3/26 Tutorials

Rainbows

Have you ever wondered where rainbows come from? The light that shines from the Sun appears to be white, but it's really a combination of colors— indigo, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. When light is broken up, you get to see all of these colors. Some places this might happen are in a soap bubble, a puddle of oil, a piece of glass, or a diamond. When the Sun comes out during or right after the rain, rays of light from the Sun hit the raindrops in the air. These raindrops break up the light, just like the soap bubble or diamond. If you are standing with the Sun behind you, you will be able to see a rainbow in the sky opposite the Sun!

What is the main idea of the selection?

• what colors are in a rainbow

• where rainbows come from

• where you might see rainbows

Rainbows

Have you ever wondered where rainbows come from? The light that shines from the Sun appears to be white, but it's really a combination of colors— indigo, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. When light is broken up, you get to see all of these colors. Some places this might happen are in a soap bubble, a puddle of oil, a piece of glass, or a diamond. When the Sun comes out during or right after the rain, rays of light from the Sun hit the raindrops in the air. These raindrops break up the light, just like the soap bubble or diamond. If you are standing with the Sun behind you, you will be able to see a rainbow in the sky opposite the Sun!

Light from the Sun is _______

• a combination of colors

• white

• yellow

Paper is usually made from wood. Wood from trees is taken to a paper mill and cut into chips. The chips are placed into huge vats. Then, they are boiled and stirred with chemicals until they become soggy and mushy. At this stage the paper is called "pulp." The pulp is washed and bleached to make the paper white, and clay. or chalk is added. The paper is now called "stuff." Since writing paper needs to have a smooth finish, cotton and other fibers are added to the stuff as it goes through a stack of heavy polished rollers. These rollers weigh thirty tons! The stuff is emptied into a machine that has a screen to drain off the water.

The fibers that are left are pushed together into a thin sheet. The sheet goes through a set of felt-covered rollers that press any leftover water out of the paper.

What is the central idea of the selection?

• what paper is used for

• the machines used to make paper

• how paper is made.

The flamingo is a beautiful yet odd-looking bird. It has long legs, a long neck, and a boat-shaped beak. But the strangest thing about this bird is its unusual habit of eating with its head upside down! The flamingo lives near muddy lakes and gets its food from the water. It lowers its beak upside down into the water and moves it back and forth, like a vacuum cleaner! Inside the flamingo's mouth is something like a filter, that allows it to strain out the shrimp and other small water creatures it catches and then spit out the water. Interestingly enough, it is the reddish pigments found in the foods that a flamingo eats that give its feathers a beautiful pink shade. Maybe the flamingo's unique eating habits keep it from having to get its beautiful feathers dirty in the water!

What is the main idea of the passage?

• where flamingos live

• what a flamingo eats

• how a flamingo eats

The flamingo is a beautiful yet odd-looking bird. It has long legs, a long neck, and a boat-shaped beak. But the strangest thing about this bird is its unusual habit of eating with its head upside down! The flamingo lives near muddy lakes and gets its food from the water. It lowers its beak upside down into the water and moves it back and forth, like a vacuum cleaner! Inside the flamingo's mouth is something like a filter, that allows it to strain out the shrimp and other small water creatures it catches and then spit out the water. Interestingly enough, it is the reddish pigments found in the foods that a flamingo eats that give its feathers a beautiful pink shade. Maybe the flamingo's unique eating habits keep it from having to get its beautiful feathers dirty in the water!

Inside the flamingo's mouth is _______

• something like a filter that allows it to strain out the food it catches

• the reddish pigments that give its feathers a beautiful pink shade

• something like a vacuum cleaner that sucks up food and water

The flamingo is a beautiful yet odd-looking bird. It has long legs, a long neck, and a boat-shaped beak. But the strangest thing about this bird is its unusual habit of eating with its head upside down! The flamingo lives near muddy lakes and gets its food from the water. It lowers its beak upside down into the water and moves it back and forth, like a vacuum cleaner! Inside the flamingo's mouth is something like a filter, that allows it to strain out the shrimp and other small water creatures it catches and then spit out the water. Interestingly enough, it is the reddish pigments found in the foods that a flamingo eats that give its feathers a beautiful pink shade. Maybe the flamingo's unique eating habits keep it from having to get its beautiful feathers dirty in the water!

The flamingo lives near muddy lakes and gets its food from ________.

• underground

• the water

• trees