Class 7 English Unit 2 NCERT Book - Animals, Birds and Dr. Dolittle

 Page 1


Wit and Humour Unit 2
WIT AND HUMOUR
AnimAls , Birds , And d r . d olittle Let us do these activities before we read.
 I Do you have a pet or a domestic animal? If yes, why? If not, why not?  
How do people usually spend time with a pet or domestic animal? Share 
your thoughts with your classmates and the teacher. 
 II You must have read stories where animals and birds talk. If you had a 
chance to communicate with an animal or a bird, who would you like 
to speak to and why? Share your thoughts with your classmates and the 
teacher.
 III If we closely observe the body language of animals and birds, we can 
understand what they want to tell us. Work in pairs and study the 
pictures given below. Find out what emotions these animals and birds 
are trying to convey. Share your observations with your classmates and 
the teacher.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Unit 2.indd   43 Unit 2.indd   43 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM
Page 2


Wit and Humour Unit 2
WIT AND HUMOUR
AnimAls , Birds , And d r . d olittle Let us do these activities before we read.
 I Do you have a pet or a domestic animal? If yes, why? If not, why not?  
How do people usually spend time with a pet or domestic animal? Share 
your thoughts with your classmates and the teacher. 
 II You must have read stories where animals and birds talk. If you had a 
chance to communicate with an animal or a bird, who would you like 
to speak to and why? Share your thoughts with your classmates and the 
teacher.
 III If we closely observe the body language of animals and birds, we can 
understand what they want to tell us. Work in pairs and study the 
pictures given below. Find out what emotions these animals and birds 
are trying to convey. Share your observations with your classmates and 
the teacher.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Unit 2.indd   43 Unit 2.indd   43 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM
Poorvi 44
 Let us read
scholar: a 
learned person
I
Doctor Dolittle was sitting in his kitchen talking with the Cat’s-
food-Man who had come to see him with a stomach-ache.
“Why don’t you give up being a people’s doctor, and be an 
animal doctor?” asked the Cat’s-food-Man.
The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out 
at the rain and singing a sailor song to herself. She stopped 
singing and started to listen.
“You see, Doctor,” the Cat’s-food-Man went on, “you know all 
about animals—much more than what these vets here do. 
That book you wrote—about cats, why, it’s wonderful! I can’t 
read or write myself—my wife, Theodosia, is a scholar, and 
she read your book to me. You might have been a cat yourself. 
You know the way they think.” 
When the Cat’s-food-Man had gone the parrot flew off the 
window on to the Doctor’s table and said, “That man’s got 
sense. That’s what you ought to do. Be an animal doctor. Give 
the silly people up—if they haven’t brains enough to see you’re 
the best doctor in the world. Take care of animals instead—
they’ll soon find it out. Be an animal doctor.”
“Oh, there are plenty of animal doctors,” said John Dolittle, 
putting the flowerpots outside on the windowsill to get the 
rain.
“Yes, there are plenty,” said Polynesia. “But none of them are 
Unit 2.indd   44 Unit 2.indd   44 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM
Page 3


Wit and Humour Unit 2
WIT AND HUMOUR
AnimAls , Birds , And d r . d olittle Let us do these activities before we read.
 I Do you have a pet or a domestic animal? If yes, why? If not, why not?  
How do people usually spend time with a pet or domestic animal? Share 
your thoughts with your classmates and the teacher. 
 II You must have read stories where animals and birds talk. If you had a 
chance to communicate with an animal or a bird, who would you like 
to speak to and why? Share your thoughts with your classmates and the 
teacher.
 III If we closely observe the body language of animals and birds, we can 
understand what they want to tell us. Work in pairs and study the 
pictures given below. Find out what emotions these animals and birds 
are trying to convey. Share your observations with your classmates and 
the teacher.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Unit 2.indd   43 Unit 2.indd   43 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM
Poorvi 44
 Let us read
scholar: a 
learned person
I
Doctor Dolittle was sitting in his kitchen talking with the Cat’s-
food-Man who had come to see him with a stomach-ache.
