İngilizce 11 Theme 10/130
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Listen to the reading passage

THE LITTLE PRINCE

Antoine de Saint Exupery introduces his little hero to the readers in The Little Prince, which was published on April 6, 1943. The book tells the story of a pilot whose plane is crashed in the Sahara. There he meets a young blond boy known as the Little Prince. Even though the narrator, who is the pilot, is a grown-up, he is young at heart. That’s why they get along very well. The novella has been translated into more than 250 languages and dialects as it touches the universal moral values. It has been read by both children and adults across the world for almost a century. The moral lesson conveyed in The Little Prince is that life is only worth living when it is lived for others, not for oneself. As the Little Prince journeys from planet to planet, he meets the residents who live there and learns a lesson from each. The Little Prince lives on his planet in peace, taking care of his volcanoes and watching his sunsets. One day a rose appears on his planet and he is intrigued by her, but soon her manners and her false words deeply offend him. Then, he leaves her. On his travels, which ultimately lead him to the Earth, he has a chance to view and evaluate many types of people. Most of the people he meets live only for themselves and do not invest their lives in anyone else. The king wants only to command, the conceited man lives only to be admired. Neither the king nor the conceited man behaves profoundly. Also, the businessman wants to own everything without thinking if they are good or not. What all these men have in common is that they’re completely selfish and living only for themselves. They’ve lost all sense and meaning of love. The author’s message can be interpreted in many different ways, depending on the reader. However, the author mostly focuses on the meaning of life which is about the balance between giving and taking in relationships. The effort we put into someone and the responsibility we feel is love. Life is blissful when we care and share.