Describe the cat using the diagram.

Do you know…- that the English for киска isa pussy-cat?

- the English for кошка is a tabby-cat?

- and the English for кот is a tom-cat?

Read the text below and answer the questions.

1. Where do parrots live?

2. Why do they make there homes in the forest?

3. What do they eat?

4. Why do they like cherries?

5. What do they like to do?

6. What do they do in the middle of the day and in the evening?

7. Where do they lay their eggs?

The Parrot

Parrots live in the forests of South America, where summer lasts all the year round. The parrot makes its home in the forest, because there it can find shade in the heat of the day.

Parrots eat fruit and nuts. They like wild cherries best of all. They like them because of the stones. The beak of the parrot is very sharp and it cracks these stones easily.

Parrots like to bathe very much. They fly till they find water. They deepen into the water and splash it over their feathers. Then they sit in the sun till they are dry. In the middle of the day when the heat becomes very intense the parrots sit in the trees and sleep. But in the evening, when the sun is going down, they wake up. They eat fruit, go to the water and bathe again. Only after that they go to rest for the night. Their sleeping-room is a hollow tree. The she-parrot lays her eggs in these hollow trees.

Read the text and say what pets are described there.

My pets

My English pen-friend told me about his pet in his letters. I envy him. He’s got a white pony. His parents own a farm so he has an opportunity to keep this kind of pet. But I don’t think there are a lot of such lucky people in England. So there aren’t in Russia. But I’m sure every child and teenager dreams of a pet, so warm and lively. My pen-friend wrote that lots of families in Great Britain have got one or more pets. Dogs are the favourite pets and there are about 6 million of them in Britain. The second favourite are cats (about 5 million) and third favourite is a bird-budgie. Some families keep other animals as pets in their homes. The English are real pet lovers. They buy nice food for their pets in pet shops.

Now we can buy the same food in pet shops as well. Being a child I remember zoo shops in Moscow. There were 3 of them. One could buy a bird, a baby of tortoise, hamster, white mouse, rat, different beautiful fish and food for them, some special worms for fishing in that shops but if you made up your mind to buy a puppy or a kitten you had to go to so called Bird Market. I do not know why it was Bird Market for one could buy there practically every kind of animal or bird both domestic and wild.

I had a pet when I was a kid. He was a Scotch sheep-dog. I can’t say about him “it”. He was my nurse. My mum taught him not to bark when I was sleeping and he used to run up to her and whimper when the hell was ringing. He had narrow brown “Asiatic” eyes. His name was Tuan. We took him from a dog-club and he was very pure-bred. So we had to find the name beginning with the letters “t” and “u”. For some time we couldn’t manage it. And one day mum said, “Let’s call him Tuan. I’ve read a story written by Somerset Maugham and this word was in that story. In Indonesian it means “a man, a master, a commander”. Such a man, a master my dog was. But so tactful, patient, so full of love person he was. A real master of the whole house. Mum told me my dog taught her to be tender and patient with any baby, both human and animal. Later I took care of him, fed him and took him for a walk.

Dogs can live 15 years but my darling was gone at the age of 11. We couldn’t take another dog, we missed him so much. Now we have a tortoise. My tortoise likes eating lettuce and cabbage. She also likes cucumbers. She likes a bath in hot weather.

In October she gets sleepy, so I put her in a big box and keep it in a warm room. She sleeps all winter and wakes up in March.

The tortoise knows her name. She puts out her head when I call her. She likes me stroking her head.

I’ve got two budgies too. I made a big cage for them. I change their water once a day. I also give them seed and some lettuce every day. I clean the cage every day. At night I cover their cage with cloth. My budgies like playing with a swing in their cage, ringing a bell and looking at mirror. I’m teaching them to talk. One can already say “Hello”.

Speaking

Read the dialogue and find the difference between a tortoise and a turtle. Then make your own dialogue. Tell about the pets you have got now or used to have before or maybe you’d like to have. Use the texts above if you need.

- Have you got a pet now?

- Yes, I have.

- What is it? Is it a bird or an animal?

- It is an animal.

- What kind of animal is it?

- It is a tortoise.

- Are you sure it is a tortoise and not a turtle?

- Yes, I am.

- Why are you so sure?

- By chance a man in Crimea told me it was. Once I took my pet along with me to the Crimea for my vacations. He looked at its legs and said it was a tortoise. Later I visited the Institute of the Southern Seas in the city of Sevastopol and saw turtles in the sea-aquarium. Their legs differ from that of tortoises. By the way that aquarium was established by Mickluho-Macklay, and now the institute has a very rich collection of different sea animals and fish.

- What do you feed your pet?

- I give it cabbage, carrot, apple and other fruit and vegetables.

- Does your pet appreciate you?

- I don’t know. But I do so much.