Brain Facts, Policies, and Owl Behavior: A Quiz and Analysis
Brain Facts, Policies, and Owl Behavior
1. The human brain makes up only 2 percent of an adult’s body weight.
2. The foreign policies that the Hoover administration undertook in 1929 were marked by good will & peaceful purpose.
3. Children usually turn to their parents rather than to other figures of authority for protection from threats in the environment.
4. Because of the high tides & winds during hurricanes cause extensive damage to Pacific island nations each year.
5. Anthropologists study societies within their environments & evaluate the adaptations they have made.
6. Malaria, which can be fatal if left untreated, is transmitted by the female, not by the male mosquito.
7. Like his predecessor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau is known for his transcendental views.
8. The tallest bird on the North American continent, the white whooping crane stands four and a half feet tall.
9. For thousands of years, people have used vast amounts of wood for building and to heat their homes.
10. Past experience has shown that even well-trained experts do not always have overwarming success in forecasting rates.
11. If each gene in the human genome were more completely understood, many human diseases could be cured or prevented.
12. Rarely has the federal government grown during a Republican administration.
13. Water, is one of the most critical elements for human survival, is also one of the most abundant compounds on earth.
14. It is relied on extensively by persons who cannot speak or hear. American Sign Language ranks as the fourth most widely used language in the U.S. today.
15. Efforts to provide equal opportunity for minorities in the United States may be said to date from the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Great Horned Owl Family Life
It takes a long time to raise a family of owlets, so the great horned owl begins early in the year. In January and February, or as late as March in the north, the male calls to the female with a resonant hoot. The female is larger than the male. She sometimes reaches a body length of twenty-two to twenty-four inches, with a wingspread up to fifty inches. To impress her, the male does a strange courtship dance. He bobs. He bows. He ruffles his feathers and hops around with an important air. He flutters from limb to limb and makes flying sorties into the air. Sometimes he returns with an offering of food. They share the repast, after which she joins the dance, hopping and bobbing about as though keeping time to the beat of an inner drum.
Owls are poor home builders. They prefer to nest in a large hollow in a tree or even to occupy the deserted nest of a hawk or crow. These structures are large and rough, built of sticks and bark and lined with leaves and feathers. Sometimes owls nest on a rocky ledge, or even on the bare ground. The mother lays two or three round, dull white eggs. Then she stoically settles herself on the nest and spreads her feather skirts about her to protect her precious charges from snow and cold.
It is five weeks before the first downy white owlet pecks its way out of the shell. As the young birds feather out, they look like wise old men with their wide eyes and quizzical expressions. They clamor for food, and the parent birds hunt constantly. During the season baby crows are taken. Migration songsters, waterfowl, and game birds all fall prey to the hungry family. It is nearly ten weeks before fledglings leave the nest to search for their own food. The parent birds weary of family life by November and drive the young owls away to establish hunting ranges of their own.
Owl Passage Analysis
41. What is the topic of this passage?
a) Raising a family of great horned owls
42. In line 2-3 the phrase “a resonant hoot” is closest in meaning to
b) A sound
43. It can be inferred from the passage that the courtship of great horned owls
d) Involves the male alone
44. According to the passage, great horned owls
c) May inhabit a previously used nest
45. According to the passage, which of the following is the mother owl’s job?
c) To sit on the nest
46. The phrase “precious charges” in the line 13 refers to
a) The eggs
47. According to the passage, young owlets eat everything EXCEPT
d) Nuts and seeds
48. In line 15 the word “they” refers to
c) The young birds
49. What can be inferred from the passage about the adult parents of the young great horned owls?
c) They probably don’t see their young after November.
50. The phrase “weary of” in line 19 is closest in meaning to
a) Tire of