Explore Chapter 5 of 'The Little Prince' with the original English text, English translation, detailed IELTS vocabulary and explanations, and audio of the English original. Listen and improve your reading skills.
Every day, as we talked, I learned a little more about the little prince's planet, how he left it, and his travels. The facts came slowly, often from a passing comment. That's how, on the third day, I learned about the disaster of the baobabs.
Again, I had the sheep to thank for this. The little prince suddenly asked me—as if a serious worry had struck him—"It's true, right, that sheep eat small plants?"
I didn't understand why sheep eating small plants was so important. But the little prince added:
I explained to the little prince that baobabs are not small plants. They are huge trees, as big as castles. Even if he took a whole group of elephants with him, they couldn't eat even one baobab.
The thought of a group of elephants made the little prince laugh.
"We'd have to stack them on top of each other," he said.
But then he said something clever:
"Before they get that big, baobabs start out very small."
"That's exactly right," I said. "But why do you want the sheep to eat the little baobabs?"
He replied right away, "Oh, come on!", as if it was obvious. I had to think very hard to figure this out on my own.
I learned that on the little prince's planet—like on all planets—there are good plants and bad plants. So, there are good seeds from good plants and bad seeds from bad plants. But seeds are invisible. They sleep deep in the dark earth until one of them decides to wake up. Then this little seed stretches and starts—shyly at first—to push a lovely little shoot up toward the sun. If it's just a radish sprout or a rose bush shoot, you let it grow where it wants. But if it's a bad plant, you must pull it out as soon as you know what it is.
Now, on the little prince's planet, there were some terrible seeds: the seeds of the baobab tree. The planet's soil was full of them. If you don't deal with a baobab early, you can never, ever get rid of it. It spreads over the whole planet. Its roots go right through it. And if the planet is too small and there are too many baobabs, they can break it apart...
"It's about discipline," the little prince told me later. "After you wash up in the morning, you must carefully tend to your planet. You must make sure to regularly pull up all the baobabs as soon as you can tell them apart from rosebushes, which they look a lot like when they're young. It's boring work," the little prince added, "but very easy."
One day he said to me: "You should make a nice drawing so the children where you live can see exactly how this is. It would help them if they ever travel. Sometimes," he added, "it's okay to put off work until another day. But with baobabs, waiting always causes a disaster. I knew a planet where a lazy man lived. He ignored three little bushes..."
So, as the little prince told me, I drew that planet. I don't like to sound like I'm giving a lecture. But the danger of baobabs is so poorly known, and the risk is so great for anyone lost on an asteroid, that this time I'll speak plainly. "Children," I say clearly, "watch out for the baobabs!"
My friends, like me, have been close to this danger for a long time without knowing it. I made this drawing for them. The lesson it teaches is worth all my effort.
Maybe you'll ask, "Why are there no other drawings in this book as grand and striking as this baobab drawing?"
The answer is simple. I tried. But with the others, I didn't succeed. When I drew the baobabs, I was driven by a strong, urgent need.