General English Level 4 Version 2.1 © 2004 acl Pty Ltd GELEV4 Unit 04 Topic 04.doc UNIT 04 What happened? TOPIC 04 A folk tale BEFORE YOU READ Discussion Do you know any folk tales? • What is a folk tale? • What are the features of folk tales? • Why do people tell folk tales? • What are some important folk tales in your country? Tell the class a folktale you know.  READING 01 A folk tale This is a European folk tale called “The hero of Haarlem”. There is a beautiful country in Europe called the Netherlands. The people in this country speak a language called Dutch. In the Dutch language Netherlands means lowlands. The land there is lower than the sea, not like in other countries where the sea is lower than the land. To stop the land being flooded and washed away, the Dutch people build huge dykes. These dykes are enormous banks which are very high and as wide as roads. A long time ago, in a town called Haarlem, there lived a boy called Hans. One day he went out to play with this little brother, Dieter. They walked a long way out of the town to where there were huge green fields with many pretty wild flowers. They spent the time playing tag and chasing butterflies. Later, Hans climbed up to the top of the dyke and sat looking down at his brother at the bottom. Suddenly, his brother said, “Hans, Hans, I can see bubbles coming out of the dyke!” Hans slid down to see if his brother had made a mistake. He knew it would be a disaster if water came through the dyke. He looked closely and saw a little hole with water dripping from it. Hans thought to himself, “If the hole gets bigger the town will be destroyed.” 139