Jumping frogs!
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| Jumping Frog | Jumping frogs! |
| Jubilee | |
| | A frog-jumping contest in California is famous |
| | because of a famous short story. The story was |
| | written by Mark Twain, who also wrote The |
| | Adventures of Tom Sawyer and many other books. |
| | He called the story \”The Celebrated Jumping |
| | Frog of Calaveras County.” |
| | |
| | In Twain’s story, two men hold a jumping contest |
| | between their frogs. Usually, a frog can jump |
| | about twenty times the length of its body. But |
| | the loser in the story can’t even get off the |
| | ground. Someone had filled the frog with small |
| | bits of lead used in shotgun shells. |
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This popular story caused a lot of interest in frog-jumping contests.
The most famous contest is one in California. Held at the Calaveras
County Fair the third weekend of May, it’s called the Jumping Frog
Jubilee.
Thousands of frogs jump for cash prizes. Each frog gets three chances.
The owner of the frog that jumps the farthest wins some money. And if a
frog breaks the record jump, it wins the most money and becomes \”The
Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
