Английский язык с Робинзоном Крузо (в пересказе для детей),

The third thing to be done was to build a fence around my field. After that came the reaping, the curing, the carrying home, the thrashing, the parting of the grain from the chaff, the grinding.

I needed a mill to do the grinding. I needed a sieve to sift the flour. I needed yeast and salt to mix with the dough. I needed an oven to bake it.

I had to do without the most of these things. And this made my work very slow and hard.

I was very lucky in having saved so many tools from the wreck, and for this I was indeed thankful. What a hard case I would have been in if I had saved nothing at all!

From time to time, as I felt the need of things I made a number of tools that served me very well. They were not such tools as you would buy at the store, but what did it matter?

I have already told you about the shovel which I made from a piece of hard wood. Next to the shovel I needed a pickax most of all.

Among the many things that I had saved from the wreck, I found an old crowbar. This I heated in the fire until it was almost white hot.

I then found that I could bend it quite easily. Little by little I shaped it until I had made quite a good pickax of it. Of course, it was heavy and not at all pretty. But who would look for beauty in a pickax?

I at first felt the need of some light baskets in which to carry my fruit and grain. So I began to study how baskets are made.

It was not until I had searched almost every nook on the island that I found some long slender twigs that would bend to make wicker ware. Then I spent many an hour learning how to weave these twigs together and shape them into the form of a basket.

In the end, however, I was able to make as good baskets as were ever bought in the market.

I had quite a goodly number of edge tools. Among these there were three large axes and a great store of hatchets; for you will remember that we carried hatchets to trade with the savages. I had also many knives.

But all these became very dull with use. I had saved a grindstone from the wreck, but I could not turn it and grind my tools at the same time.

I studied hard to overcome this difficulty. At last, I managed to fasten a string to the crank of the grindstone in such a way that I could turn it with my foot.

My tools were soon sharp, and I kept them so.

I BECOME A POTTER

(я становлюсь гончаром)

WHEN it came to making bread (когда предстояло делать хлеб: «когда пришло к деланью = иготовлению хлеба»), I found that I needed several vessels (я обнаружил = понял, что мне нужно несколько сосудов). In fact, I needed them in many ways (на самом деле, они нужны были мне по многим причинам).

It would be hard to make wooden vessels (было бы тяжело делать деревянные сосуды). Of course it was out of the question to make vessels of iron or any other metal (конечно, было вне вопроса = было совершенно невозможно сделать сосуды из железа или любого другого металла). But why might I not make some earthen vessels (но почему не мог я сделать несколько глиняных сосудов)?

If I could find some good clay (если бы я смог найти хорошую глину), I felt quite sure that I could make pots strong enough to be of use (я чувствовал полную уверенность, что я смогу делать горшки достаточно крепкими, чтобы быть годными к использованию/полезными).