“Why don’t you give up being a people’s doctor, and be an 
animal doctor?” asked the Cat’s-food-Man.
The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out 
at the rain and singing a sailor song to herself. She stopped 
singing and started to listen.
“You see, Doctor,” the Cat’s-food-Man went on, “you know all 
about animals—much more than what these vets here do. 
That book you wrote—about cats, why, it’s wonderful! I can’t 
read or write myself—my wife, Theodosia, is a scholar, and 
she read your book to me. You might have been a cat yourself. 
You know the way they think.” 
When the Cat’s-food-Man had gone the parrot flew off the 
window on to the Doctor’s table and said, “That man’s got 
sense. That’s what you ought to do. Be an animal doctor. Give 
the silly people up—if they haven’t brains enough to see you’re 
the best doctor in the world. Take care of animals instead—
they’ll soon find it out. Be an animal doctor.”
“Oh, there are plenty of animal doctors,” said John Dolittle, 
putting the flowerpots outside on the windowsill to get the 
rain.
“Yes, there are plenty,” said Polynesia. “But none of them are 
Unit 2.indd   44 Unit 2.indd   44 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM
any good at all. Now listen, Doctor, and I’ll tell you something. 
Did you know that animals can talk?”
“I knew that parrots can talk,” said the Doctor.
“Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages—people’s language 
and bird language,” said Polynesia proudly. “If I say, ‘Polly 
wants a cracker’, you understand me. But hear this: Ka-ka oi-
ee, fee-fee?”
“Good Gracious!” cried the Doctor. “What does that mean?”
“That means, ‘Is the porridge hot yet?’—in bird language.”
“My! You don’t say so!” said the Doctor. “You never talked that 
way to me before.”
“What would have been the good?” said Polynesia, dusting 
some cracker crumbs off her left wing. “You wouldn’t have 
understood me if I had.”
“Tell me some more,” said the Doctor, all excited; and he 
rushed over to the drawer and came back with a book and 
a pencil. “Now don’t go too fast—and I’ll write it down. 
This is interesting—very interesting—something quite new. 
Give me the Birds’ A.B.C. first—slowly now.”
So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals 
had a language of their own and could talk to one 
another. And all that afternoon, while it was 
raining, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table 
giving him bird words to put down in the 
book.
At teatime, when the dog, Jip, came in, 
the parrot said to the Doctor, “See, he’s 
talking to you.”
“Looks to me as though he were 
scratching his ear,” said the Doctor.
“But animals don’t always speak 
with their mouths,” said the parrot 
in a high voice, raising her eyebrows. 
“They talk with their ears, with their 
feet, with their tails—with everything. 
Sometimes they don’t want to make a 
Wit and Humour Birds’ A.B.C.:
(here) the 
language that 
birds speak
cracker: a thin, 
dry biscuit 
usually eaten 
with cheese
45
Unit 2.indd   45 Unit 2.indd   45 06-Mar-25   2:50:37 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:37 PM
Page 4


Wit and Humour Unit 2
WIT AND HUMOUR
AnimAls , Birds , And d r . d olittle Let us do these activities before we read.
 I Do you have a pet or a domestic animal? If yes, why? If not, why not?  
How do people usually spend time with a pet or domestic animal? Share 
your thoughts with your classmates and the teacher. 
 II You must have read stories where animals and birds talk. If you had a 
chance to communicate with an animal or a bird, who would you like 
to speak to and why? Share your thoughts with your classmates and the 
teacher.
 III If we closely observe the body language of animals and birds, we can 
understand what they want to tell us. Work in pairs and study the 
pictures given below. Find out what emotions these animals and birds 
are trying to convey. Share your observations with your classmates and 
the teacher.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Unit 2.indd   43 Unit 2.indd   43 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM
Poorvi 44
 Let us read
scholar: a 
learned person
I
Doctor Dolittle was sitting in his kitchen talking with the Cat’s-
food-Man who had come to see him with a stomach-ache.
