A FARMER AND THE BIRD

A farmer came across a bird with a broken wing. He picked it up, took it home and looked
after it lovingly, even though his wife complained bitterly about his wasting too much time on
the creature.
After some time, the wing mended and, because the bird did not want the farmer to have
kept on arguing with his wife all the time, it decided to go back to its nest.
When the farmer discovered that the bird was gone, he was so upset that he went out to
look for it. Eventually, he found it again, and was greeted happily by the whole family of the
bird. As a sign of their thanks for his care and attention, the birds gave him a little box, and told
him not to open it until he got home.
To his surprise, the farmer found the box full of precious stones. When his wife saw them,
she decided that she too deserved a reward, and she went to see the birds. The birds gave her a
little casket; but this one was full of devils. The devils jumped on her as soon as she opened the
casket and chased her away.
Left alone, the farmer went to live near his friend, the bird. There he built a hut of
perfumed wood; and the birds decorated it with flowers of every kind.

Text 2.
Once upon a time, there lived a group mice under a tree in peace. However, a group of elephants
crossing the jungle unknowingly destroyed the homes of all the rats. Many of them were crushed
to death.
Then the king of rats decided to approach the elephant’s chief and request him to guide
his herd through another route. On hearing the sad story, the elephant’s king apologized and
agreed to take another route. And so the lives the rats were saved.
One day elephant hunters came to the jungle and tripped a group of elephants in huge
nets. Then the elephant king suddenly remembered the king of rats. He summoned one of the
elephant of his herd which had not been trapped, to go seek help from the king and told him
about the trapped elephants.
The rat’s king immediately took his entire group of rats and they cut the nets which had
trapped the elephant’s herd. The elephant’s herd was totally set free. They danced with joy and
thanked the rats.

Text 3 : The Good Stepmother

The old witch locked Hansel in a cage and set Gretel to clean the house. She planned to eat
them both. Each night the children cried and begged the witch to let them go.
Meanwhile, at home, their stepmother was beginning to wish she had never tried to get rid of the
children. “I must find them,” she said and set off into the forest.
Many hours later, when her feet were tired from walking and her lips were dry from thirst,
she came to the cottage belonging to the witch. The stepmother peeped though the window. Her
heart cried out when she saw the two children.
She picked up the broom leaning against the door and crept inside. The witch was putting
some stew in the oven when the stepmother gave her an almighty push. The witch fell into the
oven and the stepmother shut the door.
‘Children, I have come to save you,’ she said hugging them tightly. I have done a dreadful
thing.
I hope in time you will forgive me. Let me take you home and become a family again. They
returned to their home and the stepmother became the best mother anyone could wish to have,
and of course they lived happily ever after!
 The Lion and The mouse
Once when a lion was asleep, a little mouse began up and down upon him; this soon
awoke the lion, who placed his huge paw upon the mouse, and opened his big jaws to swallow
him.
“Pardon, O King “cried the little mouse “forgive me this time. I shall never forget it:
who knows I may be able to do you a good turn some of these days? ”. The lion was so tickled at
the idea of the mouse being able to help him. Then he lifted up his paw and let him go.
On day the lion was caught in a trap. Some hunters who to carry him alive to the king,
tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him in. Just then the little mouse
happened to pass by and see the sad plight in which the lion was. The little mouse went up to him
and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the king of the beats. Soon the little mouse had
finished growing away the ropes, he asked the lion to run away.

a bear and a rabbit

Once upon a time there lived as neighbors, a bear and a rabbit. The rabbit was a good shot, and
the bear, being very clumsy, could not use the arrow to good advantage. The bear would call over
the rabbit, and asked the rabbit to take his bow and arrows and came with the bear to the other
side of the hill. The rabbit, fearing to arouse the bear’s anger by refusing, consented and went
with the bear and shot enough buffaloes to satisfy the hungry family. Indeed he shot and killed so
many that the was lots of meat left after the bear and his family had loaded themselves, and
packed all they could carry home. The bear was gluttonous and did not want the rabbit to get
any of the meat, so the poor rabbit could not even taste the blood from butchering. As the bear
would throw e blood and dry it up. Poor rabbit would have to go home hungry after his hard
day’s work.
The bear was the father of five children. The youngest child was very kind to the rabbit. The
mother bear, knowing that her youngest child was very hearty eater, always gave him an extra
large piece of meat, but the youngest child didn’t eat. He would take with him and pretend to
play ball with it, kicking it toward the rabbit’s house. When he got close to the door, he would
give the meat with such a great kick, that it would fly into the rabbit’s house, and in this way the
poor rabbit would get his meal unknown to the papa bear.

