THE MOUSE AND THE CAKE
A mouse found a beautiful piece of plum cake,
The richest and sweetest that mortal could make;
‘There’s a noise,1 cried the mouse, ‘ ’tis my brothers at play;
So I’ll hide with the cake, lest they wander this way.’
He nibbled, and nibbled, and panted, but still
He kept gulping it down till he made himself ill;
Yet he swallowed it all, and ’tis easy to guess,
He was soon so unwell that he groaned with distress.
His family heard him, and as he grew worse,
They sent for the doctor, who made him rehearse
How he’d eaten the cake to the very last crumb,
Without giving his playmates and relatives some.
‘Ah me!’ cried the doctor, ‘advice is too late;
You must die before long, so prepare for your fate.
If you had but divided the cake with your brothers,
’Twould have done you no harm, and been good for the others.
- Eliza Cook
I. Answer each of the following questions in a sentence or two.
1. What kind of cake did the mouse find?
2. Why did the mouse want to hide with the cake?
3. How did the mouse eat the cake?
4. Why did the mouse become unwell?
5. What did the doctor tell the mouse?
6. What is the lesson you learn from the poem?
II. 1. Pick out the pairs of rhyming words in the poem.
e.g. cake - make
2. The ‘b’ in crumb is silent. Can you think of some other words?
III. Fill in the blanks appropriately, (slice, grain, bar, piece)
A............................. of cake.
A............................. of bread.
A............................. of chocolate.
A............................. of rice.
A mouse found a beautiful piece of plum cake,
The richest and sweetest that mortal could make;
‘There’s a noise,1 cried the mouse, ‘ ’tis my brothers at play;
So I’ll hide with the cake, lest they wander this way.’
He nibbled, and nibbled, and panted, but still
He kept gulping it down till he made himself ill;
Yet he swallowed it all, and ’tis easy to guess,
He was soon so unwell that he groaned with distress.
His family heard him, and as he grew worse,
They sent for the doctor, who made him rehearse
How he’d eaten the cake to the very last crumb,
Without giving his playmates and relatives some.
‘Ah me!’ cried the doctor, ‘advice is too late;
You must die before long, so prepare for your fate.
If you had but divided the cake with your brothers,
’Twould have done you no harm, and been good for the others.
- Eliza Cook
I. Answer each of the following questions in a sentence or two.
1. What kind of cake did the mouse find?
2. Why did the mouse want to hide with the cake?
3. How did the mouse eat the cake?
4. Why did the mouse become unwell?
5. What did the doctor tell the mouse?
6. What is the lesson you learn from the poem?
II. 1. Pick out the pairs of rhyming words in the poem.
e.g. cake - make
2. The ‘b’ in crumb is silent. Can you think of some other words?
III. Fill in the blanks appropriately, (slice, grain, bar, piece)
A............................. of cake.
A............................. of bread.
A............................. of chocolate.
A............................. of rice.
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