A cake for the Queen

What's happening in this kitchen? Talk with your partner. Look at the picture, what utterances are true and what are false? Yes You can see a chicken on the ground. One of the cooks has burnt his finger! Someone has opened the door of the old cooker. There's an enormous spoon in one of the boy's hand. It's two o'clock in the afternoon. No Three delicious biscuits are on a silver plate. There is one large pocket on the girl's dress. There are three carrots on a plate. One of the boys is eating a biscuit. Read the text. Harry was a cook. He worked in Graywalls Castle where he had to cook all the meals for the Queen Alice. The queen was very unkind and she often made Harry’s job very difficult. Harry and his two helpers, John and Karl, worked hard in the castle kitchen every day, but Queen Alice never gave them any money, so their families only ate cold vegetables. They were hungry and unhappy most of the time and Queen Alice was angry most of the time. Nothing could make her smile.One day, she called Harry and said, ‘I hate birthdays, but next Friday I will be 50 years old, so make a birthday cake for me. I want you to put 50 kinds of food in this cake and it must be the biggest and the best cake I have ever tasted. Do you understand?’‘Yes, I do,’ Harry said, and went back downstairs to the kitchen to tell John and Karl the bad news.John and Karl tried to think of things to put in the cake.We could put eggs, jam and lots of butter and milk in it,’ John said.‘What else can we put in it?’ Harry asked.‘We can put flour, mangoes and brown sugar in it too!’ Karl said.‘OK. That’s seven different things. What else?’ Harry asked again.‘How about some lemon juice, apples, coffee, carrots and chocolate?’ said a child who suddenly appeared in the kitchen? Harry didn’t know her, but she looked kind and friendly.‘Thank you!’ he said. ‘Those are great ideas!’Soon, they had 49 different kinds of food on the table. John and Karl began to mix everything together in an enormous bowl, but Harry stopped them. ‘We’ve got a problem,’ he said. ‘We’ve only got 49 things to put in this cake but the queen wants 50! We need one more thing.’The girl took a pear from her pocket and said, ‘Here! This is from my grandmother’s special pear tree. It’ll make the cake taste really delicious!’Harry took the little pear and added it to all the other food in the bowl.‘Thank you very much!’ he said. ‘Now, let’s cook this cake!’Harry, John and Karl carried the cake carefully to the old cooker. Then they went outside to work in the vegetable garden. The girl waved goodbye and disappeared into the wood that was next to the castle.An hour later, Harry went back to look at the cake. But when he opened the kitchen door, he couldn’t see the table, the cooker or the stairs that went up to the queen’s dining room. The room was full of cake! He broke a piece off and ate it. ‘Wow! This cake tastes fantastic!’ he laughed. ‘It’s the biggest and the most delicious cake that I’ve ever made!’The queen looked out of the top window. ‘What’s happening down there?’ she called. ‘And where’s my birthday cake?’‘We’ve made it,’ Harry answered, ‘but it’s so enormous we can’t get back into the kitchen.’‘That means you can’t bring me my dinner yet, and I didn’t eat enough lunch, so I’m still hungry!’ Queen Alice shouted angrily. ‘Do something quickly!’Harry looked at John and Karl. ‘We must eat the cake,’ he said, ‘because we can’t get back into the kitchen until we do!’The three cooks began to eat the cake and each day the cake got more and more delicious and each day the three cooks got happier and happier. Their wives and children came to eat the cake too and soon all the people from the village came to help to eat the cake. Everyone forgot their problems and started to smile again. The girl watched from the top of a tree in the wood and smiled too.The people from the village were getting happier and happier, but Queen Alice was getting hungrier and hungrier and angrier and angrier. She could only eat dry biscuits and she could only drink rain water from the little gold cup that she left outside her window.The cooks, their families and the people from the village finished eating the cake on the morning of the queen’s birthday. Harry put the last piece on a beautiful silver plate and carried it carefully up the stairs. He didn’t feel afraid of the queen now. He felt happy and brave.‘This is the most delicious piece of cake and it’s for you,’ he said kindly.Queen Alice looked at Harry, took the cake, ate it slowly and smiled at him. ‘She’s never, never, never done that before!’ Harry thought. The queen smiled again. ‘I can taste 49 kinds of food in this cake, but what’s the last one? It tastes better than anything else in the world,’ she said.‘It’s special pear,’ Harry answered. ‘A kind and happy little girl gave it to us to put in your cake.’‘Yes, I did,’ the girl in the wood whispered. ‘My grandmother’s kindnessand happinessare in your cake too. They wereour present to you and to everyone in the village. Happy birthday, Your Majesty!’Storyfun for flyers,Karen Saxby,by Cambridge University Press Draw lines between your new words and their meaning. Delicious very good to eat Enormous very big Fantastic great Special different, better, more important Really very Who said this? The cook This cake tastes fantastic! What else can we put in it? The girl Happy birthday, Your Majesty! It will make the cake taste really delicious. The Queen Where's my birthday cake? I hate birthdays. What's happening down there? Right or wrong? Put the sentences under Right or Wrong. Right The three cooks were poor. The girl gave the cooks her grandmother's pear. There was a wood next to the castle. More than one person ate a piece of the cake. Wrong The queen was always kind to the cooks. Harry knew the girl in the kitchen. Harry was afraid when he took the cake to the queen. Write the missing words in each sentence. 1. Harry broke lots of eggs into the bowl. (break)2. John put some milk in the bowl too. (put)3. They added the coffee. (add)4. Another cook brough the chocolate. (bring)5. The girl gave the pear to Harry, (give)6. Harry mixed all the food together. (mix)7. John and Karl didn't clean the table! (not clean) What kind of food is this? Make pairs These are orange. They're vegetables. carrots This is white or brown. Some people put it in tea. sugar This yellow fruit isn't sweet. lemon This is white. You need it to make cakes and bread. flour This drink comes from fruit or vegetables. juice These orange fruits grow in hot countries. oranges mangos This is usually dark brown and tastes sweet chocolate What was the girl's name?How old was she?Why did she want to help Queen Alice and everyone in the village?What did she do next? You decide. Write and say.