37
Russian folk tale «Каша из топора»
Textbook: pp. 168–170
GoalUnderstand the Russian folk tale «Каша из топора»: a trick, a stingy character, and the moral.
New words
топор · boltaсолдат · askarкаша · bo‘tqaскупой · baxil
Explanation
«Каша из топора» is a social tale (бытовая сказка): it shows ordinary people and everyday life. A tired soldier comes to an old woman and asks for food. The stingy woman says she has none, and the soldier offers to cook porridge from an axe. Step by step the woman herself adds salt, grain and butter. The tale shows that wit beats stinginess. When cooking porridge, an adult always helps: fire and boiling water are dangerous.
Worked examples
«Каша из топора» (a short retelling). «Усталый солдат пришёл к старухе и попросил поесть. Скупая хозяйка сказала, что у неё ничего нет. Солдат предложил сварить кашу из топора. Он положил топор в воду, а старуха принесла соль, крупу и масло. Каша получилась вкусная. Умному человеку и топор не помеха.» (A tired soldier came to an old woman and asked for food. The stingy woman said she had nothing. The soldier offered to cook porridge from an axe. He put the axe in water, and the woman brought salt, grain and butter. The porridge turned out tasty. A clever person can manage even with an axe.)
Words: «скупая — жадная», «усталый — уставший», «хитрость», «кашу сварить». Proverb: «Голь на выдумки хитра» (necessity is the mother of invention).
Class activity
“Picture and word”. Draw four events of the tale in order and write one Russian sentence under each.
Practice
1
Who is the hero and what does he ask for?
солдат; поесть
2
Find a synonym for «скупая».
жадная
3
What did the woman add to the porridge?
соль, крупу и масло
4
Why did the soldier get his meal?
He used wit to make the woman add the food herself.