7.3 The Animal School : A Fable

A1. Complete the following table.

A1. Complete the web chart.

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world”, so they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that, except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. He also developed a “Charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.

A2. State whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false statements.
1. In the animal school all the animals opted for their favorite subjects.

2. The duck was better than any other animal in swimming.
3. The duck passed flying with flying colours.
4. The rabbit was excellent in running.
A3. Complete the statements by giving the reasons.
1. The rabbit faced the problems because........
2. The squirrel was frustrated because .........
3. The eagle was disciplined severely because .........
4. An abnormal eel became a valedictorian ..........
A4. The words like 'completely satisfied', tiger's roar' are collocations occurring in the extract. Find out such four pairs of collocations from the extract.
A5. Write about your favourite subjects with supporting details.
A6. Rewrite in the ways as instructed.
1. They must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world”. (Replace the modal auxiliary with another indicating advice.)
2. Since he was slow in running he had to stay after school.(Rewrite it using 'because'.)
For Practice
1. The duck was excellent in swimming. ( Rewrite as exclamatory sentence.)
2. The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown. ( Rewrite it using 'though'.)