Tintin in: The Secret of the Unicorn #4
Tintin in: The Secret of the Unicorn
Episode 4
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 to subscribe for more videos like this one. Your job is to watch, listen, and enjoy. We're currently reading Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn. If you haven't seen the other episodes yet, click the link in the description to watch from the beginning. All right, let's start learning. If you remember to last episode, we had just seen that Thompson and Thompson got their wallets stolen from them again for a second time in two days. And Tintin was very curious. He wants to figure out what's happening to these wallets. So let's keep going and see what happens. He was quite tall, coarse features, black hair, small black mustache, a blue suit and a brown hat. That's him, the man from the old street market, Tintin says. And then he says, but he couldn't have stolen your wallet last night when you only bought it this morning. There's something in what you say. And so now Tengen is thinking about what was happening. He couldn't have stolen your wallet last night because you bought it this morning, right? If he bought something yesterday or bought something today, you can't steal it yesterday. He didn't have it yet. And so he goes, yeah, that sounds, that's right. There's something in what you say. And then the other one says, miserable thieves, a brand new wallet. Come along Thompson or come along Thompson. No P we must report this right away. Um, and so now they're both upset and they want to go report their stolen wallets. They want to tell somebody else our wallets were stolen. No. And then he says, Thompson says, he's right. We must report it at once, right away, right now. And so they go out the door and Snowy is looking at them going, where are you going? And Tintin is also sort of surprised, huh? And then he says, look out, as he walks, boom, face first into the door. And then he says, oh, hey, Thompson, wait for me. Where are you? Here? I'm downstairs already. Because he fell down the stairs. Of course. These two are a bunch of idiots. Let's see what happens next, after Thompson and Thompson leave. Tintin says, oh, the poor old Thompsons. They do have rotten luck. That's a phrase that you might sometimes hear, and it's for when you have very bad luck, bad things keep happening to you. However, they do seem to be a little bit dumb, so maybe it's their fault. And then he says, there seems to be quite an epidemic of larceny and housebreaking. So epidemic is when there is a lot of something happening all over the place and it's spreading. There's some sort of disease or it's a bunch of it happening. And so he's noticing that there's a lot of larceny, which is stealing and housebreaking, which is what happened when somebody came into his house, they broke into his house to break in. And so he's saying there's a lot of stealing and breaking in of houses. It's kind of an epidemic. And he says, oh, well, let's try to get these papers sorted out. Because they threw all of his papers on the ground. And so he wants to put them back in order, right? Papers, these ones here, these ones here, these ones here. That's sorting something out. Oh, what are you after, Snowy? Because Snowy's under the dresser right now, or whatever this is. I don't know what it's, a dresser maybe? A table? But Snowy's under it. He's trying to get something with his mouth. And then he says, oh, a cigarette? Under there? That's a funny place. He thinks that he found a cigarette, what you smoke with, right? Tobacco. It's too long, right? They're a little bit shorter and they have tobacco in them. That's a cigarette. Why would it be under there? That's kind of a funny place to be. So he reaches under and grabs the cigarette and says, oh, why? It's not a cigarette at all. It's a little scroll of parchment. Parchment is a kind of, is like paper, but it's usually a little bit older and thicker. Parchment. And so if you think of like a hundred years ago, right, they were writing on parchment. And so he says, it's a scroll of parchment. But then he says, oh, this isn't mine. It's, he didn't own it. He's never seen it before. Wherever did it come from? Let's have a closer look at it. And then he stands up and goes, boosh, and he crashes his head onto the open drawer, right? The drawer is open right now, and so he knocks right into it. And then he says, oh, and he drops it, actually. It falls out of his hand onto the floor. And he says, here's another mystery. Because the parchment is very interesting, right? He wants to examine it. He wants to look closer and read it. Because it's not his. Where did it come from? Very curious. And then he goes, what? Because he's reading the parchment. And the parchment says, three brothers. What does that say? J-O-Y-N-E-D? J-O-Y... joined oh it's all gibberish he says okay