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Look up the words you need in a dictionary to guess what these pictures represent:

FOUR LITTLE BIRDS: On this occasion, Rachel describes how life is for four little birds
and their parents that are living on a nest in her garden. Fill the gaps with the
appropriate word.

The _____________ (1) are working very hard on our house, but not today because it’s a
_____________ (2). But they are not the only ones working hard on ______________ (3) a
home.

Yes, on the back of the garden door there’s an old _____________ (4) box and inside the box is
a nest, the home for four little birds. As Richard said there are no ________________ (5) here
today but when they are here the door is open and of course is very_____________ (6). But
the parents still thought it was a good place to build the nest. On April ____________ (7) we
saw there were some eggs on the nest, four small blue eggs. The mother bird sat on the eggs
all day. On May ____________ (8) four little birds were born. They looked very ugly with large
eyes and no __________________ (9).

Now there are four hungry birds to feed and they grow ____________ (10) every day. So when
the _______________ (1) are away the mother bird is very busy feeding her chicks. She feeds
them worms and________________ (11). She knows I’m watching her. She also cleans the
nest. Luckily for her, help is at hand. The father, much dark in colour, also feeds the chicks and
cleans the nest.

Here are both parents: the ______________ (12) father and the mother. It’s possible to get
very near the nest. But when the parents are unhappy they make a loud ______________ (13)
noise. The father knows I’m watching him and he _______________ (14) me to leave… and the
mother too. But now the baby birds are no longer babies. They are three weeks old and ready
to leave their home. We _______________ (15) to see them all next year.
LISTENINGS TAKEN FROM www.podcastsinenglish.com

KEYS:

FOUR LITTLE BIRDS:

1. builder 9. feathers

2. Saturday 10. bigger

3. building 1. builders (again)

4. letter 11. insects

5. workmen 12. darker

6. noisy 13. angry

7. 23rd 14. wants

8. 9th 15. hope