Once I had a duck that laid six eggs, but she paid no attention to them. I also had a hen that
wanted to set, so I placed the duck’s eggs in the hen’s nest. The hen could not tell a duck egg from a
hen egg, so she sat on the six eggs. Five of them hatched as fluffy ducklings. Perhaps the hen could
not tell a duckling from a chick either. Anyway, she seemed to love them.
One day when I was eating lunch, I heard the mother hen clucking. She seemed to be in great
trouble. I thought a hawk might be trying to catch her little ones. I rushed out of the house, at the
same time yelling at the top of my voice to frighten the hawk away. Then I burst out laughing. The
mother hen was running up and down on the bank of the brook, clucking and scolding while her
five baby ducklings were having a merry time swimming and diving in the water!
【題組】16. The hen was scolding because _______________.
(A) a hawk was about to catch her chicks (B) the ducklings were f ighting
(C) the ducklings were hungry (D) the ducklings were swimming in the brook