Practice - Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

Name
Practice
Literary Elements:
Moral and Metaphor
A fable is a short story that teaches a lesson, or moral. One particular
kind of fable is the trickster fable. Metaphor is a type of figurative
language that compares things or actions without using like or as.
Read the fable. Then answer the questions.
A crow kept an eye on a family having a picnic. While she waited for
them to fi nish she took a dip in a pond and spent a long time looking at her
refl ection in the water. When her stomach grumbled, she returned to the
picnic site. The family had left but left a piece of cheese behind. She clamped
the cheese in her beak and fl ew to a branch. Then a fox appeared and smelled
the cheese. He soon spotted the crow. The fox fl attered the crow: “Your
feathers must be of the fi nest onyx.” Next, the fox asked to hear her sweet
voice that surely must match her magnifi cent feathers. The crow opened her
beak to sing and dropped the cheese. The fox scooped up the cheese and ate
it. He told her to think before she acts.
1. Write the moral of this fable.
2. Why does the trickster decide to trick the other character?
3. Give an example of the use of metaphor.
4. Describe the trick.
144
The Catch of the Day
Grade 5/Unit 4
At Home: Write a trickster fable. Make sure you include a
metaphor and a moral.
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