The midnight moon was throwing its reflection on the surface of the lake. It was quiet everywhere. The whole world was sleeping, only the nocturnal animals were out and on the hunt.
In the silence of the night, there could be heard the sound of splashing oars. Slowly and quietly, a rowing boat was gliding on the water surface of the lake. Nothing else was moving.
An elderly man was sitting in the boat, holding the oars with both his hands and slowly moving the boat away from the shore. He was dressed all in black and he was wearing a black hat. Maybe, from a long distance, it looked romantic – a man rowing a boat in the moon light. But it was not. There was something big and heavy lying on the bottom of the boat.
As he reached the middle of the lake, where the water was the deepest, the man started rowing in the opposite direction in order to make the boat stop. When the boat was calmly rocking on the surface of the lake, he pulled the oars up. He looked around and then in front of himself. He was sitting there motionless for a minute or so.
Suddenly, he bent forward and started lifting the heavy bag from the bottom of the boat. He had to be careful because he didn’t want to turn his boat upside down.
He put the heavy bag on one side of the boat and he went to the opposite side in order to keep the boat balanced. Bit by bit, he kept pushing the bag over the side of the boat until it fell into the water. The bag immediately started sinking. There was something heavy inside the bag and it was pulling it down to the bottom of the lake.
The man took up the oars again and slowly started rowing back to the shore.
nocturnal /nɒkˈtɜːnl/ – (nočné) – (of animals) active at night
hunt /hʌnt/ – (lov) – an act of going after wild animals to kill or capture them
silence /ˈsaɪləns/ – (ticho) – a complete lack of noise or sound
splash /splæʃ/ – (špliechať) – to move through water making drops fly everywhere
oar /ɔː(r)/ – (veslo) – a long pole with a flat part at one end that is used for rowing a boat
glide /ɡlaɪd/ – (kĺzať) – to move smoothly and quietly, especially as though it takes no effort
surface /ˈsɜːfɪs/ – (povrch, hladina) – the outside or top layer of something
shore /ʃɔː(r)/ – (breh) – the land along the edge of the sea, the ocean or a lake
row /rəʊ/ – (veslovať) – to move a boat through water using oars (= long thin straight pieces of wood with flat ends)
rock /rɒk/ – (hojdať, kolísať) – to move gently backwards and forwards or from side to side; to make somebody/something move in this way
motionless /ˈməʊʃnləs/ – (nehybný) – not moving; still
bend (bent, bent) /bend/ – (zohnúť sa, ohnúť) – (especially of somebody’s body or head) to lean, or make something lean, in a particular direction
upside down /ˌʌpsaɪd ˈdaʊn/ – (naopak, hore dnom) – in or into a position in which the top of something is where the bottom is normally found and the bottom is where the top is normally found
balanced /ˈbælənst/ – (vyvážený) – keeping or showing a balance so that different things or different parts of something exist in equal or correct amounts
sink /sɪŋk/ – (potopiť) – to go down below the surface or towards the bottom of a liquid or soft substance
Sparrow's English Reader 