1.3. Look at the names of the animals in the box.

squirrel donkey scorpion crocodile cobra beaver eagle tiger lizard monkey turtle elephant spider lion wolf whale shark hedgehog dolphin tortoise frog rat fox rhinoceros walrus

Which of the animals is in your opinion:

– warm-blooded / cold-blooded? – a rodent?

– a mammal / reptile? – dangerous / non-dangerous?

– a predator? – carnivorous / herbivorous?

1.4. What animals have the following as part of their body?

horn paw beak mane trunk hoof claw flipper quill / feather spine tusk gills tail fur stripes spots udder wing tentacles fin hump scales whiskers a pouch a shell webbed feet feelers / antennae

1.4.1. Look at the example and answer the questions, using as many of the words and expressions in the box above as possible.

Example: Suppose you wanted to turn a giraffe into a fox – what would you have to do? – You would have to make the body much smaller; shorten the neck; shorten the legs; lengthen the tail; lengthen the nose; add more hair; change the animal’s colour; and make a number of other changes.

What would you have to do if you wanted to:

1. change a rabbit into an elephant?

2. change a cow into a blackbird?

3. change a pig into a horse?

4. change a chicken into a lion?

5. change a shark into a butterfly?

Useful expressions: add / lengthen / make … smaller (bigger, fatter) / remove / shorten / straighten / turn … into… / widen

1.5.  Read the following short passages and imagine what it would be like if you woke up one morning to find yourself transformed into a cockroach, a dog – or another creature.

A. When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself in his bed transformed into an enormous cockroach. He was lying on his hard armour-plated back and, if he raised his head slightly, he could see his arched brown belly, with its ridges and reinforced segments, on which his bed-cover was precariously balanced and just about to slide to the floor. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of him, quivered helplessly before his eyes.

“What has happened to me?” he thought. It was not a dream. His room, a normal, though smallish, human room lay quietly between its four familiar walls.

(from Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka)

B. He felt a curious tingling in his hands and feet. He felt his nose becoming cold and wet, his ears becoming flappy.

Eric is a perfectly ordinary boy. Perfectly ordinary that is, until the night when, safely tucked up in bed, he slowly but surely turns into a dog!

What becomes of Eric – the adventures he has with his best friend Roy, and their joint efforts to puzzle out the reason for his transformation – makes a very funny and entirely believable book.

(Woof! by Allan Ahlberg)