1
Feathery Homes
Did
you know that there is a kind of bird that can sew? This bird, called the
tailorbird, uses its beak as a needle. It sews leaves together in the shape of
a cup. Then it lines the cup with straw and lays its eggs there.
Each species builds its own special kind of nest. The most common
materials used for nests are grasses, twigs, and feathers. A bird must weave
these materials into a nest. Imagine building a house without cement or nails
to hold it together!
A weaverbird builds a nest that looks like a basket. The nest is
shaped like a pear with a hole in the middle. The hole is the door of the nest.
The ovenbird makes a nest that is very solid. The nest is made of
mud. Like a sculptor, the ovenbird molds the mud into the shape of an oven and
then lets it dry in the sun. The sun bakes the mud, making it very hard.
Not all birds make their homes in branches. Some birds build their
nests on the ground, while others bury their eggs under the ground. And some
birds do not build nests at all. For example, a bird called the fairy tern lays
its eggs right on a branch. It tiptoes on the branch and balances its eggs very
carefully so they won't fall. So, when you look for nests and eggs in the
branches of trees and bushes, remember that some nests may be right under your
feet!
2 Outsmarting the Enemy
When a garden warbler sings from trees or
bushes, no one can see it. The colors of this songbird match the colors of the
leaves. When an animal blends in with its surroundings, its enemies can't see
it either. This kind of protection is called camouflage.
Birds must protect themselves from their
enemies. Sometimes this means having to fight. Sometimes it means fooling the
enemy. Sometimes it means being able to escape. Birds must also protect their
eggs and their young. Cats, rats, and foxes love eggs for breakfast. They prowl
around looking for eggs and young chicks to eat. How can birds defend
themselves against such enemies?
Each species has its own way of
defending itself. Birds called common terns fight with their beaks and claws.
In a swarm, they peck and scratch at anyone who comes too close to their nests.
Ostriches protect themselves by escaping. They can't fly, but they can run very
fast on their long, muscular legs. These birds can reach speeds of up to forty miles
per hour. How fast is that? Well, if the wind blows this hard, it can rip huge
branches from trees.
A bird called a
killdeer has a lot of courage. It cares very much for its young. It would
rather die than see its eggs eaten by a fox. If a fox wanders toward the nest,
the killdeer pretends to be hurt. Dragging one wing, it hops away from the nest
and draws the hungry fox after it.
3
Rain Forests
Tropical
rain forests grow near the equator, in the hottest parts of the world. Rain
forests are always wet. The moisture just never dries up.
The trees in a rain forest are very tall and have very few limbs.
The leaves are all at the top. They form a high ceiling. Very little sunlight
comes through the leaves. Inside a rain forest it is as dark and quiet as a
church.
There are very few low-growing plants on the rain forest floor.
Walking through a rain forest is like being at a circus's high trapeze show—the
most exciting things are happening high above the ground. Monkeys swing on
vines, with baby monkeys on their backs. Large snakes crawl from branch to
branch. Giant bats make squeaky noises.
The animals that stay near the ground are fascinating, too. The
gentle tapir, which looks like a small horse with a long nose, covers itself
with mud from head to foot. When the mud dries, it forms a kind of armor. It
protects the tapir from biting insects. Another ground animal is the anteater.
It has a long, sticky tongue that works like a fly trap. But the tongue is
really an ant trap. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner the anteater eats nothing
but ants, ants, and more ants.
4
Put a Lid on It
Sports
have always been ruled by the weather. Rain, sleet, snow, and cold called the
plays. Baseball fans often sat in the rain without cover, waiting for the sun
to come out and the game to begin. Football lovers sometimes took days to warm
up after sitting through a freezing cold Sunday game. For both sports fans and
players, the domed stadium was like something out of a dream. A huge plastic
bubble kept out rain and snow. There was heat to keep things comfortable year
round.
Domed stadiums have clearly changed the course of sports. Still,
they did have their problems at first. Most of these problems were discovered
and solved at the Houston Astrodome. This was the world's first stadium with a
lid. For the fans, it was great. But there were some problems for the players.
