Food Chains and Food Webs

Food Chains and Food Webs

Food Chains: Paragraph One

Food chains describe the feeding relationships between different living things. Most food chains start with plants. Plants produce their own food using the energy from sunlight. They are called "producers." Animals eat plants and other animals. They are called "consumers."

Multiple Choice

1. What is the main idea in paragraph one?

• The author is explaining the major differences between plants and animals.

• The author is telling the audience about a food chain and its components.

• The author is entertaining the audience with a story about a bear.

Food Chains: Paragraph Two

When you write down a food chain, you draw an arrow between each organism. The first arrow points from the producer to the first consumer. The second arrow points from the first consumer to the second consumer. Each arrow means "is eaten by". Look at this food chain: grass > rabbit > fox. The grass is the producer. The rabbit, which eats the grass, is the first consumer. The fox, which eats the rabbit, is the second consumer.

Multiple Choice

2. In paragraph two, what is the author explaining?

• They are showing how to write and then decipher a food chain.

• They are telling the reader about nature and how the animals in it must eat to live.

• They are giving the reader options for learning about food chains.

Food Chains: Paragraph Three

Most food chains have more links than the example in paragraph two. For example, the food chain for a pond habitat might be: pondweed > tadpole > water beetle > small fish > large fish > otter.

Multiple Choice

3. What is the purpose of paragraph three?

• It shows the reader what an otter might eat.

• It explains how food chains can be very long.

• It gives an example of the territory in which a pond animal might have to roam.

Food Webs: Paragraph Four

Food chains are a good way of representing feeding relationships, but they do not reflect the complexity of nature. In any one habitat, there may be several different food chains at work, and some animals will appear in more than one chain. Scientists have to look at all the food chains together to get a balanced view of all the feeding relationships within a habitat. This can be shown in a diagram called a Food Web.

Multiple Choice

4. What is the main idea of paragraph four?

• The author is showing an example of a food web in action.

• The author is analyzing the differences between food chains and food webs.

• The author is explaining how a food web is made up of more than one food chain.

Food Webs: Paragraph Five

The living things in a community are connected by what they eat. Some food chains have more links than others. The animals in a food chain that eat other animals are called predators. Th animals that are eaten are called prey. Most ecosystems have plants, predators, and prey.

Multiple Choice

5. What is the purpose of paragraph five?

• The purpose is to tell how animals and plants must eat each other in order to survive.

• The purpose is to link the lion, gazelle, and grasslands together.

• The purpose is to explain the term "ecosystem".

Food Webs: Paragraph Six

Animals often eat a variety of things, and so they may appear in more than one food chain. Within an ecosystem, these different food chains are joined to form a food web. All the animals in a food web are dependent on one another. One group must eat the other because if they do not there is a chance the ecosystem might become imbalanced.

Multiple Choice

6. Select the best objective summary of the text.

• Food chains and food webs are basically the same thing. People only use the two different terms because it sounds scientific. Animals and plants in both food chains and food webs must rely on one another to survive.

• All plants and animals exist as a part of the ecosystem. Within each habitat, food chains are formed by producers and consumers. As the area or habitat becomes larger, the food chain expands into a food web. All of the animals and plants must rely on one another to survive.

Resources Utilized

Ballard, Carol. Food Webs. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 2010.

Parker, Lewis. Food Chains and Webs. Perfection Learning Corporation. 2006.

Wallace, Holly. Food Chains and Webs. Reed Educational & Professional Publishing. 2001.