Page 123 - English Grammar - 6

Manatees are known as “reduce space gentle giants” and are purely herbivorous. Manatees eat
vast amounts of aquatic plants. A manatee may eat as much as 15 per cent of its body weight
per day.

On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions briefly.
1. What is the advantage of the manatee’s specialised forelimb flippers?

2. Why are the forelimb flippers called “gentle giants”?
3. What tells us that manatees have incredible lung capacity?

Find the words in the passage that mean:
1. changed your behaviour to deal with a new situation (para 1)

2. very large (para 2)

C. Read the following passage carefully.
For thousands of years, play acting has been very popular amongst the people throughout the
world. Some native Americans and Africans used to act out the hunting of wild animals before
or after the hunt. Two thousand years ago, the people in ancient Greece would perform plays
outdoors before large crowds. There, people used to sit on the great rounded steps of stones
placed on the hillsides to see the plays. These places were known as amphitheatres.
This is the place where European drama began, and we still study and perform many of the
Greek plays today. The Greek actors used to wear masks and costumes to help them to pretend
to be the characters they were portraying, just as we wear a mask and costume on Halloween
in order to pretend to be a monster. At present, people usually put on costumes and use make-
up when they perform.

Answer the following questions on the basis of your reading of the passage.
1. Who used to act out the hunting of wild animals?

2. Where did the people of ancient Greece perform their plays?
3. What were amphitheatres?

4. What did the Greek actors wear?
5. What do we pretend to be on Halloween?

D. Read the following passage carefully.
African elephants are the largest mammals that live on land. They grow all their lives. Male
African elephants weigh up to 14,000 pounds. They are thirteen feet tall if they are measured
from the ground to the top of their shoulders.

African elephants have ears that can be five feet long and are shaped like the continent of Comprehension
Africa. Elephants can flap their ears. The big ears help to keep the elephants cool.
Elephants eat all day long. They eat grass, leaves, and other plants. They also eat fruit like
bananas. Elephants use their trunks to grab food and put it in their mouth. They can also suck
water into their trunks and squirt it into their mouths. Elephants can drink up to forty gallons
of water a day!

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