Quick Check 3 in English 3

How to Fool a Cat

(a Japanese folktale)

Once upon a time there was a rich man who liked to collect carvings of animals. He had many kinds, but he had no carved mouse. So he called two skilled carvers to him.

"I want each of you to carve a mouse for me," he said. "I want them to be so lifelike that my cat will think they're real mice and pounce on them. We'll put them down side by side on the floor.

Then we'll see which mouse the cat pounces on first. To the man who made that mouse I'll give this bag of gold."

So the two men went back to their homes and set to work. After a time they came back. One had carved a wonderful mouse out of wood. It was so well done that it looked just like a mouse. But the other had done very badly. He had used some stuff that flaked and looked funny; it didn't look like a mouse at all.

"What's this?" said the rich man. "This wooden mouse is a great piece of carving. But this other mouse-if it is in fact meant to be a mouse-wouldn't fool anyone, let alone a cat."

"Let the cat be brought in," said the second carver. "The cat can judge which is the better mouse.

The rich man thought this was silly. Still, he ordered the cat to be brought in. No sooner had it come into the room than it pounced upon the badly carved mouse. It paid no attention at all to the one that was carved so well.

The rich man had no choice. He gave the gold to the carver of the strange-looking mouse. As he did so, he said, "Well, now that you have the gold, tell me how you did it."

"It was easy, my lord," said the man. "I didn't carve my mouse from wood. I carved it from dried fish. That's why the cat pounced on it so swiftly."

When the rich man heard how everyone but the cat had been fooled, he could not help laughing. Soon everyone in the entire court was holding his sides with laughter.

"Well," said the rich man finally, "then I'll have to give two bags of gold-one to the workman who carved so well, and one to you who carved so cleverly. I'll keep the wooden mouse; we'll let the cat have the other one."

Multiple Choice

The rich man in this story learns _____________.

• that collecting carved animals is silly

• that a mouse carved from fish is beautiful

• that a cat is no judge of good carving

Multiple Choice

The most important thing to the first carver was __________.

• to fool the rich man

• to show that he was the best carver

• to show that cats are foolish

Multiple Choice

The most important thing to the second carver was ____________.

• to win the bag of gold

• to show that he was the best carver

• to show that cats are foolish

Multiple Choice

The cat pounced on the second carver's mouse because that mouse ___________.

• looked like a real mouse

• smelled like something good to eat

• looked like a toy

Multiple Choice

At the end of this story, the rich man showed that ___________.

• he was fair

• he was angry

• he was clever

Open Ended

Construct a sentence using an adverb that tells how long.

Open Ended

Construct a sentence using an adverb that tells how long.