Newly wed-couple

Read about a newly-wed couple, Richard and Victoria. Then answer the True or False questions below.

Considering their wedding cost over $20,000 and took a year and a half to organize, you would be surprised to hear that Richard and Victoria Hammond now intend to forget it. Well, almost.

"It was a wonderful wedding, an unbelievable day," says Victoria. "But we have so much we want to do together now, we are both looking to the future." Her husband, banker and amateur race driver Richard, agrees. "Both our minds are now fixed firmly on the future. I'll never forget our wedding ceremony or the reception we had at a cliff-side hotel afterwards, but there's so much we want, so many hopes. Our marriage is so much more important than the wedding."

"At the moment, we are still living with my parents," explains Victoria, "so our first wish is to find our own place. We intend to start looking for a new house with all the modern conveniences in the suburbs in the new year." Both Victoria and husband Richard have a lot of siblings. Do they intend to add to the extended Hammond family? "We plan on having two or three children ourselves," Richard tells me. "Victoria is just wonderful with children and I can get 3 years paternity leave from my work, which is just perfect."

The young couple has just returned from a two-week honeymoon spent in an authentic Scottish castle. Both the newly-weds are big travel lovers and Richard hopes this will continue. "I would like to go travelling as much as possible together. Travelling with someone else is such a sharing experience. I think it's sad to experience all the wonderful places in the world and have no-one else there." Victoria also has another great travel ambition that she might have to do alone. "I have always been fascinated by safari and my real wish is to go on safari. Richard has no interest in wildlife though."

And what about the marriage itself? In a world with such a high divorce rate, how do Richard and Victoria hope to avoid all the problems that beset so many other couples? Richard explains thoughtfully that "our ambition is to always talk to each other. If you stop communicating, what chance do you have?" His wife goes along with that completely. "I hope that we can speak about things, but also not expect everything to be easy. I think many people expect the wedding to be the end of getting to know each other. I think it's the start."

1. Victoria and Richard have been married for about a year and a half.
    True
    False

2. They got married in a dramatic location.
    True
    False

3. The wedding was expensive.
    True
    False

4. Their first ambition is to find a house to live in.
    True
    False

5. Victoria wants an old fashioned house.
    True
    False

6. They both have many brothers and sisters.
    True
    False

7. Richard can temporarily leave his job to look after his children.
    True
    False

8. Richard and Victoria have identical tastes regarding vacations.
    True
    False

9. Richard hopes to make talking an important part of their marriage.
    True
    False

10. Victoria thinks she now knows Richard sufficiently well.
    True
    False

                 Answer these questions?

a-       What do you think aboutt marriage?

b-      Do you think its better to be marriage o single? Why?

c-       Why do people decide to devorce?

d-      Do you agree thet someone recently marriage stay living in his/her parents’ house? Why? Give your reasons.

Whrite more questions about this topic:

The Ant and the Grasshopper

The ant and the grass hopper story and exercise

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great effort an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling away?" "I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same." "Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "we have got plenty of food at present."

But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing, every day, corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

Then the Grasshopper knew..

The moral of the story: work today and you can reap the benefits tomorrow!

Questions about the story

What was the grass hopper doing one summers day?

What was the ant doing? 

What did the grasshopper want the ant to do?

Why did the ant say no?

Did the grass hopper agree?

When winter came did the grass hopper have plenty of food?

What was the ant doing in the winter time?

Do you agree with the moral?

The Lion and the Mouse

Story about the lion and the mouse and exercise

Once when a Lion was asleep, a little Mouse began running up and down upon him. This soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him and opened his big jaws to swallow him.

"Pardon, O King!" cried the little Mouse, "Forgive me this time. I shall never repeat it and I shall never forget your kindness. And who knows, but I may be able to do you a good turn one of these days?"

The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go.

Sometime later a few hunters captured the King and tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on.

Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, ran up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. "Was I not right?" said the little Mouse, very happy to help the Lion.

MORAL: Little friends may prove great friends.

Exercise about the story

What did the mouse do?

Why did he let the mouse go?

What did he call the lion?

Who captured the lion?

How did the mouse free the lion?

What does the moral mean?

THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS

Story about the Goose with the Golden Egg and exercise

Once upon a time, a man and his wife had the good fortune to have a goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough.

They imagined that if the bird must be able to lay golden eggs, its insides must be made of gold. And they thought that if they could get all that precious metal at once, they would get mighty rich very soon. So the man and his wife decided to kill the bird.

However, upon cutting the goose open, they were shocked to find that its innards were like that of any other goose!

Moral: think before you act

Exercise about the story

What did the goose lay?

Did they think they would get rich fast?

What did the man and wife imagine?

What did the man and wife decide to do?

What did they find after cutting open the bird?

What does the moral mean?

Promise to a Mother

A story about the promise to a mother

Once upon the time, in a village, lived a mother and a daughter. They were every poor.
Inthis same village there also lived a very rich man. He was a chief in the village. He was a very bad chief. The people who lived in the village hated him, but they couldn't do anything to him. The poor people were forced to work in his fields. He paid them so little. They had to work all day long.

The girl's mother had to be the chief's employee also. She too had to work all day long.

When she got home she was exhausted. Most time she fell asleep as soon as she arrived home.

Before the rich man had come to the village the girl's mother would take the girl on her

knee and tell her stories. Now the mother never really had time to talk to her daughter. The

daughter had not heard story from her mom for a long, long time. She missed these stories.

She had not talked to her mother for such a long time. The girl felt pity for her mom.

She knew that her mother was tired. But secretly she really wanted to hear a story from

her. Also she had a lot of questions to ask. The mother had made plans to send the girl

away to school to study and get an education. She wondered why. She wanted to know and

she asked her mother many times.

One day when her mom was not feeling well and could not go to work, she called her

daughter. She sat beside her mother and the mother told a story to the daughter about two

birds. The mom said, "Once upon a time there were two brother birds that lived in a nest.

They couldn't fly well yet. One day their mom went to look for food for them.

A storm came. The wind blew hard. It blew so hard that the young birds were thrown from

the nest and they were separated.

One bird blew to another country. There a gentleman caught him and looked after him

very well. He grew up to be well education, gentle and kind. He had a good life.

The other bird blew to the ground. There a bad man caught him and forced him to work.

The second bird grew up to be like the mean man. He became a bad bird."

Now she understood her mom's story and she could see that her mother loved her enough

to send her away so that she might have a better life.

She promised her mom that when she grew up she would leave and get an education and

be a good girl. She promised her that she would return and take her mother away to a

better place.

Her mother hugged her and told the girl that she was proud of her and that she was happy

to hear her promise. When the girl grew up she did leave her mother and went away to

study. She kept her promises to her mother and they live happily ever after.