1

AMAZING
ANIMALS
A great gray owl
is camouflaged
against a tree.

WARM UP

Discuss these questions

with a partner.

1. What is your favorite

animal? Why?

2. What are some things

animals can do that
humans can’t?

7
 1A
BEFORE YOU READ

LABELING A. Look at the photo. Match each description

(1–4) with the correct part of the dolphin.

1. Dolphins sleep by resting one half of their brain

at a time.
2. A dolphin’s tail doesn’t have any bones.
3. Dolphins “hear” through a special bone in their
lower jaw.
4. The bones inside a dolphin’s flippers look like
the bones inside your arm and hand.

SKIMMING B. Look at the reading title and headings. What is

the reading about? Circle a, b, or c. Then read
the passage to check your answer.

a. types of dolphins
b. things dolphins do
c. what dolphins eat

A spotted dolphin swims

in the clear waters of the
Caribbean.

8 Unit 1A
 THE

DOLPHIN
A Many people say dolphins are intelligent. feelings, and possible danger. They also
They seem to be able to think, understand, and use a system of sounds and body language
learn things quickly. But are they as smart as to communicate. Understanding dolphin
humans, or are they more like cats and dogs? conversation is not easy for humans. No one
Dolphins use their brains quite differently from “speaks dolphin” yet, but some scientists are
the way people do. But scientists say dolphins trying to learn.
and humans are alike in some ways. How?
Play
Communication
C Dolphins live in groups called pods, and
B Like humans, every dolphin has its own they often join other dolphins from different
1
“name.” The name is a special whistle. Each pods to play games and have fun—just like
dolphin chooses a whistle for itself, usually people. Sometimes they chase other dolphins
by its first birthday. Dolphins are like people carrying objects (e.g., seaweed) and throw
in other ways, too. They “talk” to each other these objects back and forth. Scientists believe
about a lot of things—such as their age, their playing together is something only intelligent
animals do.

Teamwork
D Dolphins and humans are similar in another
way: They both make plans for getting
things they want. In the seas of
southern Brazil, for example,
dolphins use an intelligent
method to get food. When
there are fish near a boat,
dolphins signal2 to the
fishermen to put
their nets in the
water. With the
dolphins’ help, the men can catch a lot of fish.
Why do dolphins assist the men? There is an
advantage for the dolphins: They get to eat
some of the fish that escape from the net.

1 A whistle is a high-pitched sound made by blowing air

through a hole.
2 If you signal to someone, you make an action or a sound to
tell them something.

Unit 1A 9
READING COMPREHENSION

A. Choose the best answer for each question.

MAIN IDEA 1. What does the reading NOT mention?

a. how dolphins communicate with each other
b. how dolphins move quickly through the water
c. how dolphins play games and have fun

INFERENCE 2. The author mentions cats and dogs in paragraph A to show that .
a. cats and dogs are very intelligent
b. there are different levels of intelligence
c. scientists have studied the brains of cats and dogs
DETAIL 3. Where does a dolphin get its “name”?
a. It gets it from its mother.
b. It gets it from scientists.
c. It chooses it for itself.
DETAIL 4. Which sentence about dolphin language is true?
a. Dolphins “talk” to each other about many things.
b. Dolphin conversation is easy for humans to understand.
c. Dolphins can’t understand dolphins from other pods.
DETAIL 5. Why do dolphins sometimes help fishermen?
a. Dolphins are kind animals.
b. The dolphins can get food that way.
c. The fishermen ask the dolphins for help.

CATEGORIZING B. According to the reading passage, what do these dolphin behaviors (a–f)
demonstrate? Add them to the chart.
a. using body language d. joining other pods for games
b. chasing each other e. helping fishermen catch fish
c. whistling f. throwing seaweed back and forth

Communication Play Teamwork

A bottlenose dolphin in the

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

10 Unit 1A
READING SKILL

Skimming for Gist

The gist of a passage is what the text is mainly about. When you want to get the gist of a passage,
don’t read every word. Skim the text quickly to find out what it is mostly about. Look at the title and
any headings, photos, and captions. Another strategy is to read the first sentence of each paragraph.

SKIMMING A. Skim Reading A again. What is the main idea of the passage? Circle a, b, or c.
a. We can learn a lot from the way dolphins communicate, play, and work together.
b. The dolphin is the most intelligent sea animal in the world.
c. Dolphins are intelligent and—in some ways—are like humans.
SKIMMING B. Skim this short passage and answer the questions (1–2) below. Then read the
passage again and check your answers.
The albatross is one of the world’s largest flying birds. It also has the largest wings of
any bird—up to 3.4 meters from tip to tip. These giant birds use their wings to ride the
ocean winds. They can fly for hours without rest, or even without moving their wings.
Some may even be able to sleep while flying.
Most albatrosses spend nearly all their time in the air. In fact, they only return to
land to breed.1 A parent albatross might fly thousands of kilometers to find food for
its young. In its lifetime, an albatross can fly a total of more than six million kilometers.
A wandering
albatross
1 When animals breed, they have babies.

1. What is the above passage mainly about?

a. where albatrosses live
b. albatross flying behavior
c. albatross intelligence
2. What could be a title for this passage?
a. Riding the Ocean Winds
b. Catching Fish
c. The Smartest Bird

CRITICAL THINKING Identifying Ideas

Reading A mentions three similarities between dolphins and humans. What are they?

Can you think of other ways to tell if an animal is intelligent? Discuss with a partner and note
some ideas.

Unit 1A 11
VOCABULARY PRACTICE

DEFINITIONS A. Read the paragraph below and match each word in red with its definition (1–5).
There are a few ways to test how smart animals are. One method is to test memory.
Scientists in Japan showed a group of college students and a group of five-year-old
chimps the numbers 1 to 9 in different places on a computer screen. The test was to see
if the groups could remember the position of the numbers in the correct order. Each time,
the chimps were faster than the students. Why? Were the chimps special in some way?
Did someone assist them? No, but the chimps probably had an important advantage:
They were young. As both humans and animals get older, their memory gets worse.
1. : a way of doing something
2. : to help
3. : clever
4. : better or more important than others
5. : something that helps you succeed

COMPLETION B. Complete the information with the words from the box.

alike  communicate  feelings  intelligent  system
A Sumatran
orangutan
Orangutans and humans are 1
in some ways. Both are very 2
animals. For example, to stay dry when it rains,
orangutans take leaves from trees and use them
like umbrellas. These apes don’t have a complex1
language 3 like humans do. But
today, some orangutans are learning basic sign
language to express their thoughts and 4 .
New research also suggests that orangutans can
5
about the past, just like humans.

1 If something is complex, it is complicated or made up of many parts.

WORD PARTS C. Some nouns use the suffixes -ance and -ence. Use the noun form of these words
to complete the sentences. Add the correct suffix to each word.

assist  different  intelligent

1. What is the between a dolphin and a porpoise?

2. The fact that apes use tools shows they have great .
3. Whales will often give to other whales that are in danger.

12 Unit 1A