Baseball outfielders had the most difficult time. They had to learn to catch in
a field with a roof. At first this was almost as difficult as playing in the
dark. The panes of the roof were light colored, to let sunlight in. Sunlight
was needed to keep the grass on the field alive. But the light roof blended too
well with the white baseball. Fly balls seemed to drop out of nowhere. Even
skilled fielders were making errors. Finally, the decision was made to paint
the panes of the roof dark. The problem was solved. What about the grass? Well,
the real grass was dug up and replaced with artificial turf!
5
Two Unhappy Firsts
People
enjoy talking about “firsts.” They like to remember their first love or their
first car. But not all firsts are happy ones. Some involve accidents or other
sad events. Few people enjoy recalling the firsts that are bad.
One of history's bad but important firsts was the first car
accident. Autos were still young when it happened. The crash took place in New
York City. The year was 1896. The month was May. A man from Massachusetts was
visiting the city in his new car. At the time, bicycle riders were still trying
to get used to the new sets of wheels on the road.
In the accident, no one is sure who was at fault. In any case, the
bike and the car collided. The man on the bike was injured. The driver of the
car had to stay in jail and wait for the hospital report on the bicycle rider.
Luckily, the rider was not killed.
Three years later, another automobile first took place. The scene
was again New York City. A real estate broker named Henry Bliss stepped off a
streetcar. He was hit by a passing car. Once again, no one is sure just how it
happened or whose fault it was. The driver of the car was put in jail. Poor Mr.
Bliss became the first person to die in a car accident.
6
Sea Turtles
Did
you know that a turtle can lay twelve eggs in one minute? A large sea turtle
lays around 150 eggs at a time. She lays all these eggs in just a few minutes.
Large sea turtles live in the warm seas of the world. Except for
when they lay their eggs, they spend their whole lives in water. When it is
time to lay their eggs, the females swim to land. They usually return to the place
where they themselves were born. How they find their way back there is a
mystery.
When they reach shore, the big, heavy turtles crawl slowly up to
the high water mark. Using their flippers, they pull themselves along the sand.
They must struggle like mountain climbers to attain their goal. When they
finally reach dry sand, they rest before beginning the difficult task of laying
eggs.
The turtles lay the eggs in deep holes and cover them with warm
sand. The sand protects the eggs from harm. Then the females leave them. After
a few weeks, if you happened to be walking along the beach, you might see the
sand begin to shake in one spot. Then you would see tiny black balls coming out
of the sand. The tiny heads of baby turtles!
Baby turtles have a built-in sense of direction. As soon as they
are hatched, they head for the water. Once the babies swim out to sea, they
don't touch shore again until it is time for them to lay their own eggs.
7.
The Whale Clan
If
you're looking for a whale, you have a whole family of creatures to choose
from. The papa of the whale family is, of course, the whale itself. But there
are other members as well. Relatives, you might say.
Few people realize that dolphins are part of the whale clan. In
fact, many people do not realize that dolphins aren't fish. Fish breathe
through gills and lay eggs. The dolphin does neither. Dolphins, like all the
members of the whale clan, are mammals. They breathe air, and they have babies
like land mammals and feed them with milk. Dolphins are fascinating to watch.
They can leap high out of the water and perform turns in the air. These leaps
give the dolphin time to breathe.
Porpoises also belong to the whale family and are very much like
dolphins. The main difference between dolphins and porpoises is the size and
shape of the snout. The dolphin's nose is long and thin. The snout of the
porpoise is short and stubby. Both creatures are smart and friendly to humans.
Not all the members of the whale family are friendly. Perhaps the
difference in mood has to do with size. The giant whale is much grumpier than
the smaller dolphin or porpoise. An angry whale can be hard to ignore. Perhaps
this trait helped to inspire the story of Moby Dick, the Great White Whale who
sank a ship and caused the crew to drown.
8
Give Them a Hand
Right
is right. Right? Of course. But is left wrong? Well, the ancient Romans thought
so. As far as they were concerned, left-handed people were mistakes of nature.
Latin, the language of the Romans, had many words that expressed this view.
