Tintin in: Red Rackham's Treasure #9
Tintin in: Red Rackham's Treasure
Episode 9
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. And so today, we're going to read a comic 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 for more videos just like this one. Your job now is to watch, listen, and enjoy. We're still reading Tintin in Red Rackham's Treasure, which is the second in a series of two different comics, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure. If you haven't seen the others, click the link in the description to watch from the beginning. All right, let's start learning. So we have just stopped where Tintin is under the water. He got trapped in the weeds, in the seaweed. And he's stuck. And so Calculus and Haddock are out there, and they have the big looker tube thingy. And they're looking down into the water, and they see that it's Tintin. He's trapped. He's stuck down here. So let's see how they rescue him. He says, and then Calculus says, really, Captain? Your eyes have deceived you. It's not the wreck. It's Tintin. He can't resurface. Because remember he's deaf and so he thinks that Haddock doesn't know. He's very annoying, isn't he? And then he says, you confounded your confounded contraption. I should have never let him go down. May drown? Well, he had enough oxygen for two hours. He's got, let's see, he's got, yes, he has just enough for another 10 minutes. He says, and so Haddock is saying that his contraption, his machine, this thing, is confounded. Stupid machine. I should have never let him go down, right, to go down. And then he hears, may drown? To drown is when you can't breathe underwater and you die, right? And so drowning is when you start to drink the water and you are done, donezo, right? And he said that he had enough oxygen, right? We breathe in oxygen. That's oxygen, right? That's in the air. And he had two hours worth. So 120 minutes, 120 minutes, which is two hours. But now he only has 10 minutes left, right? He only has enough for 10 more minutes. And then we go down to Tintin and we see him saying, I hope they hurry. It's getting more and more difficult to breathe. Why is it hard to breathe? And then Haddock says, what can we do? How can we save him? Lower a diver? No, by the time we got one equipped and ready, Tintin would be dead. So they're not communicating, they're not talking together. So he's thinking of lowering a diver, a person into the water to go help him, but getting them equipment and getting them stuff would take too long. And so then he has the idea, no, I've got an idea. Take the anchor, the anchor used for mooring the buoy. And so remember, this is an anchor. And the buoy is the thing that just sits in the water and floats there, right? It just marks a position, just a buoy. And then to moor something, that's a good word, to moor something is to keep it attached when it's in the water. And so he's saying that there's an anchor that they throw to the bottom, which holds the buoy where it is, right? The buoy doesn't move because it's on the anchor, it just goes like this. And so they're going to take this anchor. He says, the anchor? What for? Of course, we'll try and hook it onto the submarine. Then we'll pull on the rope until the weeds break. So they're going to drop this anchor and they're going to hook it onto the submarine, right? Here's the submarine and they want to go kind of hook it and then just pull on the anchor on the submarine to break the weeds, to just to break these there. And so now he's looking down the scope as Haddock lowers down the anchor. And he's saying, let it down, lower, lower, lower, gently, gently. And then Tintin sees, oh, an anchor. They're going to try to hook me. Quick, into the ballast tanks. That'll help them. So he sees what's happening. He knows that they're going to try to hook onto him and pull him up. And so he says, quick, empty the ballast tanks. Ballast, again, this is another rare term that you don't need to know, but it's kind of interesting. Ballast is something in a boat or a submarine that helps it to sink or to float. Or just stay afloat right and so it can be either air or like heavy stuff Right if you want to sink right you kind of want to have some heavier stuff in your in your machine so that you go down I Have a cat with me. Can you see? Cat oh Oh, goodbye. Where you going, huh? All right, back to the story. Come here. Where were we? Oh yeah, so they're gonna empty the ballast so it's easier to go up. And then Calculus is looking down and he says, ah, he's understood. He emptied the ballast tanks to lighten the submarine. A good bit to the left, Captain. So move to the left, Captain, and now pull. So he knows what's happening. He saw