READTHEORY Name Date The World's Best Jumper How high can you jump? If you are like most people, you can probably jump one or two feet high. How high do you think the world's best jumper can jump? A man named Javier Sotomayor set the world record for the highest jump. He is an Olympic gold medalist. He has jumped over a bar set at a height of 8.04 feet. So far, Javier Sotomayor is the only person who has ever jumped higher than 8 feet. That's pretty amazing. But believe it or not, there are many animals out there that are far better at jumping. When you think of animals that can jump well, you probably think of kangaroos, rabbits, or frogs. These animals are all very good at jumping, but they are not the best. When we talk about how good an animal is at jumping, we do not simply mean how high they can jump. Instead, we mean how high they can jump compared to how big they are. For example, a grasshopper can jump 20 inches. That is not very far for a person, but it is very far for something as small as a grasshopper. A grasshopper is only one inch long. This means that a grasshopper can jump 20 times its own height. This would be like a person jumping over a ten-story building! One mammal that can jump very high is called the klipspringer. The klipspringer is a small antelope that lives in southern Africa. Klipspringers can jump up to 25 feet into the air. This is about 10 times their own height. Because klipspringers live in the mountains, they also need to be good at jumping onto rocks. A klipspringer can easily jump from one very small rock to another. It can do this by using only the very tips of its hooves to jump and land. Some of the rocks they land on are not much bigger than ping pong balls. Fleas are also very good at jumping. Fleas are tiny bugs that drink animal blood. They need to jump high in order to get their food because they live on animals like dogs or cats. They need to jump up onto the backs of these animals so that they can eat. A flea can jump up to 220 times its own height. This would be like a person jumping over an eighty-story building! Although grasshoppers, klipspringers, and fleas can all jump exceptionally well, there is one other animal that outdoes them all: the copepod. Like fleas, copepods are very small. They're only about twice the width of the tip of a pencil. Because copepods are so small, many different kinds of fish try to eat them. They need to get away from these fish very fast. A copepod's legs help it to move swiftly. Copepods have the strongest leg muscles of all of the animals in the world. A copepod can jump 500 times its own height in under a second. This would be like a person jumping almost half a mile into the sky! If you want to get very good at jumping, you will need to practice a lot. Who knows if you train hard enough, one day you might even break Javier Sotomayor's record. There is one thing for sure, though. No matter how hard you try, you will never be as good of a jumper as a grasshopper, klipspringer, flea, or especially a copepod. 1) The author mentions Javier Sotomayor to
A. illustrate just how good some animals are at jumping B. admire a world-class athlete at the height of his career C. juxtapose the jumping ability of a grasshopper and a flea D. show physical similarities between humans and animals 2) According to the passage, a grasshopper can jump A. 5 times its own height B. 10 times its own height C. 15 times its own height D. 20 times its own height 3) In this passage, the author compares rocks to A. hooves B. klipspringers C. ping pong balls D. the tip of a pencil 4) According to the passage, why do fleas need to jump high? A. to avoid predators B. to get exercise C. to reach their food D. no one knows for sure 5) The author mentions the tip of a pencil in order to A. prove a point B. make a comparison C. provide an example D. draw a conclusion 6) As used in paragraph 6, which of the following words has the same meaning as swiftly? A. loudly B. bravely C. quickly D. slowly
7) Based on the passage, which of these facts about the copepod is true? I. II. III. it can move fast it is tiny it has very long legs A. I only B. I and II C. II and III D. I, II, and III 8) With certain kinds of training, people can learn how to jump higher than usual. Javier Sotomayor probably trained hard to reach his record-breaking jump heights. Would you ever be interested in training to jump higher or farther? Why or why not?
Answers and Explanations 1) A Question Type: Reasoning In paragraph 2, the author writes: "A man named Javier Sotomayor set the world record for the highest jump." The author then tells us that "so far, Javier Sotomayor is the only person who has ever jumped higher than 8 feet. That's pretty amazing. But believe it or not, there are many animals out there that are far better at jumping." In the final paragraph, the author mentions Javier Sotomayor again. He or she says: "if you train hard enough, one day you might even break Javier Sotomayor's record. There is one thing for sure, though. No matter how hard you try, you will never be as good of a jumper as a grasshopper,klipspringer, flea, or especially a copepod." The author talks about Javier Sotomayor at the beginning and the end of the passage. Both times, the author uses him to show us that animals are better jumpers than human beings. Sotomayor can jump high, but "there are many animals that are even better at jumping." Therefore (A) is correct. The passage does not provide information to support choices (B), (C), or (D). Therefore they are 2) D In paragraph 3, we learn that "a grasshopper can jump 20 times its own height." Therefore choice (D) is correct. The passage does not provide information to support choices (A), (B), or (C). Therefore they are 3) C The author concludes paragraph 4 by saying, "Some of the rocks they land on are not much bigger than ping pong balls." Here, the author compares rocks to ping pong balls. Therefore choice (C) is correct. The passage does not provide information to support choices (A), (B), or (D). Therefore they are 4) C In paragraph 5, the author writes: "Fleas are tiny bugs that drink animal blood. They need to jump high in order to get their food because they live on animals like dogs or cats. They need to jump up onto the backs of these animals so that they can eat." These sentences show us that fleas jump high so that they can reach their food. Therefore (C) is correct.
The passage does not provide information to support choices (A), (B), or (D). Therefore they are 5) B Question Type: Reasoning In paragraph 6, we learn that "Like fleas, copepods are very small. They're only about twice the width of the tip of a pencil." Here, the author compares the size of a copepod to the width of a pencil. This lets us know that the author mentions the tip of a pencil in order to make a comparison. Therefore choice (B) is correct. The passage does not provide information to support choices (A), (C), or (D). Therefore they are 6) C Question Type: Vocabulary swiftly (adverb): rapidly, quickly; moving fast or at a speedy pace. In paragraph 6, the author writes: "A copepod's legs help it to move swiftly." We can use context clues hints from known words or phrases around the unknown word or phrase to help us figure out what the word swiftly most nearly means. Paragraph 6 tells us that "because copepods are so small, many different kinds of fish try to eat them. They need to get away from these fish very fast." Because many fish try to eat the copepod, it has to move fast. Moving quickly will help the copepod get away from the fish. The author then adds "a copepod can jump 500 times its own height in under a second." This context shows us that when the author writes that a copepod's legs "help it to move swiftly," the copepod is moving quickly. Therefore (C) is correct. Based on the above information, we can tell that we are looking for a word that means fast or quickly. Loudly does not mean quickly. Therefore (A) is Based on the above information, we can tell that we are looking for a word that means fast or quickly. Slowly does not mean quickly. Therefore (B) is Based on the above information, we can tell that we are looking for a word that means fast or quickly. Bravely does not mean quickly. Therefore (D) is 7) B In paragraph 6, the author tells us that many different kinds of fish like to eat the copepod. This means that copepods have to try to "get away from these fish very fast." The author says: "A copepod's legs help it to move swiftly," and then adds "a copepod can jump 500 times its own height in under a second." These sentences show that a copepod can move fast. This supports option (I).
In paragraph 7, the author describes how big the copepod is. He or she writes: "Like fleas, copepods are very small. They're only about twice the width of the tip of a pencil." These sentences show that a copepod is tiny. This supports option (II). In paragraph 7, the author says that a copepod has very strong leg muscles. However, he or she never says that the copepod has very long legs. This eliminates option (III). Therefore (B) is correct.