Sources of Wealth
Senior 1 · English
Sources of Wealth
Lesson 5 of 5
30 min
Let's begin
Some of the shortest stories in the world have lasted the longest. The fables told in ancient Greece under the name of Aesop are only a few lines long, yet people have repeated them for more than two thousand years, because each one carries a message that is still true. The two fables below are about wealth: one about losing it, and one about finding it where you least expect.
Before you read: Do you know a Kinyarwanda proverb or story about money, greed or hard work? Tell it briefly to your partner.
One day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played upon him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg of pure gold. Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon became rich by selling his eggs. As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find,—nothing.
Greed oft o'erreaches itself.
Aesop, in the version by Joseph Jacobs, 1894.
A Farmer being on the point of death, wished to insure from his sons the same attention to his farm as he had himself given it. He called them to his bedside, and said, "My sons, there is a great treasure hidden in one of my vineyards." The sons after his death took their spades and mattocks, and carefully dug over every portion of their land. They found no treasure, but the vines repaid their labour by an extraordinary and superabundant crop.
Aesop, in the translation by George Fyler Townsend, 1867.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| glittering | shining with many small flashes of light |
| as heavy as lead | very heavy (lead is a heavy grey metal) |
| on second thoughts | after thinking again |
| occurred | happened |
| greed oft o'erreaches itself | old English for "greed often goes too far and defeats itself" |
| insure | (here) make sure of |
| vineyard | a field where grapes are grown |
| mattock | a heavy digging tool, like a hoe with a pick |
| repaid their labour | paid them back for their hard work |
| superabundant | much more than enough |
Definition
Message (or moral): the lesson about life that a story teaches: Greed destroys the thing that makes you rich.
A message can be stated (written in the text, often in the last line of a fable) or implied (not written; the reader works it out from what happens).
Theme: the big idea a story is about, often one or two words: greed, hard work. The message is what the story says about that theme.
| The Goose with the Golden Eggs | The Farmer and his Sons | |
|---|---|---|
| Theme | greed | hard work |
| Message | If you are greedy, you may destroy the very thing that makes you rich. | Hard work on the land is a real treasure. |
| Stated or implied? | stated: "Greed oft o'erreaches itself." | implied: we see the crop and draw the lesson |
| Evidence | He kills the goose "to get at once all the gold" and finds nothing. | "They found no treasure, but the vines repaid their labour." |
| Link to Rwanda's resources | Use renewable resources wisely: don't kill the goose (overfish a lake, cut a forest, exhaust the soil). | Land becomes wealth through work and skill: "People and skills" is a resource. |
Worked example
Find the implied message of The Farmer and his Sons.
Definition
Voiced sound: a sound made while the vocal cords vibrate; you feel a buzz in your throat (b, d, g, v, z, m, n, l, r and all vowels).
Voiceless sound: a sound made without that vibration (p, t, k, f, s, sh, ch). The -ed ending copies this: after a voiceless sound it is voiceless too (/t/); after a voiced sound it is voiced (/d/).
You met the three -ed sounds in Unit 3. Here they are again with the verbs of this unit, plus the reason behind the rule and some traps.
| /t/ (after voiceless sounds) | /d/ (after voiced sounds) | /ɪd/ (after t and d) |
|---|---|---|
| picked, washed, processed, cooked, shipped, reached, mixed, stopped | mined, dried, employed, weighed, poured, turned, cleaned, filled | harvested, exported, planted, graded, needed, visited, collected, traded |
| one syllable: picked = /pɪkt/ | one syllable: mined = /maɪnd/ | extra syllable: ex-port-ed |
Tip
The throat test. Put your fingers on your throat and say the last sound of the verb without -ed. pick: the /k/ has no buzz, so picked ends in /t/. dry: the vowel buzzes, so dried ends in /d/. Only verbs ending in a /t/ or /d/ sound get the extra syllable.
Pronouncing '-ed' endings, from BBC Learning English's Learners' Questions (3 minutes). Listen for the three sounds and repeat each example after the presenter; then try the sorting exercise below.
In pairs, retell one of the fables in your own words in the past simple, as if to a younger child. Pronounce every -ed ending clearly. Finish with the message in one sentence. Then tell a Rwandan story or proverb with a similar message.
Once there was a farmer who had a very special goose. One morning he looked in her nest and noticed a heavy yellow egg. He picked it up and discovered that it was pure gold! Every day the goose laid another one, and the farmer sold them and became rich. But he wanted more and more. One day he killed the goose, because he wanted all the gold at once. He opened it and found nothing. So the message is: if you are too greedy, you can lose everything you have. It reminds me of the proverb Akabando k'iminsi gacibwa kare ("the walking stick for old age is cut early"): look after your wealth for tomorrow.
Write a short modern fable (100 to 130 words) set in Rwanda, about one resource: a fish pond, a tea field, a forest, a phone shop or a talent. Show a character who uses the resource well or badly, and end with a stated message in one line. Use at least six regular past-tense verbs, and mark each -ed ending /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/.
The Fisherman of Lake Burera
Hakizimana owned a small boat on Lake Burera. Every evening he pulled (/d/) in enough fish for his family and sold the rest at the market. His nets had wide holes, so the young fish escaped (/t/) and grew. One year a trader offered (/d/) him double money for every fish he could catch. Hakizimana bought fine nets and emptied (/d/) the lake of fish, big and small. He counted (/ɪd/) his money happily. But the next year the lake was quiet. No young fish were left to grow, and the trader never returned (/d/).
Take the fish, but leave the lake alive.
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
