AESOP'S FABLES in easy English  1  -  Thor May

1. Trouble Tests Your Friends

Kim and Choi were traveling together.
A bear suddenly met them on the path.
Kim quickly climbed into a tree and hid.
Choi fell flat on the ground.
The bear sniffed Choi all over his body.
He held his breath and pretended to be dead.
The bear went away, because bears will not touch a dead body.
Kim came down from the tree, and made a joke.
Kim asked Choi "what did the bear whisper in your ear?"
Choi frowned.
He said, "the bear told me never to travel with a friend
   who runs away when danger comes".

 

2. One Good Turn Deserves Another

An ant went to the river bank for a drink.
The unlucky ant fell into the water and almost drowned.
A dove was sitting in a tree hanging over the river.
She plucked a leaf, and let it fall into the water near the ant.
The ant climbed onto the leaf and floated back to the river bank.
Later, a hunter arrived and began to make a trap for the dove.
The ant came and stung the hunter on the foot.
The painful sting made the hunter cry out.
Then the dove was warned of danger and flew away.

3. The Dog in the Manger

A dog who wanted to sleep jumped into the manger of an ox.
The dog felt very comfortable in the soft straw.
Soon the ox came home from working and wanted to eat the straw.
The dog was very angry, barked at the ox and tried to bite him.
At last the unhappy ox went away muttering:
"That dog can't eat straw!
Often people won't give others what they can't enjoy themselves".

4. Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention.

A crow, dying of thirst, suddenly saw a flask under a tree.
He hoped to find water, and happily flew down.
However, there was only a little water in the bottom of the flask.
The crow tried very hard to reach the water, but he could not.
At last he had an idea.
The crow collected stones one by one with his beak.
Then he dropped the stones one by one into the flask.
Soon the water came up to the top of the flask where he could drink it.

 

5. True Nature Can't Be Hidden

A cat fell in love with a handsome young man.
The cat asked Venus, the Goddess of Love, to change her into a woman.
Venus agreed, and changed the cat into a beautiful woman.
The young man saw the cat-woman and fell in love.
He asked to marry her.
Later they were lying together in bed.
However, the goddess wanted to test if the cat-woman 
had really changed her nature.
Venus put a mouse in the middle of the bedroom.
The cat-woman immediately forgot her lover and chased the mouse.
Venus was very disappointed.
She turned the beautiful woman back into a cat.

 

6.You Can't Please Everyone

A man had two daughters, Amy and Mary.
Amy married a gardener and Mary married a brick-maker.
One day the man asked his daughters if they were happy.
Amy said, "Everything is fine, except we need rain for the plants".
Mary said, "Everything is fine, except we need fine weather 
for the bricks to dry."
The man sighed. One daughter would have to be unhappy soon.

 

 


"Aesop's Fables in Easy English  " © copyrighted to Thor May; all rights reserved 2002

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