+ SSG FO Ee xế
Dased on the story by
The Brothers Grimm
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Chapter 1 Family trouble Chapter 2 The sisters’ secret Chapter 3 Taking the challenge Chapter 4 Ralph and Rascal Chapter 5 Ralph on the trail Chapter 6 A shock for the king Ww Chapter 1 Family trouble cà
There were once twelve
beautiful princesses, all with
long, flowing hair and short, fiery tempers
3
Trang 5Their father, the king, was a grumpy old man who didn’t
believe in having fun
All of you just sit down and
look pretty!
In fact, he believed that
Trang 6The thing they argued about most was dancing Their father hated it, but the princesses loved it so whenever he wasn’t looking, they danced S44 be Chapter 2
The sisters’ secret
The girls slept in a tall tower with their beds side by side
Trang 7
Every night, the kinglocked - One morning, when the door
the tower door, so that they was unlocked, the princesses
couldn’t sneak out were still asleep
fh | As the maid went to wake
Trang 8When the king heard about the shoes, he was furious
“Those girls have been out dancing,” he spluttered
Bring my daughters here NOW!
“Princesses should not be out dancing all night!” he yelled at
them “You need your beauty
sleep You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”
E J
The girls weren’t ashamed in the least What’s more, they
wouldn’t tell him how they had
escaped or where they had been
1]
Trang 9The next morning, it was
clear that the princesses had been out again The § same thing happened seven nights in a row The king didn’t know what to do Then he had a “Wns ta ae ————————
He decided that the first man to discover where his daughters
went each night could marry
one of them Posters went up across the land
J0 TP with your job? Feel like a Siena S
Solve a royal mystery
and win big prizes!!
of Bến lộ:
Đ ¥ i
Win your own kingdom is
marry a genuine princess!
|
Trang 10W
Chapter 3
Taking the challenge
The first man to take up the king’s challenge was brave Prince Marcus
14
“By the way, there is one small catch,” the king told him “If you fail, Pll cut off
your head!”
Um OkOYy no problem, your
Trang 11That night, Prince Marcus As Prince Marcus drank the
was taken to the tower and put cocoa, he began to feel sleepy in a room next to the princesses
iil ei Ne ei Ai re ae il < = is ¬
cry À
comfortable Wf splashing cold
Trang 12Next morning, the princesses’ shoes were worn out again
Prince Marcus had failed — and the king wasn’t joking about chopping off his head
Take him
away!
18
Many more princes and noble knights came forward
But they were all fooled by the princesses’ sweet smiles
Enjoy your
drink!
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Ralph noticed one of the
W king’s posters and decided
| Chapter 4 to find out mote This could be interesting, Rascal! Ralph and Rascal
One day, magician named | Ralph and his pet dog, Rascal,
were passing the castle
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Trang 14
When he saw Ralph, the king
looked doubtful But he was
desperate to know what the
girls were up to, so he agreed to let Ralph tru
I'll chop off
your head if you fail, you know Yes, but | won't fail 22 Oe ee ee ae "|
Night came and Ralph was put in the same room where the others had stayed e y fei Ẫ a Oe / “Hello! m = | Amy,” said the \ youngest “He's
@ ™ nice,” she whispered to her sisters “I don’t want him to die because of us Maybe we shouldn’t go out tonight ”
Her sisters ignored her
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Trang 15
A few minutes later, Annabel,
the eldest sister, brought Ralph a cup of cocoa But Ralph was a wise magician He knew
what she was up to
He pretended to drink the cocoa Then, when Annabel wasn’t looking, he poured it
into Rascal’s bowl Rascal was delighted It'll take more than that to fool me!
