亚瑟王

Chapter Eight: The Holy Grail

One day the knights were sitting at the Round Table. They were celebrating a religious holiday. Suddenly, there was a loud noise. Then there was a strong light. A green bowl covered with a cloth moved around the room. Invisible hands carried it. After a few moments, the green bowl disappeared.

"That was the Holy Grail!" exclaimed King Arthur. "That is where Christ's blood was kept after he was crucified."

The knights were amazed. They all wanted to see the Holy Grail.

Sir Gawain, a loyal knight, declared, "I want to look for the Grail for one year and one day."

"Yes, I want to look for the Grail too," said another knight.

All the knights wanted to travel to distant lands to find the Holy Grail.

There was great excitement at the Round Table.

King Arthur was very worried. He knew that the search for the Holy Grail was dangerous. In fact, many knights died during the search. Others never returned to Camelot.

Only three knights found the Holy Grail. They were Galahad, Percival and Bors. All three had pure hearts. Only those with pure hearts saw the Holy Grail. The three knights travelled to distant lands. After many dangerous adventures, they found the Holy Grail.

When they saw it on a silver table, they thanked God for this great happiness. After finding the Grail, Galahad and Percival died. But Bors returned to Camelot. He told everyone about his wonderful experience.

Chapter Nine: King Arthur goes to Aralon 

King Arthur lived a long life, but it finished sadly. In the search for the Holy Grail, many of his knights left Britain. Other knights died. Arthur was alone.

In 537, King Arthur went to a distant land to fight. Sir Gawain and other loyal knights went with him. Before leaving Camelot, King Arthur spoke to a knight called Mordred. He said, "Mordred, I ask you to rule my land until I return. I know you are a loyal man."

King Arthur and his knights left Britain to go to war. But Mordred was not loyal. He wanted to take King Arthur's place. He wanted to be King of Britain!

So Mordred told everyone that Arthur was killed in the war, in France.

Mordred became King of Britain! He was made King in Canterbury.

When King Arthur heard the news, he was furious. He returned to Britain immediately. He and his knights arrived in Dover.

Here he found Mordred and his army. They were waiting for him. There was a long, terrible battle. Only King Arthur and Sir Bedivere remained alive. Sir Gawain died in Arthur's arms. The King buried him in Dover Castle.

Arthur fought a long battle against Mordred.

At the end of the battle, King Arthur took his spear and killed Mordred.

But Mordred's sword went through Arthur's helmet and his head.

The great king was dying! He still had to do one thing. He called Sir Bedivere and said, "I must give my sword Excalibur back to the Lady of the Lake. Take it to the lake. Then throw it far into the water."

Sir Bedivere went to the lake. He threw Excalibur far into the water. An arm came out of the water and caught the sword. Then it disappeared into the water.

Sir Bedivere returned to King Arthur. He told him about what he saw at the lake. Arthur was satisfied and said, "Thank you, my loyal friend. Now carry me to the lake."

At the lake, there was a boat waiting for Arthur. The Lady of the Lake was in it.

"Put me in the boat," said Arthur. Sir Bedivere obeyed and said, "What can I do without you, my king?"

Arthur answered, "My life is near the end. Pray for yourself. Prayers can do many things. Farewell ! I am going to Avalon."

The boat moved away slowly. Sir Bedivere watched the boat on the lake until it disappeared.

简爱

Part Two: Lowood School 

I started my journey to Lowood School in January. The weather was cold,

windy and rainy and it was dark when I arrived.

Lowood School was very large, but it was very different from Mrs Reed's house. It was cold and forbidding. A teacher took me into a wide, long room which was full of girls. There were about eighty of them. Their ages were from about nine to twenty. They all wore ugly brown dresses.

It was time for supper. There was only water to drink, and a small piece of bread to eat. I drank some water because I was thirsty, but I was too tired to eat anything. After supper I went upstairs to bed with the other girls.

The teacher took me into a very large room with many beds in it. All the girls slept in this one room and there were two girls in every bed.

It was very early when I woke up next morning. It was dark outside and the big room was very cold. We had to wash ourselves in ice-cold water,and then put on our brown dresses. Then we went downstairs to the classroom for the start of the early morning lessons.

I was very hungry and it seemed a long time before it was time for breakfast.

There was a terrible smell of burnt food. All of the girls were hungry,but the food was too badly burnt for us to eat.

We all left the dining room feeling cold and miserable.

Lessons began again at nine o'clock. I looked at the other girls and thought how strange they seemed in their ugly brown dresses. Some of the girls were almost young women, and the dresses looked even odder and out of place on these big girls. I did not like the teachers. They seemed to be very strict and unfriendly.

Miss Temple, the head teacher, came in to see us at twelve o'clock. Her face was very pretty, and she seemed to be kinder than the other teachers. 'I have something to say to you all,' she said. 'I know that you could not eat your breakfast this morning, so I have decided that you will have bread and cheese for lunch.' The other teachers looked surprised. 'I'll pay for this meal myself,' Miss Temple told us. The girls were all delighted.

After we had eaten our lunch, we went out into the garden. It was very cold, and our brown school dresses were too thin to keep us warm in the winter weather. Nearly all of the girls looked cold and unhappy. Some of them looked very ill. I walked around the garden and hoped that someone would speak to me, but no one did.

One girl was reading a book, and I decided to try to be friendly with her.

'Is your book interesting?' I asked.

'I like it,' she replied.

'Does Miss Temple own the school?' I asked.

'No, she doesn't,' the girl answered. 'A man called Mr Brocklehurst owns the school. He buys all our food and clothes. '

This girl was called Helen Burns. I liked her immediately, even though she was older than me. I knew that she would be my friend.

I asked Helen a lot of questions about the school. She told me that some of the girls were ill because they did not get enough to eat, and they were always cold. Mr Brocklehurst was not a generous man. He bought clothes for the girls which were not warm enough for the cold winter, and there was never enough food to eat. Only very strong girls could stay well when they had to live in these harsh conditions.

In the spring of that year, many of the girls became ill. They had a disease which was infectious and some of them died.

Lessons stopped, and we girls who were well spent most of our time outside in the fields near the school. The weather was now warm and sunny,

so it was a happy time for us. My friend, Helen Burns, was not with us. She was so ill that she had to stay in bed.

Miss Temple moved Helen into her own room, and one evening I went to see her. I felt great sadness when I saw how thin she was, and how pale her face had become. When she spoke to me, her voice was so low that I had to lean close to her to hear what she said.

'Jane,' she said, 'it's so good to see you. I want to say goodbye.'

'Why, Helen?' I asked her, 'Are you going away from here?'

'Yes, I am, Jane,' Helen replied. 'I'm going far away.'

I stayed with Helen through the night to comfort her, and in the morning I found that she had died.

As a result of so many pupils dying at the school, there was an inquiry into the conditions which had caused the disease.

When people knew about the poor food, the dirty water and light clothing which the children were given, they gave money to improve the lives of the girls. Lowood School was a much happier and healthier place from that time on.