Tintin in: The Secret of the Unicorn #6
Tintin in: The Secret of the Unicorn
Episode 6
Beginner
Hi, my name is Ben. Welcome to Ben's Language Lab. Stories are one of the best ways 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. 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. Now, 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, click the link in the description to watch from the beginning. Alright, let's start learning. If you remember from last episode, from last episode, we were talking about the unicorn and the battle that it was in and Captain Haddock had just yelled, fire. You want to come up? Come here. It's my cat. Come on. He does not want to come up, I guess, but let's see what happens. And so we see the cannonballs exploding and it going towards the other ship. We got her. That means we hit her. I hit, we got her. And then he yells and then we're back to where Captain Haddock and Tintin are sitting with Snowy. And he says, got her, yes, but not a crippling blow. The pirate ship in turn goes about and look, she's hoisted fresh colors to the masthead. A lot of good words here. Masthead, it's pretty easy, up here. That's what we call this, a boat word, don't worry about it. If you remember from last time, to hoist your colors is to bring up a flag to tell something, to say something. So here we see the colors of the Jolly Roger, of the pirate flag. Here is the English flag. Here is... another flag, I guess. And so, yeah. And then, so what else? The pirate ship in turn goes about, usually means turning around, right? So, if you're here, you could go about, come on, switch these. You could go about this direction, right? And then not a crippling blow, the last one here, so crippling blow. A blow is when you get hit, right? It's typically a bit fancier, right? So you wouldn't say to give somebody, it just wouldn't make sense if you're going to use it actively, like to give a blow. Don't say that. But, if someone like took a blow that makes more sense like and so in this case right it's not a crippling blow a crippling is when it's it's it's terrible you can't move anymore you can't boat you can't swim um and it's like if a crippling blow to a person if you take out their leg Right, or something like that. But this is not a crippling blow. The pirate ship in turn goes about and look, she's hoisted fresh colors to the mast head. She's hoisting up new colors. The red pennant, pennant is a flag. The red pennant, no quarter given, no quarter given. A fight to the death, no prisoners taken. You understand, if we're beaten, then it's every man to Davy Jones' locker. More words here, break them down. A fight to the death. That's what this red pennant means. They're going to fight until somebody is dead. That means there's no prisoners. They're not taking prisoners. And so if we lose, we're all going down to Davy Jones' locker. Davy Jones Locker is a way of saying that you die at the bottom of the sea. You are dead and you float all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. Davy Jones, I think it was also a pirate or something like that. But Davy Jones Locker is the bottom of the sea. And so then he says, the pirates take up the chase. They draw closer and closer. Throats are dry aboard the unicorn. Throats are dry. It means you want water or rum. Because the pirates are coming closer. They're, it's not swimming, they're boating. They're coming closer. I don't really know how else to say it. They're drawing closer, you could say. And they're close hauled. Remember that means they pulled in the sail. They're close hauled. The enemy falls in line. A stern with the unicorn. That means just right up at the front or the back. It's right next to them. They're right next to each other. The boats are astern, avoiding the fire of her guns. They're dodging and avoiding. She draws even closer. There she is, Astern. Yeah, Astern's right behind. That's what it was. Astern is behind, and she's drawing even closer. And then suddenly, not more than a half a cable's length away, she slips from under the unicorn's poop. Whoosh, like that. So yeah, I believe the poop is the back part here. And so she goes under it. The boat sort of goes right by, very close, a cable's length. I don't know how long that is, but a cable is like one of these, like a big rope, big thick rope would be a cable. Also nowadays we use cable for these things, right? This is a cable. And so not even a half a cable's length away. She's so close. Just like that. And then, psh, poor Snowy gets smacked in the face with the rest of the rum. Captain Haddock is so involved in the story that he's not seeing around him. And then she resumes her course. She continues going. The two ships are now alongside, right? So if they're going this way, they're now alongside. One's ahead. alongside. The boarders are preparing for action. To board a ship is to get on, right? Same with an airplane or even a car, kind of. You wouldn't say that I'm boarding a car, but a passenger is on board in a car, but on a boat you would definitely get on board. And so a boarder is somebody