The Lion and the Shepherd from Aesop’s fables with vocabulary practice and podcast to improve reading and listening comprehension and enjoy English literature at the same time.
Source of story: Gutenberg Project at www.gutenberg.org
Video of the Lion and the Shepherd
The Lion and the Shepherd
A lion, roaming through a forest, trod upon a thorn.
Soon afterward he came up to a shepherd and fawned upon him, wagging his tail as if to say, “I am a suppliant, and seek your aid.”
The shepherd boldly examined the beast, discovered the thorn, and placing his paw upon his lap, pulled it out; thus relieved of his pain, the lion returned into the forest.
Some time after, the shepherd, being imprisoned on a false accusation, was condemned “to be cast to the lions” as the punishment for his imputed crime.
But when the lion was released from his cage, he recognized the shepherd as the man who healed him, and instead of attacking him, approached and placed his foot upon his lap.
The king, as soon as he heard the tale, ordered the lion to be set free again in the forest, and the shepherd to be pardoned and restored to his friends.
Questions for discussion
- The fable mentions the shepherd encountering a large predator. What was the predator’s problem, and how did the shepherd initially react to it?
- The story seems to teach a lesson. Can you rephrase the situation the shepherd found himself in, without mentioning lions or shepherds, to better understand the main idea?
- Imagine the story ends differently. How might the shepherd have helped the lion, and what could he have gained from their interaction?
1). The lion had a small injury but the injury hurt him a lot so he trusted a human and the human was so brave and understood that the lion needed help and helped him
2). The lesson from history is no matter how big or small someone’s problem seems, you can always try to help and maybe the person you tried to help or even helped will end up being too good for you to help you in the end
3). Maybe when the shepherd was out in the forest and another predator wanted to attack him or his dog and in the end the lion noticed this and saved his life or that of his dog
ROZITA
Excellent comment! Thank you so much.
Feedback
1. End your sentences with full stops or periods. You should use punctuation marks, when necessary.
2. You should know the difference between “story” and “history”.
1). The problem from the Fabel was that the shepherd was being imprisoned on a false accusation so he was condemned “to be cast to the lions”.
The reaction of the shepherd i can’t read in the story but I can Imagine that maybe he was very shocked
Like he thought he will died by the reason of being cast to the lions or maybe he knew at the beginning the lion will remember the good things he did to the lion so he overthink the situation.
2) one specific guy or women was helping a innocent creature and become a big punishment of something he didn’t do. So doing a good thing and becoming a punishment. As the day approached the innocent creature has the power to decide about the live of another innocent creature and he decide to do the right thing because he was also helping him in his difficult situation.
3). Both was the right thing but if the history ended differently maybe the lion was very arrogant so he do the bad dicision like eating the shepherd and don’t have any bad feelings.
But this story shows everyone has if they do something wrong a bad feeling but the most creature will not get in this bad mood so they do their best to do the right decision.
– ROBINA
Thanks so much for answering the questions.
Feedback
1. fabel = fable
2. he thought he will died by = he thought he would die / he would be dead / he would be killed by
3. he knew at the beginning the lion will remember = he knew at the beginning the lion would remember
4. one specific guy or women was helping a innocent creature = one specific guy or woman was helping an innocent creature
5. to decide about the live of another innocent creature = to decide about the life of another innocent creature
6. story vs. history