Key words : gracious noble deserve hospitality ungrateful echo vicious leathery vain

A. Look at the picture.

1. What do you see?
2. How do the three birds look?
3. Why do you think they look so?
4. Who looks very happy? Can you guess why?

B. Read more about the three birds and find out about their fate. Work in pairs and write the answers to the questions that follow.

"What?" cried the bat. "Is that all you have to say to our gracious host? Is he not the wisest, bravest and most generous of all animals and birds? Don't you have praise for his noble character as well as for his goodness to us? I am ashamed of you! You do not deserve such hospitality. You do not deserve this shelter."

"You are an ungrateful bird, and the bat is right. You do not deserve this generous hospitality which I have offered. Get out! Be off, I say!"said the owl. "Yes, get lost!" echoed the bat, flapping his leathery wings. The two heartless creatures fell upon the poor little dove and drove her out into the dark and stormy night. But the owl and the bat did not go unpunished for their act of heartlessness. The bat can never fly in broad daylight. He has to wait for the sun to go down. And do you know what happened to the vain owl? Well, he is blind as long as the sun is up. He cannot hunt or feed himself unless it is dark. So the two vicious creatures with their dark heart live in the dark.

On the other hand, the dove is rewarded for her truthfulness. Her name shall be used by poets as long as the world lasts to rhyme with "LOVE". 

(Adapted from The Curious Book of Birds by Abbie Farwell Brown)

Questions
   1 Why did the bat say that he was ashamed of the dove?
   2 Why was the owl angry with the dove?
   3 What did the owl and the bat do to the dove? 4 How were the bat and the owl punished at the end?
   5 What reward did the dove get?

C. Make a list of the words used in the story to describe the three birds. add some of your own words.

     Owl      :
     Bat       :
     Dove    :

D. Discuss in groups and write the moral of the story.