The Magic Box

Once upon a time, there was a poor farmer who lived with his wife. One day, he dug up his field
and found a big box. He took it home with him and showed it to his wife. His wife cleaned the
box and kept it in their house.
One sunny morning his wife dropped an apple into it. Suddenly the box began fill up with
apples. No matter how many the apples were taken out, more apples took their place, So the
farmer and his wife decide to sell the apples and in short time they were able to live quite
comfortably.
One day, the farmer dropped a gold coin into the box. At once, apples disappeared and the
box began to fill itself with coins. Every day, the farmer and his wife collected hundreds of gold
coins from the box. Soon they became very rich.
Having heard that his son had gone rich, the farmer’s grandfather visited the couple. He was
not very strong and he could not go out to work anymore. So the farmer asked the old man to
help him take the money out of the box. When his grandfather told his son that he was tired and
wanted to have arrest, the farmer shouted at him,” why are you so lazy? Why can’t you work
harder?”
The old man didn’t say anything, and continued to work until he fell into the box and
suddenly died. At once, the money disappeared and the box began to fill up with dead
grandfathers.
The farmer had to pull them out and bury them. To do this, he had to spend all the money he
had collected. When he had used up all the money, the box broke and the farmer was just as poor
as he was before.
 THE EARLY LIFE OF BARACK OBAMA
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was a Kenyan
named Barack Obama, Sr (Senior). His mother was a White American named Ann Dunham. His
parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. His father returned to Kenya
and saw him only once more before he died in an automobile accident in 1982.

After the divorce, Obama’s mother then married an Indonesian, Lolo Soentoro. The family then
moved to his stepfather’s home country in 1967. Obama attended local schools in Jakarta until he
was ten years old.

Obama returned to Honolulu in 1971. He lived with his maternal grandparents until his
graduation from high school in 1979. After that, Obama moved to Los Angeles and studied at
Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. He was selected as an editor of the law review
based on his grade and writing competition. In 1990, he became the first Black president of the
Harvard Law Review. He graduated with J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard in 1989.
Source: www.en.wikipedia.org

SANGKURIANG

A long time ago, the ancient land of Sunda was ruled by a king and queen who had but a single
daughter. Her name was Dayang Sumbi. She was beautiful and clever but also pampered and spolited.

One day as she was weaving in her pavilion, she became moody and distracted, which caused her to
keep dropping her shuttle on the floor. Once when it fell she exclaimed she would marry the one who
gave it back to her. At that very moment her dog Tumang, a demigod possessing magic powers, came up
to her with the shuttle in his mouth. Dayang Sumbi had to marry him.

They lived happily together, and Dayang Sumbi gave birth to a baby boy, human in appearance but
endowed with his father’s magic powers. She named him Sangkuriang. As the boy grew up, he was
always guarded by the faithful dog Tumang, whom he knew only as a companion and not as his father,
Sangkuriang became handsome and brave.

One day his mother asked him to go hunting with the dog and bring her venison for a feast. After
hunting all day without success, Sangkuriang worried about facing his mother empty-handed. Desperate,
he took an arrow and shot the dog. He returned home and handed over the meat to his pleased mother.
Soon after the feast, however, Dayang Sumbi questioned her son about the absence of Tumang. At first he
evaded her queries but finally told her what had happened. She was horrified and struck her son so hard
on the temple that he collapsed. For that, the old king banished his daughter from the court and she was
made to roam around the kingdom. Sangkuriang recovered with a large scar on his temple, and he too left
the court to wander about the world.

Years later, Sangkuriang met a beautiful woman and instantly fell in love with her. It was his own
mother-they did not recognize each other. He pro posed to her and she agreed to marry him. On the day
before the wedding, as she was caressing her fiancee’s hair, Dayang Sumbi detected the scar on the
temple. Horror struck her, for she was about to marry her own son, Sangkuriang. Without revealing the
whole truth to him, she tried unsuccessfully to dissuade him. Desperate to avoid the marriage, she set
conditions she thought impossible to meet. Sangkuriang had to make a lake that filled the whole valpley
and build a boat for the couple to sail in, all before dawn.

