Animal Farm Vocabulary

Electricity, he said, could operate threshing machines, ploughs, harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders, besides supplying every stall with its own electric light, hot and cold water, and an electric heater.

The young pigs were piebald, and as Napoleon was the only boar on the farm, it was possible to guess at their parentage.

It happened that Jessie and Bluebell had both whelped soon after the hay harvest, giving birth between them to nine sturdy puppies.

He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark--for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.

That, he said, was Comrade Napoleon's cunning.

They all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen.

None of them proved able to learn the alphabet beyond the letter B. They accepted everything that they were told about the Rebellion and the principles of Animalism, especially from Clover, for whom they had an almost filial respect; but it was dou

Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character.

They did not know which was more shocking--the treachery of the animals who had leagued themselves with Snowball, or the cruel retribution they had just witnessed.

Only old Benjamin was much the same as ever, except for being a little greyer about the muzzle, and, since Boxer's death, more morose and taciturn than ever.

At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.

And the news soon leaked out that every pig was now receiving a ration of a pint of beer daily, with half a gallon for Napoleon himself, which was always served to him in the Crown Derby soup tureen.

None of you has ever seen a dead donkey," and the others had to be content with this cryptic answer.

Only old Benjamin was much the same as ever, except for being a little greyer about the muzzle, and, since Boxer's death, more morose and taciturn than ever.

In glowing sentences he painted a picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was lifted from the animals' backs.

The sheep spent the whole day there browsing at the leaves under Squealer's supervision.

The animals were stupefied.

"You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege?

For a long time there had been rumours--circulated, he had reason to think, by some malignant enemy--that there was something subversive and even revolutionary in the outlook of himself and his colleagues.

As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education.

For five days the hens held out, then they capitulated and went back to their nesting boxes.

When he did appear, he was attended not only by his retinue of dogs but by a black cockerel who marched in front of him and acted as a kind of trumpeter, letting out a loud "cock-a-doodle-doo" before Napoleon spoke.

At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a beam.

And so within five minutes of their invasion they were in ignominious retreat by the same way as they had come, with a flock of geese hissing after them and pecking at their calves all the way.