Question 1: What word in the text tells you that the old traveller is feeling weak and exhausted? Choose the correct word below:
Once upon a time, long, long ago there lived a monster
in China called the Nian. He lived under the sea in a cave
and slept most of the year. He only awoke for one day
each year, the last day before the lunar New Year began.
Then the warmer weather woke him and he arose from
the sea, hungry and ferocious.
Nian was a man-eater and he would come to the villages
of China each year on the same night to devour people
and wreck the houses. Many had tried to battle with the
mighty Nian, many had tried and all had failed.
The villagers of one particular place were so terrified that
every year they fled to the hills to try to escape the wrath
of Nian.
One year, on the eve of the lunar New Year an old traveller
came to the village. He was bent and weary from his
travels and he desperately wanted food and lodging.
He went to the door of a house to beg for the food but the
woman inside just turned him away. She had no time
for beggars, she was packing food and preparing for the
move up to the mountain.
The old man tried to ask a young girl on the street for help next but she was too busy as well. She had to find
her brothers and sisters and start the long walk up the
mountain to escape the monster.
The only person who paid the old man any notice at all
was an old woman. She was sweeping outside her house
when she saw the weary traveller and realised that he
needed food. She walked inside and returned to the man
with a bowl of noodles.
While the old traveller ate he sat and watched the
villagers running about.
He asked what all the fuss was about and the woman
explained that the Nian was coming that night and the
villagers were going to hide in the hills to ensure
that their village was overlooked by the monster.
The woman looked worried and the old man
asked her why. The old woman didn’t
think she’d be able to make the trip to
the hills that year – her bones were old
and she was weary.
The old man smiled to himself. He knew
how to repay the old woman’s kindness.