“Why don’t you give up being a people’s doctor, and be an 
animal doctor?” asked the Cat’s-food-Man.
The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out 
at the rain and singing a sailor song to herself. She stopped 
singing and started to listen.
“You see, Doctor,” the Cat’s-food-Man went on, “you know all 
about animals—much more than what these vets here do. 
That book you wrote—about cats, why, it’s wonderful! I can’t 
read or write myself—my wife, Theodosia, is a scholar, and 
she read your book to me. You might have been a cat yourself. 
You know the way they think.” 
When the Cat’s-food-Man had gone the parrot flew off the 
window on to the Doctor’s table and said, “That man’s got 
sense. That’s what you ought to do. Be an animal doctor. Give 
the silly people up—if they haven’t brains enough to see you’re 
the best doctor in the world. Take care of animals instead—
they’ll soon find it out. Be an animal doctor.”
“Oh, there are plenty of animal doctors,” said John Dolittle, 
putting the flowerpots outside on the windowsill to get the 
rain.
“Yes, there are plenty,” said Polynesia. “But none of them are 
Unit 2.indd   44 Unit 2.indd   44 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM
any good at all. Now listen, Doctor, and I’ll tell you something. 
Did you know that animals can talk?”
“I knew that parrots can talk,” said the Doctor.
“Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages—people’s language 
and bird language,” said Polynesia proudly. “If I say, ‘Polly 
wants a cracker’, you understand me. But hear this: Ka-ka oi-
ee, fee-fee?”
“Good Gracious!” cried the Doctor. “What does that mean?”
“That means, ‘Is the porridge hot yet?’—in bird language.”
“My! You don’t say so!” said the Doctor. “You never talked that 
way to me before.”
“What would have been the good?” said Polynesia, dusting 
some cracker crumbs off her left wing. “You wouldn’t have 
understood me if I had.”
“Tell me some more,” said the Doctor, all excited; and he 
rushed over to the drawer and came back with a book and 
a pencil. “Now don’t go too fast—and I’ll write it down. 
This is interesting—very interesting—something quite new. 
Give me the Birds’ A.B.C. first—slowly now.”
So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals 
had a language of their own and could talk to one 
another. And all that afternoon, while it was 
raining, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table 
giving him bird words to put down in the 
book.
At teatime, when the dog, Jip, came in, 
the parrot said to the Doctor, “See, he’s 
talking to you.”
“Looks to me as though he were 
scratching his ear,” said the Doctor.
“But animals don’t always speak 
with their mouths,” said the parrot 
in a high voice, raising her eyebrows. 
“They talk with their ears, with their 
feet, with their tails—with everything. 
Sometimes they don’t want to make a 
Wit and Humour Birds’ A.B.C.:
(here) the 
language that 
birds speak
cracker: a thin, 
dry biscuit 
usually eaten 
with cheese
45
Unit 2.indd   45 Unit 2.indd   45 06-Mar-25   2:50:37 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:37 PM
Poorvi 46
noise. Do you see now the way he’s twitching up one side of his 
nose?”
“What’s that mean?” asked the Doctor.
“That means, ‘Can’t you see that it has stopped raining?’” 
Polynesia answered. “He is asking you a question. Dogs nearly 
always use their noses for asking questions.”
After a while, with the parrot’s help, the Doctor got to learn the 
language of the animals so well that he could talk to them himself 
and understand everything they said. Then he gave up being a 
people’s doctor altogether.
Let us discuss
 I Complete the following sentence by selecting a suitable reason.
  The Cat’s-food-Man suggests to Doctor Dolittle that he should 
become an animal doctor because he believes that Dolittle 
______________________________________________________.
 1. earns less fee by treating human patients 
 2. enjoys the company of animals as they speak less
 3. dislikes spending time with human patients
 4. knows more about animals than the local veterinarians
 II Fill in the blanks by choosing the suitable option given in the brackets.
