storytelling

the goose that laid the golden egg

There once was a very poor farmer. His name was Attacus Greeb. Now he hadn’t always been poor. He’d inherited a large and prosperous farm from his father and he’d owned land as far as the eye could see. But he was a lazy man. He didn’t like work.

So over the years, instead of working for a living he'd simply sold off his possessions. He'd sold almost everything his father had given him - his house, his land, his horses, his pigs, his cattle and all he was left with was one single goose who lived with him. 

'I have no house, no food and no money and nothing left to sell…I shall surely starve!' wailed Attacus late one night and then he looked at his goose. 'you haven't laid an egg in weeks, i will sell you to the market tomorrow.' And off he went to sleep. 

The next morning he awoke to a glittering dawn. It was so light and bright he had to shield his eyes. But it wasn't the sunlight, he could hardly believe what he saw, it was a golden egg. Then he went to market pushing the egg in an old barrow and back he came with a barrow full of meat to cook, chicken feed for his goose and a huge bag of coins. 

'Oh how I wish I had money to buy a horse-drawn carriage,' he said patting his full tummy that night. 'That's what I need to be happy.' Well, the very next morning the same thing happened there was another shiny golden egg lying beside the goose. So off went Attacus to market and with the money he got he bought a black carriage and six sleek horses. 

And every day the same thing happened and soon the farmer became a very rich man, but as he grew rich, he grew greedy and he wanted more and more. And then he had an idea. 'How I wish I could have all the golden eggs at once,' he thought, 'instead of just one a day. Then I would surely be happy.'

So the next morning he killed the goose and open it up but, of course, to his horror there was nothing inside the poor goose and there would be no golden eggs again. And Attacus Greeb ended up back being poor.



source: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/pdfs/aesop/the_goose_that_laid_the_golden_eggs.pdf



Questions
1. why in the end the farmer did not sell the goose?
2. what does he do when he got the golden egg?
3. how he bring the golden egg to the market?
4. but as he grew rich, he grew greedy and he wanted more and more. The word greedy has similar meaning to...
5. from the text above, we can conclude that the farmer was...