The Eagle The Cat And The Wild Sow for English learners with podcast and video and vocabulary practice in context. Read this English fable from Aesop and listen to any selected text.
Source of story: Gutenberg Project at www.gutenberg.org
The Eagle the Cat and the Wild Sow
An eagle made her nest at the top of a lofty oak; a cat, having found a convenient hole, moved into the middle of the trunk; and a wild sow, with her young, took shelter in a hollow at its foot.
The cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony. To carry out her design, she climbed to the nest of the eagle, and said, “Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too, unfortunately.
The wild sow, whom you see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, so she may on its fall seize our families as food for her young.”
Having thus frightened the eagle out of her senses, she crept down to the cave of the sow, and said, “Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food, the eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs.”
Having instilled these fears into the sow, she went and pretended to hide herself in the hollow of the tree.
When night came she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens, but feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day.
Meanwhile, the eagle, full of fear of the sow, sat still on the branches, and the sow, terrified by the eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave.
And thus they both, along with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded ample provision for the cat and her kittens.
Podcast of The Eagle The Cat And The Wild Sow
Related tags or keywords
- Aesop’s fables
- cats
- cunning
- danger
- eagle
- fear
- frighten
- shelter
Questions for discussion
- How does the cunning cat manipulate the eagle and the wild sow in the fable?
- What lesson can be learned from the way the eagle and the wild sow react to the cat’s lies?
- If the eagle and the sow had communicated with each other, how might the story have ended differently?
The cat manipulated both the eagle and the sow by frightening them of each other, making them so scared to come out of their homes. From this, we can conclude that it is better to research and decide for ourselves rather than blindly accepting everything. If the eagle and the sow had communicated, they would not have perished from hunger.
Well-written comment! The wild sow and the eagle were duped easily by the cunning cat. Due to their naivety, the opportunistic and vicious cat made a great feast of them for herself and her kittens.