Aesop

Aesop was a Greek writer who lived more than 2 500 years ago. The stories that he wrote are called fables. Each of Aesop's fables has a moral, or a lesson which we can learn from. Fables are never about true events, but they can tell us things about ourselves. In one of Aesop's fables, an old man owned a monkey. The man was very fond of the monkey, who was very clever. The old man loved to sit in the garden and sleep in the afternoon. When birds came into the garden and made noises, the monkey chased them away. He also chased away flies which landed on the man's face while he was sleeping. One hot summer afternoon, the old man was asleep in his chair. A fly came and sat on the end of his nose. The monkey was sitting at the old man's side. He saw the fly and chased it away from his owner's nose. Soon the fly returned. The monkey chased it away again. The fly came back and the monkey chased it, and this happened five or six times. Now the monkey was angry. He stood up and said, "You won't do that again!" He jumped up, ran into the garden, and picked up a large stone. He ran back to the old man and saw the fly once again landing on his nose. This time, the monkey didn't chase the fly away; he hit it with the stone. He killed the fly. He also broke the man's nose!

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a fable?
2. Who was Aesop?
3. Why did the monkey get angry?
4. Did the monkey kill the fly at last?
5. What was the moral of the story?

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