Behaviour, Rules and Laws
Primary 6 · English
Behaviour, Rules and Laws
Lesson 5 of 6
45 min
People often say this after something goes wrong. It is too late to change the past, but we can still learn from it.
Today's fable is one of the most famous stories in the world. It is a cousin of Syonzola's story from the first lesson of this unit. You will learn words about punishment, and a special sentence pattern for things that did not happen.
This is one of Aesop's fables, from the book The Aesop for Children (1919). Listen to it on LibriVox (read by Janet). It is the second of the four fables on that recording.
A shepherd boy looked after his master's sheep near a dark forest, not far from the village. Soon he found life in the field very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd's pipe.
One day, as he sat watching the sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do if he saw a wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.
His master had told him to call for help if a wolf attacked the flock, and the villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a wolf, he ran towards the village shouting at the top of his voice, “Wolf! Wolf!”
As he expected, the villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the field. But when they got there, they found the boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.
A few days later, the shepherd boy again shouted, “Wolf! Wolf!” Again the villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again.
Then one evening, as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the field, a wolf really did spring from the bushes and fall upon the sheep.
In terror, the boy ran towards the village shouting, “Wolf! Wolf!” But though the villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. “He cannot fool us again,” they said.
The wolf killed a great many of the boy's sheep and then slipped away into the forest.
Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.
Answer each question in your head or in your exercise book first. Then tap Show answer to check.
Why did the boy shout “Wolf!” the first time?
He was bored, and he wanted to amuse himself by tricking the villagers.
How do you think the villagers felt when they found him laughing?
Angry and fooled, because they had left their work for nothing.
Why didn't they come the last time?
They thought he was lying again.
Compare the shepherd boy with Syonzola. Give one way they are alike and one way they are different.
Alike: both lied about danger, and in the end nobody believed them. Different: Syonzola's son saved him and he changed, but the boy lost many sheep.
Read this short report, written by Ganzaa. Look at the words in bold.
Last week, a police officer stopped a moto driver on the road to Musanze. The driver's licence (the card that allows him to drive) had expired (it was too old to be valid) two months earlier. The driver was the offender (the person who broke the law). The officer warned him and gave him a fine. “If you ride again with an expired licence, you will be arrested,” she said. The driver was sorry. “If I had renewed my licence, I wouldn't have paid this fine,” he said.
| Type | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1st: real future | If + present, will + verb | If you lie again, nobody will believe you. |
| 2nd: imagined now | If + past, would + verb | If I found a lost purse, I would take it to the police. |
| 3rd: imagined past | If + had + past participle, would have + past participle | If the boy had told the truth, the villagers would have come. |
We use it to talk about the past and imagine a different result. It is often used for regrets.
You need the past participle (the third form of the verb): tell → told → told; come → came → come; lose → lost → lost; take → took → taken; believe → believed → believed.
Tip
The third conditional is a time machine that can't change anything. If + had + done travels back to the past. Would have + done shows the result that never happened.
Write your answers in your exercise book, then check.
Complete: If the boy ___ (not lie), the villagers would have helped him.
Answer: hadn't lied (had not lied)
Complete: If Syonzola had told the truth, the villagers ___ (come) quickly.
Answer: would have come
Complete: If I found a lost purse, I ___ (take) it to the police.
Answer: would take
What does offender mean?
Answer: a person who breaks a law or a rule
Write a third conditional sentence about a mistake and what you learned.
Answer: Example: If I had studied for the test, I would have got a better mark.
What you learned today
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