Three at Dawn and Four at Dusk

    Three at Dawn and Four at Dusk
In the state of Song there was a man who kept monkeys．He was very fond of monkeys and kept a large number of them．He could understand the monkeys and they could also understand him．He reduced the amount of food for his own family in order to satisfy them on keys' demands．After a while his family did not have enough to eat，so he wanted to limit the food for the monkeys．But he was afraid that the monkeys would not submit to him．Before doing that he first played a trick on them．“If I give you three chestnuts¹ in the morning and four in the evening，would that be enough？”he asked the monkeys．All the monkeys rose up in a fury．After a short time he said，“If I give you four chestnuts in the morning and three in the evening，would that be enough？”
    All the monkeys were very happy and acclaimed² this proposal．Exercises：
    回答下列问题：
    ① Why did he reduce the amount of food for his own family？
    ② Then why did he want to limit the food for the monkeys？
    ③ What were the monkeys' reactions？

1 chestnuts   

n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马

参考例句：

• A man in the street was selling bags of hot chestnuts. 街上有个男人在卖一包包热栗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Talk of chestnuts loosened the tongue of this inarticulate young man. 因为栗子，正苦无话可说的年青人，得到同情他的人了。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

2 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。