Fundamentals of Speech 1/ESL
Fall Semester 2009
Prof. Richard Green
The Fox and the Grapes
In an Original Composition
Professor Richard Green © 2009, All Rights Reserved
Old
Fables Teach New Maxims By Richard Green
A Poem (trans.
from the Korean above)
No matter how high the mountain is,
it is below the sky.
Anyone who tries hard
to climb up the mountain
can make it to the top.
But even without trying to climb up,
they say
"That mountain is too high."
http://www.profgreen.tv/FoxAndGrapes.ram
Use Real Video To
Read and Sing Along
Do you know what “sour grapes” means?
Did you know this comes from Aesop
who was
thinking of the story
of a hungry
fox he knew.
One evening a fox set off
hunting for some
food to eat
when he saw a
rich man’s garden
with a trellis
covered with vines.
Among the vine leaves hung a bunch
of grapes
that caught the fox’ eye,
“Hmmmmmm!”
said the fox,
I will have some of those grapes
on my plate
by dinnertime.
So fox crouched down and then leapt up
to grab the
closest overhead
but though he
tried and leapt and jumped
he just grew
hungrier with each leap.
“So!” snarled the angry fox,
“Nasty sour things you are
I wouldn’t eat you if you fell
from the
branches of the vines
for then you’d
be too cheap for me!”
So fox left the hanging grapes
in search of
something else to eat
and now you
know what some people say
about the things
they wish they had:
“Sour Grapes, I didn’t want them any
way!”
The Fox and the Grapes
An Original Composition By
JRGreen, Int’l Video
and Speech
Communication © 2009, All Rights Are Reserved