  Doctor Dolittle reacts to Polynesia’s information about animal languages 
with both excitement and ____________ (certainty/curiosity). He rushes 
to ____________ (write/memorise) the bird words she provides and is 
interested in learning more.
 III Do you think Doctor Dolittle would be famous as an animal doctor?  
If yes, why? If not, why not?
II
As soon as the Cat’s-food-Man had told everyone that John Dolittle 
was going to become an animal doctor, old ladies began to bring 
him their pet pugs and poodles who had eaten too much cake; 
and farmers came many miles to show him sick cows and sheep.
Unit 2.indd   46 Unit 2.indd   46 06-Mar-25   2:50:38 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:38 PM
Page 5


Wit and Humour Unit 2
WIT AND HUMOUR
AnimAls , Birds , And d r . d olittle Let us do these activities before we read.
 I Do you have a pet or a domestic animal? If yes, why? If not, why not?  
How do people usually spend time with a pet or domestic animal? Share 
your thoughts with your classmates and the teacher. 
 II You must have read stories where animals and birds talk. If you had a 
chance to communicate with an animal or a bird, who would you like 
to speak to and why? Share your thoughts with your classmates and the 
teacher.
 III If we closely observe the body language of animals and birds, we can 
understand what they want to tell us. Work in pairs and study the 
pictures given below. Find out what emotions these animals and birds 
are trying to convey. Share your observations with your classmates and 
the teacher.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Unit 2.indd   43 Unit 2.indd   43 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:35 PM
Poorvi 44
 Let us read
scholar: a 
learned person
I
Doctor Dolittle was sitting in his kitchen talking with the Cat’s-
food-Man who had come to see him with a stomach-ache.
“Why don’t you give up being a people’s doctor, and be an 
animal doctor?” asked the Cat’s-food-Man.
The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out 
at the rain and singing a sailor song to herself. She stopped 
singing and started to listen.
“You see, Doctor,” the Cat’s-food-Man went on, “you know all 
about animals—much more than what these vets here do. 
That book you wrote—about cats, why, it’s wonderful! I can’t 
read or write myself—my wife, Theodosia, is a scholar, and 
she read your book to me. You might have been a cat yourself. 
You know the way they think.” 
When the Cat’s-food-Man had gone the parrot flew off the 
window on to the Doctor’s table and said, “That man’s got 
sense. That’s what you ought to do. Be an animal doctor. Give 
the silly people up—if they haven’t brains enough to see you’re 
the best doctor in the world. Take care of animals instead—
they’ll soon find it out. Be an animal doctor.”
“Oh, there are plenty of animal doctors,” said John Dolittle, 
putting the flowerpots outside on the windowsill to get the 
rain.
“Yes, there are plenty,” said Polynesia. “But none of them are 
Unit 2.indd   44 Unit 2.indd   44 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:36 PM
any good at all. Now listen, Doctor, and I’ll tell you something. 
Did you know that animals can talk?”
“I knew that parrots can talk,” said the Doctor.
“Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages—people’s language 
and bird language,” said Polynesia proudly. “If I say, ‘Polly 
wants a cracker’, you understand me. But hear this: Ka-ka oi-
ee, fee-fee?”
“Good Gracious!” cried the Doctor. “What does that mean?”
“That means, ‘Is the porridge hot yet?’—in bird language.”
“My! You don’t say so!” said the Doctor. “You never talked that 
way to me before.”
“What would have been the good?” said Polynesia, dusting 
some cracker crumbs off her left wing. “You wouldn’t have 
understood me if I had.”
“Tell me some more,” said the Doctor, all excited; and he 
rushed over to the drawer and came back with a book and 
a pencil. “Now don’t go too fast—and I’ll write it down. 
