Учебное пособие: Сanada and Australia in Focus

“No problem, you can ride on my back and I'll take you over there” said the crocodile.

The monkey didn’t trust the crocodile completely, but he was greedy and he wanted to taste all those juicy mangoes on the island. So he jumped down onto the crocodile’s back.

“Hold on tight and off we go” said the crocodile.

The crocodile had only swum a little way when he dived under the water.

“Why did you do that?” said the monkey, spluttering and spitting out water. “I could have drowned”.

“You are going to drown” said the crocodile. “I'm going to hold you under the water and kill you. My wife wants me to bring her your heart so she can eat it.”

“Ah, you should have told me before we left” said the monkey. “I didn’t bring my heart with me. I don’t keep it inside me all the time because it could get knocked to pieces from all that jumping around in the tree” he said."Take me over to the island and after I've eaten some mangoes, we'll go back to my tree and I'll get my heart for you” said the monkey.

“No way, monkey” said the crocodile. "We’re going back for your heart first and then we’ll see about the mangoes.”

“Fair enough, you’re the boss” said the monkey.

When they got back to the tree the monkey jumped off the crocodile’s back and ran up high into the tree.

The monkey yelled down at the crocodile “You dumb crocodile, who ever heard of anyone keeping their heart up a tree. You may be bigger than me and have lots of sharp teeth but you're not smarter than me. My heart is inside me, come up here and get it if you can”.

The crocodile realised he'd been tricked. He was sad and miserable.“This is not good. How am I ever going to explain this to my wife?” the crocodile thought to himself. “She so wanted to taste that monkey’s heart”. A tear fell down his cheek as he swam back to his wife.

Comprehension check

Put the following events (A-F) in the right order. Number them (1-6).

a. The crocodile thought and thought and finally came up with a plan.

b. The crocodile realised he'd been tricked.

c. A long time ago a monkey lived in a great fig tree on the riverbank.

d. When they got back to the tree the monkey jumped off the crocodile’s back and ran up high into the tree.

e. The monkey didn’t trust the crocodile completely, but he was greedy and he wanted to taste all those juicy mangoes on the island.

f. Her husband looked up at the monkey in the tree and then looked at his wife.

a	b	c	d	e	f
1

WRITIHG

Write an article of about 100-120 words to a school newspaper. Express your point of view on the legend.

The River Snake

Key words and expressions:

distant

to stand in doubt

years passed away

an oath