1.Do you think the tongue a good thing or a bad thing？Some say good，some say bad.Here is a very old story about the tongue，which may help you to answer the question.
2.Perhaps you have heard of ？sop，who wrote so many clever fables.He lived many centuriesago in a country called of his wisdom he was a great favourite with his master.
3.One day his master ordered him to go to the market and buy the best things he could find；for he was giving a dinner-party，and he wanted to have the best of everything for his guests .
4.？sop went accordingly，and bought a large number of tongues，which he ordered the cook to serve up with different sauces.When dinner came，the first.
5.“Did I not order you，”said the master，“to buy the best things in the market？”
6.“Well，then，”said his master，thinking to puzzle him，“go to the market to-morrow and buy me the worst things you can find.The same company will dine with me，and I want a change.”
7.The next day came，and，lo，when dinner was served-tongues，tongues，tongues！
The master was more surprised than before，andasked ？sop to explain why he had again bought nothing but tongues.
8.“Master，”said the clever slave，“tongues are the worst things in the world.The tongue is the cause of allstrife，the inventoof law-suits quarrels.It is the speaker of error，of falsehood，and ofslander .”
9.The slave was right after all，was he not？The tongue is either good or bad，according to the way in which we use it.If a man is good，his tongue will also be good；and if a man‘s tongue is bad，we know by this that the man himself is bad.