Reading task. For 6th grades. Version 2 The farmer and his sons
A farmer had 5 sons. They were strong and hard-working. But they always quarrelled with one another. Sometimes they even fought. The farmer wanted his sons to stop quarreling and fighting. He wanted them to live in peace. Plain words of advice or scolding did not have much effect on these young people.
The farmer always thought what to do to keep his sons united. One day he found an answer to the problem. So he called all his sons together. He showed them a bundle of sticks and said: “I want any of you to break these sticks without separating them from the bundle.” Each of the five sons tried one by one. They used their full strength and skill. But none of them could break the sticks. Then the old man separated the sticks and gave each of them just a single stick to break. They broke the sticks easily.
The farmer said: “A single stick by itself is weak. It is strong as long as it is tied up in a bundle. Likewise, you will be strong if you are united. You will be weak if you are divided.” The moral is “United we stand, divided we fall”
Questions: 1. How many children did the farmer have? ________________________________________________________
2. What did the old man do to unite his sons? ________________________________________________________
3. How do you understand the moral of the story? ________________________________________________________
Reading task. For 6th grades. Version 3 William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born on April 1564 in Strafford-upon-Avon. He was the third of eight children. His family had money and Shakespeare went to school. In 1582, when he was 18, he married Ann Hathaway. They lived happily together and had three children.
In the late 1580s Shakespeare left his family and went to London. In London he started writing plays. His famous books are “Romeo and Juliet”, “Othello”, “The King Lear” and others. In 1610 Shakespeare left London for Stratford where he lived. He died of a fever on 23 April 1616.
Questions: 1. When and where was Shakespeare born? ________________________________________________________
2. What happened in 1582 in his life? ________________________________________________________
3. Why and when did he die? ________________________________________________________