Gilbert
and the
Lizard
Eliza disliked Australia. Firstly, she’d had to spend twenty uncomfortable hours on
an
aircraft getting here. She wanted to go to the beach,
but her husband was a zoology
professor and wanted to look for some interesting animals. So now she was
traversing a
swamp in the midday heat.
“Let me sit down, Gilbert. I’m not
hardy like you,” she said, eventually.
They sat under a tree. There were lots of birds in that
secluded, rural place, and they
watched them flying
overhead.
Then suddenly Gilbert saw something on a rock.
“That’s strange,” said Gilbert. “That looks like a Red
Swamp Lizard,
but I thought that species was
extinct.” He
carefully picked it up. “Yes, it is! I’m going to take it back to
the Zoology
Institute. They will be filled with so much
jealousy when they see what I have found!”
“Are you sure we should take it from its home?”
asked Eliza.
“Nonsense,
many animals migrate. They’re used to changes,” said Gilbert.
“Hmm, I don’t agree with the
principle of it,” said Eliza. “It isn’t
ethical.” But Gilbert
was
decisive and took the lizard back to the hotel in the city.
He thought that this find
would
make him a highly esteemed celebrity at the Zoology Institute.
For the next few days, Gilbert fed and
nurtured the lizard. But the lizard wasn’t happy.
It lost its beautiful red color and began to look ordinary. In fact, Gilbert started to wonder
whether it was special at all. He went outside and found a common
lizard on a piece of
concrete. When
he compared them, they looked exactly alike. The lizard was only red in
the swamp!
Gilbert said to Eliza, “I’m going to return this lizard to the swamp. I’ve learned an
important lesson. Home is where we are happiest. At home, we are special like the red
lizard. We can never be so happy when we are away.”
“Good,” said Eliza. “So, can we go home now?”
Elbarskhan & mmh
2.
Eliza was a professor of zoology.
3.
Eliza was hardier than Gilbert.
4.
The swamp was in a rural, secluded area.
5.
Gilbert thought that the red lizard was an extinct species.
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