Who Wants a Spiny Snack?

At the beginning of the text, what does the fish do when the shark approaches?

• It puffs out into a round, spiny ball.

• It swims away, startled.

• It swims slowly, searching for a meal.

• It attacks the shark with its spines.

2. What does the author describe in this text?

• why different kinds of sharks have different adaptations

• the different predators that are likely to hunt porcupines

• what happens when a predator eats a spiny pufferfish

• how a pufferfish puffs up into a round spiny ball

Read these sentences from the text.

“Some toads and snakes have their own way to discourage predators. They puff themselves up to look larger. The bigger an animal, the harder it is to catch and eat. Pufferfish combine both of these adaptations. They puff up AND they have long, sharpspines.”

Based on this evidence, why might a pufferfish puff itself up?

• to try and convince a predator that the pufferfish is a toad or a snake

• to be able to hunt, catch, and eat other fish more easily

• to prepare itself to fight off a predator's attack

• to make the pufferfish appear difficult to catch and eat

4. Why might the author have included the images of the flounder and the porcupine?

• to force the reader to decide which animal looks more like the pufferfish

• to show the reader examples of different animals with adaptations that protect them from predators

• to suggest that the flounder and the porcupine would probably be better than a pufferfish at fighting off predators

• to prove that animals that live on land and animals that live in the ocean are very different from each other

5. What is the main idea of this text?

• The ocean can be a dangerous place for small fish like the pufferfish because its waters are full of predators.

• Predators like sharks have adaptations that help them hunt other animals.

• Many animals have sharp spines, including porcupines, hedgehogs, sea urchins, and pufferfish.

• Adaptations like sharp spines and puffing up help keep pufferfish safe from predators.

6. Read these sentences from the text.

“Swimming along, a pufferfish looks like any other fish. But when it is threatened, it swells up suddenly like a big balloon.”

Why might the author have compared the pufferfish to a balloon with this simile?

• to hint to the reader that balloons also swell up when they are threatened

• to imply that balloons also look like normal fish when they are not blown up

• to help the reader understand what a pufferfish looks like as it swells up

• to suggest that pufferfish and balloons are similar in lots of ways