other animals.} "I have never yet been beaten," said he,

"when I put forth my full speed.  I challenge any one here

to race {with me."} 

     The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge."

     "That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance 

{round you} all ^{[Note #1]} the way."

     "Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the

Tortoise.  "Shall we race?"

     So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare

darted almost ^{[Note #2]} {out of sight} {at once,}  but soon stopped 

and, to show his contempt {for the Tortoise,} lay down

to have a nap.  The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, 

and when the Hare awoke {from his nap,} he saw 

the Tortoise just ^{[Note #2]} {near the winning-post} and could not

run up ^[Note] {in time} to save the race.  Then said the Tortoise:

     "Plodding wins the race."
 
 

1. A better way of looking at "all the way" is to view it as "all {*of* the way}." This would leave us with "all" unanalyzed and "of the way" accounted for. Working on this level, however, most students are concentrating on looking for prepositions in the text, and they would probably miss one that is ellipsed in this way. I have counted "all" as an adjective here to indicate that two of the three words in "all the way" are accounted for.

2. The adverb "almost" modifies the entire preopositional phrase "{out of sight}," exactly as "just" modifies "{near the winning-post.}"