Tintin in: The Secret of the Unicorn #10
Tintin in: The Secret of the Unicorn
Episode 10
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 like this are even better. So today we're going to read a comic together. This video is meant for beginner level English learners. So if you need, there are subtitles available down below or you can view the entire transcript on benslanguagelab.com. Your job is to watch, listen, and enjoy. And make sure to subscribe for more videos like this one. We're currently reading Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn. So if you want to start from the beginning, make sure to click the link in the description. Let's start learning though. So remember from last time, Tintin had just seen the ridiculous wallet contraption, the wallet invention of Thompson, which is on elastic, which means it will snap back if it gets stolen. But then he says, we're going to go now, we have more investigations. Let's see what happens. If things go on like this, says Haddock, Red Rackham's treasure will disappear from right under our noses. Yes, I'm afraid so. And he's saying that things aren't going well. They're not making progress. They're not learning new information. Things are going away from them. They're losing the ship. They're losing the hints. There's problems happening. And the treasure will disappear from under their noses. That's a phrase that we say in English to mean when something is right here, you can basically see it, and then suddenly it's gone. Where'd it go? If it's so obvious or so clear, but somebody took it out from under your nose, you were looking at it. It was right under your nose. And then he's, but then they keep walking and Tintin says, look, someone seems to be waiting for us outside my door. So this is Tintin's house right here. This is his green front door. And there's a man standing outside waiting for them. And so they're walking towards him. And then they recognize him, the man from the old street market. They were just talking about him, the large, a man in a blue suit. That's the color of his suit that he's wearing, is a blue suit. And we see Snowy is, he's a little up, he's looking at him saying, what are you gonna do, mister? And then he says to him, Mr. Tintin, are you Mr. Tintin? Yes, what can I do for you? He says he's very little upset. Hmm. What can I do for you, sir? How can I help you? I'd like a word with you, please, Mr. Tintin, but not here, if you don't mind. It would be quieter in your flat. So he wants to talk to him. He would like a word. When you would like a word with someone, it usually means, or it always means, you want to talk to them. Sometimes it also means that you're upset with them. Can I have a word, please, with you, right now, privately? It would be quieter. And so it's when you want to talk to somebody. In this case, he doesn't seem upset. He seems normal. But not here. He doesn't want to talk literally right where they are. Right here? No. Let's go upstairs to your flat, to your apartment. Because it would be quieter there. There's fewer people. All right, we'll go up, he says. So Tintin's unlocking the door. In you go. And then there's a car that pulls up. Bang, bang, bang. Somebody shoots out from the car. Here we see the weapon shooting right into the man. And all three of them, one, two, three, are super surprised, because they were going to just go up. Bandits, crooks, gangsters, he yells. Back at the car, Captain, Captain, help me! Because the man fell onto Tintin, and the hat fell onto Snowy. Captain, Captain, help me! Because the man is unconscious. He's basically asleep. And then he says to them, take care. They will kill you too. So that's be safe or be careful. So take care, right? Because these are very evil people, right? Is what he's saying to him. But then Tintin asks, who? Who is going to kill me? Who is they? We don't know who they is. And they will kill you too, he says as he's laying there. Who are they? Tell us. There he points as he's slowly losing consciousness. The two of them are looking at the man, concerned. And he points, there. And then they both look over. There's some birds here. And Snowy's looking at the hat. And then sparrows? That's the type of birds. These are sparrows. Sparrows? What do you mean? Crumbs. He's fainted. He's knocked out. Hopefully not dead. We'll see though. The next morning, the following day, we're reading a newspaper. That's this newspaper right here. An unknown man was shot dead in Labrador Road just before midday yesterday. As he was about to enter number 26, three shots were fired from a passing car, which had slowed down opposite him. The victim was struck by all three bullets in the region of his heart, and he died without regaining consciousness. And so that's a bit of a recap of what happened, a summary of what happened because we just saw it, right? The car pulled up, that's what say the passing car had slowed down and the victim was struck by all three bullets, bam, bam, bam, oh, oh, oh, in the region of his heart, which is where his heart is, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so it entered in and he died regrettably. Poor devil, no one will ever know what he meant when he pointed at those sparrows." Because that was the last thing he said, there. And he pointed