A cunning little jackal was once famished due to the scarcity of food in the forest. Its perambulations across the forest had yielded not a morsel. Exhausted it lay underneath a tree with scanty shade when a crow flew by and rested on its branch.
The crow had a piece of bread in its beak and was looking for a safe place to park itself and feed on its supper. The jackal extemporaneously thought of an ingenious plan. It decided to eulogise the crow into singing a song and thus have the bread fall to the ground. It said to the crow
"Soft is your plume and smooth is your wing,
My heart tells me you can beautifully sing,
My ears crave to hear your mellifluous voice
To me rest is but all noise
So shed your inhibitions and let your throat ring."
The crow was infatuated with the jackal's rhetoric. It closed its eyes and broke into a cacophonous refrain. The song would have exasperated the jackal in any other situation but not now. It watched the piece of bread float downwards and jumped to nab it midway and disappeared into the forest before the crow had finished its song.
The Crow cried out, "Oh woe is me,
Deceived by the Jackal's trickery.
My bread, my prize, now lost for good,
Never again shall I be so easily wooed".
1. famished: extremely hungry.
The famished pilgrims pounced on the food packets.
2. perambulation: to walk around in a territory or area
The perambulations of the archaeologist finally led him to the discovery of a historic building.
3. extemporaneously: composed, uttered on the spur of the moment, done or said without preparation
He had gone to the meeting as a part of audience but still gave an excellent speech extemporaneously when called upon to do so.
4. ingenious: clever, inventive
The new novel has an ingenious plot.
5. eulogise: to praise highly
Though he scolded his son very often, he eulogised him among his relatives his friends.
6. mellifluous: having a smooth rich flow
I woke up today to the mellifluous songs of birds of my garden.
7. inhibition: a feeling that makes one self-conscious and unable to act in a natural way
People usually lose their inhibitions after taking a few drinks.
8. infatuated: have an unreasonably of foolish feeling of love or admiration
The people are so infatuated with the leader that they ignore his notorious past.
9. rhetoric: speech intended to be effective and influencive
The time now is for action and not just rhetoric.
10. cacophonous: involving or producing a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.
The cacophony of hawkers in a fair is nerve-racking.
11. refrain: A phrase, verse, or group of verses repeated at intervals throughout a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza, a song or melody.
A common refrain among citizens is that healthcare should be free.
12. exasperated: intensely irritated and frustrated
The criticism of his new book exasperated him and he refused to talk about it.