that Tintin emptied the ballast, and that's good. So, ah, they've got it. I'm saved. And just in time, I'm suffocating. Suffocating is when you can't breathe. Right? That's suffocating. And so he's starting to suffocate. He can't breathe. And so he's saying, yes, they've got it. I'm saved. But then, uh-oh, it slips out. And then he says, missed, the anchor hadn't properly caught. So it hadn't actually attached, right? You see here on the anchor is on next to the fin, right? It's not actually under the fin, right? It wants to go like this, right? Down and then under. So it's not under the fin yet. And so they need to actually catch it. The anchor hadn't caught properly. Lower it again. Down. Stop. A bit to the right. Now to the left. Pull it up gently. And so he's giving him instructions. He's directing him. And look, there we go. And hooked onto the submarine. And they pull it up. Pull, pull for goodness sake. Pull, says Calculus. Haddock is pulling as hard as he can on the rope. He's tugging, pulling. Pull, go on, pull. Thundering typhoons, I'm trying to. What do you think I'm doing, playing the cornet? so he they're just arguing now right he's he is pulling but he's yelling pull more pull more and so haddock is just getting annoyed what do you think i'm doing playing an instrument right he's of course he's pulling right and then we see it pulling and tugging and boom it comes loose and then when it pops loose how it falls backwards because the, the force he was putting in, he was pulling so hard that suddenly boom. He was thrown backwards and the entire boat tips over. Calculus is, ooh. And then he falls out of the little boat into the water. Billions of blistering blue barnacles. I hope there aren't any sharks about. He's in the water, totally soaking wet, and he's talking about sharks, right? And so of course, Tintin's shark grabs him right out of the water and they both go, and splash right back down into the water. Ridiculous. A bunch of idiots. And then Tintin opens it and says, fresh air, fresh air at last. Hooray, he's safe. Hip, hip, hooray, they're saying. But then, uh-oh, the anchor is falling back down to the bottom. It's very heavy. And it's falling down, falling down, and it pulls on the buoy. So this is the buoy. And it pulls on it on the top, which hits Calculus right in the chest and the head. And he gets pshew. And then we now are at the, on the boat again with the Thompsons and they say, all's well, the captain has climbed back into the boat. He salvaged the buoy, hauled the anchor in board, thrown a lifeline to Tintin. Aha, here they come. Until he's just saying what's happening, right? or the captain climbed back into the boat. He salvaged the buoy. That's when you get something where it like is in danger or it's gonna be destroyed or something like that. So he salvaged the buoy and he hauled the anchor inboard. So he pulled the anchor back inside and through a lifeline to Tintin, a line that will save his life. So he throws the line, right, this is the lifeline so that Tintin can pull himself to go with them. And they're coming back. Well, our friend Tintin had a narrow escape. You are wrong, I assure you. Weeds jammed the propeller. You'll see when we're back on board. So again, they're talking about two totally different things. Right, Tintin had a narrow escape. He barely escaped, he almost died. So that's not good. But then he's talking about what happened with the machine. And then later on, he says, you see, it's just as I said, weeds, right? These are the weeds on the propeller. And then, oh, then Haddock says, really? I just thought, I thought they were weeds. And he's saying the same thing. That's why it's confusing, but he knows that Calculus can't hear him. And so he's gonna say something ridiculous. Or not, whatever. And then Snowy says, weeds or no, I don't set foot in that thing ever again. Oops, sorry, I just punched you. Weeds or no, I don't set foot in that thing ever again. And then we hear Tintin, fine, get it ready. Snowy and I are setting out again immediately. Oh, no. Snowy doesn't wanna go back in. It's dangerous, it's not fun, they almost died. But Tintin says, all right, let's go. And here they are again, under the water. There's the fish, we see Snowy in the cockpit with Tintin, and then Haddock out on the boat saying, let's hope he doesn't run into more trouble this time. Right, they ran into trouble last time, so let's hope it doesn't happen again. What shall I do? Tell him or not? So now we're on calculus and something is happening. Should he tell who? I've made up my mind. He's walking over and says, Captain, I have bad news for you. Bad news for me, he says. And so he has something to tell him. No, bad news