The boy with the best idea.
A long, long time ago a man with an elephant came to a village. This was the first time the people of the village had seen an elephant, and they wanted to know the weight of the elephant. But everybody had different ideas about it. Each of them said that he was right and the others were wrong.
They tried to think of a plan by which they could know how much the elephant weighed. But they could not find any.
Then a boy said,’’ I have a plan and I can tell you how much the elephant weighs; please let me try it.’’
The people of the village did not want to listen to the boy. ‘’How can he find a plan when we, old people, cannot?’’ they said. But they decided to let him try.
The boy first told them to put the elephant in a big boat. The boy then made a mark on the side of the boat where the water reached. Then he told them to take the elephant out of the boat, and the boat rose in the water.
After that, he collected some large stones and told the people to put them in the boat. The boat began to go down again till at last the water came up to the mark on the side. This showed that the stones in the boat were of the same weight as the elephant.
It was then very easy to weigh the stones. So the people knew how much the elephant weighed.
weight- вага
weigh- важити
reach-досягати
the same-однаковий