Page 62 - English Expedition Class 4

9 Doctor Dolittle

Do you think animals too have feelings like us? How do they communicate with each other?
Did you know that animals also have a language of their own? This is the story of Doctor
Dolittle who could speak with animals in their language. Read to find out how he learnt the

ABC of animal language.

Once upon a time, many years ago, when our grandfathers were little children, there
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was a doctor and his name was Dolittle – John Dolittle, M.D. . ‘M.D.’ means that he
was a proper doctor and knew a whole lot.
He lived in a little town called Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. Everyone knew him well.
Whenever he walked down the street they would say, ‘There goes the Doctor! He’s
a clever man.’ Doctor Dolittle was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets.

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Besides goldfish in the pond, he had rabbits in the pantry , white mice in his piano,
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a squirrel in the linen closet and a hedgehog in the cellar . But his favourite pets
were Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog,
Gub-Gub the baby pig, Polynesia
the parrot and the owl Too-Too.
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His sister used to grumble about
all these animals because they made
the house untidy. One day his sister,

Sarah Dolittle, came to him and said,
‘John, how can you expect sick people
to come and see you when you keep
all these animals in the house? We are

getting poorer by the day. If you go on
like this, none of the best people will
come to you for treatment.’
‘But I like animals more than the

“best people”,’ said the Doctor.

1 M.D.: Doctor of Medicine 4 hedgehog: a small mammal with quills
2 pantry: a storeroom for keeping food and utensils 5 cellar: an underground room for storing things
3 closet: a big cupboard 6 grumble: complain
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