The Portuguese established a permanent settlement on Mauritius. The island had been visited by other explorers (a)   to their arrival, but none had stayed.

The island was overrun with large, flightless birds. When properly cooked, they provided, a fine (a)   for the sailors.

Hunting these helpless creatures was easy. The island's new inhabitants wasted no time in cooking and (a)   them.

They called the bird a "dodo." The word today has a(n) (a)   meaning when referring to a person.

You would not be pleased if someone called you a dodo. A dodo is someone who is not very (a)   .

The dodo had no reason to fly and no reason to run fast. It's not surprising that it evolved into the rather (a)   creature the sailors encountered.

For thousands of years, dodos had lived without fear. This made them (a)   when humans began hunting them for food.

Because it had never been hunted before, the dodo was an easy prey for (a)  

With the humans came the first dogs, which added to the dodo's troubles. The dogs roamed the island and (a)   for dodo eggs.

The killing of dodos for food began in 1507. The (a)   continued for the next 170 years, until the last dodo was dead.

No one wishing to draw a dodo knew exactly what it looked like. Artist were free to draw its (a)   however they imagined.

After many years, the dodo captured people's interest. No one knew whether it had been a real creature a(n) (a)   of the imagination

For a long time, people believed that the dodo existed only in people's imagination. We now know that the dodo was real and no a(n) (a)   creature.

The discovery of some old bones in 1889 answered the question. They were found to be (a)   dodo bones, proving that the dodo had been real.