The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs

Text of the audio

Aesop's Fables

The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs

A man and his wife had the good fortune to possess a goose which laid a golden egg every day.

Lucky though they were, they soon began to think that they were not getting rich fast enough, and imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, they decided to kill it in order to secure the whole store of precious metal at once.

But when they cut it open, they found it was just like any other goose.

Thus, they neither got rich all at once as they had hoped, nor enjoyed any longer the daily addition to their wealth.

Much wants more and loses all.

Source: Librivox

Note on intonations

You should pay attention to the following intonations:

Falling tone on the main word of a thought group or on the last stressed word of a sentence, for example:

• The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs
• A man and his wife had the good fortune to possess a goose
• which laid a golden egg every day

Rising tone, for example:

• and imagining the bird must be made of gold inside,
• Thus, they neither got rich all at once

Sentence stress on a content word, for example:

• A man and his wife had the good fortune to possess a goose
• But when they cut it open,
• Much wants more and loses all.

Strong sentence stress on the main word of a thought group, for example:

• Lucky though they were,
• they decided to kill it
• Much wants more and loses all.

Emphasis stress, for example:

• and imagining the bird must be made of gold inside,