A Merchant and His Gold

Test

Task 1

Read the text attentively and answer the questions that follow after it:

A Merchant and His Gold

Many years ago a merchant had to go from one town to another. There were fifteen people with him. One day they made a camp near a river. Suddenly the merchant came out of his tent and cried, “Who took my bag of gold? There are fifteen men with me. One of you took the gold!” nobody answered.

“All right”, said the merchant, “Do you see my white horse? It’s a very clever horse. It will help me to find the thief. I shall put my horse into my tent. Then every man will come into the tent and pull the tail of the horse. When the thief pulls the tail, the horse will neigh”.

The first man went into the tent. The horse did not neigh. Then another man went in, then another. The horse did not neigh. The last man went in, the horse did not neigh.

The merchant said, “Now everybody must come up to me”. The merchant went to the first man and put his face to the man’s hands.

Then he came up to the second man and did the same…

He came up to the twelfth man, put his face to the man’s hands and cried, “You are the thief. Give me my gold back!”

The man felt down and said, “Yes, I did it. I took your gold and put it in the grass behind that big tree”.

A few days passed. The merchant with his people came to their town. One of his people asked the merchant, “Your horse may be very clever, but it did not neigh. How did you know who was the thief?”

“Oh”, said the merchant, “I know that my horse never neighs. I put some strong smelling oil on its tail. Everybody pulled the tail, but the thief did not pull it. His hands didn’t smell of oil”.

I.B. Answer the questions:

1. Where did the merchant have to go? ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________

2. Why was the merchant angry when he came out of his tent? ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________

3. What was the merchant going to do? ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________

4. Why did he put his face to every man’s hands? ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________

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