The central idea of this excerpt is that the goatherd wants the wild goats to join his herd. The goatherd's actions of feeding the wild goats more abundantly in hopes of enticing them to stay illustrate his desire to gain their loyalty. The wild goats’ response highlights their awareness of the goatherd's potential for favoritism, which further reinforces this central idea.
Read the excerpt from "The Goatherd and the Wild Goats.”
He gave his own goats just sufficient food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own.
When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the Wild Goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains.
The Goatherd scolded them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd.
One of them, turning about, said to him: "That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us better than the Goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would in the same manner prefer them to ourselves.”
What is the central idea of this excerpt?
The goatherd wants the wild goats to join his herd.
The bad weather keeps all the goats in their enclosure.
The goatherd gives his own goats just enough food to survive.
The wild goats leave because the goatherd mistreats his own goats.
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