Three Young Men, Death and a Bag of Gold

(AFTER GEOFFREY CHAUCER)

Ø 1) Read the text and point out the sentences corresponding to the content of the story:

a) Three young men learned about the death of their friend.

b) As they were drunk, they decided to go and find Death and kill her.

c) On their way they met a beautiful lady in a coach.

d) They asked her if she knew where Death lived.

e) The lady laughed and pointed to a forest.

f) The men came to the forest and saw a sack of gold under a tree.

g) It was very dark and they decided to wait till morning.

h) They put their heads on the sack and fell asleep at once.

i) At night the storm broke out, the lightning struck the tree which fell on the three men and killed them.

j) That was how the three of them found death in the forest.

Three young men were sitting in an inn. They were drinking wine and making merry. Suddenly they heard a noise outside. They looked out of the window and saw some people carrying a coffin.

“Who is dead? ” they asked. The innkeeper told them the name of the dead man. It was the name of their friend, also a young man. The three young men were very much surprised. They couldn’t believe their ears. But the innkeeper said, “Yes, it is true. Your friend is dead. Death takes young and old. He takes many people. There is a village not far from here. Every day Death kills somebody in that village. Nearly all the people there are dead. Death lives in that village, I think.”

Our three young men were drinking wine, so they didn’t understand quite clearly what the innkeeper said. They thought that Death really lived not far from that place, and they were very angry with Death killing their friend. They said, “Let’s go and kill Death! Let’ do it before night comes.” “Be careful, ” said the innkeeper, “if you meet Death, he will kill you too.” “We are not afraid, ” answered the young men. “We shall go and look for Death. And we shall be brothers, and we shall defend each other. And when we find Death, we shall kill him.”

With these words they left the inn and went along the road. Soon they met a very old man. They asked him, “Do you know where we can find Death? ” “Oh, yes, ” replied the old man, “It is not difficult to find Death. Do you see that wood? Go there and you will find him under an old oak.”

The young men thanked the old man and went into the wood. Soon they saw a very large old oak. When they came up to the oak, they saw a bag full of gold money under it. They were so glad that they forgot all about Death. They thought only about the gold. “Fine, ” said one of them. “Now we shall be very rich. Let’s take this gold to the house of one of us and divide it into three parts. Let’s go! Quick! ” “Wait, ” said another. “Listen to me. We cannot carry all this gold money now, in the daytime. We shall meet people on the way, and they will ask us questions. They will say, “What are you carrying? Whose gold is it? Where did you get so much gold? ” And if we say that we found the money in this wood, they won’t believe us. No, my friends, we cannot go now. We must stay here till night. At night, when it is dark and people are asleep, we can take the gold home and divide it.” “You are right, ” said the third. “We must stay here till night. Only it’s a long time to wait, and soon we shall be hungry. Let one of us go to town and buy some wine and something to eat.” So the youngest of them went to town, and the other two remained under the oak with the gold money.

When the two of them who stayed there under the oak were sitting and waiting for the third, one of them said, “Look here, I don’t want to divide this gold into three parts, do you? Can’t we divide it into two parts, between you and me? ” “Why not? ” said the other. “But how can we do it? ” “Oh, it’s very simple, you fool! Two are stronger than one. When he comes back, we can easily kill him, that’s all, and all the gold will be ours.” The two young men liked the plan very much and they began to wait for their friend.

And what was their friend thinking about at that time? About the gold, of course. He was thinking how good it was to have so much money. “But, ” he was saying to himself, “if we divide it into three parts, there won’t be so much! I wish I could have all of it for myself! ” He thought and thought, and at last he had an idea. “I shall poison them, ” he thought.

He knew a man in the town who sold poison to kill rats. He went to that man and bought some poison from him. Then he went and bought some bread and meat, and three bottles of wine.

When he left the town, he stopped at a place where nobody could see him, put the poison into two of the bottles of wine, and hurried to the old oak to join his friends. He wanted very much to have all the money for himself.

When he reached the oak, the other two were waiting for him with their knives ready, and they killed him at once. They were very glad: the gold was all theirs. They opened the bottles and drank all the wine. Soon they were dead too.

This is how the three young men found Death.

Ø 2) Make up an outline of the story in writing.