Trang 16Then, with an even bigger yawn, he pretended to fall fast asleep = like a rainbow
Trang 17
With the last button
buttoned and the last bow : A
tied, the girls stood by their
Chapter 5
beds Annabel pulled back a
dusty, old rug in the corner | Ralph on the trail
of the room to reveala gf | secret trap door The hinges creaked as she pulled it open & —— Ly "" ⁄ ⁄ ae ae " ¥ er aI ond °
: One bụ agate the aie " When the princesses were out
disappeared down some steps of sight, Ralph quickly and into a long, dark tunnel entered their room
Trang 189 TK? ee
He clicked his Ralph tried to walk quietly, fingers and a # but it wasn’t easy At one
cloak appeared | point he stepped on Amy’s With a second dress She jumped and turned
click, Ralph around, but there was no
vanished one there
Carefully, he
tiptoed down the
steps into the tunnel
It didn’t take long for him to
catch up with the princesses
30 | ae
Trang 19
A few moments later Ralph stepped on a twig Now Amy was convinced that someone was following them Her sisters didn’t believe her eT What was os You're just hearing things, Silly!
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Ralph had never seen trees Twelve boats were #4 like them While the princesses waiting at the edge (ee carried on, he gently broke 7
off a twig from each tree of the lake and in
each boat sat a
handsome pri
Up ahead, the princesses had ©
stopped before a lake It stood in AeRacn pr
Trang 21l¿
Ralph sneaked into the boat -
carrying Amy When they S their feet were sore and
reached the other side, a Nó
band began to play
_ `
Trang 22
As the sun rose, they limped
home “Our nights of dancing
are still safe — unlike poor
Ralph’s head!” said Annabel,
yawning Amy looked upset
142 tế)
Chapter 6
shock for the king
The king was having breakfast
when Ralph strolled in “Good morning, your majesty,” said
Ralph brightly
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“I suppose you’ve come to
tell me you failed too,” sighed
the king
“Ah, but I didn’t, sire,” Ralph replied Waving the twigs, he told the king what he’d seen
The mystery
is solved!
“This all sounds very
Trang 24
He decided to call for
Annabel When she saw the
three twigs in his hand, she looked horrified
One look at her face told the
king all he needed to know
“Dancing is banned!” he declared 42
The princesses sobbed and wailed when they heard their
secret had been discovered
“What will we do?” they / \
Trang 25
True to his word, the king let 3 Amy and Ralph’s wedding
Trang 26The king led her to the
Hundreds of candles lit up the dance floor and in
the corner a band was q playing a ee tune
| 4ó
ballroom and Amy gasped
“As it’s a special occasion, you may all dance — but for one night only!” said the king
“Oh, how wonderful!” cried
Amy and her sisters, grabbing
> partners They were all still
dancing the following night
"T thought I said one le night
only!” said the king, but he
smiled Ralph had worked
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The Twelve Dancing Princesses was first written down by two brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm They lived in Germany
in the early 1800s and together they retold hundreds of fairy tales
Series Editor: Lesley Sims Designed by Russell Punter
and Natacha Goransky
This edition first published in 2009 by Usborne Publishing Ltd.,
Usborne House, 83-85 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8RT, England
www.usborne.com Copyright © 2009, 2004 Usborne Publishing Ltd All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without the prior permission of the publisher The name Usborne and the devices @ @ are Trade Marks of Usborne Publishing Ltd
Printed in China UE First published in America in 2005
>
48
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USBORNE YOUNG READING: SERIES ONE () The v Twelve Dancing Princesses
Princesses are supposed to be quiet and well behaved, but the twelve princesses in this story
like to have fun When their father finds out they’ve
been sneaking off at night to go dancing, he's furious “Dancing is banned!”
he declares But will that stop them?
Usborne Young Reading is in Series One of Usborne Young Reading, which combines good stories with easy reading text
Usborne Young Reading has been developed in consultation with Alison Kelly, Senior Lecturer at Roehampton University Series One is for readers who have just started reading alone
Series Two is for readers who are growing in confidence Series Three is for readers who are ready for longer stories
Find out about all the titles available at ISBN 978-0-7460-6330-9 www.usborne.com
£4.99:
JF AMJJASOND/I4% 02016/9 Printed in Dongguan, Guangdong, China