World News for Students of English

25-06-2021 15:00

An 80-year-old French retiree named Xavier Bouget was out walking one day near his home in Brittany, when he saw a chick pigeon fall to the ground when it was trying to escape from a cat.

After telling his wife what he saw, she asked him why he didn’t pick the bird up. Bouget returned to the bird and carried it home in his pocket. The pigeon has become a constant companion, following Bouget when he rides on his bicycle, tinkers in his workshop, and works in his garden.

Bouget often gets asked about his relationship with the pigeon who he calls Blanchon. He revealed the key to the friendship: mutual respect. Every human could have that kind of a relationship with an animal. It was a matter of patience, of watching the bird live and adapting to his way of life.

Difficult words: constant (continuing without a break), tinker (to attempt to repair or improve something in a casual or uninterested way), mutual (experienced or performed by each of two or more people or groups).

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