Pre-reading questions:
- Have you been to an island before?
- Do you want to be a scientist?
Vocabulary:
- confuse /kuhn-fyooz/
- nearby /neer-bahy/
- fertilize /fur-tl-ahy-zer/
- gravel /grav-uhl/
- sticky /stik-ee/
[verb] to make something difficult to understand
I don’t understand why Math confuses me every time I study it.
[adjective] not far away in distance; close
The nearby cities are surrounded with different kinds of flowers.
[verb] to spread a natural or chemical substance on land or plants, in order to make the plants grow well
My parents always ask me to fertilize the flowers and plants in the backyard.
[noun] small, rounded stones, often mixed with sand
I saw him putting the gravels in the sack.
[adjective] made of or covered with a substance that stays fixed to any surface it touches
He likes the sticky texture of clay.
A report says that mud and plants found in Hunga-Tonga, the new island in new Pacific, confuse scientists. Dan Slayback, one of the scientists who visited the island, said that he has no idea on where the mud is coming from and why the plants start to grow there. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), birds in the nearby islands fertilized the plants from their dirt. Slayback said that the island has some small black gravels and a sticky light-colored gray mud. He also said that the island goes down during rainfall.
True or False:
- The new island is called Hunga-Tonga.
- Dan Slayback is one of the tourists who visited the island.
- Slayback knows where the mud and plants are coming from.
- NASA said that fish fertilize the plants in the island.
- The island goes down during summer.
Vocabulary Check:
Complete the sentences by using the words in the box.
| fertilize | sticky | confuse | nearby | gravel |
- The _______ houses in the sea are beautiful.
- The worker put the _______ inside the truck.
- The general is good at trying to _______ his enemies.
- Please _______ the plants in the garden when you get home.
- She didn’t like the _______ food that they ate yesterday.