GRADE 8
Reading comprehension
The Gentle Giant from Africa
All over the world, people find giraffes
amazing. The giraffe is the tallest animal in the world. Its legs and tail are
taller than most people. Its tongue is very long. The front part of its tongue
is an unusual colour, black. Unlike most other large animals, giraffes do not
threaten people. Yet, to many scientists, the most amazing thing about this
gentle giant is something that we cannot see – its heart.
To understand how amazing the giraffe’s
heart is, put your head lower than your heart. Keep it there for a few minutes.
Then, lift your head up very quickly. Do you feel dizzy? This is the effect of
a change in blood pressure. The heart has to quickly pump blood to your brain
to stop you from feeling dizzy or from fainting.
When a giraffe lifts its head up
from the ground, it has to lift its 249-kilogram neck more than 4.5 metres in
the air. How can it do this without fainting? The giraffe’s heart is extremely
large. It is almost 0.6 metre long and weighs about 11 kilograms. It can pump
60.5 litres of blood in a minute. The large artery that carries blood from the
heart up the long neck of the giraffe is also unusual because it has a muscle
in it. This muscle assists in maintaining the giraffe’s blood pressure.
In 1988, a writer, Michael Allin,
read a short note in a magazine about the first giraffe to come to France. He
knew that giraffes were native only to Africa. So he wanted to know more about
this giraffe: where did it come from, and why? He spent 10 years trying to find
out and then he wrote a book about it.
Allin learned that the giraffe
arrived in Marseille, a city in the south of France, in 1826. It was s gift to
the King of France, Charles X. Then Allin went to Ethiopia, in East Africa,
where the giraffe was born. He travelled to Egypt on the Nile River. This was
the same way the giraffe came to Egypt. In Egypt, he discovered the reason for
the gift. Muhammad Ali, an important Egyptian leader, didn’t want the French to
enter a war. He decided that a very special gift would help, so he sent the
giraffe to King Charles X.
It was difficult to transport a giraffe in
1826. It travelled from Egypt to France on a ship. The giraffe was so tall that
it couldn’t fit in the lower deck of the ship. This was quite a problem until
someone decided to cut a hole in the top deck of the ship. The giraffe’s legs
were below, and its long neck came up through the hole.
No one knew how to get such a large
animal from Marseille to Paris. Therefore, the giraffe had to walk the 885
kilometres. All along the way, people came to watch the gentle giant walk past.
Six weeks after it left Marseille, the giraffe finally arrived in Paris, where
100,000 people came to see this amazing creature. Today, we still look at the
giraffe in amazement. There is no other animal like it on earth.
- Choose the correct letter (a, b or c).
1)
Giraffes
are called “gentle” because they are ………
a) big-hearted
b) taller
than people
c) not
threatening
2)
The
most amazing thing about a giraffe is its …….
a) tongue
b) heart
c) feet
3)
How
much weight does a giraffe have to lift when it raises its head?
a) 4.6
kilograms
b) 11
kilograms
c) 249
kilograms
4)
What
is unusual about the artery in a giraffe’s neck?
a)
It
has a muscle in it.
b) It
weighs almost 11 kilograms.
c)
It
also carries blood to the legs.
5)
Why
did Michael Allin go to Africa?
a)
He
loved giraffes from the time he was a boy.
b)
He
was interested in the story of Muhammad Ali.
c)
He
wanted to travel the same way the giraffe came to France.
6)
Muhammad
Ali gave the giraffe to …………
a)
the
king of France.
b) the French people.
c) the Egyptian leader.
7)
What
did they have to do to transport the giraffe by ship?
a)
cut
a hole in the deck
b)
add
a taller deck to the ship
c) build
a new ship
8)
Why
did the giraffe walk to Paris?
a)
It
was the only way to get there.
b)
People
wanted to see the giraffe.
c)
It
was too big to go in an airplane.
2. Are the sentences true or
false?
9) A
giraffe’s heart pumps blood to its head quickly.
10) Michael Allin wanted to learn about the
first giraffe that came to France.
11) In the early 1800s, giraffes were common in
Europe.
Writing Tasks:
1. Many people have a ‘dream profession,’ or a job that
they would love to have throughout their lives.
What is your ‘dream profession’?
Why would you choose this profession over others? What steps do you have to take to become a
member of this profession?
2. Describe your perfect day, including location and
weather. What activities would you do? With whom would you spend it? How would
this day be different than every other day? Do you think it’s possible to have
a perfect day? Why?
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