who is getting on to a boat, and in this case, because they want to stab and kill and attack. And so we better see what happens. Oh, there we go. That's a good picture of the two boats. So here's the pirate ship. It's got the Jolly Roger, and we see the red pennant as well. And then here's the big ship, the captain, Captain Haddock's ship. Yeah, Francis Haddock is his name. And here we see the cannons, all the guns. And then we see some, here are some officers, some sailors, some men are preparing to fight. And here there are the pirates all on the deck of the ship. They're all on board and they're going to board this ship. Ah! So we better see what happens, huh? Here they come. Grappling irons are hurled from the enemy ship with hideous yells and the pirates stream on board the unicorn. A grappling iron is something that they're going to throw and it's going to stick into the side, right? So it might look sort of like this with some sort of cord or rope or chain and they'll and then throw it, and then they'll grab on to the boat, and then they'll climb, and they'll board the boat. We can't see any, but they're going to throw it from here over to here. And then, with hideous yells, they're so ugly, just loud. And they stream aboard the ship. To stream in this way is very much like water, right? Because water streams, you can have a stream of water or like a small river is also called a stream because the water, the liquid is so smooth, it falls. And so when people are streaming, the pirates are streaming aboard, it feels like there's a lot of them. There's all over there. And there's a ton of pirates boarding. There's a stream of them just constantly. And then the captain yells, all hands to repel boarders. Repel is stopping, right? Get away. No. Ha ha. Something like that. Repel, you might also put bug repellent. If there's mosquitoes. You don't want them to sting you because then it really itches. It's super itchy so you might have repellent and you're repelling the mosquitoes or you're repelling the borders. All hands is a way, a boat way of saying everyone. So everyone, repel the boarders, get rid of them. And then he slips and falls, bonk, right on his head. And he smashes the bottle. And then Tintin even falls backwards because the captain gets onto the table and falls right onto his bum. Ooh, ooh, ooh. And then, of course, his cutlass also, clunk, falls right onto his head. Stand back. Out of my way. Can't you see the pirates swarming over the side? Swarming is the same sort of thing. A lot of people. Vroom. A swarm is typically for, like, bugs or insects. Zzzz. When there's a lot of insects or a lot of something is a swarm. And then, but he's fighting them. Back, you dogs! Get back! Roar! And here we see the pirates coming over the board. Come on. Coming over the side of the ship. They're boarding. And here we see people fighting with pistols and axes and swords. And in their underwear, I guess, this one has an eye patch. Arr, he's got an eye patch. Um... All of this craziness and madness. Back, you rats! Avast, sea lice! Belay, lubbery scum! Lice is when something gets into your head and it's, ooh, really itchy. There's lots of little bugs in your hair. They're lice. And so he's calling them sea lice and lubbery scum. Scum is a terrible, gross person, and lubbery is fat, right? Somebody that's got a lot of fat, and they're lazy, and they're stinky, right? And he's pretending to fight them. There he is! Rah! He's got his pistol in one hand, pistol in one hand, and his cutlass in the other, and he's swinging it, and they're fighting on the deck of the ship. Rah! And this guy is not having a good time. Oh! Right? And it's a battle. It's a battle for the unicorn. Let's see what happens next. My throat is dry. And then he says, ooh, and then another man says, he comes on and says, leave this man to me, lads. I want him to myself. It looks like another captain, right? He's got feathers in his hat. One, two, three feathers. And he's also got, he's got a dagger and a cutlass on this side. But then Captain Haddock says, I'm ready for you, pockmark. That's probably an insult, right? A pockmark is a spot on your face, like a pimple of some kind, right? And they're really big and they're kind of red, calling them a pockmark, right? And I'll fight you, you pockmark. And so then they go, ching, and they start to fight. And their swords collide. Their swords clash here. And they're fighting. You'd like to kill me, eh, Gherkin? Scoffing braggart! And then we come back to the real Captain Haddock. Says, you saucy tramp! So you'd kill me, would you? There! Ha! Take that, centipede! Toof! These are all just various insults that you don't really need to know, so I'm going to keep going to figure out what happens. Oh, so you'd attack me from the rear, would you, cowards? To attack from the rear is from this side, right? If somebody comes at his back, and they try to get him in the back right here, that would be attacking from the rear. Haha, you cowards! You won't even face me. Look out for squalls! I don't even know what that is. What even is a