Life Without Gravity

Life Without Gravity

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Reading: Adjust Your Reading Rate to Recognize Main Ideas and Key Points

The main idea is the central point of a passage or text. Most articles and essays have a main idea. Each paragraph or passage in the work also has a main idea, or key point.

The main idea of a paragraph is usually stated in a topic sentence. The paragraph then supplies supporting details that give examples, explanations, or reasons.

When reading nonfiction, adjust your reading rate to recognize main ideas and key points.

Reading: Adjust Your Reading Rate to Recognize Main Ideas and Key Points

• Skim the article to get a sense of the main idea before you begin reading. Look over the text quickly, looking for text organization, topic sentences, and repeated words.

• Scan the text when you need to find answers to questions or to clarify or find supporting details. Run your eyes over the text, looking for a particular word or idea.

• Read closely to learn what the main ideas are and to identify the key points and supporting details.

Open Ended

Our bodies are adapted to Earth’s gravity. Our muscles are strong in order to overcome gravity as we walk and run. Our inner ears use gravity to keep us upright. And because gravity wants to pull all our blood down into our legs, our hearts are designed to pump hard to get blood up to our brains.

What parts of the body are discussed in this paragraph?

Open Ended

Our bodies are adapted to Earth’s gravity. Our muscles are strong in order to overcome gravity as we walk and run. Our inner ears use gravity to keep us upright. And because gravity wants to pull all our blood down into our legs, our hearts are designed to pump hard to get blood up to our brains.

What is the main idea of this paragraph?

Open Ended

Our bodies are adapted to Earth’s gravity. Our muscles are strong in order to overcome gravity as we walk and run. Our inner ears use gravity to keep us upright. And because gravity wants to pull all our blood down into our legs, our hearts are designed to pump hard to get blood up to our brains.

What is a detail that supports the main idea?

Open Ended

In microgravity, you have to learn new ways to eat. Don’t pour a bowl of cornflakes. Not only will the flakes float all over the place, the milk won’t pour. Instead, big balls of milk will form. You can drink these by taking big bites out of them, but you’d better finish them before they slam into a wall, splattering apart and covering everything with little tiny milk globules.

What foods are mentioned in this paragraph?

Open Ended

In microgravity, you have to learn new ways to eat. Don’t pour a bowl of cornflakes. Not only will the flakes float all over the place, the milk won’t pour. Instead, big balls of milk will form. You can drink these by taking big bites out of them, but you’d better finish them before they slam into a wall, splattering apart and covering everything with little tiny milk globules.

What is the main idea of this paragraph?

Open Ended

In microgravity, you have to learn new ways to eat. Don’t pour a bowl of cornflakes. Not only will the flakes float all over the place, the milk won’t pour. Instead, big balls of milk will form. You can drink these by taking big bites out of them, but you’d better finish them before they slam into a wall, splattering apart and covering everything with little tiny milk globules.

What is a detail that supports the main idea?

Literary Analysis: Expository Essay

An expository essay is a short piece of nonfiction that explains, defines, or interprets ideas, events, or processes. The way in which the information is organized and presented depends on the specific topic of the essay. Writers organize the main points of their essays logically, to aid readers’ comprehension. They may organize information in one of these ways or in a combination of ways:

• Comparison and contrast

• Cause and effect

• Chronological order

• Problem and solution

Literary Analysis: Expository Essay

“Life Without Gravity” is an expository essay that explains an idea. It uses cause and effect to make the explanation clear. In the paragraph below, the details help readers understand some of the effects of weightlessness.

Worse, weightlessness can sometimes be downright unpleasant. Your body gets upset and confused. Your face puffs up, your nose gets stuffy, your back hurts, your stomach gets upset, and you throw up.

Open Ended

What effect does weightlessness have on blood?

Open Ended

What effect does weightlessness have on the spine?

Open Ended

What effect does weightlessness have on the bones?

Open Ended

What effect does weightlessness have on the muscles?

Open Ended

What effect does weightlessness have on the stomach?

Multiple Choice

According to "Life Without Gravity," how does weightlessness affect the circulation of blood?

• It causes blood to flow more slowly.
• It causes blood to flow to the head.
• It causes blood to flow more quickly.
• It causes blood to flow to the legs.

Multiple Choice

According to the text, why can astronauts' muscles become weak?

• Without gravity, the blood is rerouted from the legs to the head.
• With gravity, the body "grows" by as much as several inches.
• Without gravity, eating is difficult, so the body does not get proper nutrition.
• Without gravity, the muscles do not push or pull on the body's bones.

Multiple Choice

According to the passage, what might happen if astronauts' bones become very weak?

• The astronauts would throw up when they returned to Earth.
• Their bones would snap when they returned to Earth.

• The astronauts would continue to grow when they returned to Earth.
• Their hearts would pump harder when they returned to Earth.

Multiple Choice

Which detail from the passage supports the main idea that weightlessness makes bones "thin and spongy"?

• Astronauts "grow" taller
• Astronauts lose bone tissue.
• Astronauts develop straight spines.
• Astronauts enjoy weightlessness.

Multiple Choice

Which sentence is the topic sentence of this paragraph from the passage?
Worst of all is how their stomachs feel. During the first few days in space, the inner ear - which gives people their sense of balance- gets confused.  Many astronauts become nauseous.  They lose their appetites.  Many throw up.  Many throw up a lot.

• Worst of all is how their stomachs feel.
• Many astronauts become nauseous.
• They lose their appetites.
• Many throw up.

Multiple Choice

According to the passage, when does weightlessness become "fun"?

• when  you try to eat while experiencing nausea
• when you walk on a treadmill twice a day
• when your heart and spine adjust to its effects
• when the food you ordinarily dislike tastes bland

Multiple Choice

According to the passage, what happens if you pour milk in a weightlessness environment?

• It splatters on the floor.
• It stays in the container.
• It forms into balls.
• It turns into cream.

Multiple Choice

According to the passage, what happens if you do not have a clamp on the straw you are drinking through in a weightlessness environment?

• Liquid flows out after you stop drinking.
• The straw becomes clogged with liquid.
• The straw bursts apart.
• You choke on the liquid.

Multiple Choice

Why did the astronaut Jerry Linenger say his body "felt like a 500-pound barbell"?

• He had gained weight.
• He was not used to gravity.
• He had been very sick.
• He had not eaten properly.

Multiple Choice

Which title best describes "Life Without Gravity"?

• "How Astronauts Eat"
• "How to Become an Astronaut"
• "The Ups and Downs of Weightlessness"
• "The Difficulties of Outer Space"