Introduction
A tortoiseshell cat is chatting with a rather skinny grey cat. It is so difficult, he says plaintively, for a cat to find a proper home.
“IT’S not every trade that deserves to have a cat about the place” said the tortoiseshell cat to the grey one.
“My first master was a shoemaker, and I lived with him happily enough, until one morning in winter, when I found the wicked man sewing strips of — let me whisper — cat’s fur on a pair of lady’s slippers!
“My next home was in a garret, with a half-starved musician who made violins. It was amusing to live with a man who could make things with voices like my own. But one day I learned that the strings of the violins were taken from the bodies of dead cats.* No wonder the voices were like my brothers’ voices.
“So next day, after the cat’s-meat man had called, I walked quietly out, and never saw that bad violin-maker again.
“I was picked up in the street by a child, who took me home to her mother's house.”
Actually, ‘catgut’ was really taken from a sheep. Nowadays, these strings are often made of synthetic materials.
Précis
A tortoiseshell cat told his friend all about the problems he had finding a comfortable home. In each place, he was offended by his master’s trade, and left to find someone more deserving, and he thought he had hit the jackpot when a rich little girl took him home. (49 / 60 words)
A tortoiseshell cat told his friend all about the problems he had finding a comfortable home. In each place, he was offended by his master’s trade, and left to find someone more deserving, and he thought he had hit the jackpot when a rich little girl took him home.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, despite, just, may, ought, until, whereas, whether.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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