Why does the author tell about lizards, snakes and burrowing owls in the last paragraph?
Read an Informational Passage · ELPAC Grades 3–5 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
A longer factual text, with questions about the main idea, supporting details and vocabulary.
Read the passage. Then answer the questions.
Life Underground
The desert tortoise lives in the Mojave Desert in southern California. Summer days there can be hotter than 110 degrees, and winter nights can drop below freezing. A tortoise cannot sweat or shiver to stay comfortable. So it digs.
With its strong, flat front legs, a tortoise digs a burrow, a tunnel under the ground. Deep inside, the soil stays cool in summer and does not freeze in winter. A tortoise spends most of its life in its burrow. It comes out mainly in spring, when there are fresh plants to eat.
Rain is rare in the desert, so a tortoise must make the most of every storm. After a rain, it drinks from puddles and can store water inside its body for months. Some tortoises even scrape small dips in the dirt that catch rainwater.
Other animals use tortoise burrows, too. Lizards, snakes and even burrowing owls hide in them to escape the heat. That is one reason scientists say that protecting the tortoise helps protect many desert animals.
The question
Choose the best answer.
Why does the author tell about lizards, snakes and burrowing owls in the last paragraph?
- To show that tortoise burrows help other desert animals tooCorrect answer
- To explain what desert tortoises eat
- To show that these animals are dangerous to tortoises
- To compare how fast different desert animals can dig
Why “To show that tortoise burrows help other desert animals too” is correct
This question asks why an author included certain details, which is harder than asking what the details say. The paragraph says these animals "hide in" tortoise burrows, and then gives the point: "protecting the tortoise helps protect many desert animals." The examples are there to support that idea.
Why the other answers are wrong
- To explain what desert tortoises eat — The tortoise eats fresh plants, according to paragraph 2. The other animals are not its food.
- To show that these animals are dangerous to tortoises — The animals share the burrows to escape the heat; nothing says they hurt tortoises.
- To compare how fast different desert animals can dig — Only the tortoise is described digging. The other animals use burrows that are already there.
Practice more of this
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