Fable · Level 2 · 168 words

The Borrowed Ladder

Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.

Two farmers, Brek and Tomas, kept orchards on the same slope. Neither owned every tool an orchard needs, so they borrowed from each other, as country people do.

Brek treated a borrowed tool better than his own. He returned a ladder the evening he finished with it, and once, finding a rung cracked, he mended it before carrying it back. Tomas returned things when he was asked, and sometimes only when he was asked twice. The saw came back dull. The cart came back with a loose wheel and no word about it.

One autumn, frost was coming, and both men still had apples on the trees. The tallest ladder on the slope belonged to the widow Maren, and both men knocked at her door that morning.

She did not think long. "Brek brings things back," she said. "He may take it now. Tomas may have it after, if the frost waits."

Every borrowed tool is a test, and you do not choose when the grade is given.

Comprehension questions

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4 questions
1. What lesson does this fable teach?

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B. How you return what you borrow decides what you are trusted with later.
Maren's choice at the door only announces a grade earned over years of returns. The moral states it directly: every borrowed tool is a test.

2. Why does Maren decide so quickly at the door?

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D. Years of watching returned tools have already told her whom to trust.
The passage shows no promise and no record book. Her four-word reason, "Brek brings things back," points to the habits described earlier, which the whole slope could see.

3. In this passage, "mended" most nearly means

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A. repaired
Brek finds a cracked rung and mends it before carrying the ladder back: he fixes the damage. Replacing or painting the ladder would not answer the crack.

4. What was wrong with the cart when Tomas returned it?

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C. It had a loose wheel, and he said nothing about it.
The text says "The cart came back with a loose wheel and no word about it." The dull edge belongs to the saw, and the cracked rung to the ladder Brek fixed.

Source: Written for Fluency. Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.