TEXT 4 for question 24-27

THE MAGIC BOX

    Once upon a time, there was a poor farmer who lived with his wife. One day, he dug up this field and found a big box. He took it home with him and showed it to this wife. His wife cleaned the box and kept it in their house.

    One sunny morning his wife dropped an apple into it. Suddenly, the box began fill up with apples. No matter how many the apples were taken out, more apples took their place. So, the farmer and his wife decided to sell the apples and in short time they were able to live quite comfortably.

    One day, the farmer dropped a gold coin into the box. At once, apples disappeared and the box began to fill it self with coins. Every day, the farmer and his wife collected hundreds of gold coins from the box. Soon, they became very rich.

    Having heard that his son had gone rich, the farmer's grandfather visited the couple. He was not very strong and he could not go out to work anymore. So, the grandfather told his son that he was tired and wanted to have a rest the farmer shouted at him, “Why are you so lazy? Why can't you work harder?”

    The old man did not say anything, and continued to work until he fell into the box and suddenly, died. At once, the money disappeared on the box began to fill up with died grandfather's.

    The farmer had to pull them out and bury them. To do this, he had to spend all the money he had collected. When he had used up all the money, the box broke and the farmer was just as poor as he was before.

26. According to the writer the farmer was ....