Some words we use today still have this meaning. The Latin word dexter means “right.” The English word dexterous
comes from this word. It means “handy.” So, right is handy. But the Latin word
for "left" is sinistra. The English word sinister
was derived from this word. Sinister means “evil.” Is it fair to call righties
handy and lefties evil? Well, fair or not, many languages have words that
express similar beliefs. In Old English, the word for left
means “weak.” That isn't much of an improvement over “evil.”
Not very long ago, southpaws were often forced to write with their
right hands. Doctors have since found that this can be very harmful. You should
use the hand you were born to use.
People who use their left hands are just starting to get better
treatment. But why all the name calling in the first place? One reason may be
that there are not as many left-handed people as there are right-handed people.
People who are different are often thought to be wrong. But attitudes do seem
to be changing. Fair-minded right-handed people are finally starting to give
lefties a hand.
9 Six-Legged Workers
Can
you imagine being able to lift fifty people at once and carry them? You'd have
to have superhuman strength. Well, you may be surprised to know that tiny ants
do have this kind of strength. An ant can lift a load fifty times heavier than
itself! Ants must often carry food to their homes from places that are far
away. To do this, they must be very strong.
Ants live in tunnels that twist and turn in many directions, like
the roots of a gnarled old tree. Thousands of ants can live in one nest. The
tunnels are divided into parts. Each part serves a special purpose.
The royal chamber is the place where the queen ant lays her eggs.
The queen spends her whole life laying eggs. She never leaves her chamber,
except to start a new nest. Worker ants must bring food to her.
The worker ants in an ant colony have many different jobs. Some
workers pull the eggs from the royal chamber into a room called the “nursery.”
There, they help larvae climb out of their shells. Larvae are the baby ants
when they first come out of the eggs. In the nursery, there are workers who
look after the larvae until they become full-grown ants. Some workers look for
food and store it in the granary, where seeds are kept. Others dump leftovers
in the rubbish room. Ants have their own complete, busy world hidden in tunnels
under our feet!
10
The Collapsing Road
The
young couple was very lucky. The back tires of their car stayed on the road.
Otherwise, the car—and its passengers—would have fallen right into a pit twenty
feet wide and thirty feet deep!
The man and woman were coming home from a party. They were
enjoying the landscape around Swansea, Wales. Suddenly, they found the front of
their car leaning into a huge hole. The car barely hung on to the edge of the
pit. It swayed back and forth like the arm of a balance.
In their precarious position, the couple knew that each movement
they made could be a matter of life and death. Slowly, slowly, they edged
toward the backseat. Then each opened a back door. And on the count of three,
they jumped out together. The accident was so scary that they ran along way
before they calmed down. But later they returned to see what happened. They
found that a big chunk of the road had sunk into the ground! At the bottom of
the pit lay their car—roof down and wheels up.
Was this mystery of the sunken road ever solved? It turned out
that an abandoned mine shaft lay under the road. It had collapsed and taken the
pavement with it. Layers of tunnels intersect beneath the city of Swansea. The
tunnels were built so many years ago that no one knows where they end or begin.
The tunnels are shaky, like those that ants build in the sand. It's even
possible that the entire city might collapse.
11 A Whale of a Story
There has been, in history, a man who
was swallowed by a whale and lived to tell the tale. The man's name was James
Bartley. The records to prove his unusual experience are in the British
Admiralty.
This story takes
place at a time when whales were hunted for meat and oil. Bartley was making
his first trip on the whaling ship Star of the East. Suddenly the lookout
sighted a huge sperm whale. The whalers knew it was a huge whale by the size of
the spray it blew into the air. They lowered their small boats. James Bartley was
in the first longboat. The men rowed until they were close to the whale. A
harpoon was thrown and found its mark. It sank into the whale's flesh. The
maddened beast crashed into the boat, snapping its tail at the men and the
wreckage of their boats. When the survivors were picked up, James Bartley was
missing.
Shortly before
sunset, the whale was finally captured. The sailors tied the whale's carcass to
the side of the ship. Because of the hot weather it was important that they cut
up the whale right away. Otherwise, the meat would begin to rot and the oil
would begin to spoil. When they got to the stomach, they felt something moving
about wildly. They thought it would be a big fish still alive inside. But when
they opened the stomach they found James Bartley. After this trip, Bartley
settled in Gloucester, England, and never returned to sea.
