Old Man at the Bridge | A Short Story by Ernest Hemingway | Learn English Through Listening

Learn English through listening, "Old Man at the Bridge " a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
It was inspired by Hemingway’s travels as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.
"Old Man at the Bridge " is a short story about the tragic effects of war and the hopeless situation an old man finds himself in after he was forced to give up everything that defined him.

Learn English through listening with subtitles is one of the best ways to learn English and improve your vocabulary

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[rimlina]

Meaningful story. Good listening. Thanks

[Phyo_Htet_Paing]

An old man with steel rimmed spectacles and very dusty clothes sat by the side of the road. There was a pontoon bridge across the river and carts, trucks, and men, women and children were crossing it. The mule-drawn carts staggered up the steep bank from the bridge with soldiers helping push against the spokes of the wheels. The trucks ground up and away heading out of it all and the peasants plodded along in the ankle deep dust. But the old man sat there without moving. He was too tired to go any farther.
It was my business to cross the bridge, explore the bridgehead beyond and find out to what point the enemy had advanced. I did this and returned over the bridge. There were not so many carts now and very few people on foot, but the old man was still there.
“Where do you come from?” I asked him.
“From San Carlos, ” he said, and smiled.
That was his native town and so it gave him pleasure to mention it and he smiled.
“I was taking care of animals, ” he explained. “Oh, ” I said, not quite understanding.
“Yes, ” he said, “I stayed, you see, taking care of animals. I was the last one to leave the town of San Carlos.”
He did not look like a shepherd nor a herdsman and I looked at his black dusty clothes and his gray dusty face and his steel rimmed spectacles and said, “What animals were they?”
“Various animals, ” he said, and shook his head. “I had to leave them.”the others. It’s better not to think about the others, ” he said.
“If you are rested I would go, ” I urged. “Get up and try to walk now.”
“Thank you, ” he said and got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust.
“I was taking care of animals, ” he said dully, but no longer to me. “I was only taking care of animals.”
There was nothing to do about him. It was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro. It was a gray overcast day with a low ceiling so their planes were not up. That and the fact that cats know how to look after themselves was all the good luck that old man would ever have.

[sogalletolateng]

i like the author...i read one of his book but i forgot the tittle of the book

[Rainbow-jkhd]

Didnt understand the story.. Can anyone explain?