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15Aesop's Fables¹  

The Frogs who wanted a King

By Rob John

The Frogs should have been happy. 

It was summer, they had plenty to eat and nothing much to do except mess about in the cool clear water of their pool. They should have been very happy indeed...but  they weren’t.

‘Being a  frog’s a bit boring actu-ally,’ said a  frog .

‘Yeah. It’s just eating and swim-ming basically,’ said another. 

‘What’s the point? Why are we here? Why can’t life be more excit-ing?’ 

‘If only we had a leader,’ said a fat bullfrog. ‘If we had a leader he’d tell us what to do .’

‘That’s right,’ said another Frog. 

‘If we had a leader he’d organise²...parties and...plays and...picnics and errr...

‘Of course what we really  need......in an ideal world,’ said the bullfrog, ‘ is a  King.’

The frogs all gasped³. A king! 

Imagine! Their very own king with a crown on his head, giving orders and telling them all what to do.

‘So how do we get a king?’ said the  little  frog.

‘To get a  King,’ said the  bullfrog, 

‘you need to go to the top.’

The Frogs knew what the bullfrog meant. The king of all the gods was called Jupiter. If you needed to go to the top you couldn’t go any higher than Jupiter.

Later that afternoon the frogs watched as the  bullfrog then climbed up onto a rock and cleared his throat. 

‘Excuse me,’ he shouted in his loudest voice. ‘Excuse me ,  Jupiter......we were wondering if we  could have a  King? Please,’ said the bullfrog.

Jupiter was very busy and didn’t want to be bothered but he knew that if he didn’t give those  frogs something they’d keep croaking⁴ on and on and on...so he said:

‘Alright! Enough! You want a  King?  Well have this one!’

Into the pond fell a huge log of wood. 

‘Wow!’ said the  little  frog. ‘Look how big our King is !’ 

‘He’s enormous,’ said the  bullfrog. 

All day the  frogs swam around their enormous King and waited for him to speak but the new  King didn’t say a word.

‘He’s a bit quiet in’t he?’ said the little  frog ‘...for a  King.’ 

‘Yeah,’ they all agreed. ‘He’s a bit quiet. ’

Days went past and the new king never said a word. In fact he didn’t even move and after a while the frogs stopped thinking of him as a king and started using him as a diving platform and sunbathing⁵ area.

‘I don’t think this  King is much good to be honest,’ said one of the younger frogs.

‘Yes,’ said somebody else. ‘Tell Jupiter that frogs deserve a proper king who’ll move about and be powerful and strong and frighten-ing and...’

Now Jupiter was listening to all this and these noisy ungrateful  frogs were making him very angry in-deed. He lifted his right hand.

‘You want a frightening king do you frogs?’ he said. ‘Well try this one for size.’

From out of the sky came a huge white stork⁶, the biggest bird they’d ever seen. The  frogs ran in terror as the stork started gobbling them up in his huge beak⁷. 

‘Please, Lord Jupiter,’ said the bull-frog. ‘Save us. Take away this terrible  King.’

‘Do you see now?’ said Jupiter. 

‘Better to have no king at all than a cruel one. ’

But the frogs weren’t listening ... ...they’d all disappeared. 

1 fables   

n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说

参考例句：

• Some of Aesop's Fables are satires. 《伊索寓言》中有一些是讽刺作品。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Little Mexican boys also breathe the American fables. 墨西哥族的小孩子对美国神话也都耳濡目染。 来自辞典例句

2 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。

3 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 croaking   

v.呱呱地叫( croak的现在分词 )；用粗的声音说

参考例句：

• the croaking of frogs 蛙鸣
• I could hear croaking of the frogs. 我能听到青蛙呱呱的叫声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 sunbathing   

n.日光浴

参考例句：

• tourists sunbathing on the beach 在海滩上沐浴着阳光的游客
• We've been sunbathing on the beach. 我们一直在海滩上晒日光浴。

6 stork   

n.鹳

参考例句：

• A Fox invited a long-beaked Stork to have dinner with him.狐狸请长嘴鹳同他一起吃饭。
• He is very glad that his wife's going to get a visit from the stork.他为她的妻子将获得参观鹳鸟的机会感到非常高兴。

7 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。