05

THE SNAIL

I

1. Look at me.I am a snail.Would you like to hear me tell my story? Even a snail may have something new to tell you.

2. You laugh at me as I creep along, and you say, “As slow as a snail.”But I can do things that you cannot do. I made the house which I carry about on my back; and a cosy house it is.

3. Wherever I go I carry my house with me, and I am always making it bigger, as I grow bigger myself. It is a wonderful house, and winds about like a staircase .

4. Some snails do not build houses for themselves. Look at that big black slug . He says he is my cousin, and he has horns just like mine; but he has no house on his back. I suppose he is too lazy to build a house.

5. Do you see how I stretch out my horns when I walk about? Touch them, and see how quickly I draw them in. I am not so slow as you think.

6. These horns are as useful to me as your eyes are to you. They are my eyes, as well as my feelers, and they tell me when danger is near. Then I draw them in at once, and curl up snugly in my shell.

7. When I am not taking a walk, I like to lie under the ivy in a corner of the garden, where I find shelter from the sun and from my enemies.

8. I am fond of the warm days of summer, and yet I do not like to be out in the bright sunshine. So when the sun is hot I keep in the shade .

9. Our enemies are the greedy ducks and the blackbirds and thrushes.They are very fond of snails for dinner, and they have eaten up many of my friends.

10. In warm countries, where my friends grow very much bigger than I am, they are picked up by little boys and girls, and are cooked and eaten. But in this land we are quite safe from such a dreadful fate .

WORD SPELLING

WORD EXERCISE

GRAMMAR EXERCISE

1. Write the nouns in sections 4 and 6.

2. Make sentences with the fi rst six verbs as predicate