Built For Survival: the Giant Panda

Questions

1. Details Where does the giant panda live?

   cool, misty mountain forests in China the northern forests of Canada, the northern United States and Alaska deserts, grasslands and forests on every continent except Antarctica the rainforests of Central and South America
2. Details Which of these does the giant panda eat?

   worms bamboo caterpillars lemmings
3. Cause and effect According to the passage, how does the giant panda use an extra thumb-like wrist bone?

   It helps it hide in tall grass and shadows while it stalks prey. They are used to show off and to compete with other males. It helps it grip bamboo stalks. They let it cling to leaves and branches.
4. Main idea What is paragraph 3 mostly about?

   a surprising fact how it gets food how its body is adapted the challenge of its habitat
5. Vocabulary The passage says the giant panda is a herbivore. What is a herbivore?

   an animal that eats only plants an animal that eats other animals an animal that lives only in water an animal that sleeps all winter
6. Evidence Which sentence from the passage best supports the idea that the giant panda's body suits its home?

   Facts like this remind us that every animal's body tells a story about the place it lives. Perhaps most remarkable of all: because bamboo has little energy in it, a panda may eat more than 12 kilograms of it in a day. Consider an extra thumb-like wrist bone: this adaptation helps it grip bamboo stalks. Its behavior matters as much as its body: it spends up to 14 hours a day eating.
7. Inference Based on the passage, why would the giant panda have trouble surviving somewhere hot and dry?

   It would forget how to find its home. Its body and habits are suited to a place that is full of trees. Its young would be called something else. It would grow too big.
8. Vocabulary As used in the passage, what is an adaptation?

   a trait that helps a living thing survive in its environment a story about where an animal came from a place where an animal sleeps a change in the weather from season to season
9. Author's purpose Why does the author describe how the giant panda spends up to 14 hours a day eating?

   to show that behavior can be an adaptation, not just body parts to explain how the animal was named to compare it with a pet dog to describe the weather where it lives
10. Text structure How does the author organize the passage?

    by comparing two different animals in time order, from the animal's birth to old age as a list of steps for caring for the animal by describing a challenge, then the traits that help the animal meet it

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