Tintin in: The Black Island #7
Tintin in: The Black Island
Episode 7
Beginner
Hi, my name is Ben. 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. So today, we're going to read a comic together. This video is meant for beginner level English learners. 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. And for now, 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 in the description to watch from the beginning. Alright, let's start learning. So last time, we ended with Tintin having discovered a bag of money. A bag full of banknotes, or dollar bills. And they were fake. They're not real. They're fake dollar bills. He had tied up these two men because they tried to attack him. Wham. But they said that, um, and he said that they'll go away for this and they'll go to jail or this word. We didn't, I didn't even know what it was. So let's see what happens next. Next, we see Tintin walking away. He says, I better set about finding the other two sacks. He's going to set about, which is to start doing, right? I should start looking for the other sacks. And these are the sacks, right? The bags of money. And so then he says, oh, there's one, as Snowy finds one of the bags of money. However, eek, ow! We hear from the other side of the forest, of the grounds of the house, and they're surprised, and then he sees them running away. They're getting away, they're running away, right? They're gonna get away. And so he says, I'm an idiot. When they struggled, they caused a short circuit and the wires burned. So let's break this down because these are some advanced words. So a struggle is when you're struggling against something, right? And what they did is they caused the wires to connect, right? And they had electricity in them. And so they connected, they short circuited. and they burned the wires. So the wires were there and then they got burned away, right? And so burning is when something's on fire, right? Let's draw some fire here, right? So they burned the wires, which made them fall away, right? They ran away. And so we see Ivan and Hermula are now running away with a bag of money over his shoulder as they're getting away, as he said so aptly. And now he says to him, hurry. And then Tintin realizes the car, they're getting away. Not a hope of stopping them unless, and he has an idea. So there's no hope of stopping him. Not a hope of stopping them unless, right, there's no hope in doing something means that it's not gonna happen. It's impossible, sadly. There's no hope. However, unless Tintin has an idea. He's going to climb a tree. It's my only chance. If they come this way, it's still possible. He can still do the thing. He can still stop them. And so he's hoping that they will drive this direction, right? If they go that way, then it's fine. They're gonna get away. But if they drive this way, Tintin can jump down onto the car and do something by climbing the tree. It's still possible. And Tintin is worried that he's going to fall, fall and break his neck and hurt himself. And then Tintin is at the top of the wall and they're driving and he says, steady now, I must time it precisely. And he jumps, right? So steady is when something is not moving, right? If you're steady now, I'm steady now, I'm steady. And then he has to time it precisely, right on time. If the car is right here, he can jump. But if it's over here, he's gonna fall right on the ground. So he has to be very careful and very precise with when he jumps. Whoops, he jumps down and splats right on the ground. He wasn't precise enough. He needed to be more precise. And now Snowy says, why couldn't he use the gate like me? He always enjoys pretending to be some sort of acrobat. Some people never learn. An acrobat is somebody who does tricks like that, right? They jump around, they do somersaults, they do flips, right? They're very acrobatic. But Tintin is not an acrobat. Snowy just went through the gate, right? There's there's the gate with the bars and he just went through easy But Tintin likes to pretend to be an acrobat He likes to act like he is able to do these big tricks and jump off of walls onto cars But he can't he needs to learn and so now he goes that let them get away like that and right under my very nose and So here, right under my nose is a phrase when somebody is able to do something when you're right there, right? So if somebody, in this case, Tinson was there, but they got away. It was right under his nose, all right? If somebody does something, usually bad, without somebody noticing or without getting in trouble, it can be right under your nose. Not literally, like under your nose. It's about getting away or doing something that you shouldn't do. And they got away right they left But then he hears a car. I'll stop it right. I'll stop the car and we're purr purr As they're honking at him And then he said, says to the drivers, there's a car just ahead. Crooks making a getaway. I simply must go after them. Crooks, I think we've come across this word before, or maybe it was thugs, but crooks are people that steal or they do something bad. They're taking something that isn't theirs. And so they're crooks and they're getting away. They're making a getaway, right? That's when you escape, right? They're escaping. I must go after them. I must save them. And then they say, Crooks, I say, what a lark. Hop in the caravan. A lark is, I guess in this case, a sort of a coincidence or how crazy, what's happening? Crooks, hop in the caravan. This is the caravan. So they're telling Tintin to get in here. Hop in the caravan. And so then he says, we aren't exactly beating a land speed record, we'll catch them provided they have a puncture, right? And so now Tintin is unhappy with how fast they're going, right? So a land speed record is how fast you can go on land, right? Because a record is the fastest or the best or something like that, the highest number that somebody has done. And so the land speed record is the fastest that anybody's driven in a car. And so he's saying, we're not going very fast. We're not going very fast. We'll catch them. If, that's provided if, if they have a puncture. A puncture is when you get a hole in your tire, right? So this is your tire, right? They have tires on their cars. And if there's a hole in it, right? There's like some, a hole and the air is escaping. That's a puncture, right? So when something is punctured like that, and all the air starts to come out of it. because they won't be able to drive very fast. That's the only way they'll catch them. Then he yelled that up here to this guy and he says, the old girl's a bit sluggish, but we'll be okay when she warms up. Sluggish is when you're going slowly, right? A slug is a little animal on the ground, they're sort of They're kind of shapeless, right? They look like a worm or a fat like thing and they go, they go really slowly. And so sluggish is when you're going really slowly. However, it's going to be fine when she's warmed up a little bit, when she's been driving a little bit. Also, it's relatively common to call a car or a boat or some sort of vehicle sort of the old girl or she when