so yeah what happens is that three brothers joined three unicorns in company sailing in the noonday sun will speak for it is taught from the light that light will dawn and then shines torch 42 a o one the And so what's happened here is that it's all gibberish. Gibberish is when something doesn't make any sense. Right? That's gibberish. That doesn't mean anything. And so he's saying this is, huh? It doesn't have meaning, right? There's words like three unicorns, that means something, three brothers, but three brothers joined? What is that? Three unicorns in company sailing in the noonday sunny? What? Right, this doesn't mean anything yet. And where on earth did this parchment come from anyway? He so doesn't know. So let's figure out where it came from, huh? He says, oh, great snakes, I've got it. This parchment must have been rolled up inside the mast of the ship. Remember, on the ship, there was three masts, right, these things. Those are called masts, and the middle one, the main one, broke. And the parchment must have been inside. It must have fallen out. The parchment must have been rolled up inside the mast of the ship. It fell out when the mast was broken and then rolled under the chest. Well, that's what it's called, a chest. So to roll, right, is, so it rolled under. But when something is rolled up, this is the only thing I have on my paper, when you roll something up, you make it into a roll like this, and you're rolling it up, right? That's what that means. So now it's unrolled, and I can roll it up like this. You can't see very well, it's not a very good, there we go, that's a good angle. And that's rolled up. So that's what you do when you roll up some paper or something like that. And then he says, and that explains something else, right? Whoever stole my ship knew that the parchment was hidden in there. When he discovered that the scroll was gone, he thought I must have found it. That's why the thief came back and searched my flat, never guessing that the parchment was just under the chest. Because remember in the last episode, somebody broke into his house twice, two times. The first time they stole the ship, and the second time they didn't steal anything, because they didn't find what they wanted. They wanted the parchment, they wanted this little scroll, but it was hidden, it was under the chest. And so that's why they broke into his house twice. And then Snowy says, Tintin, you're a real Sherlock Holmes. If you've never heard of Sherlock Holmes, he's a very famous and good detective. We might read some of the Sherlock Holmes books in a future series, so make sure that you're subscribed. And then he says, but why was he so anxious to get a hold of it? If only it made some sense, then at least, and then he trails off, he's thinking, but at least, And so some words here, anxious. Typically anxious is when you're like nervous. You're, Ooh, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know. But it can also be when you really want to have something happen. I'm really anxious to read this scroll. I'm really anxious to know what happened. It's more of like excitement or desire. And then he says, if it made sense, if I could read this, if this was not, if it made sense, then it would be okay that he wanted to find it, but it doesn't make any sense. And then he says, I wonder, but of course, that must be it. There's no other answer. He has an idea. There's no other answer. Then he says, quick, Snowy, we must see the captain. He's gonna go see the captain and talk about the other answer. And then Snowy says, but why? What is it now? Treasure, Snowy, come on. This is going to be a treasure hunt. That's fun, huh? Treasure is gold and riches and money and something that's been lost, right? Something that's worth a lot. And they're gonna go look for it. They're gonna go on a treasure hunt. This should be exciting, huh? Now we see that he's at Captain Haddock's place, right? This is actually an H. that his hand is covering, and he rings the doorbell. Ring, ring. And then he says, I'm absolutely certain it must be treasure. That has to be what it is. The old lazy bones, he's still in bed. Ring. A lazybones is someone who is very, they don't want to do much. They like to sleep and they like to sit around. And so he's saying that he's not up yet. He's, come on, wake up, Haddock. He must still be in bed. But no, then where can he be if he's not inside his apartment? And then Tintin says, well, no one at home, perhaps he's gone out. Maybe he's getting food or getting groceries or just walking around. Then he says, I'll ask the landlady. The landlady or a landlord is somebody that owns the house that you live in or the apartment. So this is the landlady, and this is her apartment, literally, she owns the apartment, but Captain Haddock pays her money every month so that he can live there, right? He's renting from