12
The Hermit
Most
people like living with other people. But some people just have to be by
themselves. Take Bozo Kucik, for example. For over eighty-four years Bozo lived
all alone on a desert island.
In 1888, when Bozo was only sixteen, his father left him on a
little island off the coast of Croatia. He kissed Bozo goodbye and said, “I
hope all goes well with you, my son.” Then the father got back in his boat and
sailed home without his son. How could he do such a thing, you ask? Well, Bozo
had asked him to.
Bozo's father was a poor peasant who couldn't afford to feed his
seven children. So he called his sons together and asked them to decide their
own futures. Bozo chose the life of a hermit.
During the years that Bozo lived alone, World Wars I and II were
fought. But Bozo never heard about them. In 1972, a crew of fishermen visited
his island. They tried to talk to Bozo. At first the old hermit ran away.
Finally, he let the men into his windowless stone hut.
The fishermen talked with Bozo for over two hours. They told him
all about the two world wars he had missed. When they asked his age, Bozo
guessed he was one hundred years old.
They asked if he wanted to go home. But Bozo said no. So the
fisherman wished Bozo well and left him alone again—just as his father had
eighty-four years before.
13
Forever Amber
Amber
is a substance that lasts and lasts. Scientists are very glad of this. Without
amber, we would not have many of the world's important insect remains. Amber is
a hard, yellowish-brown resin found in the earth. It is translucent, which
means you can see through it. It is known for its ability to preserve things.
Long ago, amber was not as hard as it is today. It was soft and
gummy. Insects that weren't careful about where they walked often got trapped
in it. The poor bugs that got caught in the sticky amber died. But they were
forever preserved. The golden resin worked like a wax mold. It shaped itself
around the insects. The resin hardened as the bodies of the dead insects slowly
fell into decay.
The last traces of the insects trapped in amber have been gone for
thousands of years. But the imprints of their bodies remained fixed in the
hardened resin. Although the bugs are gone from the earth, their imprints
remain for us to study. Many of these imprints are very fine and detailed.
Preserved imprints of creatures and plants that once lived are called fossils.
They help scientists learn more about life on earth in the past.
14
Jumbo
Jumbo
the elephant is one of the most famous animals that ever lived. He was the
biggest elephant and the proudest possession of the British Crown.
In April of 1882, Jumbo was shipped to a zoo in the United States
for a visit. He was an instant success. P. T. Barnum had heard of this giant
and the great crowds he attracted. Barnum decided that he would like to have
Jumbo in his circus. He thought of a way to get him.
Barnum knew that elephants in captivity have periodic fits of
violence. He waited for Jumbo to have such a fit. When it happened, he asked
the zoo to sell him the elephant. Jumbo was sold to Barnum, who paid on the
spot. Jumbo became the star of the circus. Barnum made a fortune on this star.
But one day tragedy struck Jumbo. It was after a show. The
elephant was being led back to his cage near the railroad tracks by his
trainers. Suddenly a bright light blinded them. A train whistled, and brakes
screeched as the engineer tried to stop. Dazzled by the light, Jumbo charged
right into it. There was a crash that chilled the hearts of those who were
there. The confused animal had run head-on into the train's engine. Jumbo died
of a broken neck.
15
Stunt People
They
are daredevils. They are in great physical shape. They are not movie stars, but
they make a lot of money. These brave folks—stunt people—are the hidden heroes
of many movies.
Stunt people were around long before films. Even Shakespeare
probably used them in fight scenes. To be good, a fight scene has to look real.
Punches must land on enemies' jaws. Sword fights must be fought with sharp
swords. Several actors are usually in a fight scene. Their moves must be set up
so that no one gets hurts. It is almost like planning a dance performance.
If a movie scene is dangerous, stunt people usually fill in for
the stars. You may think you see Tom Cruise running along the top of a train.
But it is probably his stunt double. Stunt people must resemble the stars they
stand in for. Their height and build should be about the same. But when
close-ups are needed, the film focuses on the star.