at something, at some birds. Hello, Captain. Now they're seeing each other again. Come on in. I'm just telephoning the hospital for the news of the wounded man. He's talking to the hospital to see what happened. He wants to figure out. The wounded man is the man who was shot. Wounded is an injury, a wound. It's no good, says Captain Haddock. He's dead. Hello? Is that the house surgeon? This is Tintin. Good morning, doctor. How's our injured man? Just the same? Still unconscious? Is there any hope? A little? Yes. Oh, thank you. Goodbye. Now Tintin's on the phone and he's talking to the doctor or the surgeon. A surgeon is somebody who goes into somebody's body and they sew things, they move things, they put things in, take things out. It's a very difficult job, a surgeon, but they're a doctor. He's talking about the injured man. Is he the same? Oh, he's still unconscious. That's a question. But that means he's still alive. Is there any hope? A little, which means that he might survive. There's a little bit of hope. But Haddock is looking at the newspaper, very confused. Huh? But look here, it says in the paper that he's dead. Yes, the papers were told he died. The crooks will believe he didn't give them away, so they won't be on their guard, and they'll get caught one day. And so what they did here is they lied to the newspaper, right? They said, no, he died. That way the person that shot him, the person that shot him also thinks that he died. And that way they're not going to be looking for him again. They're going to be, they won't be on their guard. On your guard is when you're ready to do something. You're looking around, you're ready to fight, you're ready to take action of some kind. And so they're going to be relaxing. Ah, right? Because they don't have anything to worry about. And so they can catch them. Ah, I see now," says Haddock. But I still wonder what that poor chap meant, pointing at those sparrows. So do I, Captain. It's all very mysterious. To be precise, very mysterious, as the Thompsons would say. He's repeating what they would do because they're here. Another day watching for pickpockets all over the place. I'll be glad when we get back home. And so now he mentions the Thompsons and we see them standing on a street and they're waiting for pickpockets. They're looking for people that are trying to steal people's wallets. That's a pickpocket. They go into the wallet and they steal something. I want to take a second to really quickly talk about the word pickpocket because it's very interesting. Pickpocket because it's a very old word. And it's made of two parts, pick and pocket. All right, let's split it into two. Pick and pocket. Pocket is, that's the word we still use today, right? Your pocket in your shirt or in your pants. And to pick is actually also still used in not as many contexts. You can pick a lock. It's when you go into a lock and you open a lock without the key. That's picking a lock. Or it's also when you can catch somebody, especially in baseball or in football, American football. In baseball, a pick is when you throw the ball to first base or to a base while the runner is not on it. You catch them. They go, Oh no, you caught me. I wasn't safe. or an American football if the other team catches the ball that you throw. Oh, it's an interception is another word for it, but it's also colloquially called a pick. And so we use this word in this sense still. But what's interesting is that nowadays we would do it in the other order. If we wanted to make somebody who picked pockets would be a pocket picker. We do it the other way around. We go noun first, so the thing that they're doing, and then the verb, and then er. So firefighter, instead of fight fire, right? That's the wrong way around. So firefighter, right, the noun, and then the thing they do, the it and then the what, or no, the it and the doing, er. What else? Firefighter, or like tennis player, like anything like that is something player, Instead of a like they're not a play tennis. That would be a really weird name However at one point in time in English history there was this order we did do a pickpocket or a Turncoat a turncoat is another one. That's somebody who is like often going like leaving places quickly when you Tony your coat would turn because you were a Turning around your coat would with you as well And so we have a couple of these words still in English from this time when we did it the other way around We would nowadays if we invented the word pickpocket. It would be actually pocket picker Or but like it's an old word. So we still use that order which I think is really interesting. I Anyways, that is not relevant to the story. I just think it's really cool. There's only a few words like that. There's a couple more, but I don't really remember them. So let's figure out what happens. At last, here comes our bus. However, we see somebody's hand picking their pocket. It's the pickpocket. There he is. My wallet! This time I've got you, you scoundrel. Because it's on the genius elastic. And the man is there. Uh-oh, they've caught me. And so he lets it go and it smacks him right in the face because it's made of elastic. But then he yells, STOP VILLAIN! And runs after him. Although, as we see, he's caught into it. Just like that. So... Just