Two Ways to Survive: the Honeybee and the Giraffe: Grade 7 Reading Comprehension

Wide and open places are hard to live in, yet both the honeybee and the giraffe manage it. They solve the same problem in different ways.

The honeybee lives in hives in meadows, gardens and forests around the world. It is about 1.5 centimeters long. It has hairy legs with tiny baskets, which carry pollen back to the hive. It is a herbivore and eats flower nectar and pollen.

The giraffe, meanwhile, lives in the dry grasslands of Africa. It is up to 5.5 meters tall. It has a neck up to 2 meters long, which lets it reach leaves high in trees. It is a herbivore and eats acacia leaves and twigs.

Both animals show that there is more than one way to survive in a wide and open place.

Questions

Compare and contrast What do the two animals have in common?
Both live in the same country. Both are exactly the same size. Both live in places that are wide and open. Both eat exactly the same foods.
Compare and contrast Which detail is true of the honeybee but not the giraffe?
It has a neck up to 2 meters long. It eats acacia leaves. It has hairy legs with tiny baskets. It lives in the dry grasslands of Africa.
Details How does the giraffe use a neck up to 2 meters long?
It lets it reach leaves high in trees. It keeps it warm, since it has no blubber. It lets it find animals moving under the snow. It stuns prey and drives away enemies.
Compare and contrast Which animal is larger?
the giraffe The passage does not give their sizes. They are the same size. the honeybee
Main idea Which sentence best states the main idea?
The giraffe and the honeybee live together in one group. Weather changes every season. Animals cannot live in hard places. Two animals survive the same kind of place in different ways.
Text structure How is this passage organized?
It gives steps to follow. It describes one animal, then the other, then sums up what they share. It tells a made-up story with characters. It lists events in the order they happened.

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