before the dawn of time, all the animals looked the same.
normally this was fine, but some of the cheekier animals likes to play tricks on mother earth and pretend to be other animals.
since they looked exactly the same, *n mother earth who had *d them couldn't tell the difference!
to try to fix this problem, she decided1 to make each different animal look different, so they couldn't swap2（交换） identities.
now, there were some animals who liked flying through the air, or clim*ng trees * than anything, but not platypus3. he liked swimming.
at the time mother earth sent out her message that she was going to change what *ryone looked like, platypus was under the water, playing with his friend fish.
platypus stayed in the water *n after fish had got out, and since sound doesn't travel that well under water, platypus didn't get to hear mother earth's message. it was only when fish came back looking like a beautiful river fish, with his scales gleaming4, that platypus *n knew about the message.
he left immediately for mother earth's home, so he too could look different. but by the time he got there, there was only left overs left. platypus so wanted to be like *ryone else, that he took the left overs.
he ended up with a beavers5（海狸） tail, a ducks *ll and flippers, and a bears fur and claws at the end of the flippers.
when he got back to the lake to show his friends, they all just laughed at him.
platypus was so embarrassed that he went and dug a hole in the ground near the river bank to live in.
after awhile though, fish came along and apologised.
they become friends again, and platypus *n made another opening to his home underwater just so fish could come and visit.
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