Ben's Language Lab

Tintin in: Red Rackham's Treasure #14

Tintin in: Red Rackham's Treasure

Episode 14

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Hi, my name is Ben, and welcome to Ben's Language Lab. As we know, stories are one of the best methods to improve the language. And stories with pictures are even better. And so today we're going to read a comic book together. This video is meant for beginner level English learners. And so if you need, there are subtitles available or you can see the entire transcript on benslanguagelab.com. Make sure you subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one. Your job is to watch, listen, and enjoy. And I apologize if you hear some extra noises. It's raining outside. It's raining right now. And I have some visitors. Meow. Meow. You two are very cute. Now don't interrupt, we have a story to read. Because remember, we're still reading Red Rackham's Treasure, which is the second book in a series starting with The Secret of the Unicorn. And so, if you haven't seen those, make sure you catch up on those first. All right, let's get learning. So last time, Haddock had just passed off this reporter to Calculus, because he wants to ask a bunch of questions and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he doesn't want to answer his questions. So the mostly deaf Professor Calculus is going to answer the questions instead. And so he says, he's walking away, rubbing his hands together like an evil villain. Now, Mr. Calculus, about the treasure. Oh, yes, he says. I'm sure you have it in there in that suitcase. Thank you. I'll carry it myself, he says. Oh, I can understand that. Now tell me, what does the treasure consist of? No, not really, he says. Oh, you are wrapped up in a cord, dude. Get out of there. So he's asking about the treasure, right? And so he's holding a suitcase here. And then he says, oh, you must have the treasure in the suitcase, right? And so he says, of course, I'll carry it myself. Already they're not really understanding. So so tell me what is the treasure? What does it consist of? Gold? Diamonds? Jewels? No, not really, he says. What? What do you mean not really? No, I asked you what was in the treasure you found. Was it gold? Or pearls? Diamonds? Pearls are the little round balls of, I think they're carbon, but they might make a necklace or, excuse me. How rude. Oh no. Somebody unplugged my monitor. Oh God. Guys. Oh no. Can you not unplug my monitor please? Thank you. That's very nice of you. Oh my God. He's back behind my computer. So here's my, so we're looking down. This is my desk. I have a monitor here and I have a monitor here. So monitor, that's like a screen monitor and another monitor. And then below my desk, I have my computer. And right now there is a cat right here, right beside my computer. Here's the wall. And so he's right there between the wall and my computer and he's messing with the cables a little bit. So you behave. Okay, back to the story. Pearls are little valuable balls that might come from the ocean. Diamonds are stones that you might find in a ring or earrings. And gold is It's gold, right? It's very valuable, very heavy. Gold weighs a lot. It's a golden color. Almost, yeah, it's not really golden. Ah, this is golden, right? This gold right here on the bottom there, that's golden. It's not real gold, it's golden. It's not real gold though. And so he says, no, what I asked was, what was in the treasure? Was it gold or pearls, diamonds? Incredible. I don't believe a word of it, he says, because he's not hearing anything. He's deaf. He doesn't understand. So, look, Mr. Calculus, I don't quite follow. I don't quite understand, he says. When you follow something in this sense, it's when you understand something. You go, okay, you said this, then this, then this. You follow? You following me? Good. And then he says, oh, of course, let me give you a little advice. Don't tell anyone, he says. And then he's very confused. He goes, what? Don't tell anyone what? And you may rely on me. I will keep this strictly between ourselves, he says, as he walks up the ladder and away. Goodbye. And then we're back to the Thompsons. Well, Captain, our mission is completed. Because he knew we were aboard, Max Bird didn't dare interfere with your activities. No doubt. You're going home now, huh? So remember from last series, Max Bird was the criminal, and he wanted to interfere. He wanted to get in their business and stop them, right? But because of the Thompsons, no, he couldn't. Or the fact that they were out at sea very, very far away. That also could be it. Whatever. And so he says, oh, no doubt. You're going home now, they say. So you're going to go home? It is really raining. Can you hear that? Wow. I hope the power doesn't go out. That would not be fun. And so then they say, oh no, we're a bit tired. The journey, you know, and the pumping. We're going to spend a few days in the country with a farmer friend of ours. Have a good holiday, he says. So the country is out in the wilderness or a farm, right, where you're relaxed. You're not in the city. So the city has tons of tall buildings, lots of things moving, and so you go out, way out to a little cottage, and you just exist. It says, now for the simple, healthy tasks of the countryside. No more pumping, they say. To be precise, no more pumping. They're very tired of pumping, I guess. And then, they're with their farmer friend now, and he says, and when you finish crushing the oats, you can have a turn of the chaff cutter, he says. And again, they're pumping away at the farm, cutting oats, or crushing