Once upon a time a shepherd boy was wandering far from home．He lost his way in the forest and as darkness fell he felt very frightened and lonely．Suddenly a large lion came padding out of the trees toward shim．The boy was just about to run for his life when，to his great surprise，the lion lay down，put his head meekly on his front paws and said：
“Don't be afraid．I will not hurt you．I have a thorn in my paw．See，it is deep in the paw and I cannot get it out．”
The lion came closer to the boy and raised his paw．“Goodness，you must have felt very sore．”cried the boy．“Come here and I'll soon get it out for you．It may hurt a little because I'll have to use my knife．”
The boy sat down and the lion put his paw gently in his lap while the thorn was cut out．“You'll be all right soon，”said the boy，“but try not to walk on it too much at first．”
“Thank you，”said the lion and without another word he disap-peared into the forest．Some time later the boy was falsely accused of stealing sheep．In those days the punishment for stealing was very severe：the judgeordered the boy to be thrown among a group of wild animals．The boy stood bravely in the arena as the animals were let out grasping the thick wooden club that had been given him to fight with．A lion，who was the biggest of all，came bounding towards him．Then，to everyone's surprise，it sat down in the sand，raised its paw and bowed its head．“Don't you recognize me？”asked the lion．“You helped me once in the forest when my paw was hurt．See，it is quite healed now．”
The boy stood holding the lion's paw in amazement．The other wild animals soon backed away，seeing that the strongest of them all was refusing to fight．“Let him go！”shouted the crowd．“Set him free！”
“Come here，shepherd boy，”commanded the king，who was watching from a special seat in the crowd．“You and your lion shall both go free．”
From that time on the lion and the shepherd boy never parted but lived together as friends for the rest of their lives．One good turn deserves another．Exercises：
回答下列问题：
①Where did the boy lose his way home？
②What did the boy meet？
③What did the boy do for the lion？
④Why was the boy punished？
⑤What does the story tell us？ |