Read the story and answer the questions below.
The Magical Unicorn
A rather special goat lives in an animal park in California. The little white animal has just one horn in the middle of its head. It is very friendly and walks on a leash. It can also do several tricks. Some people believe that this goat is like the mythical unicorn. The word unicorn means "one horn." And the owners of the goat say that they followed a 4,000-year-old secret to get the animal. Others say that the unusual goat is just an accident of nature.
The storybook unicorn was a stranger sight than the one-horned goat. Some pictures do show the unicorn with the body of a goat. But most show it with the body of a horse. Sometimes the unicorn is described as all white. Other stories say it had a white body, a red head, and blue eyes. In all the stories, the unicorn has a long, twisted horn in the center of its forehead. In India, even the horn was said to be brightly colored. It was white at the bottom, black in the middle, and red at the tip. What an unusual and colorful creature the unicorn was!
In most tales, the unicorn was swift and powerful. Even today in Scotland and England, the unicorn is a symbol of the royal family. It appears on a special shield called a coat-of-arms. In Chinese stories, the unicorn was also peaceful and gentle. It brought good luck. In most other countries, however, the unicorn was fierce and wild. It wanted to be alone, far away from people.
The horn of a unicorn was magical. It was ground up to make strong medicines. These could cure many illnesses. Kings used the unicorn's horn as a drinking cup. The horn was said to make poisons harmless. The unicorn's horn could also purify water. According to some stories, animals would wait by a dirty stream for the unicorn to come along. The unicorn would touch the dirty water with its horn. Then the animals could safely drink. If this legend were true, we could use the unicorn's help today!
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Some people call the California goat an accident of nature because it:
a. is different from other goats
b. is an ancient unicorn
c. likes people
d. can do tricks
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2.
The people who own the one-horned goat: 3.
The word unicorn means: 4.
In Chinese stories, the unicorn was not: |
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5. In most countries, the
unicorn stayed away from people because it was: 6. A symbol is: 7.
Kings wanted to drink from the horn of a unicorn because: 8. To purify water means to: a. make it dirty 9. The unicorn's magical
horn could help us today by: 10. The main idea of the
story is that: |
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