500 years ago, a long time ago, right? Medieval is what we call it. And so the police are coming, but then, uh-oh, crumbs. He's managed to free himself, right? Here's the rope on the ground. And so the guy freed himself, and he's going to get away. Now we're for it. The others will all be loose as well. We'll have to... We'll have the whole gang after us. Again, this is a bit of an old way to say it. We shall, we would just say we'll, which is we will. We'll have the whole gang after us because this guy is going to go downstairs and he's going to free the other people. Come on, let's go get Tintin, right? He's going to go find them. And so they're in for it. Uh-oh. And they're going to have the entire gang, the whole gang, is going to come chasing after Tintin and Snowy. Here's the whole gang. They're all loose now. And so here he's saying, quietly, quietly. Here, load your guns. Put bullets in your guns. I don't want any mistakes this time. And then this one says, don't worry. We'll make him pay for what he did to us. And so he's setting him free as well with a knife. They've got some guns that they're putting bullets into. They're loading the guns. And then they're all going around the corner now. And the one with the beard says, shh, shh, quiet. Shh. There. Uh-oh. And we see Tintin at the top of the stairs. And he says, you round outside and cut off his retreat. You go around outside and cut off as a treat. So to go around is typically when, like, if there's something here, right, to go around it would be like this, right? And so he's saying, go outside and if, so here's all of them, right? They're all over here and they're chasing Tintin, who's right here, let's say. That's Tintin. times two, Tintin, they want this guy to go around outside and cut off here. They want to cut off Tintin's retreat, because Tintin is running away, help me! Right, that's a retreat, and so they want to cut off Tintin's retreat. And so, and then we see boom, boom, zing! Right, the bullets are going around, Snowy is running, ah! And Tintin is shooting back, And then he's running through. And then here he is. They cut off Tintin's retreat. And he says, got you. And then Tintin goes, oh no, trapped. I can't go out this way and I can't go back this way. So he goes this way. He goes up the stairs as bang, bang, bullets come whizzing by. Bullets are flying past the doorway. And so Tintin runs up the stairs. He runs up the stairs with Snowy right behind him, right behind him. And then they're all talking again. They're all together, the band of criminals, saying, he's taken refuge in the tower. Refuge is when you hide somewhere and you're kind of covering yourself in some way, right? So he's hiding in the tower. Excellent. Good work. We've got him cornered. Cornered is when you can't leave, right? Tintin can either come down the stairs or nothing. He's stuck. He's trapped. He's cornered. And so we see the police officer again calling, saying, police control, police control calling Tintin. We are coming to your assistance. A police launch is heading for the Black Island at full speed. Two detectives are with the officers on board. End of message. Over to you, Tintin. Tintin, are you receiving me? Come in, please. And so. He's saying that the police are coming now. They launched. They left. So they were on the island here, and then they're in the boat now. They're going towards the island. They launched and are going to the Black Island. Two detectives, probably Thompson and Thompson, are in with the officers on board. On board is a way of saying in a vehicle, typically a boat. So they're on board the vehicle with the other officers, with the other policemen. And so, and then he's saying, Tintin, are you there? So now we see them. Thompson and Thompson are on board the boat as they're going to help Tintin. And so Tintin's at the top of the stairs on the tower, shooting down at them. Oh no, crumbs. No more ammunition. I'm done for. I'm dead. I have no more bullets. He's out of bullets. And then he says, aha, come on. His gun's empty. Bring him down. And so they're going to go grab Tintin and bring him down because he's out of bullets. His gun is empty. And then Tintin says, well, thank goodness I've still got something. And so he picks up a stone, a boulder, or this is actually like a part of the wall, and he throws it down the stairs. And the guy goes, ah! And a crack, crash! Yow! Ow! And he goes, ha ha! Nice! As he knocks them down the stairs. And they all fall down the stairs together. And then, oh, look, there's the Black Island. Only a few minutes and we'll be ashore. Ashore is when you're on land. So the shore is the side of the land connecting to the water. So water, here's the land right here. This would be the shore. And then ashore is on there, on land. And so now they're all, ouch, oof, ow. And then he says, I'm going to fetch Renko. At least he won't be put off by a few stones. Because they don't want to go upstairs again, because Tintin's just going to throw more rocks down. And so he's going to go grab, he's going to get Ranko, the gorilla. Because he's not going to run away from a few stones, he's not going to be put off by. Put off by is when something makes you not want to. If you have some food and you go, That doesn't smell good that's very you are put off by the smell and so Ranko is not put off by some stones and Then he says that seems to have cooled their enthusiasm Enthusiasm is when you're really happy. Yeah, good job. Let's go or you really want to do something like I want to do this thing and so and when you cool your enthusiasm you're That's okay. You can go on your own, right? Because they don't want to get hit in the head again with a stone. And then Tintin goes, oh, look. I can hear an engine and hurray, the police. But then all of a sudden we see the gorilla from Ranko is coming up the stairs out and he sees Tintin and Tintin goes, Oh no! And Snowy also goes, huh, uh-oh. However, we're going to have to see what happens in the final episode of Tintin and the Black Island. And so make sure that you tune in for the next episode to see what happens. We're going to leave it there for today. Thanks for watching and enjoying, and make sure you subscribe so you can see that next episode. And let me down below. Let me know down below. How did it go? What did you learn today? And remember, the transcripts for all episodes are available on benslanguagelab.com. I'll see you next time. Bye!
For email updates, subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feed.