Free graded reading materials for English language
learners
:
Upper Intermediate
Stupid
Parrot?
Talking birds can be
dangerously annoying
A repairman once went to
house to repair a dishwasher. The owner was out at
work but she left instructions about her pets: a bull
dog called Spike and a parrot.
‘Don’t worry about Spike,’ she wrote in a
note she left with the house key. ‘He won’t
bother you. But it’s extremely
important that you
don’t talk to my parrot. Don’t say a word to
him.’
The
repairman went into the house. In the kitchen was an
enormous, scary looking bulldog. But, as the owner had
promised, Spike lay quietly on the carpet.
You're
Stupid!
The parrot, though, spent the
whole morning annoying the workman. ‘You’re
very ugly!’ he repeatedly squawked in his ear.
‘And very stupid!’
Finally the repairman could take no more. ‘No,
you’re
very ugly,’
he shouted at the parrot. ‘And you’re
very stupid!’
The
parrot looked down at the dog. ‘Get him,
Spike!’
Who
would want such a bird? A man called David, for one. He
went to an auction and bid for a parrot. To his surprise
the bids went higher and higher. Eventually David won the
bird.
'I
hope this parrot can talk,’ he said to the auctioneer
I’ve paid a lot of money for him!'
'Don't worry.' said the auctioneer, 'He can talk. Who do
you think was bidding against you?'