oats, rather. So oats are a food, and we crush them down to make them more easy to eat. And then afterwards, they're gonna cut chaff. I don't know what that is though. Oh, other cat. Meow. Say hello. Say hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Say meow. Okay, nevermind. Oh, there we go. And then we continue on. So some days later, now we're several days later. Oh, somebody's back. Several days later and we hear, Good morning, Tintin. Oh, hello, Professor Calculus. What brings you here? Very well, thank you. And you? I've come to bring you the documents. The documents? What documents? He says. No, the documents we found in the casket. Don't you remember? I've tried to piece them together, sticking to the fragments on sheets of paper. Sticking the fragments on sheets of paper. Some are illegible. Others, like that one, are comparatively easy to decipher. Some good words in here. So first, what documents? Remember the documents that they found in that casket that Calculus was really interested in. He was looking very closely. Those are the documents. So he wanted to piece them together. Oops. Piece them together, which is the fragments, right? So a fragment is a piece, right? So if you break something, Here, this is a fragment, a fragment of a tile, right? The whole tile is this big, right? But this is just a small piece, a fragment of the tile. A broken piece, I guess you could say. So the fragments on sheets of paper, he stuck them, so he would take one and the other and paste them onto a single sheet of paper. Some are illegible. You can't read something, right? So this is my name, oops. This is my name, legible, Ben. This is my name, illegible. You can't read that. What? Legible has to do with being able to read something, if it's able to be read. If somebody's handwriting is really bad, like this says doctor, right? That's illegible, you can't read that. That's not a thing you can read. but some of the others are easier to decipher. To decipher something is to solve like a puzzle or understand what something means. So in this case, it's like you can barely read it by looking very closely and saying, okay, so that's a B, that must be an E, right? That's an E and then maybe there's an N there. Yeah, that's Ben, right? That's deciphering something. but they're only comparatively easy to decipher, right? So compared to something that you can't decipher, it's much easier, not easy, easier, right? Something that's easy is clapping. Easy. Deciphering this is hard, but it's easier than something that's incompletely illegible, right? And so he says, I believe that one will interest the captain particularly. Great snakes, I think so too, says Tintin. Come on, we must see the captain. And so they start running right away. What is on this sheet of paper? And we see Snowy down here with his little tongue out. Or wait, is this the end? Yeah, it's the end. Okay, just checking. And so we see, now we're with Haddock and they're reading the paper, the document, and it says, Charles II, by ye grace of God, King of England, desiring to reward our trusty and beloved knight, Francis Haddock, blistering barnacles, he says. The rest, read the rest. Oh boy, do I have to read this? Charles II by E. Grace. Oh, by the way, this isn't really saying much beyond reward. It's very fancy English. Charles II, by the grace of God, King of England, desiring to reward our trusty knight, beloved knight Francis Haddock. It's just the word reward, basically. They're going to get a reward. So bestow our navy for this devoted service, hereby grant and bestow Manor of Marfinzo messages are committed, given and delivered to this 15th of July. Oh, Marlon Spike Hall. That's what it is. I skipped forward. So that's what they're saying. He's reading this document and it says, thundering typhoons. Am I dreaming? It's Marlon Spike Hall. Marlon Spike, my family estate. It's fantastic. So what's happening is the king of England, yeah, the king of England, Charles II gifted Haddock something when he returned. He got back, he made it home safe. And so he gifted him something, which is in the manor of Marlinspike. So Marlinspike Hall, that's the place that Tintin got kidnapped all those episodes ago, long, long ago. It belongs to him, it's Haddock's estate. It's his, he owns it, right? Which is amazing. And so then he walks out and says, but you don't know the latest, wait till you see. He says, here, read this. And he comes back in with a newspaper, big old newspaper here. He walks in and shows the detentant, look. Well, what about that, he says. And it's for sale. For sale by auction on Saturday, August 9th. And so they're going to sell Marlon Spike Hall to the highest bidder. A bidder or an auction is where you can say how much you'll pay for something. I'll pay $500. No, I'll pay $600. I'll pay, no, I'll pay $650. Does anybody want to pay more? Does anybody want to pay more than $650? Going once, going twice, sold to the man for $650. And so they're going to sell Marlon Spike Hall. And he says, what about it? Well, Captain, it's quite simple. Your family estate is for sale. You must buy it back, he says. You have to buy Marlon Spike Hall. Buy it back? With what? He doesn't have any money, right? Well, he can't buy Marlon Spike Hall, even though it's his family's estate, right? Look who I have. And then he says, oh, that's true. We need some money. Dude, you can't sit on my tablet. If you're gonna sit, sit. You can be here. You're a good friend. His name is Gengibre, which means ginger in Spanish. Gengibre, Gengibre. Sorry, back to the story. I'm getting distracted. Buy it back