There flowed a small river through a forest. A tortoise lived with his friends in this river. Sometimes, he would come out of the river and take a stroll on the bank.
One day, a hungry fox came to the bank of the river. He saw the tortoise and his friends walking slowly. He pounced and caught the tortoise. But the tortoise was very clever. He pulled himself into his shell. The tortoise has a very hard shell. The fox tried hard to eat the tortoise but he could not break the hard shell.
Suddenly, the tortoise had an idea. He said, ”Dear fox, I have a hard shell which will not break so easily. You put me back into the river for sometime. When the shell is soaked in water, it will become very soft. Then you can eat me up very easily.
The foolish fox believed the tortoise and pushed him into the river. The tortoise quickly swam to the middle of the river.
The hungry fox lost his prey and repented his folly.
Exercise:- Answer the following questions:
- Where did the tortoise live?
- What did the tortoise do sometimes?
- Who came to the bank of the river one day?
- What did the fox do?
- How did the tortoise save his life?
- What lesson do you get from this story?
- Find the meaning of the following words:
- stroll
- pounced
- foolish
- clever
- prey
- repented