The World's Cleverest Dog: Alex The African Grey Parrot: A Genius?

5 Clever animals 3
Read both articles again and answer the

questions for Chaser and Alex.
1 Why did their trainers want to work with the
1 What are people’s attitudes to animals in your animals?
country? What animals do you think are the 2 What were they taught to do?
most intelligent? Why?
3 How were they trained?
4 How much time did they communicate with
2 a Look at the pictures and titles of two articles people every day?
about clever animals. What do you think the
two animals are able to do? 5 Are they different from others of their kind,
according to their trainers?
Read the articles and check your answers.
b
Which animal do you think is more intelligent? 4 Do you think it’s possible for animals to really
Why? understand what is being said? Why?/Why not?
Alex the African

Grey Parrot:
a genius?
Parrots have been popular pets
for thousands of years, largely
due to their ability to speak.
But the work of scientist Dr
Irene Pepperberg with Alex,
an African Grey, aimed to
extra reading:
Photocopiable
prove that a parrot can do much more than simply mimic
The world’s cleverest dog language and sounds; it can actually understand and
respond to language.
Chaser, a border collie who lives in Spartanburg, in the After buying him in a pet shop, Dr Pepperberg spent 30
USA, has the largest vocabulary of any known dog. The years training Alex. He learned more than 100 words
collie knows 1,022 nouns and can interpret a number of and was able to identify between different colours,
verbs, which shows us that dogs are able to learn far more sizes, shapes and materials. She used a range of simple
than we had previously thought. questions, for example, “What matter?” to which Alex
Chaser belongs to John W Pilley, who taught psychology at would reply, “Paper”, “Wool”, “Wood”, etc. He even
university for 30 years. Dr Pilley bought Chaser as a puppy understood abstract questions; for instance, on producing
in 2004 and started to train her for four to five hours a four clicks, she would ask, “How many?” to which he
day in order to see whether he could repeat the success replied, “Four.” Although generally co-operative, Alex
of Rico, another border collie who had been taught to would frequently indicate that class was over by saying,
recognise 200 objects by its owners. Dr Pilley would show “Wanna go back.”
Chaser an object and say its name up to 40 times, then Alex had four to eight hours a day of interaction with
hide the object and ask her to find it, while repeating the humans and Dr Pepperberg claims that he had an
name all the time. She was taught one or two new words understanding equal to that of a three-year-old child. But
a day and proved to be an exceptional student. Unlike was Alex a genius or are other parrots capable of similar
human children, she seems to love her drills and tests and intelligence? Dr Pepperberg is now successfully repeating
is always asking for more. “She still demands four to five her experiments with another parrot, Einstein, to prove
hours a day,” Dr Pilley said. “I’m 82, and I have to go to bed the intelligence of the species, not simply the individual.
to get away from her.” Alex’s death at the age of 31 was reported in the New
As for Chaser’s abilities, Dr Pilley said that most border York Times and The Economist – unheard-of for an
collies, with special training, “could be pretty close to animal – but an appropriate celebration of the life of
where Chaser is.” He added that it just takes a great deal an extraordinary animal who was anything but a ‘bird
of patience. brain’.
information 4 4–8 hours a day. 5 No.

2 recognise and identify between different colours, sizes, shapes and materials 3 answering questions about objects and abstract
while repeating the name many times 4 4–5 hours a day 5 No.; Alex: 1 to prove that parrots can understand what they’re saying
3 Chaser: 1 to repeat experiments with another border collie 2 recognise 1022 nouns and some verbs 3 showing and hiding objects
Instructions p208 © Cambridge University Press 2012 face2face Second edition Upper Intermediate Photocopiable 217

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5 Clever animals 3

Read both articles again and answer the

Alex the African

information 4 4–8 hours a day. 5 No.

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