White Fang / Biały Kieł

Jack LondonWhite Fang Biały Kieł Czytamy w oryginale

White Fang / Biały Kieł

SeriaCzytamy w oryginale to atrakcyjna pomoc dla uczących się języka angielskiego. Śledząc losy bohaterów powieści możemy na bieżąco porównywać tekst angielski i polski, ucząc się na podstawie wielkiej literatury. Adaptacja została przygotowana z myślą o czytelnikach średniozaawansowanych, jednak dzięki wersji polskiej z książki korzystać mogą również początkujący.

Aby zmienić wersję językową – kliknij w numer akapitu.

Zapraszamy na www.44.pl gdzie dostępne są dodatkowe pomoce do samodzielnej nauki: angielska wersja audio (format mp3) oraz zeszyt ćwiczeń z kluczem odpowiedzi.

White FangChapter I  The Love-Making of the Wild

[ 1 ] It was cold and the pack was hungry. In truth, they looked
more like skeletons than wolves. At the front of the pack ran a large
gray wolf. He was one of the leaders of the pack. He snarled at all
the other wolves if they tried to go faster than him, but he did not
snarl at the red-haired she-wolf who ran next to him. He didn’t even
show her his teeth if she happened to run in front of him. In fact, he
seemed to like it. He seemed to like her. In her opinion he liked her
too much. He tried to run too close to her. He even tried to touch her
neck or shoulder with his nose. But then she snarled at him irritably
and showed him her teeth. He never snarled back.

[ 2 ] The large gray wolf was not her only admirer though. On her
right ran an old one-eyed wolf. He was one of the older leaders of the
pack. His body and fur showed many signs of past battles. From time to
time he also tried to touch her neck with his nose. Then she snarled at
him warningly. He never snarled back at her either.

[ 3 ] But if the two leaders were all kindness towards the red
she-wolf, they were all hatred towards each other. But they weren’t
fighting openly yet. They were both waiting for the best moment. They
knew it would be a battle of life and death. The best moment came first
for old One Eye. He noticed how the young wolf turned his head to lick
his shoulder, showing his neck to his rival. The old wolf attacked him
suddenly and without warning, closing his fangs on the younger leader’s
neck. His teeth opened the great vein of his neck and blood began to
quickly flow out. The younger wolf snarled painfully and tried to fight
back, but his legs would no longer hold him and he fell to the snow. The
battle was over.

[ 4 ] Through all of this the she-wolf sat and watched, and
smiled. She was glad with the battle because this was love-making of
the Wild. This time experience triumphed over youth. When One Eye came
up to the she-wolf again she didn’t snarl at him any more. Instead
she touched noses with him. The dead rival was already forgotten. Soon
they were best friends running happily side by side through the snowy
woods.

[ 5 ] After some days, the she-wolf began to feel uncomfortable. She
seemed to be looking for something. She looked under all fallen trees and
into empty caves. Old One Eye was not interested at all but he followed
her anyway. And so they travelled across the country until they got to
the banks of Mackenzie River. There they hung about the Indian camp for
some time. One Eye didn’t like it but the she-wolf seemed more than
comfortable with the human voices nearby.

[ 6 ] She was very heavy now and could only run only very
slowly. She was also less patient than ever. She was not quick enough
to catch meat herself and she was angry with One Eye if he failed to
hunt successfully for both of them. Fortunately for the old wolf, she
finally found what she had been looking for. It was a cave. Old One Eye
watched her patiently as she inspected it carefully for hours. In the end,
she lay down, put her head on her paws and yawned to show that she was
pleased and satisfied.

[ 7 ] But One Eye did not understand. He was hungry. He tried to
persuade her to get up and go searching for food. But she only snarled
at him impatiently. So he went hunting on his own, confused. He had been
gone for eight hours and hadn’t caught anything when he finally came
back to the cave. And there he was in for a surprise. Strange sounds
were coming from the cave and they were not made by the she-wolf. But
he could hear her too, snarling at him warningly. She was warning
him against eating the small things making tiny noises. She needn’t
have done so though. He understood. He had been a father before. The
instinct of fatherhood awoke in him again. He turned back. He must find
meat. When he came back again with the day’s hunt – two rabbits and
a squirrel – the she-wolf licked him on the neck approvingly. He was
behaving like a wolf father should and he was showing no desire to eat
up the young lives she had brought up into the world.

Chapter II The Law of Meat

[ 8 ] He was different from his brothers and sisters. Their hair
was already turning red like their mother’s. He alone took after
his father. He was the one grey cub out of all of them. He was also
the fiercest of all of them. He could growl the loudest, and he was
the first to learn the trick of hurting another cub with his paws or
teeth. It was to be expected. He was a meat eater already and he was
brought up to become a meat-killer.

[ 9 ] Most of his first weeks had been spent sleeping. But now with
his eyes wide open he was starting to learn his world quite well. It
was a dark world and a very small one. But he didn’t know that, as
he knew no other world. But he had discovered one strange thing about
his world. One of its walls seemed to be made of light through which his
father could come and go. The cub himself tried the trick with other walls
of his world but it never worked. He had always felt a strong need to
try it with the Wall of Light. And he always tried to go in the Wall’s
direction. And that was how he learnt more things about his mother than
her warm soft tongue, with which she used to stroke him affectionately. It
turned out that she also had a sharp nose and strong paws, with which she
could hurt when she wanted to punish. Thus he learnt hurt and danger, and
he learnt to hide from hurt and to be afraid of danger.

[ 10 ] Like most animals of the Wild, he early experienced
hunger. There came a time when his father brought no meat and milk
stopped flowing from his mother’s breast. At first the cubs cried
and growled, but then they mostly slept, turning slowly into little
skeletons. One Eye was desperate. He slept little and constantly hunted
but with no success. The she-wolf too left her cubs to look for meat. When
the parents finally brought more food, there were only two cubs left in
the cave – the gray cub and his sister. But the meat came too late for
her too. She never woke up again. The family was reduced to the three
of them. Soon it was reduced even further.

[ 11 ] There