with what? I don't have any money. That's true, we need some money. Hey ho, if only we'd found that wretched treasure. There'd be a question, there'd be no question. He's saying, if they have the treasure, they'd have lots of money. Right, they could buy Marl and Spike Hall, but they didn't find the treasure. So what are they gonna do? And then he says, may I have a look too, please? Oh, of course. So he hands the newspaper to Calculus, who goes, Captain, Martin Spike Hall is for sale. Look, we must buy it back. Oh, yes, he says. Buy it back. That easy, eh? What about the money? I suppose you've got the money, eh? Oh, yes, money. That doesn't matter, he says. And so again, he wants to buy the, they all think it's a good idea. They all want to buy Marlinspike Hall, but they don't have money. Where are they going to get the money, huh? So he says, I suppose you have the money. And then he finally actually says, oh yes, money. That doesn't matter. Why not? Why is money not important? Isn't it really important to be able to buy something so big? Why doesn't the money matter? Says, that's all right, I have some money. You, you've gotten money? That's very, that's nice for you. Personally, I haven't any, he says. And so he's saying, well, he has money, right? Calculus has money, but Haddock does not. So what's gonna happen? And then, but then he says, quite, the government have paid me a large sum for the patent on my submarine. Thanks to you, I was able to try it out. Now it's my turn to help you. Come on, we're going to buy your mansion. Wow, calculus, that's so nice of you. Because what happens is a patent, so the patent is basically the rights to be allowed to build the submarine, the shark submarine, that's his. So the government paid him a bunch of money. They gave him a lot of money to say, we want to be able to build your submarine. Nobody else can, only us. And we'll give you $10,000, right? And so he was able to test it out and try it. And so he's gonna give some of that money to Haddock because he was so kind on letting him try out the thing. So let's go buy the mansion, huh? Let's go buy the big house. They see a sign that says, house for sale. But then Haddock writes on the sign, making it say, this house is not for sale. And then he signs it, Haddock. Right? There it is. Oh, CK, sorry. CK. There we go. And here they are. They're walking down the front gardens, the entrance to Marlin Spike Hall. Pretty cool, huh? And then they get inside and they say, well, all's well that ends well. You haven't found the treasure, but you got back your family estate. That's pretty cool, right? They didn't find the treasure, but his estate, this beautiful big house that once belonged to his family is his again. How cool. All's well that ends well is a phrase, I think we came across it already, which is talking about when something ends good, it's okay, you can relax. Then he says, this is magnificent. Wait, you haven't seen anything yet, says Tintin, because it's beautiful. It's magnificent. They go into the room where Tintin was stuck and says, this is the room where I telephoned you. I called you on that phone to rescue me, he says. Splendid. How interesting. Splendid, he says. But then suddenly, shh. No, nothing. I thought I heard footsteps. Right, footsteps, but no, he didn't hear anything, maybe. Oh? Well, it's a wonderful house. My ancestor had good taste, didn't he? Now, what about those famous cellars you talked of? Where are they? And so he's saying it's a wonderful house, it's beautiful. Haddock chose well, he has good taste. But what about those cellars, right, the basements? There's stuff in there, right? So, where are they? And Tintin says, oh, come with me. I'll take you there. However, whoa, dude, I'm getting attacked by cats today. Crazy. However, there is a few more left. We're gonna have to, let's finish right now, actually. It's a quick, it's a quick read. We're gonna have a long final episode. We're finishing up today. So, they're going down into the basement. They're going into the cellars. Down the spiral stairs and then look here. We are thundering typhoons all this stuff What a lot of junk all this junk? He says there's just so much stuff in there. There's a spear here. There's a an old Head bust there's a statue back there. There's this armor, right? There's a bunch of just stuff in here junk you can say Oh yes, the Bird Brothers use it as their storeroom, he says. So the people that were there before, they just put stuff in there. They just stored things, right? It wasn't like any purpose just to keep things, right? Like a closet, you can keep stuff. Or here in my drawers back here, I store stuff. They're walking through and says, Hey, look, that's St. John the evangelist. We must be in an old chapel. So this is not in the room. It's part of the room, right? It's part of the wall. It's me. It's into the wall. Um, and it's St. John. So they must be in an old chapel or church where you might go to pray, right? So a church might have a. a roof like this and a little steeple like that. So that's a church or a chapel, right? And so this might be a place to pray. And then he says, what do you think of it? Incredible, it's beautiful. Church, this time I'm sure I heard a noise, he says. What was that sound? Excuse me. It stopped. The footsteps have stopped. That's queer. That's weird, is what we'd say nowadays. That's weird. I wonder, what? Why, whatever's the matter? What is it? He says. He's thinking, he's thinking, but then, hooray! He says. The eagle's cross! And then shines forth the eagle's cross. There it is. That's the cross. So