The Star Zoo. Harry Gilbert

RRY GILBERT

      The Star Zoo

      THE STAR ZOO

      Humans are the most successful animals on the planet Earth – successful, that is, in the fight with other animals. If it’s a question of fighting for food or land, then we humans always win. We cut down trees, build houses and factories, grow our own food. The animals must go and find another place to live … if they can.

      We humans always win because we are intelligent. We can think, talk, use tools, make wonderful machines. We are extremely clever animals …

      Perhaps too clever. Perhaps people in the future will think differently. Hummingbird (Hummy for short) is a girl of sixteen who lives in about 22,500 AD, on a planet a long way from Earth. She likes clothes and dancing, and worries about who she will marry. She has never seen a tree. She has never seen any animal or bird. She knows what animals are, of course, because there are stories about them in the Book of Remembering. But who can believe old stories like that?

      For Will

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DPOxford University Press is a department of the University of OxfordIt furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide inOxford New YorkAuckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei TorontoWith offices inArgentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine VietnamOXFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH are registered trade marks of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countriesThis edition © Oxford University Press 2008The moral rights of the author have been assertedDatabase right Oxford University Press (maker)First published in Oxford Bookworms 19922 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1No unauthorized photocopyingAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address aboveYou must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirerAny websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the contentISBN 978 0 19 4791311 Illustrated by: Craig Phillips/Shannon AssociatesWord count (main text): 8915 wordsFor more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, visit www.oup.com/bookwormswww.oup.com/bookwormse-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478661 4e-Book first published 2012

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      You must marry me

      Nothing ever happens on Just Like Home – that’s the name of the planet I live on. I get so bored!

      But tonight was Remembering Night and that’s exciting. There’s the big fire where everybody must put on something that they love and watch it burn. Then there’s the dancing round the fire.

      But what I like best about Remembering Night are the clothes. We usually wear what we like on Just Like Home – but the clothes must have the name of our name-animal on them. For example, I always have the word ‘Hummingbird’ on my clothes, which means my name is Hummingbird – Hummy for short.