squall? But, Tintin gets poof! smacked in the face with the pillow that was on the end of his sword because he throws it backwards and it hits Tintin right in the face. There's little feathers everywhere. And of course, poor Snowy is scared. Ah, what is happening? And then as the captain is swinging his sword, he hits something on the ceiling, his chandelier, which is actually a steering wheel for a boat. He hits it with his sword and it falls right on his head. And then he's sitting there very stunned and his head hurts and he says, Well, that's more or less what happened to my ancestor. As he hurled himself on top of the pirates, a heavy block dropped on his head and he fell to the deck, stunned. And he's saying that this is basically what happened to this guy. He was fighting and then he hurled himself on the pirates. He attacked the pirates vigorously with a lot of rawr! He attacked the pirates and a heavy block fell right onto his head. And so then he fell to the deck, stunned. Not dead, just stunned. The pirates were the masters of the ship. They had hoisted the red pennants and they gave no quarter. They didn't allow anything. They didn't keep any prisoners. They killed everybody. Everyman Jack. Everyman Jack walked the plank? I don't know what that is. Every man walks the plank. To walk the plank is when they stick out the board of wood. So here's the boat, and here's the plank, and everybody has to walk and jump into the water and die. So they killed everybody. Let's see, is there a plank here? No, you can't see. But a plank is a piece of wood. And so they made everybody jump into the water. Not the pirates, the British. But then he asks, and Sir Francis, what happened to Sir Francis? Oh, come back up here. Sir Francis, when he came round, when he woke up, whoa, where am I? When he came round, he found himself securely lashed to his own mast. Lashed is when you're tied up, right, like this. He was securely lashed to his own mast. He suffered terribly. Which means he was in terrible pain. From that blow to the head, of course. He took a blow to the head, but no! From thirst! He was thirsty, the poor man. How he suffered! He couldn't drink anything. And he looked about him, that's looked around, right? He looked about him, he looked around, and the deck was scrubbed and no trace remained of the fearful combat that had taken place there. And so what happened is they cleaned everything. It didn't look like a fight at all. There was no blood, there was no bodies, there was no weapons. It was clean. The pirates passed to and fro, each with a different load. To and fro is back and forth, this way and that way, and there and here, to and fro, and they each were carrying different things, each with a different load. And then he asks, whoops, what's happening? Instead of pillaging our ship and making off with the booty, they're just doing the opposite, right? And so he thought what they would do is steal everything, destroy the ship, set it on fire, and then leave. But they're staying. They're putting stuff onto the ship. And they're, oh, booty is treasure. He thought they would steal their treasure, their gold. But what are they doing? And then he says, but there's a man with a man approaching. He wears a crimson cloak, embroidered with a skull. He's the pirate chief. He comes near and his breath reeks of rum. His breath smells like rum. Terrible smell. And he says, regard me well, dog. I am Red Rackham. What he's wearing, by the way, is a crimson cloak. That's this, a crimson cloak. It's here, and it's embroidered with a skull. You can see the skull here. Embroidery is when you put something very small onto like a piece, a shirt or something like that. It's a very small piece of other fabric, right? So it's like the shirt. And he says, regard me well, dog. I am Red Rackham. Your servant, sir, and I am Sir Francis Haddock, and he's saying who he is, Red Rackham. And then doesn't my name freeze your blood, eh? Aren't you afraid of me? Oh, I'm so afraid. Right, listen to me. You have killed Diego the Dreadful, my trusty mate. Mate is the person that is helping on the ship, so his second mate, who is named Diego the Dreadful, and he's dead now. More than half my crew are dead or wounded. They're either ugh or ow! Right? My ship is foundering, damaged by your first attack. Right? So when they hit him with the cannonballs. Too big of an explosion. Careful now. Um, and so the ship doesn't work. You, uh, your first attack then hold below the water line as we boarded you. Um, because so, so here's the boat, right? And here's the water. And if you get a hole here, the water is going to go in and the ship is going to sink. And that's what's happening to his ship. However, we're going to have to figure what happens in the next episode. We're going to leave it there for today. Thank you so much for watching and enjoying and make sure that you're subscribed to the channel and comment below with how it went. Remember, all transcripts are available on benslanguagelam.com. I'll see you next time. Bye.
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