LITERACY COMPREHENSION B5

 Comprehension

Title: Snakes 

KEY FACT 

* Snakes are reptiles like lizard but do not have legs. 

* They are referred to as cold blooded animal for their preference of cold weather.

* Their body is covered with scales which can be used as leather for shoes, handbags amongst others. 

Image of snakes 

Now, read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Test 1

Snakes are reptiles without legs. They are closely related to lizards. Some lizards have no legs too and look very much like snakes. But snakes are different from lizards in that they have no eyelids and no external ears. They also have long tongues which appear to be cut into two like forks.

A snakes body is covered with scales. This makes the skin very valuable as leather for shoes, handbags and gloves. The snake does not use its tongue to bite, as many people think. Rather, it uses it to pick up particles, which it eats, from the ground.

Even though snakes do not have external ears or eardrums, they can feel vibrations (or sounds) in the ground with their body, so they know when something is coming near them. Snakes feed on animals, ranging from insects to large mammals. They like eating lizards and other snakes, although a snake never attacks snakes of its type. Some snakes make their victims helpless by coiling themselves around them and squeezing them to death. Others bite, sometimes injecting poison into their victims. Snakes dO not tear or cut their victims into pieces. Rather, they swallow the animal whole and digest the meal slowly afterwards.

Most snakes lay eggs, but some give birth to their young. The average number of eggs is 10, but the python may lay as many aS 100 eggs. Snakes vary in length from about fifteen centimetres to three feet.

Snakes are cold-blooded creatures, and they are most common in tropical regions. However, they are found in temperate  and other regions too. There are nearly 2,500 different kinds, or species, of snake. Only about 250 kinds are poisonous, and only about half of these 250 Kinds are dangerous to man. So, you can see that not all snakes bite people.

Questions