Reading 4 Animal Architects Different animals build their dw…
Reading 4 Animal Architects Different animals build their dwellings in a variety of ways. Some stack their homes up with sticks, others dig tunnels. Weaver ants glue. No, it’s not the kind of glue people use for craft projects. It’s a very unique kind of glue. Weaver ants work together. They build a group of nests for all the ants in the colony. The ants use their natural instincts. They also learn what to do from one another. No ant is too small to help. Worker ants search for leaves that are soft and easy to bend. Forming a line, each ant holds one edge of a leaf in its jaws and the opposite edge in its back feet. The workers form chains with their bodies. Holding on to each other’s waists, they pull the edges of the leaf together. Another group of ants then bring larvae from the old nest. Ant larvae are the young, wormlike form of the ants. These workers carry the larvae to the leaves. Each worker holds a single larva in its jaws. Then it uses its antennae to gently tap the larva on the head. This makes the larva ooze a thin strand of silk. This is the glue! Using the silk from the larvae, the workers glue the leaves together. Building a nest in the trees can take more than a week. That nest can be as big as a basketball. The weaver ants’ leaf nest is a great example of the amazing homes that animals make. Weaver ants make their homes with the resources they find around them. They make their homes so they can survive. They work well together. They are like animal architects. That’s why humans sometimes look to animals to become better builders themselves.
Read DetailsReading 2 Volcanoes Japan’s Mount Fuji and Mexico’s Popocate…
Reading 2 Volcanoes Japan’s Mount Fuji and Mexico’s Popocatepetl are two of the world’s best known volcanoes and are considered special by many people in those countries. However, there are thousands more volcanoes in the world, and at least 1,500 are currently active. One of them, Italy’s Stromboli, has been erupting for at least 2,400 years. Careful studying of volcanoes has given us detailed information about various aspects of these powerful forces of nature. Although Stromboli has been almost constantly erupting for over 2,400 years, most eruptions do not last nearly that long. Currently, there are about 15 volcanoes in the world that have been actively erupting for the last 30 years. On the other end of the scale, about ten percent of volcanoes have eruptions which last for just a single day. The majority of the eruptions last three months or less. This means the average time from beginning to end is usually about seven weeks. Looking today at the number of volcanic eruptions in the past few hundred years, it would appear that they are becoming much more frequent over time. However, when researchers tracked the growth in reported eruptions along with the growth of the human population, they realized that volcanic activity wasn’t actually becoming more frequent. Instead, as people spread over more areas of the earth’s surface, the monitoring and reporting of volcanic activity increased with the growing population.
Read DetailsPart 1: Reading Comprehension Reading 1 1Artificial intellig…
Part 1: Reading Comprehension Reading 1 1Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term that describes computer programs that can solve problems by “thinking” the way people do. 2Most of these programs are designed to think logically. 3One AI program, for instance, was able to diagnose diseases in humans. 4When used correctly, the program is almost as accurate as most doctors. 5In some fields, such as geology, AI programs can solve important problems more quickly than human beings. 6Some have even suggested it might be possible to program computers in the future to feel human emotions. 7For example, A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) was a science fiction film written and directed by Stephen Spielberg that told the story of a child robot who was programmed with the ability to love.
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