Learning English

Mariam

Hello, I'm Mariam. Today's story is one that was told thousands of years ago and has been passed down from generation to generation. It's all about the weather and a battle between the cold north wind and the hot Sun.

The story begins on a beautiful cold and frosty winter’s day. The Sun in the sky shone down, its rays catching the snow-covered land below, making it glisten and sparkle. The Sun liked looking at the landscape that lay beneath and thought to itself ''I'm not rushing across the sky today, I'm going to catch my breath and take in the glorious view''. 

But as the Sun is relaxing, it is caught off guard by a freezing cold wind that races past, pushing the Sun out of the way.  This is the North Wind – it boasted that it is strong and powerful – but the Sun knows there is more power in gentleness and says "Let’s have a contest to see which of us is the stronger."

The Sun looks down to the ground and catches sight of a man wearing a warm winter coat. ''Let's see which one of us can take that coat off the man'' it says. The Wind is confident it will win easily so it blows and blows. It blows so hard that the birds have to catch hold of the trees to stop themselves being blown away.

But the man just shivers and does up the top button of his coat. The more it blows, the tighter the man pulls the coat around him to keep warm – he certainly doesn't want to catch his death. Finally, the Wind gives up, saying that it has no more puff left! Now it is the Sun's turn.

Well, you'll have to wait until part 2 to see how the Sun gets on – but maybe you can already guess what will happen. Join me again soon to see if you're right. Bye for now.