Some stunt people specialize in certain kinds of scenes. For
instance, a stunt woman named Jan Davis does all kinds of jumps. She has leapt
from planes and even off the top of a waterfall. Each jump required careful
planning and expert timing.
Yakima Canutt was a famous cowboy stunt man. Among other stunts,
he could jump from a second story window onto a horse's back. He invented the
famous trick of sliding under a moving stagecoach. (Maybe you've seen this
stunt in TV westerns.) Canutt also figured out a new way to make a punch look
real. He was the only stuntman ever to get an Oscar.
16 A Dragon That Flies
Although it doesn't breathe fire, this dragon
can fly. And what a beauty it is. By far the scariest thing about the dragonfly
is its name. This double-winged, fast-flying insect is totally harmless. It has
large, deep eyes that can detect the smallest movements. Its body may be bright
blue and red or a vivid green. Dragonflies in flight look like dancing spots of
color in the light of a midsummer's day.
The dragonfly has a long and respectable
history. It was one of the first flying insects on the earth. To see this
oldster of the insect world in action, head for a pond. Dragonflies live near
the water. In fact, they lay their eggs right in the water
A dragonfly goes through several big changes
before it becomes a flying insect. From the egg, a tiny creature called a nymph
is hatched. It lives in the water, eating other small creatures that live in
the pond. As the nymph grows, it becomes too big for its skin. Then it sheds
the skin that is too small for it. Soon it grows a new one. This molting
happens several times, until the insect is full grown. At this time it crawls
up the stem of a water plant, out into the air. It squeezes its way out of its
last skin as a full-fledged dragonfly.
After going through all that work to grow up,
the dragonfly only lives for about a month. But for this short time it startles
the hot summer air with its bright beauty.
17 A Dangerous Weather Maker
Thunderstorms are dangerous because they
can give off lightning. Snowstorms can tie up traffic and strand people. But
tornadoes cause some of the worst weather of all. Tornadoes are very strong
columns of twisting air. They come out of rain clouds and form funnels. The
funnels move along the ground, picking up anything in their path. Tornado winds
can be over 300 miles an hour. Property damage can be terrible. Most of the
world's tornadoes are in the United States. The flat middle section of the
country—the Great Plains—is where many strike. Spring is the most common time
for tornadoes. But they hit in other seasons, too. Tornadoes can be rated by
the damage that their winds do. The worst tornadoes have winds between 261 and
318 miles an hour. They can lift a sturdy wooden house off its foundation. They
can even carry cars through the air. Luckily, tornadoes this strong don't
happen very often. The world's worst tornado happened in March 1925. It went
through three states—Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. It killed about seven
hundred people and injured over two thousand. In one small town, over two
hundred people were killed. Many of the dead were school children. If you hear
that a tornado is coming, look for a safe place right away. If you are indoors,
go to a basement. If you are outside, lie flat on the ground. Treat these storms
with respect.
18 Oldest, Youngest, or in the
Middle?
Were you the first or last child in your
family? Or were you a middle or only child? Some people think it matters where
you were born in your family. But there are different ideas about what birth
order means. Some people say that oldest children are smart and strong-willed.
They are very likely to be successful. The reason for this is simple. Parents
have a lot of time for their first child. They give him or her a lot of
attention. So this child is very likely to do well. An only child will succeed
for the same reason. What happens to the other children in a family? Middle
children don't get so much attention. So they don't feel that important. If a
family has many children, the middle ones sometimes get lost in the crowd. The
youngest child, though, often gets special treatment. He or she is the “baby.”
Often this child grows up to be funny and charming. Do you believe these ideas
about birth order? A recent study saw things quite differently. This study found
that first children believed in family rules. They didn't take many chances in
their lives. They usually followed orders. Rules didn't mean so much to later
children in a family. They went out and followed their own ideas. They took
chances. And they often did better in life. Which theory about birth order do
you believe? Look at your own family or your friends' families. Decide which
idea fits what you see.
19 A Very Old Riddle
The people of old Greece and Egypt
believed in mythology. The stories in myths were mostly about strange
creatures. Some of these creatures were part human and part animal. One, the
Sphinx, had the head of a woman and the body of a lion. The Sphinx lived high
on a mountain peak over which a road passed.
