DESCRIPTION :
The special starts in with Remy introducing himself and Emile to the audience and
speaking on behalf of oppressed rats everywhere. Emile starts frowning about
having to speak out, while Remy pulls a scroll and a two dimensional animation
starts by presenting the relation between a human and a rat in contrast with
human dog and human cat relationships.
TRANSCRIPT :
A cat looks down on man a dog man's best friend looks up to man but a rat sees
itself as equal to man there are two common types of rats the black rat and the
brown rat also known as the Norway rat how big is a rat about the size of a
grown-up's foot we rats like to eat the foods you like to eat our favorite foods
are scrambled eggs macaroni and cheese and white bread our teeth are so strong
we can gnaw through lead pipes solid wood and even cinderblocks in India the
Hindu god Ganesha rides around on a rat friend China it is said that the rat brought
the gift of rice to humans the rat even holds the place of honor as the animal that
symbolizes the first year of the Chinese zodiac we are considered a symbol of
good luck wealth intelligence and charm rats have amazing physical abilities we can
swim for up to three days and we can fit through any whole week and squeeze
our heads into a rat can jump three feet to the top of a garbage can which is equal
to a human jumping ten feet one rat couple can have 15,000 descendants a year
that's a lot of rats many many rats have dedicated their lives to finding cures for
humanity's most dreaded diseases how is this possible well rats and humans share
is similar internal biology that means we get old in much the same way scientists
can observe things in our rats one or two year lifespan that could take 70 years to
notice in a human have even been to space this has taught humans about how
the body adapts to weightlessness see rats are pretty cool you provide us with
homes and we eat your trash we've shared a wonderful symbiotic relationship
throughout history and will be with you far into the future.
QUESTIONS :
1. Discuss what this story is about.
2. What do friends mean to you?
3. What do you learn from the story?