Speech Communication Practice

For GCA 112: Voice and Diction

Recitation for Voice and Diction and

Vocabulary-Building Practice #1,

An Original Composition by

Professor Richard Green

The Fox and the Crow

Copyright 1992-2004 as Composed and Told by JRGreen

     Once, long, long ago, a fox and a crow had to survive a very bad, cold, dark winter.  There was hardly any food to eat, and the fox was starving.

  In the following, new version of an old fable by Aesop, you will learn that, “Two heads are better than one,” and, “Pleasure shared is pleasure doubled!”  It’s not always true that “He who laughs last laughs best!”  Instead, the respect and cooperation skills taught by this new version of an old tale remind us that “You can’t always judge a book by it cover,” perhaps, he who laughs last, just laughs last, not best!

                To start this class we’ll make up a song

                About a very hungry fox,

                Who gets his way unlike the fox

                Who couldn’t reach the grapes.

                One cold winter evening

                A fox saw a crow sitting high up in a tree,

                The crow held a huge piece of cheese in its beak

                So the fox began this speech:

                Said Fox to the Crow, “Don’t you want to show

                Just how pretty you really are?”

                You’d change people’s minds about your looks

                If you’d just sing “Auld Lang Syne.”

                Ms. Crow hesitated a minute or two

                But just couldn’t stand the thought

                Of her reputation suffering          

                From all the bad press

                So, this is what the crow sang.

                “I know you all think that I’m not very pretty

                so, I’ll sing to show that you’re wrong.”

                But as she sang, the cheese in her beak

                Ended up in the old fox’s jaws.

                The crow just politely continued to sing

                Complimenting the crafty fox.

                “You see,” she said, “I’ve learned to share,”

                so I’ll teach you, “Auld Lang Syne.”

(Next class we will talk about New Year’s celebrations from around the world.  In the USA, we sing “Auld Lang Syne,” to remember old friends and the old year as we usher in the new year.)