People who traveled that road were never
heard from again. Whenever travelers reached the peak of the mountain, the
Sphinx would block the road and speak this riddle: "What goes on four feet
in the morning, on two feet at noon, and on three feet in the evening?” No
traveler in a thousand years had guessed the answer. And the Sphinx had eaten
them all.
But one day a Greek traveler named
Oedipus traveled that way. When Oedipus came to the mountain pass, the Sphinx
leaped out. With a catlike grin, it asked its terrible riddle. Oedipus, wise
with age, knew the answer immediately, but he teased the Sphinx by frowning and
shaking his head. These strange actions made the Sphinx tense and upset. Then
suddenly Oedipus shot forth the answer. The Sphinx was so upset that it jumped
off the mountain to its death.
The answer Oedipus gave was simple: a
person. Can you guess why this was right? In a person's morning, or childhood,
he or she crawls on all fours. At noon, as an adult, a person walks on two
legs. In the evening, old age, a person uses a third foot—a cane.
20 Protect Your Hearing
Is your roommate's stereo playing too loud:
Is the neighbor's leaf blower driving you crazy? The world seems to be getting
noisier all the time. And you need to be concerned about it. All those loud
sounds may actually damage your ears. Noise can affect your hearing in two
ways. A very loud noise very close to the ear can injure it right away. An
example might be the sound from a high-powered rifle. Aloud blast like this can
leave scars on your inner ear tissues. You will hear less well as a result.
(That is why people at shooting ranges wear coverings to protect their ears.)
Much hearing damage comes more slowly. It occurs over a period of time. You
have probably heard of people in rock bands who lose their hearing. The
constant loud noise gradually damages their ears. But this can happen to other
people as well. Loud noise comes from fireworks, from car horns in traffic,
even from vacuum cleaners. Too much of any of these can affect your hearing.
How can people protect their ears? One way is to use earplugs. Is the concertso
loud that you can't hear what your friend is saying? Put the plugs in. And
sometimes give your ears a rest. Go to that noisy basketball game tonight. But
don't run your lawn mower tomorrow morning. As people grow older, their hearing
skills gradually decrease. This is a fairly natural phenomenon. But hearing
loss by age thirty is not natural. You can avoid it if
you are careful.
21.
The Wizard of Wall Street
At the age of eighty, Hetty Green lived like
a pauper in an unheated apartment. To save the cost of heating her food, she
ate only cold eggs and onions. In order to save more money, Hetty wore
newspapers instead of underwear. She had only the bottoms of her dresses
cleaned. A very poor person, you say? No, Hetty was one of America's richest
women! Hetty Green was born in 1835 in a rich section of Bellow Falls, Vermont.
When her father died, she was left a large fortune. She took all of her money
and invested it in the stock market. Her stocks did so well that she became
known as “the wizard of Wall Street.” But though she was very rich, Hetty Green
was extremely cheap. For instance, when her son, Edward, broke his leg, she
refused to call for a doctor. She felt it would cost too much. So she carried
her son to a charity hospital. Still, young Edward's leg got worse. Finally,
the leg had to be removed to save the boy's life. But Hetty still didn't want
to pay the hospital fee. Instead, in order to save more money, she had her
son's operation done on the kitchen table in her rooming house. When Hetty died
in 1916, she was worth over $120 million. Yet this tightfisted woman had lived
as though she barely had a cent.
22 Surviving in Very Cold Climates
Imagine going to sleep in October and
waking up in May! Animals such as marmots and ground squirrels stay warm by
sleeping all winter. All this time, they do not wake up once. This special kind
of sleep is called hibernation. During this sleep, the heart slows down, and
the animal breathes more slowly. It doesn't move around, so it uses less
energy. Animals like the marmot and the ground squirrel inhabit the coldest
parts of the world. They need special talents to survive in these frigid
places. Their furry coats keep them snug when the temperature falls below zero.
It often gets this cold in the Arctic, a land that is just below the North
Pole. Before the long winter, some animals eat and eat. After a while, they
grow very fat. When winter comes, they live on the fat saved up in their
bodies. The fat layers help keep them warm. Arctic animals also have other ways
to beat the cold. Rabbits in the Arctic, for example, have very small ears.
