Do You Know as Much Science as a Highlights® Reader?
Check out your science smarts!
- When given a choice, which food do mice like best? Seeds Cheese Chocolate
- Do fish have ears? Yes No
- How many eggs are contained in a single wood frog's egg mass? 15 150 1,500 150,000
- What do amphibians in the larval form breathe? Water Air Pure oxygen
- Which of the following foods ripen early in spring? Pumpkins Corn Asparagus
- What type of dinosaur left a big round footprint? A plant eater A meat eater
- What does the word vernal mean? Spring Blue Corrupt
- Why does a puffer fish sometimes expand its stomach with air or water? To find food To scare off predators To float above the water surface
- Who was John Muir? The inventor of electricity An environmentalist who saved wilderness areas One of the first astronauts
- Hoover Dam holds back which body of water? The Colorado River The Hudson River Lake Erie
Highlights April, 2008, page 17
Answers:
- Chocolate. Given a choice of different foods, mice chose chocolate. Foods with sugar are hard to find in nature and provide immediate energy. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 30)
- Yes. Fish have ears, but they are located inside a fish's skull. Sound waves travel better through water than air, so fish do not need the external apparatus we humans need to pick up sound. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 30)
- 1,500 eggs. A wood frog can lay as many as 1,500 individual eggs in a mass of eggs the size of a tennis ball. The eggs hatch into tadpoles. Many of the tadpoles do not survive to become frogs, but those that do are able to use their legs to carry them from the water back to the woods. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 17)
- Water. All amphibians breathe water when they are in larval form. When the larvae mature to adulthood, they breathe air. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 17)
- Asparagus. Asparagus ripens in the early spring, while corn ripens in late summer and pumpkins ripen in the fall. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 40)
- Plant eater. While scientists are not always able to identify dinosaurs from their tracks, it is generally believed that big round prints were left by plant-eating dinosaurs. Prints with three toes are believed to have been left by meat-eating dinosaurs. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 34)
- Spring. The word vernal means "spring." (Highlights, April 2008, p. 16)
- To scare off predators. By puffing up to look bigger, the fish protect themselves from animals that might want to eat them. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 34)
- An environmentalist. John Muir helped save Yosemite National Park and other wilderness areas. Born in Scotland in 1838, he explored natural regions around the world. The redwood forest in California is named Muir Woods in his honor. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 2 and p. 38)
- The Colorado River. Hoover Dam holds back the Colorado River, creating Lake Mead. Hoover Dam is shaped like an arch to distribute the force of the water and therefore give it greater strength. (Highlights, April 2008, p. 34 and p. 38)