he's pointing at St. John the Evangelist. He's thinking, thinking, and boom! He has an idea. He realizes that the clue for the treasure is about here in Marlinspike Hall. The eagle's cross. I can see a cross, but where's the eagle? And then, sorry, the Eagle's Cross? I can see a cross, but where's the eagle? There in front of you, says Tintin. Yes, there, look, St. John the Evangelist, who was always depicted with an eagle. He's called the Eagle of Patmos, after the island where he wrote his revelation. He's the eagle. Um, and so that's what they're talking about, right? They're solving the puzzle of the Eagle's cross from way back before they went to where the ship had sunk, but it was actually here the whole time. This part isn't as important, but he's depicted with an eagle, right? That means he always is in a picture. Depicted is the same root, right? So if you're always in a picture with something, that means you're depicted with. So this guy always has a little eagle with him, right? An eagle and a globe is what they're saying. And so that's why he's called the eagle. And then look, there's a globe. And an eagle, you're right, says Haddock. And so they're seeing the globe and the eagle. And so this is the eagle's cross. Right there. And so then he says, there, just on the spot given in the old parchment, it's the island we went to. Great snakes, the island's moving, he says. Because he goes to touch this button, right? It's that spot where that island was, where they went, and they touch it, and it's moving, and boom. It explodes, it bounces open with a spring, and look inside. What is that? The treasure, the treasure blistering treasures. It's Red Rackham's barnacles. He's blistering treasures, it's Red Rackham's barnacles. He mixes up his words there. We found it, we found it at last. Red Rackham's treasure, look, look. And so they're finding the treasure. These are pearls. Here are pearls from earlier. These are pearls. It's stupendous, stupendous. So, Sir Francis Haddock did take the treasure with him when he left the unicorn. And to think we were looking for it halfway across the world when all the time it was lying here, right under our very noses. So they were looking for a very long time. They went all the way here, right, into the ocean. But they didn't have to go, it was in the house all along, right under their noses. And then he says, thundering typhoons, look at this, diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, all sorts, they're magnificent. He says, the treasure, they're finding the treasure, it's worth so much money. Shh. Did you hear that? Yes, he says. Listen, footsteps. Someone's coming down toward the cellars. So they hear. Quick, get a hold of a weapon. We'll hide behind a pillar, he says. So they want something to fight with, right? They have to defend the treasure. Somebody's coming to get them. And he says, right, come on. We're gonna go hide. So they each get behind a pillar. They each have a weapon. Haddock has a big old spear and Tingen has a sword, but oh, it's Professor Calculus with his divining pendulum, with his divining pendulum. And they both go, oh, what? Calculus, what are you doing here? with his pendulum. And then we see here a nice big shot. Captain Haddock requests the pleasure of your company in the Maritime Gallery, where relics of the ship Unicorn are on display. Marlon Spike Hall. So this is an invitation. It's a little card, right? Sort of like a little piece of paper. that is asking us to come to the party. So Captain Haddock is requesting the pleasure of our company. So that's a very polite way of saying that he wants you to be there, to request the pleasure of your company. Your company is when you're with somebody, you're keeping each other company. And so if you have the pleasure of your company, it's when I get to be with you. They're in the Maritime Gallery, that's this whole room, And the relics, the treasures, the sword, the front, the jewels, everything is on display, right? That's where you can see it. You can see all this stuff in the display case here. That's a display case, display case. Here's the anchor also on display. And then here he is talking. Look at him in a suit, Captain Haddock. Well, what do you say now, my friends? All's well that ends well, eh? Just as I always said. More to the west, he says. We must go to the west. Yes, yes. But I said all's well that ends well, don't you agree? Your Maritime Gallery, I think it's very successful," he says. Thanks, but I was just saying that our adventures had a happy ending. They've ended, and happily. No, thank you. Never between meals, he says. No, no, blistering barnacles. All's well that ends well. All's well that ends well. Without any doubt, says Professor Calculus. And this is just the moment to quote that old saying, all's well that ends well. And that's been Tintin and Red Rackham's Treasure. I hope that you enjoyed this production of the entire series from the beginning to the end. They are fun stories. And so if you want, you can get them, you can download them yourself or buy them in a shop and read them in English and enjoy them. Or there's also a movie. There's a movie in English, which is great, all about this exact story if you want. I think it's just called Tintin, the movie, or something like that. But you can watch that movie now if you want. But that is everything from me. Thank you so much for watching, listening, and enjoying. If you liked it, make sure to leave a comment. And I'll see you again in another video. Have a good one. Bye.


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