38 THE PROUD LEAVES

A big tree grew in a meadow.

Green leaves grew on the tree.

One day they said to the sun,

“How beautiful we are!

We make the tree beautiful.

What would the tree be if it had no leaves?

We make a cool shade, too.

Boys and girls play in our shade.

They swing and laugh and sing.

All the birds fly into the tree.

They sing to us,

‘Tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet.’

See their little nests all around us!

The wind sings through us.

It says, ‘Oo-oo-o-o! oo-oo-o-o! oo-oo-o-o! ' ”

So the leaves felt very proud.

All at once they heard a soft little voice far below.

It said, “Leaves, we help the tree, too.”

“Who are you? ”said the leaves.

“We are the roots, ”said the voice.

“We get food for you.

You are beautiful, but you die.

New leaves come every spring.

But we live on and on.

If we should die, the great tree would die, too.”

The leaves said, “You do help the tree, kind roots.

We will not forget you again.”

(Russian Tale)

Word list

cool: a little bit cold

roots: the part of a tree below the surface of the ground which gathers water

You Practice

A) Answer the following questions.

1) What are two reasons why the leaves were proud?

2) How does the wind sing through the leaves?

3) Who spoke to the leaves in a soft, little voice?

4) What do the leaves learn from the roots?

5) What lesson could you learn from this story?

B) Nouns and verbs—Nouns are words that name a person, place, or thing.Cat,house,playground, and paper are nouns. Verbs are words that tell about action.Run,eat,sneeze and yell are verbs. Find five more nouns and verbs from the story and list them here.

C) What's the word? Using the clues, write the correct words from the story.

1) very nice looking: b _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2) quiet, not loud: s _ _ _

3) they grow on tree branches: l _ _ _ _ _

4) they are under the ground: r _ _ _ _

5) not to remember: f _ _ _ _ _