The Frog and the Ox
Many years ago there was a magnificent ox. One day, when he was taking an afternoon walk, a poorly dressed and unimportant looking frog saw him. The frog felt envy toward the beautiful, strong ox. But the frog yelled to his friends, “Look at this ox! But he is no better than I am, if I tried.” The frog swelled up to twice his normal size. “Am I the size of this big ox now?” he asked his frog friends. “You will have to be much bigger to be his size,” they said. The frog swelled up even bigger. “How about now?” he asked his friends. “No, but you better not swell up more or you will kill yourself,” they warned.
But the frog wanted to be as big as the ox and puffed, and puffed. He never got as big as the ox because he burst first.
- Magnificent means
- proud.
- poor.    Â
- great and good looking.
- The frog was
- green.
- poorly dressed.
- magnificent.
- The ox was
- poorly dressed.
- magnificent.
- green.
- What emotion did the frog feel toward the ox?
- envy
- pride
- fear
- The frog made himself bigger by
- doing nothing.
- eating a lot.
- swelling up his body.
- The frog’s friends told him,
- “You look as big as the ox.”
- “You look great.”
- “You need to be bigger.”
- The frog finally
- burst from puffing himself up
- was as magnificent as the ox.
- got as big as the ox.
- The lesson from this story is
- try to be bigger than you are.
- don’t try to be better.
- be yourself – don’t try to be like another.