Page 48 - New Grammar with a Smile 8

5 Adjectives

Warm-up

Read the passage carefully and circle the adjectives.

There once lived a large family of mice. But the family was sad. The quiet house
they had for themselves now had a mean cat. So every day, the family lost at least

one child. The cunning cat devoured them.

One day, the mice of the colony held a
general council to find out what measures

they could take to outwit their common
enemy.

Different groups came up with different

proposals. At last, a young mouse got up
and said he had a better proposal to make.

‘You will all agree,’ said he, ’that our chief danger consists in the sly and

treacherous manner in which the crafty cat approaches us. If we could receive
some signal of her approach, we could easily escape from her. So I would like to

propose that if a small bell could be attached by a ribbon round the fat neck of
the cunning cat, we could easily retreat while she was in the neighbourhood.’

This proposal met with general applause.

An old mouse who was sitting in a dark corner got up and said, ‘Your proposal
sounds very good, but who will bell the cat?’

The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the old mouse said,

‘It is easy to propose impossible remedies.’

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