## Exercises for The Bird and the Elephant

Back to the story

A. How much did you understand?

The elephant in the story is selfish. He does not think about the small animals in the forest. The small animals are afraid of him.

Put sentences 1, 2 and 3 in the right order.

1. "The elephant’s coming," they said to each other. "He'll knock down the trees. We must fly away!"
2. "Here he comes," they said to their children. "Run away! The elephant will tread on you and kill you."
3. "I'm the most important animal of all," he said. "I don't care about you."

In the forest a little bird was looking for a place to build her nest.

Put sentences 4, 5 and 6 in the right order.

4. There was a hole in one of them. She looked at the others. All the eggs had holes in them. The chicks were coming out.
5. But the chicks were hungry. They opened their beaks and cried out for food.
6. She worked hard and soon her nest was ready. She laid six beautiful eggs in it.

In another part of the forest the elephant wanted to drink some water and wash himself. He waved his trunk.

Put sentences 7, 8 and 9 in the right order.

7. The elephant laughed. "Baby birds!" he said. "I don't care about baby birds.”
8. The end of his trunk hit the bird’s nest. The nest fell out of the tree on to the ground.
9. He lifted his big foot and trod on them. The baby birds all died.

The mother bird told the other birds in the forest what had happened. They decided what to do.

Put sentences 10, 11 and 12 in the right order.

10. They began to fly round his head and peck his eyes.
11. "Yes, we want to punish him. But how can we do it? He is so big and we are so small."
12. So the frogs jumped out of the river and followed the mother bird. She took them to the edge of a big cliff.

B. Sang? Sing? Song?

The frogs began to sing in order to lead the blind elephant over the cliff.

Fill in the blanks in these sentences with either ‘sing’, ‘sang’ or ‘song’

1. The mother bird took the frogs to the edge of a big cliff. "……," she said.
2. The frogs began to sing. They …… loudly.
3. The elephant heard their …… “I can hear the frogs," he thought.

C. The elephant and the mother bird.

Two of these sentences are about the elephant and two are about the mother bird. Which are which?

1. ...... was very proud of them.
2. ...... was very big and very proud.
3. ...... did not care. ...... lifted his big foot and trod on them.
4. ...... took them to the edge of a big cliff.

D. Now you tell a part of the story

There are two important characters in the story - the elephant and the mother bird. You can choose either the elephant or the mother bird.

You can start the story like this:

Either: - I am the elephant. It is a hot day, and I am thirsty. I want to run down to the river, and drink some water. So I ……

Or: - I am the mother bird. I am looking for a place to build my nest. I find a good place in a big tree growing beside a river. When the nest is ready, I ……

E. What do you think?

Do you think that the elephant was the most important animal in the forest?

Do you think that the mother bird was a good mother?

Do you think that the elephant was selfish?

Do you think that the birds were right to punish the elephant?

Do you think that the elephant deserved to die?

Check the answers