　Many students of English think that learning a new language is very difficult. Now think how difficult it is to learn English when your brain is only the size of a bird's brain! That is what some birds can do.

Many different kinds of birds can copy the sounds of language. African gray parrots are the birds best known for this.

Every December in London, the National Cage and Aviary Bird Show tries to find the best "talking" bird in the world. One bird named Prudle stood out among the "talking birds" by winning this prize every year from 1965 to 1976.

Prudle was taken from his nest in Uganda in 1958. He was sold to Iris Frost, who took care of him at her home in Seaford, Engliand. Before he died in 1994. aged thirty-five, Prudle knew almost 800 words in English. Prudle was also the oldest bird in the world that lived in a cage.

Another intelligent bird, a budgerigar named Puck, was tested in 1993. It turned out that Puck knew even more word than Prudle. Puck knew more than 1,700 English words. In the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records, Puck was listed as knowing more words than any other bird in the world.

A．Ｃircle the letter of the word or phrase that best completes the sentence.

1. Billy tried to 　　　　　　. the test answers from Nancy.
a. copy	b. translate	c. invent	d. turn out

2. Greg found three eggs in the 　　　　　 .
a. brain	b. parrot	c. nest	d. prize

3. Mice have very small 　　　　　 .
a. parrots	b. prizes	c. brains	d. words

4. The nurse 　　　　　 sick people in the hospital.
a. figures out	b. stands out	c. turns out	d. takes care of

5. The animals at the zoo live in 　　　　　 .
a. prizes	b. cages	c. nests	d. towers

6. I thought the party was on Wednesday, but it 　　　　　 .to be on Friday.
a. turned out	b. figured out	c. stood out	d. gave up

　Birds like parrots have small (1)　　　　　　 , but they can still talk. These birds can

(2)　　　　　　 the sounds people make. Every year in London, a group gives a

(3)　　　　　　 . to the best talking bird. One bird named Prudle won this prize twelve

times! A woman in England (4)　　　　　　 Prudle, and he lived in a (5)　　　　　　 for

over thirty years.

Ｂ．Ｃomplete the passage with items from the box. One item is extra.

brains 　　　　cage 　　　　copy 　　　　prize 　　　　nest 　　　　took care of

１．stand out	= be easily seen or noticed
・Larry stood out at the party as he was the best dancer.
・Sandy always does well on tests. She stands out as one of the best students.

2．take car of	= watch and protect
・Ben does not take care of plants very well. He always kills them by accident.
・Sue has to stay home tomorrow night and take care of her baby sister.

3．turn out	= to be found to be
・The expensive painting I bought turned out ot be a copy.
・We thought Lucy spoke Spanish, but she truned out to speak English.

aviary	a large cage in which birds are kept
budgerigar	a small Australian bird, also called "budgie"