Read this passage (THE QUESTIONS ARE AFTER THE PASSAGE ANSWER CORRECT THEM FOR BRAINLIST AND 25 POINTS)
Whales are aquatic mammals.
1
Whales live in the water, but they aren’t fish—they’re mammals. All mammals are warm-blooded (maintain a high constant body temperature), breathe air, give live birth, nurse their young, and have hair. A whale breathes air through nostrils called a blowhole, located on top of its head. When it needs oxygen, a whale surfaces, thrusts its blowhole clear of the water, exhales (blows), and then inhales (takes in a deep breath of air).
Baby whales drink milk.
2
Like other mammals’ mothers, whales give birth to live young. A whale calf that is born under water can swim at birth. Soon after birth, the calf begins nursing. Whale milk is rich in fat and protein, and baby whales grow quickly. A blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) calf can gain as much as 90 kg (200 lb) a day while nursing.
Do whales have hair?
3
Yes, whales have hair, but they usually shed their hair while they are very young. Adult whales rarely have hair. A young whale may be born with sparse hairs along its rostrum. 1 Smooth skin makes a whale sleek and fast—an adaptation for living in water. What does a whale’s skin feel like? Some people say it feels like a wet inner tube.
Whales are adapted for water.
4
Whales’ bodies are streamlined. A streamlined shape glides easily through water and helps a whale conserve energy as it swims. A whale’s powerful tail is made up of a pair of flukes. The tail flukes move up and down for swimming. Forelimbs are called flippers. Whales use their flippers for steering and, with the help of the flukes, stopping. Most whales have a dorsal fin, which helps regulate body heat and also helps stabilize a swimming whale.
Blubber keeps whales warm.
5
Whales are warm-blooded with a core temperature about the same as ours. Because they live in cool water, they have adaptations for retaining body heat. A thick layer of fatty tissue called blubber lies just under the skin. Blubber insulates a whale’s internal organs and muscles.
Mysticeti means “mustached whale.”
6
This nickname refers to the baleen that hangs from the gums along each side of a mysticete’s upper jaw. Baleen is made mostly of keratin, a substance that also forms our fingernails and hair. Mysticetes tend to be solitary animals, traveling alone or in small groups. Unlike toothed whales, they have two blowholes.
Baleen plates work like a strainer.
7
A mysticete’s baleen strains food from the water. Some mysticetes feed by swimming with their mouths wide open. Others gulp in huge amounts of water. When they close their mouths, the water is forced out through the baleen, and food is trapped in the fringe. The whale swallows its meal.
The largest eat the smallest.
8
Mysticetes, some of the largest animals ever to live on earth, eat some of the smallest, most abundant life in the ocean: plankton. Depending on the species, mysticetes also eat small schooling fishes and a variety of tiny crustaceans such as krill, copepods, and amphipods.
How do we learn about whales?
9
Much of our knowledge about whales has come from the study of dead animals on beaches and from whaling expeditions. Today scientists study live whales to learn more about how they live.
10
Studying whales in the wild can be difficult because all we usually see is the blow, the back, or the tail flukes. Some scientists study whales under water or analyze whale photographs.
11
Much information has also come from whale studies in research facilities and marine zoological parks. Zoological research and breeding efforts have generated a wealth of behavioral, nutritional, and veterinary information. Recovered stranded whales also provide insight.
Which word is a SYNONYM for gulp?
try
taste
swallow
chew
What is the BEST definition of flukes based on this sentence?
tail parts
ocean currents
upper jaws
fast motions
Which detail from the passage does NOT support the claim that whales are mammals?
Whales breathe air.
Whales have hair.
Whales drink milk.
Whales swim easily.
Based on the suffix -ful, what does the word powerful mean?
without power
different from power
from a place of power
having much power
Which word in Paragraph 10 helps the reader understand what the word analyze means?
scientists
study
water
photographs
What is a SYNONYM for constant?
fast
steady
delicate
frequent
Which word from the passage comes from the Latin root meaning “to make ready”?
substance
expeditions
generated
information
