Learn English | A new lesson every week
Book your course now

All about animals

Average: 2 (256 votes)

After our lesson on cat idioms and another on dog idioms, it’s time to take a look at some other animals.

Instead of idioms we are going to look at some vocabulary related to animals. All you have to do is read through the following short text and guess what the missing words are:

Animal Vocabulary - A day at the zoo

I took my young daughter to the zoo for the first time recently.

She's a real animal lover. At home she spends all her time playing and walking our _1_ dog, and to be honest, she's been asking me to take her for a while.

At first I wasn't sure about going because I've always been uncomfortable with zoos. I considered them to be like prisons for _2_ animals that should be running free, not locked up in cages.

Well, I have to say modern zoos are much better than I remember, the animals have lots of space, they seem well taken care of and we learned a lot.

The first thing we saw were the _3_. They look so human, it's easy to how we are related to them. They don't have tails like chimpanzees and can walk upright a bit. 

Next were the _4_. It's amazing how they can pick up food with their trunks. I learned you can tell if they are African or Indian by the size of their ears - African ones have bigger ears.

After that it was the _5_, nicknamed the 'kings of the jungle'. We didn't hear any of them roar, but we did get to see them walk about. The males have beautiful manes of hair around their necks. Apparently it's to protect them in fights. I also read that the females do most of the hunting.

My daughter was a little scared of the _6_, I guess a lot of people don't like reptiles. I have to admit any animal with a long thin body and no arms or legs is weird!

The _7_ made we laugh, they are so cute! It's strange to think they're a bird that can't fly. While other birds have wings for flying, they have adapted their flippers for swimming.

The other birds I liked looking at were the _8_. They have huge eyes, beautiful feathers, and they can turn their necks all the way around. I read their large eyes are to help them see at night, when they are most active.

My daughter was fascinated with the _9_ and their long, long necks. She asked me why they have long necks instead of long legs - good question!

All in all, it was a great day. Next time I'll take her to the aquarium to see the dolphins, sharks and _10_.

By the way, if you are interested, here are some animal idioms you might like.

Now choose the correct missing words from these options:

  • 1) Missing word 1 is:





  • 2) Missing word 2 is:





  • 3) Missing word 3 is:





  • 4) Missing word 4 is:





  • 5) Missing word 5 is:





  • 6) Missing word 6 is:





  • 7) Missing word 7 is:




  • 8) Missing word 8 is:





  • 9) Missing word 9 is:





  • 10) Missing word 10 is: