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The living world
Reading and Use of English | 1BSU
1 Do the exercise in the Exam round-up box.
Exam round-up
Circle the correct alternative in italics for each of the
statements below.
In Reading and Use of English Part 7
the text has six / seven gaps where missing paragraphs
belong
there is one / are two extra paragraph(s) that you do
not need to use
you should start this task by reading the gapped text /
missing paragraphs
you should concentrate on the structure of the text /
finding words common to the gapped text and the
missing paragraphs.
2 You are going to read an article about a speaking
parrot. Before you read, discuss these questions.
B How do you think parrots learn to speak?
C When a parrot speaks, do you think it understands
what it is saying?
D Which other animals could be taught to speak, do you
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think?
3 Read the main part of the article (but not the missing
paragraphs A–G).
How does the article answer the three questions you
have been discussing?
What do the photos show?
4 Now choose from the paragraphs A–G the one
which fits each gap in the text. There is one extra
paragraph which you do not need to use.
130
Alex the African Grey
Science’s best-known parrot dies, aged 31
THE last time Irene Pepperberg saw Alex, she said goodnight
as usual. ‘You be good,’ said Alex. ‘I love you.’ ‘I love you,
too.’ ‘You’ll be in tomorrow?’ ‘Yes, I’ll be in tomorrow.’ But
sadly, Alex, whose name is supposedly an acronym of Avian
Learning Experiment, died in his cage that night. This brought
to an end a life spent learning complex tasks which, it had
originally been thought, only primates could master.
1
Even then, the researchers remained human-centric.
Their assumption was that chimpanzees might be able to
understand and use human sign language because they are
humanity’s nearest living relatives. It took a brilliant insight
to turn this human-centricity on its head and look at the
capabilities of a species only distantly related to humanity,
but which can, nevertheless, speak the words people speak:
the parrot.
2
Dr Pepperberg and Alex last shared a common ancestor
more than 300 million years ago. But Alex, unlike a
chimpanzee, learned to speak words easily. The question
was, was Alex merely ‘parroting’ Dr Pepperberg? Or would
that pejorative term have to be redefined? Do parrots
actually understand what they are saying?
The reason why primates have evolved intelligence,
according to Dr Humphrey, is that they generally live in
groups. And, just as group living promotes intelligence,
so intelligence allows larger groups to function, providing
a spur for the evolution of yet more intelligence. If Dr
Humphrey is right, only social animals can be intelligent –
and so far this has been borne out.
An additional relevant factor is that, like primates, parrots
live long enough to make the time-consuming process of
learning worthwhile. Alex lived to the age of 31. Combined
with his ability to speak, or at least ‘vocalise’ words, Alex
looked a promising experimental subject.