A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? But he discovered that it was a rattrap (捕鼠夹）.
Going back to the farmyard, the rat started to give a warning.
The rat turned to the pig and told him:“There is a rattrap in the house, a rattrap in the house!”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Rat,” said the pig, “I can only say this is something terrible to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered with it.”
The rat turned to the cow. But the cow said, “Like wow, Mr. Rat? A rattrap? I am in danger, Huh?”
The rat returned to the house, head down and dejected. So the rat had to face the farmer's rattrap alone.
That very night, a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a rattrap catching its prey (猎物). The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.In the darkness, she did not notice that it was a poisonous snake whose tail had been caught by the trap. The snake bit her.The farmer rushed her to hospital. She returned home with a fever. Everyone knows that a fever could be treated with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his knife to the farmyard for the soup. However, his wife's sickness continued.
The farmer's friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer killed the pig. But she didn't get well. Finally, she died, and so many people came for the last sight that the farmer had the cow killed to provide meat for all of them.
So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that the whole farmyard is at risk when there is a rattrap in the house.
小题1:From the passage we know that ______.
A．the pig helped the rat get rid of the trap
B．the cow strongly believed in what the rat said
C．no animals showed concern over the rat's warning
D．the snake was killed immediately after being caught小题2:The underlined word ‘‘dejected” is the closest in meaning to _______.
A．disappointed
B．surprised
C．irritated
D．excited小题3:We can learn from the article that _______.
A．the farmer had planned to kill the rat
B．the rat was very clever in avoiding the trap
C．the farmer's wife got good treatment in hospital
D．the rat had expected what would happen to the pig and cow小题4: What message does the story intend to pass?
A．We should mind our own business.
B．Everything is related to something else.
C．We'd better treat animals in a friendly way.
D．The farmer couple and their friends are all foolish.