again, as it snaps him back in the face a second time. Stop or I'll fire, he says. And then he's running after the man. And I got you, my friend, and I'm not letting you go. But then, of course, the man just takes off his jacket and drops his things onto the ground. He has an umbrella, he has some gloves, and it looks like he has another bag of some kind. So he drops all that stuff, hits Thompson right in the face, and then he's trying to get it off, and then, bam, he smacks headfirst right into a light post. Of course, typical Thompson and Thompson. And then the next morning we hear, ring, ring, ring, ring. And then Snowy picks up the phone and brings it over to Tintin. How nice of him. Thanks, Snowy. Ah, hello. Yes, it's me. Ah, it's you. Yes, yes. What? Oh, it's amazing. I'll come at once. So Tintin is talking to somebody, but we don't really know what he's saying. Hello? Hello, is this Tintin? Yes, it's me. This is Thompson. I don't know who it is, actually. I'm making something up. Oh, ah, it's you. Uh-huh. Yes. What? Oh, it's amazing. I'll come at once. And so he runs off out of his apartment. He closes the door, he puts on his coat, and he runs down the stairs. Let's see who that was. Ah, Captain, come with me. He meets the captain outside. Where? Where are we going? To see the Thompsons. Oh, yes, it is the Thompsons. They found my wallet. And so they're running together. He grabs him by the arm and they're running off. And then they get there. There's no mistake. It's mine, all right. is what Thompson says when he gives his wallet back. There's Tintin's wallet that he's giving back to him. He had seven in his pockets. The day's taking, no doubt. The day's takings, no doubt. The day's taking, so that's what he stole in one day. Takings is what you earn or what you make in a day. And so in this case, it's what he stole. And he had seven wallets in his pocket, which is what he stole in one day. And then the captain sits down and, uh-oh, sits right onto a hat. Uh-oh. And then Tintin says, look, here's the parchment from the unicorn's mast. Look, captain. Oh, that's good, he says, and he's trying to hide the hat. And then he turns back around to continue talking, or Tintin does. Tell me, how did you manage to catch the thief? How did you find him? How did you capture the pickpocket? Catch him? Well, to be quite honest, we only managed to catch his morning coat. That's the type of coat that it was, a morning coat. But he's saying that we didn't really catch him. We actually just got his coat. And then he said, yes, it's certainly a morning coat. How odd for a pickpocket to wear a thing like this. Isn't it? He says, that's very strange. The trouble is that the coat doesn't give us any clues about the owner's identity. And then he says, doesn't it? Of course it does. There are clues in everything. There's things we can look at. Look at these stitches, for example. They make up a number, that means They make up a number. That means the coat has been to the cleaners recently. They make up a number. I don't know what that means. Look at these stitches. They make up a number. That means the coat has to have been to the cleaners recently. I don't know what that means. I do know what this part means. That means the coat must have been to the cleaners recently. The part about making up a number, that must be an old phrase, an old saying that I don't know. But we do know that this means that the coat has been cleaned. They took it to somebody to clean the coat. Goodness, you're right. Oh, no, the stitches literally make up a number. The stitches are a number, the number 314731. They make up a number. And so to find the thief's name and address, we've only got to trace the cleaners who use this mark. And so what they discovered is that This, this mark, this number is going to connect it to a cleaners. They can go to the cleaners and say, look, we have this number who made this order. So to find the thief's name and address, we've only got to trace the cleaners who use this mark. Quick, we'll make a list of the cleaners from the telephone directory and start hunting for the thief at once. And so they're going to go and they're going to go to the phone book, the big directory, the telephone directory, and look for all of the clothes cleaners. There used to be big books of these. And so they're going to go through it and look cleaner, cleaner, cleaner, cleaner, cleaner. And they're going to make a list. Cleaner 1, cleaner 2, cleaner 3, cleaner 4. And then they're going to go talk to all of them and they're going to ask them. So there's their telephone book and here's the cleaners. And so they're going to go inside and talk to the cleaners and ask, do you use this mark in your clothes? And then if they do, they can figure out what happened and where the thief is. So, okay, we figured out that mystery, but we're going to leave it there for today. We'll have to figure out what happens next in the next episode. Thank you so much for watching and enjoying. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and comment down below with how the episode was for you. And remember, all transcripts are available on benslanguagelab.com. I'll see you next time. Have a good one.
For email updates, subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feed.