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The Magic Garden of the Poor
Long ago, there were two friends.
One was a farmer and the other was a shepherd.
One day, disaster struck and a terrible disease killed all the shepherd's sheep.
His friend, the farmer, didn't hesitate to help.
He gave half his land to the shepherd so that he could become a farmer, too.
While the shepherd was digging in his new fields, he found a chest full of gold.
He took it to the farmer.
“You are rich, my friend,” he said.
“I found this gold on your land.”
“Ah,” replied the farmer, “but it is your land now, so you are the rich one.”
The two men could not agree, so they took their problem to a wise man.
The wise man asked his four students what to do.
The first said that the shepherd found the gold in the ground, so he should put it back in the ground.
The second said that the men brought the gold to the wise man, so it should belong to the wise man.
The third said that the ground was part of the nation, which belonged to the Khan, so they should give the gold to the Khan.
The wise man didn't like any of these answers, so he turned to the last student.
“I think, because neither the farmer nor the shepherd wants the gold, we should use it to make a garden for poor people, where they can come to rest and find food.”
“An excellent idea!
” cried the wise man, and the farmer and the shepherd agreed.
“As it was your idea,” he added, addressing the student, “you can go to the city and buy the seeds, and I will give you the land.”
So the student left for the city.
He was on his way to buy the seeds when he saw a caravan of camels passing by.
It carried hundreds of birds, all tied upside-down by their feet.
The student felt so sorry for the birds that he offered to buy them at once, and he gave the camel driver all the gold.
Then he set the birds free and they flew into the sky.
He turned and left for home, but when he saw the land where he was supposed to plant the seeds, he fell to the ground.
“What have I done?
” he cried.
“I have failed in my task!
I was supposed to bring seeds to make a beautiful garden, but I spent all the gold on setting the birds free!”
The birds flying by heard the student's cries, and they passed the message to others.
Then, from every corner of the land, birds came carrying seeds of every kind.
They planted them on the wise man's land and a beautiful garden sprang up.
Poor people came from far and wide to eat the amazing fruit that grew there.
At night, the ones who had no homes, slept peacefully under the trees.
Rich people, too, heard about this amazing place and they travelled for days to see it.
When they arrived, however, the gates slammed shut and the walls grew higher.
The garden possessed a strange magic and no one could enter except those who needed help.
Read the text and for questions 1-3 choose the correct answer (A, B or C).
1 The shepherd didn't want the gold because A he thought it didn't belong to him.
B he believed the farmer needed it more.
C he thought he was rich enough already.
2 The student bought the birds because
A he thought the garden would look better with birds in it.
B he cared more about the birds than the garden.
C it upset him to see how the camel driver treated them.
3 Which best describes the meaning of this folk tale?
A If you tell a lie, you will lose everything you have.
B If you're trying to do good, others will help you.
C If you fail once, there are no second chances.
Complete the sentences.
Use: struck, passed, set, failed, slammed.
1
2
Я ПОНЯЛ ВЕСЬ ТЕКСТ
3
Теги:English lessons, Short stories and tales
О материале
Объяснение:
Dragon, flying, approached the planet, fell and died. The skeleton of his deeply entered the ground and stone ... "That's what the old Mongolian tale." Parts of the skeleton dragon "bones zakamenevshie lizards had long since been known to the Mongols, roamed the great expanses of the Gobi Desert. Expanses of Central Asia became known European science known only after traveling NM Przewalski GEGrumm Grzhimailo, PK Kozlov, VA Obruchev. in 20's. this century Academician AA Borisyak made a bold hypothesis: Now barren, desolate and deserted lands were once the center of Eurasia, the cradle of the animal world of Eurasia and part of Africa. searches on dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert to send a large expedition of 150 camels and 8 cars. It was attended by 40 specialists, restorers, photographers from the United States. The route covered 3000 kilometers. were found abundant "deposits" bones dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.
It was in the early 20's., When the young Soviet republic, as only that formed the Mongolian People's Republic, it was necessary to solve the problems are more pressing than the search for dinosaur fossils. However, from 1946 GV Gobi expedition of paleontologists of the Soviet Union, Poland, the Mongolian People's Republic - and every expedition makes sensational discoveries of fossilized creatures. Cemeteries dinosaurs discovered in a great desert - the Sahara. "Right in front of us, on top of the dunes, lay ten-snake. Just then came the full chain, folded, as seemed from afar, from simple stone. Blue, blue, sky-blue stones - in fact, part of the skeleton, bones. She was also a ten-snake skeleton. Behind her I could see the extraordinary dimensions of the head, buried in the sand and stones, in the neighborhood - dozens, hundreds of tusks and teeth.
Everything around produced a fantastic, magical, blinding common sense impression. Here is the tail of prehistoric monsters izvivshiysya in the last convulsive movements, that edge, seeming branch of a mighty tree, here are some strange at first sight of the skeleton - blue, frightening dimensions ... The cemetery stretches further than the eye can see. Here, to die, came prehistoric dinosaurs, then they were the last meters of its own debt, desperate marathon ... It should move the sand with his foot, as there are new light zakamenevshie the skeleton, there for a moment - and the wind then put them back. World of dinosaurs before us as a living, the impression that it was like then, many centuries ago. "It describes the cemetery dinosaurs on the southern outskirts Sahara Italian correspondent Sandro Ottolenghi.
Accumulations of dinosaurs bones found not only in deserts. Giant dinosaurs discovered in prehistoric strata of Western Europe and North America. America. In the Middle Volga region, in the fields of oil shale, in the last century found remains of oceanic dinosaurs. The fossilized skeletons of dinosaurs predecessors, their fathers and uncles, reptiles, animal teeth, and had kind of animals are found in the region of Perm, and Australia, on the island of Spitsbergen and Antarctica ice cap covered! Тут рассказывается о динозаврах