These quizzes refer to “A Whale of a Survival Problem,” from The Nature of Life by John Postlethwait and Janet Hopson. See page 121 of Opening Doors.
Comprehension Quiz
Expand your vocabulary using context clues.
An intrepid visitor to the perpetually frozen Antarctic could stand at the coastline, raise binoculars, and witness a dramatic sight just a few hundred meters off shore.
Columbus was an intrepid explorer who set sail for the unknown New World.
Intrepid means:
The Earth moves perpetually around the sun.
Perpetually means:
An intrepid visitor to the perpetually frozen Antarctic could stand at the coastline, raise binoculars, and witness a dramatic sight just a few hundred meters off shore: a spout as tall and as straight as a telephone pole fountaining upward from the blow hole of a blue whale, then condensing into a massive cloud of water vapor in the frigid air.
When you turn on your car heater in the winter, water vapor may start condensing and running down the inside of the windows.
Condensing means:
Snowflakes began to fall from the gray, frigid sky.
Frigid means:
The gigantic animal beneath the water jet would be expelling stale air from its 1-ton lungs after a dive in search of food.
Our college is expelling five students for cheating on an exam.
Expelling means:
Leviathan proportions aside, it is difficult to grasp the enormous problems that so large an organism must overcome simply to stay alive.
The deep-sea fishermen swore they had seen a leviathan-a shark so huge that it was larger than their boat.
Leviathan means:
For starters, a blue whale is a warm-blooded animal with a relatively high metabolic rate; to stay warm in an icy ocean environment, it must consume and burn 1 million kilocalories a day.
Our boss is usually very talkative, but he was relatively quiet at the staff meeting today.
Relatively means:
Exercise and stress increase a person's metabolic rate.
Metabolic means:
For this reason, the whale needs elaborate transport systems to deliver oxygen and nutrients and to carry away carbon dioxide and wastes.
The plans for the queen's coronation ceremony were so elaborate that it took a staff of 500 people to carry out the arrangements.
Elaborate means:
Finally, the galaxy of living cells inside a whale must be coordinated and controlled by a brain, a nervous system, and chemical regulators (hormones) so that the organism can function as a single unit.
From the dazzling galaxy of toys in the toy department, my young nephew finally selected a remote-controlled car.
Galaxy means: