My English 8 Sindh textbook board
Unit: 1.1: Friends
in Trouble (Reading)
There lived two close friends, Basit and Raheel, in a village near Hyderabad. In
school, they studied together and in the evening both friends enjoyed playing cricket
together. On weekends, they usually went to the nearby canal for fishing. Often, they
also went on long walks in the nearby forest because they liked listening to the birds
chirping, watching the animals at play, and looking at the beautiful flowers. They
always enjoyed each other's company. They laughed, joked and had a great time
the whole day.
Basit was a kind and helpful boy by nature. Moreover, his parents had always taught
him to be a kind, sympathetic, helpful and sincere person. He behaved very nicely
with all his friends, but he had a special place in his heart for Raheel. Basit always
helped Raheel with his homework. He was always willing to guide and help him
whenever he faced any difficulty or problem. He also happily gave one of his fish to
Raheel when he failed to catch any because, luckily, Basit often managed to catch
more fish than Raheel. Although Basit was very active and very intelligent, he was
not good at climbing trees. Raheel, on the other hand, was very good at climbing
trees, as he had a tall tree in his house, which he had been climbing from an early
age.
One day, Raheel and Basit decided to go to the nearby forest to enjoy the natural
beauty. Being nature lovers, they kept walking along the path of the forest, all the
time talking and enjoying the natural beauty all around them. They were so curious
about everything that they just kept on following whatever caught their attention, not
realizing that they had wandered deep into the forest. Suddenly, they realized that
they had lost their way; they became very worried because their parents and the
villagers had often told them about the dangerous beasts living in the forest.
However, they decided to remain calm and promised not to leave each other in case
of danger.
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They kept walking through the forest, trying to find their way back home. But all their
efforts were in vain. All of a sudden, they saw a huge, black bear coming towards
them. They got frightened. This is where Raheel showed his selfish nature and said,
“Look Basit, we are in great trouble. As I see it, we have only two choices, either we
climb on a tree and save ourselves or we start running. Since I am good at climbing,
I'm going to climb a tree. As you do not know how to climb, it would be a good idea for
you to run as quickly as you can to save your life.”
Basit was extremely shocked to hear this. He had never expected that his friend
would abandon him like this because he loved and trusted his friend sincerely. As
the bear came nearer, Basit was paralyzed with fear. Finding no other way, he
quickly lay flat on the ground, stopped breathing, and pretended to be dead. When
the bear reached him, it smelt his body, probably thought he was dead, and did not
touch him. Soon the bear just walked away.
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After a while, Basit heard his friend coming down the tree and guessed that the bear
had gone away. He stood up and looked at Raheel angrily. But Raheel, instead of
feeling ashamed or apologizing to his friend for having abandoned him, just asked
excitedly, “Basit, what did the bear whisper in your ear?” From his position high up in
the tree, he had seen that the bear had brought its face close to Basit's head and
thought that the bear had said something to his friend.
Basit looked at his friend angrily and replied, “He advised me not to trust a friend who
leaves his friend at the time of danger.” Hearing this, Raheel felt embarrassed. He
did not know what to say and started to walk away. Basit followed him silently. Since
Raheel had seen the way out from the top of the tree, both friends quickly got out of
the forest and reached their homes.
While Reading
Exercise 1
If you are asked to select another topic for the story from the following list, which
one would you choose?
a) Beautiful friends are a blessing
b) A beautiful forest
c) A friend in need is a friend indeed
d) A kind bear
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