Small ears keep heat in, while big ears let it out. Small things usually keep
heat in. Have you ever slept in a room that is very small and noticed how hot
it can get? It rarely gets warm in the Arctic. But although summer seasons
there are very short, the sun shines brightly. Plants seem to spring up before
your eyes! Animals such as caribou look forward all year to summer, when they
can eat fresh grass again. Every minute of sunshine is important to their
lives.
23 Let's Shake on It
What could be simpler than shaking fruit from
a tree? Well, the job is a lot tougher than you might think. There is
definitely a right way and a wrong way to shake a fruit tree. And a person who
is a good apple tree shaker may not be a good cherry tree shaker. Different
fruits take different shakes. As a rule, a slow, hard shake is best. This makes
the fruit fall much faster than a light, quick jiggle. Most fruits have a set
number of shakes per minute that will do the best job of getting them out of
the tree and onto the ground. To shake down plums, try shaking the tree four
hundred times per minute, moving the tree two inches at each shake. Experts say
you'll get three times more fruit from the tree than you will if you shake
eleven hundred times per minute at one inch per shake. Cherries, because they
are smaller, need more jarring. A good rate of shaking seems to be about twelve
hundred shakes per minute. Apples, like plums, need about four hundred shakes.
Of course, some folks may choose to ignore all these expert directions for
jiggling fruit. Can you actually imagine shaking a tree so many times? Besides,
keeping track of all the numbers can be enough to drive some people up a tree.
24 Slow but Sure
Nowadays the Indianapolis 500, one of the
world's most famous car races, takes about three-and-a-half hours to run. If
the Indy 500 had been held in 1895, it would have taken almost three days. The
horseless carriage had just been invented a short time before. Top speeds back
then were much lower than they are today. For most people, just seeing a car
move without a horse pulling it was thrilling enough. The driver's main concern
was making sure the car didn't break down.
One of the first car races was held in
Chicago on Thanksgiving Day in 1895. Folks crowded the streets to gawk at the
new machines. The route of the race went through the heart of town. The cars
were to go out to a nearby suburb and back. The race covered a distance of
about fifty-four miles. That's less than one-tenth the distance at Indy. The
drivers cranked up their engines and prayed that they wouldn't conk out. Then
they were off. The race proved too much for some of the cars. Perhaps they
couldn't withstand the high speeds. The winner of the contest was J. Frank
Duryea. He got the checkered flag a bit more than seven hours after he started.
He had covered the grueling distance at an average speed of 7.5 miles per hour.
That is slower than a modern marathoner can go on foot. Even so, as Duryea
finished, the crowd went wild.
25 Scallops and Clams
Scallops and clams are both mollusks—shelled
sea creatures with soft bodies. Yet they have more differences than
similarities. Scallops and clams both feed by pulling water through their
shells and straining out tiny plants and animals as their food. Both shellfish
are popular prey for many other sea creatures. But when it comes to searching
for safety, they have very different ways.
The scallop lies on the floor of the ocean in
shallow to fairly deep water. Its curved shell raises it just above the sand or
gravel on the bottom. It looks almost helpless lying there. But don't let it
fool you. There is a ring of tiny eyes peering out from the scallop's shell. At
the first sign of an enemy, the scallop takes off, swimming by jetting spurts
of water out behind it. It's a very fast swimmer.
Any clam that dared to lie in full view on
the ocean floor would quickly be eaten. Clams make a tasty meal for starfish,
crabs, or carnivorous snails. They move very slowly and cannot swim at all.
They find safety by burrowing deep into the mud or sand. Their long necks
stretch like periscopes, up to the top of the sand. Just the tip of the neck
pokes out to get food for the clam. If anything comes near, the neck can
quickly be pulled back within the shell. The clam stays safe below the surface,
two or three feet down.
26 Joker's Wild
Watch out for practical jokers. They'll do
almost anything for a laugh. One such prankster was Moe Drabowsky. He was a
baseball relief pitcher. Relief pitchers are standby players who replace the
starting pitcher in a game if he is pitching badly. If the starting pitcher is
throwing well, relief pitchers have nothing to do. They just sit around in the
bullpen and hope the manager calls them to play.
