The English Lesson 21 theme is THE OSTRICH

Part One: Learn English Skills

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow:

Ostrich Ostriches are very unique animals. With their long neck and small head, they are the largest and heaviest living birds on earth. Ostriches can be as tall as 2,5 metres and weigh nearly 130 kilograms. As a result, they cannot fly.

Instead, these large birds escape from their enemies by running at great speeds with their small wings outspread. With their long, powerful legs they can run at up to 70 kilometres per hour, which makes ostriches the second fastest animal in the world.

When ostriches are angry or in danger, they also use their legs for defence. They are so powerful that a single kick at a predator, like a lion, can be fatal.

Another way the large birds try to escape is by stretching out their long neck and laying their head on the ground to keep from being seen. From this behaviour comes the myth that ostriches hide their head in the sand.

Instead ostriches hide their eggs in the sand. A male ostrich scoops out a large hollow and three or four females lay their eggs in it. The male sits on these eggs at night and one of the females incubates them by day. Each egg weighs about 1,4 kilograms and has a volume of nearly 1,4 litres. This means that one ostrich egg is the same as 24 chicken eggs combined and takes roughly 2 hours to boil!

Although Bushmen still use empty ostrich egg shells for carrying water and making jewellery, decorated shells are now also very popular curios. About a hundred years ago, ostrich feathers became very fashionable and so many ostrich farms were established in South Africa.

Your Turn

How do ostriches escape their enemies?
For what do ostriches use their legs?
Where do ostriches lay their eggs?
How big is an ostrich egg?
For what do bushmen use ostrich egg shells?
Genius question: What word in the text describes a traditional story that is accepted as fact, even though it is untrue? (A clue: it means the same as "legend").

Part Two: Learn English Structure

HARD and HARDLY

Although HARD and HARDLY are very similar words they have very different meanings and should not be confused.

HARD

HARD can be an adjective that tells you more about a noun.

The ostrich has a HARD beak that can use to defend itself. (In this sentence, the adjective HARD has the opposite meaning of soft.)
The farmer who looks after the ostriches has a HARD job. (In this sentence, the adjective HARD means the same as "difficult".)

HARD can be used as an adverb that tells you more about a verb, or action.

If you hit an ostrich egg HARD, it will break. (The adverb HARD tells you more about "hit".)
You have to work HARD if you want to be a successful ostrich farmer. (The adverb HARD describes the verb "work".) NOT: You have to work HARDLY.

HARDLY

HARDLY is an adverb. It means "almost no" or "almost not".

He HARDLY works at all. (He does very little work.)

After the demand for ostrich feathers dropped, the farmers had HARDLY any money. (They had almost no money.)
He knows HARDLY anything about English. (He knows very little about English.)

Please remember that HARDLY, HARDLY EVER, HARDLY ANY etc. are much more common than almost not, almost never, almost no.

Your Turn

If you want to hit the ball far, you have to hit it _______ with the bat.
To get good marks in your English exam, you have to work _______.
The lazy student _______ works and likes to spend all day on the beach.
The farmer had _______ any money, so he had to sell his ostriches.
The ostrich swallowed a _______ rock.

Part Three: Funnies

Why does an ostrich have such a long neck? Because its head is so far from its body.

Part Four: Did You Know?

Ostriches are truly unique animals. Here are a few more interesting facts about them:

Ostrich skeletons and fossils have been found which date back over 120 million years.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Ostriches will sometimes swallow stones to help them digest food more quickly.

Part Five: Quotations

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. - Immanuel Kant

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Gandhi

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms. - George Eliot

Part Six: Links

If you would like to see what these unique birds look like, there is a gallery of images on this web site.

http://www.zbirds.com/opictures.html

Although this web site does not look very attractive it has some fascinating facts about the ostrich.

http://www.ostrichesonline.com/general/quickfacts.html

Answers

Answers to Part One

They run at great speeds with their small wings outspread or stretch out their long neck and lay their head on the ground to keep from being seen.
They use their legs for running away from their enemies. When angry or in danger, they also use their legs for kicking.
In a large hollow in the sand.
Each egg weighs about 1,4 kilograms and has a volume of nearly 1,4 litres.
They use the empty shells for carrying water or they make jewellery from the shells.
Myth