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What animal scares you the most? Why?
Let us find out what animal scares the people in a village.
Before we go to the story, learn these words first:
A. Vocabulary Building
1. reign [reyn]
verb
-rule as a king or queen
Example: Queen Elsa rules over the Kingdom of Fantasia.
2. peasant [PE-zuhnt]
noun
- a poor farmer
Example: The peasants are working hard at the farm.
3. till [til]
verb
- prepare the land for crops
Example: The farmers till the soil before planting the vegetables.
4. chank [changk]
noun
- a large sea conch used as a horn
Example: The peasant blows the chank to alert the village to the forest fire.
5. utter [UH-turhr]
verb
-make a sound with one’s voice
Example: The cat utters a soft cry.
B. Reading- Read the story aloud.
THE ASS IN THE LION’S SKIN
(From the Jataka Collection)
Once upon a time, while Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the future Buddha was born of a peasant family; and when he grew up, he gained his living by tilling the ground.
At that time, a hawker used to go from place to place, trafficking in goods carried by an ass. Now at each place he came to when he took the pack down from the ass’s back, he used to clothe him in a lion’s skin, and turn him loose in the rice and barley fields. When the watchmen in the fields saw the ass, they dared not go near him, taking him for a lion. So one day, the hawker stopped in a village; and while he was getting his own breakfast cooked, he dressed the ass in a lion’s skin and turned him loose in a barley field. The watchmen in the field dared not to go up to him; but going home, they announced the news. Then all the villagers came out with weapons in their hands. Blowing chanks, and beating drums, they went near the field and shouted. Terrified with the fear of death, the ass uttered a cry--the cry of an ass!
C. Reading Comprehension- Answer the following questions:
1. Who was reigning in Benares?
2. How did the future Buddha earn his living?
3. What was the hawker doing as he went from one place to another?
4. What did he do with the ass every time he visited a place?
5. Why didn’t the watchmen in the fields go near the ass?
6. What did the villagers do after the watchmen announced the news of a lion in the field?
7. How did the villagers know that the lion was an ass?
8. How would you feel if you found out there was a lion in the field near your house?
9. How would you feel if you found out that the lion was actually an ass?
10. What is the moral lesson of the story?