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Before reading Discuss the following questions with your classmates: -+ What poisonous animals are found in Venezuela? Are there any which are not snakes? ~ Venezuela has a great variety of bird species. Have you ever heard of any kind of poisonous bird? -+ ~ld a bird be poisonous? No . skim e text below. What is the name of this bird? Where was it found? Poison Birds In the feathers of an orange-black songbird common in New Guinea, Jack Dumbacher struck scientific gold. Dumbacher licked his cut fingers after freeing "feisty" hooded pitohuis from nets meant for birds of paradise. The result was "numbness, burning, and sneezing" and the discovery that the skin and feathers of the hooded pitohui and two related species contain a nasty nerve agent called homobatrachotoxin. Dumbacher, a University of Chicago graduate student, is the first to identify a poison in a bird. His discovery is forcing astounded ornithologists to view birds' brilliant plumage in a new light - as a possible warning of potent chemical defenses. The "poison-dart" frog of the Amazon is the other animal known to pack the homobatrachotoxin poison, in a much higher dose. Like monarch butterflies deprived of milkweed, the frogs are nontoxic when raised in captivity. Dumbacher wants to collect live pitohuis to see if their poison is al so diet-dependent. "We might find lots of cases of poisonous birds," says Dumbacher. "No one's ever really looked before."
Taken from: (1993, June). Popular Science.
Exercises ComPlnsion questions 1. No~the article to find the answers to these questions: a. What is the name given to scientists who study birds? O ,-,,~ ~.?b~~ts
b. How many birds were known to be poisonous at the time this article was written? N'OK2--~
c. What were the symptoms the nerve agent produced?
N~f/..t!$ I 1o~VV::r~ j ~ ~ct~ d. Is the pitohui more poisonous than the poisonous dart frog of the Amazon? Explain your answer.
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e. What does Dumbacher want to find out about pitohuis? 'To 5L€. l.f -t.t.u.Lr r
3. What was the author's purpose in writing the text?
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Vocabulary: compound nouns Read Po iso n birds again and find five (5) compound nouns. Then write out the meaning in full. One is done for you.
Compound noun Paragraph & Iine Meaning orange-black song bird 1, line 1 a bird that sings that is orange and black in colour
o..i-\ ~ f::A.,J;:. c::;....f(~ fU-rv<:-:\ 1i+l.e. . :2 I li:"'Á ~ ( r cc ~ w tcsc.z.. tw:::;; f'Fri S \)~I< U·4~~'S~ 2... U ..•..•(. e\...- S-~ fvv..= LA.. c:¡--,a.. w~ i s ~ F~-~' r}- ~, w-t~th,u"AJj ~1 IJVi;QFt1q",. Vocabulary: Using the context Explain, in your own words, the underlined words or phrases using the context in which they appear. 1. In the feathers of an orange-black songbird common in New Guinea, Jack Dumbacher struck scientific gold. Z ';:.¡ ,/} ¿~ .r : cU¿GOver ¡)~ &"-Cs~V{!(i1 2. His discovery is forcing astounded ornitho1ogists to view birds' brilliant plumage in a new light - as a possible warning of poterit.chemical defenses. . ..y .;. \r", __ .'JA~ "'¡ti-- e<..~MW ¡?:y1QeC/u\re L/UVt..5~~ I ¡ 3. The "poison-dart" frog of the Amazon is the other animal known to pack the homobatrachotoxin poison, in a much higher dose. j -fo;.(r", '-h ecvr~