The Farmer and the Cats
Target Words
blood, burn, cell, contain, correct, crop, demand, equal, feed, hole, increase, lord, owe, position, raise, responsible, sight, spot, structure, whole.
blood [blʌd] n.
Blood is the red liquid in your body.
→ I cut my finger and got blood on my shirt.
burn [bəːn] v.
To burn something is to set it on fire.
→ I burned some wood in the camp fire.
cell [sɛl] n.
A cell is a small room where a person is locked in.
→ The jail cell was very small.
contain [kənˈteɪn] v.
To contain something is to have it inside.
→ The mailbox contained a letter.
correct [kəˈrɛkt] adj.
To be correct is to be right.
→ All of my answers on the test were correct.
crop [krɒp] n.
A crop is food that a farmer grows.
→ Wheat is a crop that is made into bread.
demand [dɪˈmɑːnd] v.
To demand something is to say strongly that you want it.
→ The workers demanded to be paid more money.
equal [ˈiːkw(ə)l] adj.
To be equal is to be the same.
→ Both students are equal in age.
feed [fiːd] v.
To feed is to give food.
→ Mother feeds my baby brother everyday.
hole [həʊl] n.
A hole is an opening in something.
→ The man was going to jump into the hole in the ice.
increase [ˈɪŋkriːs] v.
To increase something is to make it larger or more.
→ They’ve increased the price of gas by 15 cents!
lord [lɔːd] n.
Long ago, a lord was a man in charge of a town.
→ The lord of the town was not kind.
owe [əʊ] v.
To owe is to have to pay or give back something received from another.
→ I owed him twenty dollars, so I paid him back.
position [pəˈzɪʃ(ə)n] n.
A position is the way something is placed.
→ How can you sit in that position?
raise [reɪz] v.
To raise something is to lift it up.
→ We had to work together to raise the last piece.
responsible [rɪˈspɒnsɪb(ə)l] adj.
If a person is responsible, they do the right things.
→ I try to be responsible and save money.
sight [sʌɪt] n.
A sight is something interesting to see.
→ I saw the pyramids of Egypt. What a sight!
spot [spɒt] n.
A spot is a place where something happens.
→ The kitchen is a good spot to eat meals.
structure [ˈstrʌktʃə] n.
A structure is a building.
→ They just built a beautiful new structure downtown.
whole [həʊl] adj.
Whole means all of something.
→ I ate the whole pie. We don’t have any more.
Arthur was a responsible farmer, and Maria was a nice lady. But they were poor. They owed the town lord money for their land. One summer, their farm burned. One structure caught fire, and most of the animals ran away. Only the cats stayed. So Arthur and Maria had to bring in their crops without an animal’s help.
On a fall day, the lord demanded his money. Arthur asked if the lord could wait until he brought in his crops.
The lord was angry. He raised his hands high and yelled, “Pay me by the end of the week. If you don’t, I will increase the money you have to pay. I might put you in a jail cell.”
So Arthur and Maria worked until there was blood on their hands. They finished four lines of corn and went to bed.
But the next morning, eight lines were finished! “Maria, didn’t we stop in this spot here?” Arthur asked.
“Yes, that is correct. And the tools were in a different position, too,” Maria said. They were surprised and happy. That day, they worked hard and finished five lines.
But in the morning, ten lines were done! Each day they did a lot of work. Each night, someone else did an equal amount of work. In a week, the whole field was finished. “Tomorrow I will sell the crops and pay the lord,” Arthur said. But that morning, the crops were gone. A bag was in the middle of the field. It contained money.
“Maria, let’s see who has helped us work.” Through a hole in the wall, they saw a funny sight. The cats were dancing in the field and eating corn! Now Arthur knew what had happened. The cats had worked at night! After that, Arthur was very nice to his cats and fed them lots of corn.
