5 THE FOX AND THE CROW

Once upon a time a crow, with a piece of cheese in her beak, was sitting in a tree. A fox saw her and thought, “How good that cheese looks! ”

So he walked up to the foot of the tree and called out, “Good morning, Madam Crow! How beautiful your feathers are! I am sure that you have a fine voice, too. Will you not sing a song for me? ”

The crow was so pleased at this praise that she began to“caw”. But the moment she opened her mouth to sing, the cheese fell to the ground.

“You need not sing any more, Madam Crow, ”said the fox, snapping up the cheese. “All that I wanted was the cheese.”

“How foolish I was to let him flatter me! ”said the crow.

(Aesop)

Word list

crow: a small black bird

beak: the mouth of a bird

snapping up: taking something very quickly

You Practice

A) Answer the following questions.

1) What was the fox's plan for getting the cheese from the crow?

2) Did the fox's plan work well?

3) What did the crow learn?

4) Do you think the crow will trust the fox again? Why or why not?

5) The fox is a very tricky animal. What are some other animals that are supposed to be tricky?

B) Describing words—adjectives are words that describe nouns. For example, we could say the fox is ‘vocal'. Think of three adjectives to describe the fox and the crow.

C) True, False, or Not Given—Read these sentences carefully. Write T (true), F (false), or NG (not given) for each.

1) _____ The fox and the crow are friends.

2) _____ The fox can sing very well.

3) _____ Cheese is the fox's favourite food.

4) _____ The fox saved the cheese for later.

5) _____ Crows are usually very good at singing.