精講牛津樹(shù)> The Rope Swing

11 The Rope Swing

What can we see from the cover? We can see five kids are on a rope swing. They are Kipper, Chip,Biff, Wilma and Wilf.  Swings are fun to play on.  Have you played on a swing before? 

Do all the swings look the same? This one is a tire swing. What do you think will happen? Will someone drop in the river? Would you like to have a try? Let’s open our book and have a look.

We see all the children are on the bridge.  One two three four and five. Tall short tall tall  and tall. They look so happy. Where are they heading? They are going to the stream. Oh, who is under the bridge? It is Floppy.  He doesn't like to take a bath, but he likes to play with water. We can see a tire rope swing hanging near a bridge. The rope is tied to a big tree branch over the river. The other side of the rope is tied to a tire. 

They arrived at the rope swing.  They looked at the swing.  Are they going to try?  Yes! 

Wilf gets so excited - he wants to try first.  He put one leg on the tire and held on to the rope with both hands. Wilf is climbing on the swing. The others are standing by the river watching him climb on the swing. Floppy’s eyes are wide open. What is he thinking? Let’s see next.

Chip pushed Wilf.  Floppy looked at the  rope. Wow, the swing is moving.The swing goes higher and higher.

Biff climbed on the swing too. The swing goes higher and higher.Suddenly floppy started barking!

He barked and barked, he won’t stop barking. What happened? Is he in a bad mood?  Or is he scared of the swing? We don’t know. But the kids look so happy.

Now Kipper went on the rope swing. Floppy was barking! Woof Woof Woof! The children think Floppy is being silly. Four of them are all on the rope swing now.

Wilma wants to get on too. There’s not much room. They are all squeezed together swinging. 

She got on and they are holding each other on the swing. Floppy looks so  scared. He covers his eyes with its claws.

All the children got tired after a while. They got down and went on the bridge..Finally Floppy stopped barking. But he didn't leave. He looked at the rope. He was still staring at the rope. Oh look, the rope is going to break. Floppy was trying to tell them it is dangerous.

Suddenly, splash! Oh no, we see the rope is broken, the tire fell on floppy’s head.

Oh no, we see the bridge is broken, where are all the children?

One two three four and five, they all fell into the water.

1. Turn to page 7, why was floppy barking at the kids?

2. In the end, what happened to floppy and the five children?

3. Is that dangerous to play by the river? Do you think the swing is safe?