Who opened the basket?

What do you think?

Soon, Pharaoh's daughter came to wash herself in the river. Her servant girls were walking near the edge of the river. Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket among the river grasses. So she sent one of her servant girls to fetch it for her. When she opened the basket, she saw the baby boy. He was crying. She was sorry for him and she said, ‘This is one of the Israelite children.’

(Exodus 2:5-6 Easy English)

Who do you think opened the basket? Was it Pharoah's daughter, or the servant girl? Why do you think that?

(Image copyright held by Aya and Nicole Velasquez, used with permission.)

When a colleague read this passage with some speakers of Aboriginal languages, they were adamant that the servant girl opened the basket. It makes complete sense – the servant girl went to get the basket, it does not say that she gave the basket to Pharaoh's daughter, and the last female mentioned before "she" is "one of her servant girls".

And yet, in the way that I speak English it makes complete sense that it was Pharaoh's daughter. The servant girl was told to "fetch" the basket, so even though it doesn't mention it, I presume she took it to Pharaoh's daughter before opening it. And the doer of the action of the previous sentence (she sent) was Pharoah's daughter, so I assume the "she" doing the action in this sentence is the same person.

That's a lot of different assumptions! And it shows the clear need for the Plain English Version, an English translation of the Bible specifically designed for speakers of Aboriginal languages.