Kitchen Gods
Once upon a time, there was a childless couple. The wife was faithful and loved the husband passionately while the husband was treated his wife badly. One day he beat the poor wife with a stick and dismissed her from home. The women had to come to another place. She then got married with a kind man, and they lived in harmony.
One afternoon when her husband had gone for hunting, a beggar came and asked for some food. The woman was kind; she filled the poor beggar’s bag and recognized that the beggar was her former husband. The man also recognized his wife then. She felt sorry for the man when hearing that from the day he dismissed her, he was deeply sad and regretful. So he decided to go away to find her until he spent all money and became a beggar.
After being offered a big meal, the man was drunk so the woman had to drag him out and hid him in a stack because it was time for her recent husband to come back from the forest.
After a while, there was a knock at the door, the hunter appeared with a deer on his back. He then happily asked the woman to go to the market to prepare for the dinner. When the woman came back, she found that the stack of straw, where the drunk former husband was sleeping, had been burned with a deer roasted. She cried painfully, and then jumped into the fire. The hunter didn’t know what had happened and what to do but jumped into the fire to die beside his wife.
At that moment, God was in the heaven, he was moved by the story so he turned three of them into three parts of the earthen tripod so that they could live side by side forever and conferred them with the title of Kitchen Gods to oversee all the cooking of people. Every year, they all together came back to the heaven on the 23rd of the 12th lunar month to report to God.
Task 1: Match a word in column A with its definition in column B, writing the answer in each blank.
Answer A B
______ 51. childless (adj) A. to give an official title or honour to somebody ______ 52. dismiss (v) B. having no children
______ 53. moved (adj) C. to watch something to make sure that it is don correctly
______ 54. confer (v) D. having strong feelings of sadness or sympathy ______ 55. oversee (v) E. to order somebody to leave
Task 2: Read the passage again, and then answer the following questions.
56. Why did the wife have to leave for another place?
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57. What did the former husband do after dismissing his wife from home?
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58. Why did the wife jump into the fire?
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59. What did the hunter do then?
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60. Why did God turn them into three parts of the earthen tripod?
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Task 3: Read again, and then complete the details of the legend by filling in each blank with a suitable word or phrase or not more than four words.
Main characters Character 1: The wife. She was kind, and (61)_____________.
Character 2: The former husband. He treated his wife badly, but after that he felt (62)__________________.
Character 3: The recent husband (the hunter). He was kind and (63)____________ his wife very much.
Plot: beginning Once upon a time, there was a childless couple. The husband treated his wife badly. One day he beat the poor wife and dismissed her from home.
The women had to (64)____________. She then got married with a kind man, and they (65)_______________.
Plot: middle One afternoon, when her husband had gone for hunting, a beggar cam and asked for some food. The woman recognized that the beggar as her former husband. She (66)___________ her former husband when hearing that from the day he dismissed her, he was deeply sad and regretful. Therefore, he (67)______________ to find her until he spent all money and became a beggar.
After a big meal, the man was drunk so the woman had to pull him out and hid him in a stack of straw (68)___________ time for her recent husband to come back from the forest.
Plot: end The hunter appeared with a deer on his back. He then happily asked the woman to go to the market to prepare for the dinner.
When the woman came back, she found that the stack of straw, where her drunk former husband was sleeping, had been burned with a deer roasted. She cried painfully, and then (69)____________. The hunter didn’t know what had happened and (70)______________ but jumped into the fire to die beside his wife.
God turned three of them into three part of the earthen tripod so that they could live side by side forever and conferred them at Kitchen Gods to oversee all the cooking of people.