WorksheetsDNA Tells Tale of How Cats Conquered the World
Total questions: 12
Worksheet time: 36mins
Which of the follow is an example of a subheading from the text?
Mummies (and more) tell another story
Cat Memes Are the Internet
About 10,000 to 9,500 years ago, African wildcats may have tamed themselves.
DNA Tells Tale of How Cats Conquered the World
Which words from paragraph 4 best help the reader understand the meaning of the word domestication?
useful
wild animals
tame
for instance
Which word from paragraph 7 means "extend across?"
regions
colleagues
spanned
mitochondrial
Why does the author include the quotation from Thierry Grange in paragraph 8?
To support the idea that cats "may have tamed themselves."
To explain what mutually beneficial means.
To show that cats can be profitable.
To establish that cats would scavenge food.
What does paragraph 9 reveal about how people and cats coexist?
They may have traveled with sailors.
Some people may have been close to their domestic cats.
Cats generally roam far from home.
People didn't want to tame cats.
Paragraph 14 suggests that cats were easily domesticated because --
wildcats and house cats aren't much different.
cats are easily scared.
domestic cats can't tolerate people.
Egyptian cats weren't as friendly.
Why does the author include paragraph 15?
To inform the reader about research in Maryland.
To explain how DNA works.
To support the information presented by Geigl and Grange.
To add a counter argument for how cats got popular.
How do paragraphs 15-16 contribute to the development of ideas in the text?
They emphasize that experts are in agreement that Egyptian cats are largely responsible for the spread of tamed cats.
They suggest that there is no way to confirm how ancient domesticated cats spread around the world.
They reveal that experts are not in agreement about why ancient domesticated cats’ DNA spread around the world.
They prove that Eva-Maria Geigl and Thierry Grange don’t have enough evidence to support their theory about ancient domesticated cats.
What connection does the author draw between cats’ DNA and cats’ history?
Their DNA proves that there was hardly ever any difference between wildcats and house cats.
Their DNA emphasizes the wide variety of cats that have existed across the world historically.
Their DNA helps readers better understand how all cats are genetically connected throughout history.
Their DNA provides evidence for when and where ancient domesticated cats spread around the world.
The author’s main purpose in writing is to --
explain how cats are better than dogs.
tell a story about a cat crossing the ocean.
persuade the reader to adopt a cat.
inform the reader about what DNA reveals about cats.
Which statement best expresses the central idea of the text?
Ancient domesticated cats’ travel and relationship with humans resulted in their widespread presence around the world.
Humans domesticated cats to hunt mice and protect grain, similarly to how they domesticated dogs and cattle.
Ancient cats would not have survived if it weren’t for the intervention of the humans who domesticated them.
Ancient cats gained more from being domesticated than humans did, as humans provided them with food and shelter.
Which detail from the text best supports the main idea?
“Domestication (Doh-MES-ti-kay-shun) is the long and slow process by which people have adapted wild animals or plants to be tame and useful.” (Paragraph 4)
“Exactly where and when this happened to cats, though, has been a matter of great debate. Researchers had only the DNA from modern cats to work with.” (Paragraph 5)
“No one really knows how friendly people and cats were with each other at the beginning of cat domestication.” (Paragraph 9)
“They may have lived along shipping and trade routes. That would have made hopping a boat to some new port easy, especially if they offered to work as mousers on the ship.” (Paragraph 15)
