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13 Thinking out of
the box
Warm Up
● How do you solve problems?
Do you ask others to help you? Or Do you try to solve a problem on your own?
Reading skills
Many hundreds of years ago in a small
town, a merchant had the misfortune
of owing a large sum of money to the
moneylender. The moneylender who
was old and ugly, fancied the merchant’s
beautiful daughter so he proposed a
bargain. He said he would forgo the
merchant’s debt if he could marry his
daughter. The father and daughter were
horrified by the proposal.
The moneylender told them that he would
put two pebbles in a bag-a black one and a
white one. If she picked the black pebble,
she would become the moneylender’s wife
and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
If she picked the white pebble she would
not have to marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick
a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.
They were standing on a pebble-strewn path in the merchant’s garden. As they talked, the
moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl
noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them in the bag. He then asked the
girl to pick a pebble from the bag.
119 Arrow - English Plus-7