for you. Very bad news. I'm afraid the unicorn is not here. Look. What's that gadget, eh? And so he's telling him something. He's telling him some news, some information for Haddock. It's for him, but he's afraid that the unicorn isn't here. He says, look, and he has this thing. He's got a thing here. He says, what's that gadget, eh? This is a gadget, a thing, a machine, whatever it is. A gadget is like a doohickey, right? A phone is sort of a gadget, right? This is a gadget of some kind, right? What is that gadget, huh? It's a pendulum. I've taken up the study of dividing. I've come to the conclusion that I just gave you. All from that, what's it? He says. And so it's a pendulum. A pendulum is something that swings back and forth, right? I guess it's this, right? That's all it does, right? A pendulum, right? That's a pendulum, right? But he's saying it's a pendulum for divining. To divine something is to learn something from the spirits, from the heavens, to learn it without any evidence. And so he's saying that he's trying to divine the answer, and he found the conclusion that he came to is what he just said, that the unicorn is not here. And then Haddock says, all from that, what's it? Yes, much further west, you'll see. My pendulum will swing from east to west. Look, it started, he says. And so the idea of what he's saying is that when you just hold it, it on its own starts to swing east to west, east to west. is what it's doing. That's what he's saying. Look, it started. You see, it's swinging westwards. The unicorn will be found in that direction, he says. So he's talking nonsense, right? And then, as he's talking this nonsense, they point out there, look there, Captain, smoke. Look there, Captain, smoke. And they're seeing the smoke from the submarine. And look, there's the submarine surfacing. This time, we've got it. He's found the wreck. And so we see the submarine surfacing. It's coming above the surface. That's called surfacing. That's surfacing, right? Coming out of the water. And he's actually found the unicorn. He's found the destroyed wreck of the unicorn. And so, of course, he yells to him, have you found it? And then meanwhile, he is not seeing any of this. Calculus is going westwards. It's still westwards. And then we see Tintin. Yes, I found the unicorn. You can prepare the diving equipment. And so they found it. They found the unicorn. And they're gonna get ready to go with the diving equipment down under the water. And so Tintin's going to do it. Are you sure you'll be all right? Certain. I'll do exactly everything as you told me. I'll do everything exactly as you told me, he says. He's going to do it exactly what he's supposed to do. Follow the rules, everything. Good. Now don't forget, if you want to come up, jerk the line twice. In an emergency, give a series of quick jerks. So he's going to go down under the water with a big string, with a big rope. And to jerk something is when you pull something quickly, right? So if you like to jerk around, to jerk somebody around is to like shake them, right? Or it's actually also a word for being, somebody's being mean, right? To be a jerk is not very nice. But in this case, it just means to pull, right? And so he's saying, if you wanna come up, pull the line twice, one, two. If you want to come up very fast, if there's an emergency, pull a bunch of times very quickly, right? Pull. So, and I'll bring you up as quickly as I can because they can't talk. They don't have phones or walkie talkies. They only have the rope. So that's what they're going to use. That's their, um, their signal, their sign. And so tendon says, right. And now they're pressurizing the suit and he says, come on, pump hard. We are. So pumping the suit, they have to remove or add the air in rather because there's going to be a lot of pressure and they want to make sure that he can breathe in there. So they're pressurizing the suits by putting in a bunch of new air. And so there he goes. He's going down, down, down under the water. And then we see Snowy barking, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Because Tintin is now under the water. He's down under the, at the ocean floor on the rack of the unicorn. Snowy keeps barking, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. But we're going to have to see what happens in the next episode. We're going to leave it there for today. Thank you so much for watching and enjoying. Make sure to subscribe to the channel so you can see the next episode and comment down below with how it went. What did you learn today? And remember transcripts for all episodes and more are on benslanguagelab.com. I'll see you next time. Bye.
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