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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage was chosen because it shows Mr Fox's cleverness in action rather than just telling us he is clever. Dahl builds the explanation in careful stages: a claim (too clever), a method (walks into the wind), and a specific example (smells Boggis fifty yards off and heads for Chicken House Number Four). The passage gives students three vocabulary words (lurking, approached, quickly) embedded in a memorable tactical scene.
But Mr Fox was too clever for them. He always approached a farm with the wind blowing in his face, and this meant that if any man were lurking in the shadows ahead, the wind would carry the smell of t...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In five or six sentences, retell Chapter 2 in order: where Mr Fox and his family live, the nightly question he asks Mrs Fox, what Boggis, Bunce, and Bean do in response, why Mr Fox is 'too clever' for them, and the plan Bean reveals at the very end.
Discussion Questions
- Mr Fox asks Mrs Fox every evening, 'Well, my darling, what shall it be this time? A plump chicken from Boggis? A duck or a goose from Bunce? Or a nice turkey from Bean?' What does this nightly ritual show us about how the Fox family treats one another, and how is their household different from what we saw of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean in Chapter 1?
- The author tells us Mr Fox was 'too clever' because he always walked into the wind so he could smell Boggis, Bunce, or Bean before they could see him. What does this method reveal about the kind of intelligence the author wants us to admire, and why does the text show this kind of thinking as the fox's only real weapon?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Came near to something or someone, step by step.
Item 2
Hiding and waiting in a sneaky way, often to do harm.
Item 3
Quick to understand things and skilled at solving problems in smart ways.
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Critical Thinking
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