Reading
1. Read the fable The Starfruit Tree. Then find the following words in the story. What do they mean?
| fortune filled | starfruit tree load | ripe repay |
Once upon a time, there was a rich man living in a village. When he died, he left his two sons a fortune. But the elder brother gave his brother only a starfruit tree. When the fruit was ripe, an eagle came and ate the fruit. The younger brother begged the eagle not to. The eagle promised to repay him in gold and told him to make a bag to carry it. The eagle took him on its back to a place of gold. There, he filled the bag with gold. When he got home he was rich. The elder brother was surprised, so he asked his brother to explain. After hearing the story, he offered to swap his fortune for the starfruit tree, and his kind brother accepted. When the eagle came, the elder brother asked it to take him to the place of gold. The greedy brother filled a very large bag and all his pockets with gold. On the way home, because the load was too heavy, the eagle got tired and dropped him into the sea.
2. Read the story again and answer the questions.
1. What did the older brother give his younger brother?
2. What did the eagle promise to the younger brother?
3. What did the elder brother do when he found out how his younger brother became rich?
4. What did the elder brother do when he got to the place of gold?
5. What happened to the elder brother in the end?
3. Now complete the details of the fable.
| Main characters | Character 1: The younger brother. He is kind and honest. Character 2: The elder brother. He is (1) __________. Characters 3: The eagle. It is grateful. |
| Plot: beginning | Once upon a (2) __________, there was a rich man living in a village. |
| Plot: middle | The man left his two sons a (3) __________ but the elder brother gave his brother only a starfruit tree. An eagle came and ate the fruit. It repaid the younger brother by taking him to a place of (4) __________. He brought home some gold and became very rich. The elder brother (5) __________ his fortune for his brother's tree. The eagle helped the elder brother take gold. |
| Plot: end | As the eagle was flying back, the load was too heavy. The eagle got tired and (6) __________ the elder brother into the sea. |
Speaking
4. Read the story summaries below. Decide which story you would like to read.
Title: Saint Giong
Genre: legend
Main characters: Thanh Giong
Plot: Thanh Giong lived in the village of Phu Dong. He was already three years old, but he couldn't sit up or say any words. However, when the enemy invaded his country, he helped Emperor Hung Vuong the Sixth defeat the enemy and save the country. He flew to heaven and became a Saint.
Title: The Tortoise and the Hare
Genre: fable
Main characters: a hare and a tortoise
Plot: The hare always boasted about how fast he could run. The tortoise challenged him to a race. The hare soon left the tortoise behind. The hare believed that he would win, and he stopped to take a nap. When he woke up, he found that the tortoise arrived before him.
Title: Chung Cakes, Day Cakes
Genre: folk tale
Main characters: Prince Tiet Lieu, his wife, and Emperor Hung Vuong
Plot: Emperor Hung Vuong announced that the prince who made the most delicious food would become the new emperor. Prince Tiet Lieu and his wife pleased the emperor by creating two types of rice cakes that represented Heaven and Earth. Emperor Hung Vuong made Tiet Lieu the new emperor.
5. Work in pairs. Ask and answer questions about the stories.
Example:
A: I want to read Saint Giong.
B: What kind of story is it?
A: It's a legend.
B: Who are the main characters in it?
A:...
6. GAME: WHO AM I?
Work in groups. One student imagines he/she is a character in a story in 4. The others can ask three Yes/No question to guess which character he/she is.
