Taro’s Reward

Taro was working harder than usual on that morning and was very thirsty. Besides, there were no waterfall in that part of the forest so the sound of running water surprised Taro and that is why he ran in the direction of the stream.

Taro’s father was very happy to be able to drink sake as it is a mouth-watering drink. One swig of the drink made his frail body warm and he was very happy. So, he took a little twirl to show his happiness after drinking sake.

Taro was a hardworking and kind person apart from being thoughtful; other villagers were selfish and greedy. That is why the waterfall gave Taro sake and others water.

The villagers assumed Taro had tricked them when they could get only water from the waterfall instead of sake as they had expected. At this, they were furious. That is why the villagers wanted to drown Taro.

Taro was a dutiful son towards his parents and also a very kind person. The Emperor rewarded Taro to endorse these values.

Taro was a hardworking person who loved his parents. But as the price of wood was low, he never earned much. This led to his poverty.

Taro's father was an old and very feeble man. He suffered heavily during the winter season. A drink of 'sake' is very warming in the cold. So the old man wondered of the expensive drink since they were poor and couldn't buy even a little. Taro was hardworking and kind; so he wanted to buy his father a drink of 'sake'.

The said waterfall suddenly started to give 'sake' instead of water to Taro. Since 'sake' was a very tasty and expensive drink, the villager wanted to spread the news.

This shows that he was thoughtful, kind, considerate and loving

Taro loved his parents very much and wanted to provide them with a comfortable living in their old age. However, as he was very poor, he was unable to buy the pricey drink of sake for his father as per the old man’s wish. This made Taro very unhappy.

Taro was a dutiful son and took as good care of his parents as he could. The Emperor wanted to uphold these values and instill them in the children. That is why he rewarded Taro with gold and gave the fountain his name.

The rhyming words are:

sad – bad

chop – stop

last – fast

wax – axe

could – wood

sound – round

way – day

sunny – money

young – lung

(i) young

(ii) lonely

(iii) thoughtful

(iv) hard

(v) little

(vi) beautiful

(vii) delicious

(1) sadder

(2) harder

(3) earlier

(4) faster

(5) earlier

Student do yourself.

The parts of the story that show that Taro is thoughtful, hardworking, and also wise are-

● Though he worked very hard, he earned very little money. This made him sad, for he was a thoughtful son and wanted to give his old parents everything they needed.

● ‘How do I get a little saké for my poor old father?’ He decided to work harder than before.

● he began to chop even faster, thinking of the extra money he must earn to buy the saké to warm the old man’s bones.

● Taro quickly filled the pitcher he had with him and hurried home.

● Next morning, Taro started for work even earlier than the morning before.

● Taro hadbeen wise enough to slip behind a rock when he saw how things were going. He was nowhere to be found.

(i) No, I do not believe in magic.

In the story ‘Taro’s Reward’, the unknown stream in the forest starts giving Taro sake instead of water. Sake is a delicious and very expensive drink that Taro’s father wished he could have. Taro was so thoughtful, considerate, and kind that he wanted to work harder than usual. That is why the magical stream reward Taro by giving him the sake that he wanted to earn. On the other hand, in ‘Who Did Patrick’s Homework’, the elf that appeared, taught Patrick to be a organised, disciplined, and responsible person in the pretext of helping him with his homework.

(ii) I like ‘Who Did Patrick’s Homework’ better than ‘Taro’s Reward’ because in the previous story, the boy Patrick was initially a lazy person and did not want to do his homework himself. The elf then taught him the value of work and discipline in life. This important and positive change in his personality makes this story more interesting than the latter one.

Yes I know such a story in another language, namely in Bengali.

I know the story ‘The Honest Woodcutter’ in Bengali.

There was a very poor woodcutter, who had only one axe made of iron. One day, while he was cutting wood right on the bank of a river, his axe fell in the water. He was crestfallen as that axe was the tool for his livelihood and started crying bitterly. Suddenly, a Goddess came out of the water and asked him the reason behind his sorrow. After hearing his answer, the Goddess showed him a golden and a silver axe respectively. When he denied the ownership of those two axes, the Goddess finally gave him his axe. She also gave him the other two axes as a reward for his honesty in the face of dire poverty.

In ‘Taro’s Reward’ too, the honest and hard work of Taro earns him the happiness that he deserves. Despite his financial conditions, he looked after his parents the best he could and always wanted to do more. This speaks of his character that has both compassion and a caring nature.

These children are talking about the level of difficulty of swimming, driving and learning English.

The most interesting- stamp collecting, painting, learning languages

Dullest- knitting, sewing, cooking

Most dangerous- mountain climbing,

Safest- watching TV

Most rewarding- listening to music, reading, walking, fishing

Most exciting- swimming, playing football, dancing

1. bed red shade

2. wax tax lax

3. fast blast dust

4. chop shop flop

5. young stung clung

(i) Fell out means to quarrel or disagree with somebody on an issue.

(ii) Here turned black means due to the quarrel with his sibling the kid had a bad mood during the afternoon.

(i) In the poem The Quarrel, the kids started to quarrel with one another on a trivial matter. Then they lost focus and moved completely off the topic.

(ii) Like in any case, two siblings started quarreling about petty things. It started as a paltry dispute between the two and was some mild issue.

(iii) What started out as a mere tiff was blown out of proportions by the childish behaviour of the siblings. So the ‘end of it was strong’.

(iv) Due to the quarrel between the two siblings, the mood was glum; and a bad mood made the afternoon seem bleak.

(v) The kid’s brother gave him a goodhearted slight punch on the back. This suggests the camaraderie the two brothers share.

It was a bright Sunday morning in early October. I was very happy that I did not have much homework from school and was feeling like drawing, which is my favourite pass time. After breakfast as I was gathering the drawing book, crayons and other necessary things, my sister suddenly came up to me and demanded my color pencils saying she wanted to draw too. I know it for a fact that she hates crayons because she once told me elders never use them. She has also been using watercolor for at least four years now. But when I told her all these, she countered me saying she just felt like using color pencils as the day reminded her of her senior school years. Then again, I was the first one to think about drawing that morning; so I must have a go with the colors. This time she took it a step further and said she thought about drawing the previous night too. Now that was not fair, how can someone know if the morning will be bright? I became angry and called her bluff and she started shouting that I was a bad kid. This trouble went on for another hour when our father came back from Sunday market with fresh vegetables and supplies. He asked us to wash and peel each of the vegetables we could. My sister knew how to do it but she cut her finger earlier and I never knew how to do it. However, both of us wanted to help. So, she started instructing me and I did as much as I could. During all these, we eventually forgot about our earlier disagreement and finally did the drawings sharing those crayons and were laughing at our earlier stupidity.