Main Idea and Supporting Detail

     Native Americans dried strips of meat, pounded it into a paste, and then mixed it with fat. Sometimes they added berries and sugar. then they pressed it into small cakes. They called these cakes pemmican. Pemmican didn't spoil, and it provided lots of energy for people traveling or going hunting. Today explorers still carry and eat this food.
The paragraph mainly tells.......

• a how pemmican was prepared by Native Americans.
• who uses pemmican today.
• what can be put into pemmican.
• why people eat pemmican today.

Tags

CCSS.RI.4.1

CCSS.RI.4.2

The spots on a fawn's coat let it hide in shady areas without being seen. The viceroy butterfly looks like the bad-tasting monarch, so birds avoid both. The hognose snake hisses and rolls on its back when it fears another animal. When the opossum is attacked, it plays dead. Distressed turtles hide in their shells until they're sure it's safe to come out again.
 The paragraph mainly tells.......

• why spots or stripes make animals less visible.
• how some animals protect themselves.
• why birds don't like monarch butterflies.
• why some harmless animals look dangerous.

Tags

CCSS.RI.4.1

CCSS.RI.4.2

 Because lambs are sometimes eaten by coyotes, ranchers may hunt or trap the coyotes. However, killing coyotes may upset nature's balance. Scientists have found a way to protect sheep without killing coyotes. Coyotes are fed lamb meat treated with a drug. When they eat the meat, they get sick. Later, coyotes won't even go near lambs. They'll hunt rabbits instead. The paragraph mainly tells.......

• what kind of people do not like coyotes.
• why killing coyotes upsets nature's balance.
• why coyotes prefer rabbits to lambs.
• how scientists protect sheep and coyotes.

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.2

 The temperature in Antarctica once fell to 128 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. In the summertime, temperatures average well below freezing. Most of the land is covered with ice that is up to two miles thick. Only a few strong mosses and sturdy spiders can live on this big block of ice. Since very little snow or rain falls there, Antarctica is a desert.
The paragraph mainly tells.......

• which plants and insects live in Antarctica.
• about a desert with extremely cold temperatures.
• how much snow and rain fall there.
• how low the temperature once fell.

For years food chemists have tasted hot peppers used for chili sauce, catsup, and pizza, but people had a hard time figuring out the spiciness of the peppers. After eating two or three, their taste buds were burning. Now a machine can test different kinds of hot peppers. It measures the chemicals that provide the spicy taste of the peppers.
The paragraph mainly tells.......

• why people have trouble tasting hot peppers.
• how a machine helps the hot pepper industry.
• how scientists measure chemicals.
• how hot and spicy peppers are used.

 The rare Chinese panda lives on tender, young bamboo shoots. Most bamboo plants die right after flowering. Without the bamboo the pandas starve. Because some people fear that the rare pandas may die out, in some places food is given to the hungry animals. Some pandas are airlifted to places where bamboo is still plentiful. The paragraph mainly tells.......

• how people are keeping pandas alive.
• why pandas sometimes starve to death.
• how the bamboo plants flower.
• what the Chinese pandas usually eat.

 In real life, rattlesnakes try to avoid people and seldom attack. Most people are bitten only after they step on these snakes. A rattlesnake may not even inject its poison when it bites. In fact, more Americans die from insect stings than from snakebites.
The paragraph mainly tells.......

• why insects kill people.
• when rattlesnakes use their poison.
• how snakes bite.
• how rattlesnakes aren't as dangerous as everyone believes.

Air plants, such as mosses and lichens, grow on buildings and stones and get their food and water from the air around them. Other plants such as mistletoe get their food and water from the trees they live on. Sometimes these trees die if the plants take away too much food or water.
The paragraph mainly tells.......

• how some plants don't live in soil.
• how mosses and lichens get food and water.
• why mistletoe sometimes kills trees.
• what kinds of plants grow on buildings.

     Alfred Nobel invented dynamite to help builders, but it was used for war, which made hm feel very guilty about the misuse of his invention. He was a rich man so he set up a $9 million fund. Today the fund is used to reward people who have improved human life. Nobel Prizes are awarded in six fields, including peace, medicine, and chemistry.
The paragraph mainly tells.......

• how much money was set aside for rewards.
• what invention Alfred Nobel created.
• why Nobel founded the Nobel Prize fund.
• what the Nobel Prizes are awarded for.

 Bob Geldof talked to the top musical talents of the world and asked them to sing at a concert to raise money. The stars agreed. Geldof found a stadium, arranged for TV coverage, and set up a trust fund. He said that none of the stars would get special treatment. Everyone would work together. In 1985, the Live Aid concert raised more than $100 million for starving children.
The paragraph mainly tells.......

• how Geldof found a stadium.
• how a concert benefited starving children.
• how many musical stars agreed to sing.
• why people are hungry in Africa.