Sangkuriang started to work. His love gave him extraordinary strength, and he used his magic powers
to summon the spirits to help him. With boulders and mud they dammed the river in the valley and the
water rose and began to form a lake. In the early morning hours he chopped down a huge tree in the forest
and began hollowing it out to make a boat. When Dayang Sumbi saw that he was about to accomplish
what she has thought impossible, she called on the gods to bring the sun up early and thwart Sangkuriang.

The cock crowed, the sun rose much earlier than usual, and Sangkuriang realized he had been
deceived. In a fit of fury he caused Dayang Sumbi and kicked the half-finished boat back into the forest.
There it lies upside down today, forming the mountain Tangkuban Perahu (Upturned Boat). Not far away
is the stump of the tree Sangkuriang had felled, now called Bukit Tinggi. The dam Sangkuriang had built
caused the valley to become a lake, where both Sangkuriang and Dayang Sumbi drowned themselves.
They were never heard of again. (taken from All Around Bandung – Gottfrid Roelcke, Gary Crabb).
 JACK AND THE BEENS
Once upon a time there was a poor widow who had an only son named Jack. They were
so poor that they didn't have anything except a cow. When the cow had grown too old, his
mother sent Jack to the market to sell it. On the way to the market, Jack met a butcher who had
some beautiful beans in his hand. The butcher told the boy that the beans were of great value and
persuaded the silly lad to sell the cow for the beans.
Jack brought them, happily. When he told his mother about this, his mother became so
angry that she threw the beans out of the window.
When Jack woke up in the morning, he felt the sun shining into a pan of his room, but all the rest
was quite dark and shady.
So he jumped to the window. What did he see? The beanstalk grew up quite close past
Jack’s window. He opened the window and jumped to the beanstalk which ran up just like a big
ladder
He climbed and climbed till at last he reached the sky. While looking around, he saw a very huge
castle. He was very amazed.
Then Jack walked along the path leading to the castle. There was a big tail woman on the
doorstep. Jack greeted her and asked for the giantess mercy to give him breakfast, because he fell
very hungry. Although the giantess grumbled at first, finally she gave Jack a hunk of bread and
cheese and a jug of milk.
Jack hadn't finished when the whole house began to tremble with the noise of someone's
coming. "Oh! It's my husband!" cried the giantess. "What on earth shall I do?"
Hastily the giantess opened a very big cupboard and hid Jack there.

The Rabbit Revenge

Long, long ago a rabbit and lion were neighbors. The lion was very proud, and was fond
of boasting about his strength. And thought they were such close neighbors, the lion look down
upon the rabbit, and use to bully and frighten her. Finally, the rabbit could stand it no longer and
wanted to get her own back.
One day she went to the lion and said,” Good day, respected elder brother. Image it, I met
an animal over there who looked exactly like you, and he said to me, ‘Is there anyone in the
world who dares stand up to me? If there is, let me come and have a duel with me. If there is no
one, all of you have to submit to my rule and be my servants!” “Oh, he was an intolerable
braggart! He is so puffed up with pride that his eyes can’t even light on anymore!” added the
rabbit.
“Oho,” the lion said. “Didn’t you mention me to him?”
“Yes, indeed, “the rabbit replied. “But it would have been better if I hadn’t. When I
described how strong you were, he just sneered and said dreadfully rude things. He even went so
far as to say that he wouldn’t take you for his attendant!”
The lion flew into a rage and roared, “Where is he? Where is he?”
Soon the rabbit took the lion a hill and, not going to near herself, pointed to a well from a
distance, and said,”He is down there, in the well.”
The lion hastened to the well and glared angrily into it. Yes there was his rival who even
glared back at him angrily. The lion roared, and his enemy roared back. The lion become so
furious that his hair stood on end. So did his enemy on the well. The lion show his teeth and
lashed out with his paws to scare his rival and his enemy in the well retaliated! In a fit of anger
the lion sprang into the air with all his might and then flung himself at the enemy in the well. The
result was that the proud lion was instantly drowned.