Mr Sharpe's Fish - NICHOLAS HORSBURGH

Summary: Mr Sharpe loved eating fish and often bought the finest ones from the market. One day, he brought home a beautiful fish and asked his wife, Sheena, to cook it for his dinner the next day. Sheena prepared the fish, and the delicious smell attracted her friends, who came to visit. Wanting to be polite, Sheena invited them to lunch, and together they ate all the fish.

When Mr Sharpe returned home expecting his favourite meal, Sheena served him noodles and vegetables instead, claiming that the “naughty cat” had eaten the fish. This happened again the following week—and again the week after—whenever Sheena’s friends visited and happily finished the fish.

Finally, after losing a third two-kilo fish, Mr Sharpe refused to believe Sheena’s excuse. He caught the cat and weighed it on a shop scale. The cat weighed exactly two kilos—the same as the missing fish. Mr Sharpe then asked his wife a clever question: If the cat weighs the same as the fish, and she claims the fish is the cat, then where is the real cat? Sheena had no answer, and her lie was exposed.


Exercises

A. Questions

1. What did Mr Sharpe like most of all?

Answer: Mr Sharpe liked eating fish most of all.

2. Why did Sheena's friends come to see her?

Answer: Sheena’s friends came to find out if she was well and happy, not because of the smell of the fish.

3. What did Sheena tell Mr Sharpe when he came home?

Answer: Sheena told Mr Sharpe that the “naughty cat” had eaten the fish.

4. What did Mr Sharpe get for his dinner?

Answer: Mr Sharpe got noodles and boiled vegetables for his dinner.

5. When did Mr Sharpe have a nightmare and why?

Answer: Mr Sharpe had a nightmare the night after Sheena said the cat had eaten the fish for the second time.

He dreamt he was a large fish because he was worried and frustrated about repeatedly losing his fish.

6. Why did Mr Sharper weigh the cat?

Answer: Mr Sharpe weighed the cat to prove that Sheena’s story was false. He discovered the cat weighed exactly two kilos—the same weight as the missing fish. If the fish and the cat weighed the same, he cleverly asked Sheena: “If this is my fish, then where is the real cat?”


B. Reference to context

Read these lines from the story, then answer the questions.

1. 'Not fish, by any chance?'

a. Who says these words and to whom?

Answer: One of Sheena’s friends says these words to Sheena.

b. Why was the speaker there?

Answer: She came to see if Sheena was well and happy.

c. What happened next?

Answer: Sheena invited her two friends to stay for lunch, and all three of them ate the fish, leaving only bones.


2. 'What a lovely smell! I am starving!'

a. Who says these words and to whom?

Answer: Mr Sharpe says these words to his wife, Sheena, when he comes home.

b. What was the smell?

Answer: The smell was from the fried fish that Sheena had cooked earlier.

c. What did the speaker eat? Why?

Answer: He ate noodles and boiled vegetables because Sheena and her friends had already eaten all the fish, though she pretended the “naughty cat” had eaten it.

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