The Dog the Cock and the Fox by Aesop for ESL students with a podcast and vocabulary practice in real context to enjoy learning English
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The Dog the Cock and the Fox
A dog and a cock became great friends, and agreed to travel together.
At nightfall, the cock flew up into the branches of a tree to roost, while the dog curled himself up inside the trunk, which was hollow.
- nightfall: dusk, twilight, beginning of night, evening, sunset
- roost: to go to sleep, stay in a place and rest
- curl: make something coiled or curved, twist
- hollow: empty, vacant, unfilled
At break of day, the cock woke up and crew, as usual. A fox heard, and, wishing to make a breakfast of him, came and stood under the tree and begged him to come down.
“I should so like,” said he, “to make the acquaintance of one who has such a beautiful voice.”
- acquaintance: friend, contact, associate
The cock replied, “Would you just wake my porter who sleeps at the foot of the tree? He’ll open the door and let you in.”
- porter: gatekeeper, doorkeeper, caretaker
The fox accordingly rapped on the trunk, when out rushed the dog and tore him in pieces.
- accordingly: therefore, as a result
- rapped on: knocked on, tapped on
- trunk: the main stem of a tree
I don’t now but somehow I really got sad for the poor fox. I thing the dog was not really happy to see the fox. The cock actually didn’t care for the fox life.
The dog tore the fox in pieces because the dog was in a defensive mood.
Feedback
1. The difference between ‘thing’ and ‘think’
2. The difference between ‘now’ and ‘know’
3. fox life = fox’s life
My perception of this fable is that we should not trust someone with a bad reputation, although it seems they have a good tension we should be cautious.
This comment is rather ambiguous to me. What do you mean by ‘a good tension’?