This is interesting—very interesting—something quite new. 
Give me the Birds’ A.B.C. first—slowly now.”
So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals 
had a language of their own and could talk to one 
another. And all that afternoon, while it was 
raining, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table 
giving him bird words to put down in the 
book.
At teatime, when the dog, Jip, came in, 
the parrot said to the Doctor, “See, he’s 
talking to you.”
“Looks to me as though he were 
scratching his ear,” said the Doctor.
“But animals don’t always speak 
with their mouths,” said the parrot 
in a high voice, raising her eyebrows. 
“They talk with their ears, with their 
feet, with their tails—with everything. 
Sometimes they don’t want to make a 
Wit and Humour Birds’ A.B.C.:
(here) the 
language that 
birds speak
cracker: a thin, 
dry biscuit 
usually eaten 
with cheese
45
Unit 2.indd   45 Unit 2.indd   45 06-Mar-25   2:50:37 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:37 PM
Poorvi 46
noise. Do you see now the way he’s twitching up one side of his 
nose?”
“What’s that mean?” asked the Doctor.
“That means, ‘Can’t you see that it has stopped raining?’” 
Polynesia answered. “He is asking you a question. Dogs nearly 
always use their noses for asking questions.”
After a while, with the parrot’s help, the Doctor got to learn the 
language of the animals so well that he could talk to them himself 
and understand everything they said. Then he gave up being a 
people’s doctor altogether.
Let us discuss
 I Complete the following sentence by selecting a suitable reason.
  The Cat’s-food-Man suggests to Doctor Dolittle that he should 
become an animal doctor because he believes that Dolittle 
______________________________________________________.
 1. earns less fee by treating human patients 
 2. enjoys the company of animals as they speak less
 3. dislikes spending time with human patients
 4. knows more about animals than the local veterinarians
 II Fill in the blanks by choosing the suitable option given in the brackets.
  Doctor Dolittle reacts to Polynesia’s information about animal languages 
with both excitement and ____________ (certainty/curiosity). He rushes 
to ____________ (write/memorise) the bird words she provides and is 
interested in learning more.
 III Do you think Doctor Dolittle would be famous as an animal doctor?  
If yes, why? If not, why not?
II
As soon as the Cat’s-food-Man had told everyone that John Dolittle 
was going to become an animal doctor, old ladies began to bring 
him their pet pugs and poodles who had eaten too much cake; 
and farmers came many miles to show him sick cows and sheep.
Unit 2.indd   46 Unit 2.indd   46 06-Mar-25   2:50:38 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:38 PM
One day a plough horse was brought to him; and the poor thing 
was terribly glad to find a man who could talk in horse language.
“You know, Doctor,” said the horse, “that vet over the hill knows 
nothing at all. He has been treating me six weeks now—for 
something or the other. What I need is spectacles. I am going 
blind in one eye. There’s no reason why horses shouldn’t wear 
glasses, the same as people. But that stupid man over the hill 
never even looked at my eyes. He kept on giving me big pills. 
I tried to tell him, but he couldn’t understand a word of horse 
language. What I need is spectacles.”
“Of course—of course,” said the Doctor. “I’ll get you some at once.”
“I would like a pair like yours,” said the horse—“only green. 
They’ll keep the Sun out of my eyes while I’m ploughing the field.”
“Certainly,” said the Doctor. “Green ones you shall have.”
“You know, the trouble is, Sir,” said the plough horse as the 
Doctor opened the front door to let him out—“the trouble is that 
anybody thinks he can doctor animals—just because the animals 
don’t complain. As a matter of fact, it takes a much cleverer man 
to be a really good animal doctor than it does to be a good people’s 
doctor.”
“Well, well!” said the Doctor.
“When will my glasses be ready?”
47
Wit and Humour Unit 2.indd   47 Unit 2.indd   47 06-Mar-25   2:50:39 PM 06-Mar-25   2:50:39 PM