she warms up, right? She's not actually talking about a person. It's a it's a way that people refer to their cars or their boats. And then he says, didn't I say so better already? Because crack this part of the, of the, the toe that was connecting the car and the caravan broke crack. And so now the car is going to go faster because it doesn't have to carry the caravan. And then Tintin goes now we're for it Which is everything's it's all lost. It's what's gonna happen. We're done for We're gonna we're going down the hill very fast without anything to stop us and so crash he goes through the fence here and we see pieces of the fence going every direction and then he crashes boom right into a tree and Snowy and Tintin go flying out Another time, Tintin is getting very injured, very hurt, and lands right in the water. Sploosh! And a little apple falls right on Snowy's head. And now we see, and there's a policeman that comes up to him and says, now then, I'm booking you for camping on private property. And in the second place, you've been picking unauthorized fruit. And the third offense, swimming in a manner liable to cause a breach of the peace. And so, the man is now yelling at Tintin for doing all of these things that he didn't really do. right so the first thing that he apparently did is camping on private property so to camp is when you have a caravan or a tent right so if you have a tent like this um with uh whatever right and there's like you have a fire out here that's camping um and so he's camping on private property if you remember that from a couple episodes ago, we talked about private property. So that means this place, so this ground here and this water, is owned by somebody else, right? Another person owns this property, this place. And Tintin is not allowed to be there, and so he's on private property. The second thing that he did is picking unauthorized fruit. And so this is the fruit, right? The peaches or the apples or whatever they are. And when you pick fruit, that's when you pick the fruit off of the tree and you maybe eat it or whatever. But he's not supposed to, can't pick the fruit. And so he's picking unauthorized fruit. And for the third offense, swimming in a manner liable to cause a breach of the peace. And so we see here that there's no bathing allowed, but Tintin is obviously in the water, swimming, in a manner, in a way, which might, which is liable to, which means might, might cause a breach of the peace. What does that mean? Who knows? The idea is that this police officer doesn't like Tintin. He doesn't like Tintin very much. And so he's coming up with things to charge him with, with reasons that he shouldn't be there. And so this is one of those phrases that doesn't really actually mean anything, but even though the words do mean things on their own. Anyways, we'll move on. We'll see what happens next. And now, so Tintin is walking away. He must have talked to the police officer or something. And he says, oh, well, there's no hope of catching them now, right? They're all gone. They're long, distantly gone over the hill. And then he sees a car coming and he wants to thumb a ride, right? He says, hey, pick me up. I'm going that way. And then we see that Tintin is now in the car with Snowy and somebody is driving him in this direction. And then he says, oh, look, a smash. Or in American English, we'd say an accident. And that's where a car hits a tree or something and it is destroyed. And then they stop and he says, great snakes. It's their car, right? That's the red car that they got away in, right? That's this car right here. Let's see, where are we? And so he says, will you drop me here, please? So drop is to let somebody out of a vehicle. Will you drop me here, please? Because Tintin wants to investigate. Tintin wants to see what's happening. And so he gets out of the car. And then he asks this man, who is smoking a pipe. He's smoking a pipe right here. That's what this is. And he says, the occupants? Not a scratch. I saw them go off towards the railway station. And so they ran off that direction. They're running away to go to the railway station, and there's not a scratch on them. A scratch is when you have, like, on your arm. Actually, I have a scratch right now. If you can see that, yeah, I have a scratch on my hand. That's a scratch. But they didn't have any. Not a scratch. They were perfectly fine. And so Tintin runs off to the station. Let's see if can I fit this entire panel on the page I can And so what Tintin is running off to the station with snowy, and he says they're going to catch that train And then we hear... That's what this is probably doing. And we see the lovely town in the background with trees. It looks like this is a castle of some kind. That's kind of cool. And Tintin is running up the stairs. He wants to catch the train as well and says, the train's pulling out, right? That's when the train goes... It's pulling out of the station. It's leaving. And so he gets up onto the bridge, and then he jumps down onto the train. Oh, he wants to. Let's see if he does. Don't look yet. He'll go flat on his face again. Just watch. Oh, come on, Snowy, he says. Come with me. And so they both jump it. Push, push. I made it. This time, right, because you remember last time, he felt right on his face. And so that's what Snowy was talking about. He'll fall flat on his face. He'll go flat on his face again. Just watch. But they made it this time. And so now they're on top of the train and Tintin is balancing, trying to keep steady. He's balancing. And then they see, oh, help, a tunnel, right? This is a tunnel here, right? This part up here and going inside is the tunnel, right? That goes through the mountain. And so he says, uh-oh, I have to get down. I have to duck, right? And then Snowy goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And so they both duck down and he grabs onto this thing on the top of the train. He grabs it. He holds on. And they go into the tunnel, right? And now Tinchin says, good heavens, it's a long one, right? So they must've been in the tunnel for a long time. And then Snowy says, phew, what a stink, right? That means it's, ugh, what's that smell? What's that stink? And then they leave the tunnel, choo choo. And then they say, and then Snowy says, if he could see himself now, because now they're covered in soot and in dust and in things, right? That's all over their faces. And he says, if he could see himself now with a mirror, he'd see himself and get frightened. And so now he's climbing down the back of the train and says, hang on to me, Snowy. As they jump around the side, open the door and go inside the train. However, we're going to have to see what's inside the train in the next episode, because we're going to leave it there for today. Thank you so much for watching and enjoying. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and comment with how the lesson went. What did you learn this time? And remember, the transcripts for all episodes are available on benslanguagelab.com. I'll see you next time. Bye!
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