--- title: Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 2: swimming lessons, curling lessons, and a new name — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 2: swimming lessons, curling lessons, and a new name», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Hedgehog and Tortoise know Jaguar will never forget his rhyme, s --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Just So Stories, The Beginning of the… # Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 2: swimming lessons, curling lessons, and a new name Lesson 83 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 27 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/0/) — Hedgehog and Tortoise know Jaguar will never forget his rhyme, so they decide to swap skills. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/1/) — Tortoise holds up Hedgehog's chin while he learns to swim; Hedgehog unlaces Tortoise's back-plates so he can bend and curl a tiny bit. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/2/) — All night they cheer each other on with «Excellent!» and «Won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!» - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/3/) — By morning both have changed. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/4/) — Tortoise's plates now overlap, and Hedgehog's prickles have melted together into scales, so he looks more like a pine-cone than a prickly chestnut-case. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/5/) — Both can swim and both can curl. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/6/) — They go and find Jaguar, who is so astonished that he falls backwards over his tail three times. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/7/) — They say his rhyme back to him with the names swapped and roll round and round him until his eyes spin like cart-wheels. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/8/) — Jaguar fetches his Mother. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/9/) — She says a Hedgehog is a Hedgehog and a Tortoise is a Tortoise, but when he says this is a bit of both, she says she would call it «Armadillo» till she found the real name, and leave it alone. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/11/) — The story ends with a song: Kipling has never sailed the Amazon or seen a jaguar or an armadillo, but he would love to «roll down to Rio» one day before he is old, on one of the big steamers that sail «weekly from Southampton» (an English port). - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/12/) — Jaguar sits on the bank sucking prickles from his paws and saying his rhyme; Hedgehog says he will not forget it «this month of Sundays», which means for a very long time. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/13/) — Hedgehog says «Hold up my chin, Slow-and-Solid. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/14/) — I'm going to try to learn to swim. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/15/) — It may be useful.» - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/17/) — Tortoise practises putting his hind legs round his ears, which he calls «so peculiarly comfortable». - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/21/) — Hedgehog says «scales are a tremendous improvement on prickles». - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/22/) — Jaguar «fell three times backward over his own painted tail». - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/24/) — Jaguar tells his Mother that the two «have gone shares in their prickles», because both are scaly all over. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/25/) — Mother Jaguar: «Everything has its proper name. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/26/) — I should call it "Armadillo" till I found out the real one. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/28/) — Real life: armadillos are mammals, with hair on their bellies and babies that drink milk; they are not a mix of hedgehog and tortoise. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/29/) — Their armour is made of small bony plates covered with tough skin. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/31/) — Armadillos live from the southern USA down to Argentina. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/32/) — Real life: only the three-banded armadillos can roll into a full ball; the nine-banded armadillo can swim, hold its breath for about six minutes, and even walk along the bottom of a stream. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/33/) — Real life: animals do not change their bodies by practising for one night; living things change very slowly, over thousands of generations. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/34/) — Kipling's tale, like the Rhinoceros's folds and the Kangaroo's legs, is a made-up «just so» reason. - ← previous: [Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 1: Painted Jaguar and the muddled advice](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/) - next →: [Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1: a broken spear and a picture on birch-bark](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)