her. But then she says, Captain Haddock? No, I didn't see him go out. Hasn't he answered the bell? That's funny. The bell is what we would nowadays call the doorbell. That's this, right, the doorbell. But he hasn't answered. He didn't open the door and say, hello, Tintin. But she didn't see him go out. He still must be inside. Perhaps he's ill. Maybe he's sick, Tintin thinks. Right, ill is just like sick. So maybe he's in bed going, oh, I feel terrible. My head hurts. Oh. Right, he could be sick. And then she says, ill, he might be. His light's been on all night, right? His light, the light bulb, right, that keeps the light on, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, has been on like this all night, all night when he should be sleeping. And so then Tintin says, oh, we must find out at once. We have to go check on him, right? So they both run up the stairs. They rush up the stairs and go ring, ring on the doorbell again. She says, no answer. And then Tintin says, wait, he must be in. I can hear voices. He can hear something. It sounds like people are talking. Or something like that. So let's see what happens to Captain Haddock. Captain, Captain, open the door. It's me, Tintin. He's knocking on the door. And he's yelling at the captain. Captain, open the door. Not a sound. Still no answer. An answer, by the way, can be for a phone. You can pick up the phone and answer the phone. You can answer the door right if someone Hello, who is it? Right, you can answer anything like that, but if you give no answer, then that means nobody answered. Then she goes, thump, thump, thump. Come one pace nearer and I'll blast you to blazes, we hear from inside. To blast somebody is to shoot them, right? And to blazes is not really a thing that people say, but it's a threat. He's saying, I'll shoot at you if you come any closer. And then she says, shall I go for the police? Should I call the police and have them come here? Is this a big problem? And then Tintin says, no, a locksmith would be a better idea. A locksmith is someone that works with locks, right? So on a door, you can lock the door so that you can't open it, right? That's why they can't open the door, it's locked. You can't go inside. But a locksmith would come in and they would open the door. They have tools and they can, and then you can open the door that way. And so he wants to go inside. Because, oh, I think, yes, he's talking to himself. He's not actually yelling at them. He wasn't saying this to yell at Tintin and the landlady. He's talking to himself. He is in his apartment. dreaming or talking about something different. It's not a threat. He says, yeah, yes, he's talking to himself. This is getting serious. This is not good. But then, ah, here comes the locksmith. And so he opens the door, right? He works on the lock and says, and then Tinjan asks, got it? Nope, can't do it. Gov, the door has been bolted. Gov is another sort of old British term. I don't think they say it anymore. It's like friend, mate. I believe it's short for governor, but I'm not even positive on that. Nope, can't do it, gov. The door was boated. Um, it's, it's bolted, which means that there is literally something like stopping it from opening like this that you can't like unlock because there's just a, a thing in the way, a bolt, right? They're usually metal that kind of goes into the, the door so that you, if you try to like push the door, it just doesn't go anywhere. There's a bolt in, in there. And then Tintin says, well, we must force the door. And that's when you kick down the door or you open the door with force, right? Force is power, right? If you really push something really hard or you or you kick something, that's with force. And so they're going to have to open the door with force. And Tintin says, I'll be responsible for the damage, right? It's gonna break, right? If you force something open, it's going to break the door and you're gonna have to replace it, which costs money. So Tintin says that he'll pay for the damages. I just threw that on the ground. And so he'll pay them whatever happens, right? He'll be responsible for whatever happens. And then he says, one, two, crash, as they ram into the door with their shoulders, right? They work together, but then. Captain Haddock has a sword and a hat with a feather coming out of it, a very big feather. And so they both immediately go, whoa, we don't want to hurt you, please. You have a sword. However, we're going to have to figure out what happens next in the next episode. We're going to leave it there for today. Thank you so much for watching and for enjoying. Make sure to subscribe for the next episode and comment below with how it went. What did you learn? And remember, transcripts for all episodes are available on benslanguagelab.com. I'll see you next time. Bye.
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