Reading Comprehension - Passage: How to Spy on Sharks

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Ivan Mon, Feb 28, 2022 12:35 PM UTC

This passage talks about how scientists have come up with a revolutionary way to maintain the shark species from going extinct through global surveillance satellite tracking tags.

1.
CONCEPTS OF COMPREHENSION: VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT 4" GRADE UNIT

Reading Passage

How to Spy on Sharks
Fish Finders
A pointy gray fin, a toothy
smile—almost everyone
knows what a shark looks
like. But scientists don’t
know much about how the
big fish live. That's starting
to change.
Scientists have been
collecting information about
sharks around the world with
satellite tracking tags'.
Researchers place the tags
into the flesh of a shark and
release the fish into the
water. The tags collect
information about where the
sharks travel and how deep
and fast they swim.
Scientists program the tags
photscont to stay fastened to the shark
By learning where sharks spend their time, scientists) for a certain amount of time
can help protect the animals from danger. and then pop off and float to
the ocean’s surface. Then
the tags send the information they gathered to a satellite in space,
which transmits the information to the scientists.

Satellite tags help scientists learn which shark species migrate (move
from one area to another), where they go, and what they do there.
Last year, researchers tracked a great white shark that traveled from
Africa to Australia and back. The shark, nick-named Nicole, swam
12,400 miles in nine months. That's halfway around the planet!
Saving Sharks
1. satellite tracking tags: small devices inserted into the skin of an animal that collect information and
send that information to satellites
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2.
CONCEPTS OF COMPREHENSION: VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT 4" GRADE UNIT
Reading Passage

People often think of sharks as fearsome killers, but the truth is that
people pose a great danger to sharks.
Shark attacks always make the news, but they are rare. The
International Shark Attack File says that, on average, sharks kill five to
15 people a year worldwide. Every summer, the number of shark
attacks begins to rise compared with previous? months, but
researchers say it is not because sharks are more aggressive®. The
reason for the increase is that people are spending more time in the
water—surfing, swimming, and fishing in shark habitat. Still, an attack
is very unlikely. A person is 30 times more likely to be killed by
lightning than by a shark.
Meanwhile, fishermen kill about 100 million sharks each year.
Populations of great white sharks and other species are shrinking.
Scientists hope to discover important areas where sharks like to spend
time so those areas can be protected.

? previous: the ones that came before
‘aggressive: showing readiness to attack
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