Exercise A

1. environment
2. question
3. death
4. confession
5. crime
6. pollution
7. man

Exercise B
1(a) The worm confessed.
(b) The worm poisoned the cock robin.
(c) Cock robin died on a branch of a withered tree.
(d) Acid soil poisoned the worm.
2 (a) The fish confessed.
(b)The heron lives by the lake.
(c) It means contaminated/polluted.
(d)They are birds of the lake/ water birds.

3. (a) Industry confessed.

(e) The killer feels proud.
(f) The weapon used by the killer is mercury.
(g)The culprit did it to please greedy men.

4. (a) The wind confessed.

(h)The phrase means to move around freely and stealthily.
(i) The flowers were poisoned by acid rain.
(j) Alliteration was used to echo the sound of the wind blowing.
5 (a) Sulphur dioxide confessed.
(b)This crime was committed on purpose./ The killing was planned./ The killer
wanted the victim to die.
(c) The word life refers to living things, birds, animals, trees and plants.
(d)The last line tells us that the killer is very powerful because it can kill all
living creatures.

Exercise C
After reading the poem Poisoned Talk, I feel very concerned about the effects
of pollution on nature and the environment. In the poem, it is revealed that
birds, animals, plants and whole forests are being poisoned by pollution. The
culprits who say they caused the deaths of the birds, lake, flowers and forest
are not really the killers. Man is the real killer because of greed. If we do not
stop our harmful actions, the environment will be destroyed. I will do my part
to stop pollution.
Set 1
(a) The worm was poisonous because of acid soil and cock robin died of poisoning when he
ate the worm.
(b)Industry feels proud (and happy).
(c) Mercury and sulphur dioxide.
(d)No, I do not think that the fish should be blamed. The fish became poisonous because
his flesh was contaminated by pollution and the birds died eating his flesh.

Set 2
(e) They died of poisoning when they fed on animals that were poisoned/ contaminated by
pollution.
(f) The wind took the blame for killing the flowers.
(g)Sulphur dioxide destroyed the forest and all living things in it.
(h)The poet wrote this poem to make us realise that we must take responsibility for
environmental destruction/ that we must stop polluting the environment. The poem is
about creatures and poisonous substances confessing to killing elements of the
environment but they are really not the culprits because they are not human and they
cannot control their actions.