Birds as 'Language' Learners - Test 6

C1 Advanced · Open Cloze · C1 Advanced Trainer 2, Cambridge University Press

For questions 1–8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

Birds gain life skills in various ways. (0) ___ some of what they know is innate, some is acquired by direct experience. Scientists in Australia have been exploring a third way: a type of social learning, in (9) ___ individual birds learn from others (10) ___ than through direct experience. Like many wild animals, birds listen to the alarm calls of other species, (11) ___ it possible for them to take advantage of many eyes looking out (12) ___ danger. The Australian scientists have found that the fairy wren, a small songbird, can learn those unfamiliar calls, (13) ___ the bird that made the call even being visible. The researchers trained fairy wrens, (14) ___ the absence of any predator, by broadcasting unfamiliar sounds together with the alarm calls of other fairy wrens and other bird species. Initially, the fairy wrens didn’t flee from the unfamiliar sounds. But after training, they usually (15) ___ so. The results show the rapid way learning can occur. One researcher says: ‘It’s something that can come in handy, given (16) ___ hard it can be to see predators and callers in many environments.’

Birds as ‘language’ learners

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