activity of text interpretation, aimed at students in the fifth year of elementary school, about ghost mosquitoes. Ever heard of them? No? How about meeting them? So, read the text carefully! Then answer the various interpretive questions proposed!
You can download this text comprehension activity in editable Word template ready to print in PDF and also the activity with answers.
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SCHOOL: DATE:
PROF: CLASS:
NAME:
Read:
You can take the horse out of the rain who thinks we're going to talk about hauntings. We want to present the Chaoborus, a mosquito that undergoes a profound transformation during its lifetime. In the young phase, it lives in the water like a transparent larva – you can see everything from the inside, like in the ghosts in the movies. For this and other characteristics, he earned the nickname ghost mosquito!
In some places, as in the Rio Doce lagoons, in Minas Gerais, these larvae have a very interesting behavior. During the day, they are quiet at the bottom of these environments, sometimes even buried in the sediment. In doing so, they flee and protect themselves from fish that use them as food. But when the sun goes down and night comes, the fish can no longer see them. Then, they start to move: they come out of the bottom, go up, up and… Boo! With their enormous appetite, they devour many of the small organisms that live in the water column. They eat so much that they quickly grow and get fat.
To capture food, it can be said that these larvae use an ambush strategy. They stay still, almost immobile, just waiting for prey to pass. It's just that when they swim, the prey create vibrations in the water and the larvae detect this signal. Then, with their antennae and jaws, they capture the meal, open their mouths and… Nhac!
The menu is quite varied. The largest and oldest ones usually feed on zooplankton (microscopic animals that live in the water column, such as water fleas). The smallest and newborns eat algae.
For scientists, the most interesting thing is that the transparency makes it possible to see some internal structures of the insect's body. They can identify, for example, that the larvae have small air bladders that regulate their buoyancy.
But you must be wondering what happens after they eat so much? Now, the curious transparent larvae turn into pupae and then into adult mosquitoes which are… common! O Chaoborus it does not feed on blood, therefore, it is not a vector of diseases. However, it is noteworthy that they sometimes fly together out of the water, forming a real cloud.
Daniel Marchetti Maroneze, Thécia Alfenas Silva Valente Paes and Paulina Maria Maia Barbosa.
Magazine “Science Today for Children”. Edition 262.
Available in:. (With cut).
Question 1 - Read back:
“In the young stage, it lives in the water as a transparent larva […]”
In this fragment, the authors refer to:
Question 2 – In the passage “Doing this, they flee and protect themselves from fish that use them as food.”, the highlighted term recaptures information. Identify this information:
Question 3 – In the segment “Eat so much what, quickly, they grow and get fat.”, the underlined word introduces a fact that:
( ) is the cause of another.
( ) is the condition of another.
( ) is the consequence of another.
Question 4 – In “[…] the prey create vibrations in the water and the larvae detect this sign.”, the underlined verb could be replaced by:
( ) “ignore”.
( ) “identify”.
( ) “accompany”.
Question 5 - In the part “[…] zooplankton (microscopic animals that live in the water column, such as water fleas)”, the word “how” indicates:
( ) an action.
( ) An example.
( ) a comparison.
Question 6 - According to the text, the Chaoborus “It is not a vector of diseases”. Because?
Question 7 - Identify the excerpt that contains an opinion of the authors:
( ) “[…] these larvae have a very interesting behavior.”
( ) “[…] these larvae use an ambush strategy.”
( ) “The menu is quite varied.”
By Denyse Lage Fonseca
Graduated in Letters and specialist in distance education.