Waiting around in the bullpen gave Moe lots
of time to think up jokes. But his best joke was played after he retired from
baseball. Moe was sitting at home watching his team play on television. It
would have been a boring game for him had he still been on the team. The
starting pitcher was doing great. He hadn't given up a single run. The relief
pitchers wouldn't be likely to play in this game. The last thing they'd expect
would be a call from the manager. The thought gave Moe a mischievous idea. He
still remembered the bullpen phone number. Moe dialed it from his living room.
A startled relief pitcher answered. Using a voice that sounded like the
manager's, Moe growled, “Warm up and get ready to play.” The star pitcher gaped
at the man in the bullpen who was getting ready to pitch. Everyone stared at
the manager in disbelief. The poor manager could only scratch his head. A
thousand miles away, Moe Drabowsky sat in his living room watching the event on
TV and laughing.
27 The Mysterious Iceman
Put yourself in these tourists position. You
are walking an icy mountain path in the Alps in Europe. Suddenly you spot a
body on the ground, face downward and stuck to the ice. You think someone may have
been murdered or in a fatal accident. So you rush back and call the police. The
police, however, quickly realize that this body is different from others
they've found on the mountain. For one thing, it is mostly undamaged. For
another, its skin is dried out, like a mummy's. And with it is a knife with a
small stone blade. The body turned out to be much older than the tourists could
have guessed. When specialists had a chance to examine it, they discovered it
had been there for about five thousand years How could a body stay preserved
for all this time? Two things probably helped. First, the place where the man
died was somewhat sheltered, so animals couldn't get at it. Then he was quickly
covered by falling snow. Wind blowing through the snow probably “freeze-dried”
his body, removing all moisture from it. Objects found with the body told
something about the Iceman's life. He wore a well-made fur jacket and pants. He
clearly had been hunting, for he carried arrows, and animal bones were nearby.
He also had a braided grass mat for sitting or sleeping on. Perhaps he was
exhausted when he lay down for the last time. The body was found in 1991, when
some of the ice on the mountain melted. Searching for the cause of the Iceman's
death, scientists put the body back into cold conditions—and hoped.
28 They'll Eat Anything
You know that pearls grow inside oysters, but
would you ever think to look for diamonds inside an ostrich? Well, a hunter
once shot an ostrich and discovered, to his great surprise, that the big bird
had swallowed a bunch of diamonds. How could such a strange thing happen?
Like many other birds, the ostrich swallows
small stones that stay inside its “gizzard.” The gizzard is a bird's second
stomach. It is where the food is ground up. The small stones help to grind up
the food so it can be digested. The small stones do the chewing, because birds
don't have teeth. In the case of the ostrich with the diamonds, the bird simply
had expensive taste in rocks. He used the diamonds to help digest his dinner.
Diamonds and stones aren't all that an
ostrich will swallow. If there are no stones around, it will eat just about
anything. Sadly for ostriches in zoos, this can be a fatal habit. The tendency
to swallow anything it sees has caused the death of many an ostrich. Cruel or
careless people often throw things into the bird's living space. They throw
keys, coins, and even large objects such as horseshoes. The ostrich swallows
them without hesitation. Coins can be the worst. Inside the ostrich they wear
down to a razor-sharp edge. They will cut open the bird's gizzard from the
inside. When one young zoo ostrich died, 484 coins weighing more than eight
pounds were found in its gizzard.
29 No Laughing Matter
Never laugh at a snow-covered mountain!
Laughter and yelling during the avalanche season can trigger a deadly pile of
snow. Huge snow slides are most common in mountains where there are steep
slopes that are well buried in snow and ice. The snow builds up slowly and
lands very softly. This can create a very touchy, unstable situation. Tons of
snow may be held up by only the friction between snowflakes. The deep snow is
like a house of cards. The slightest movement can cause it to tumble. As soon
as something slips, a great mass of snow will come crashing down the
mountainside. Slides may be started by sound vibrations. They may also be
started by the weight of wet, melting snow. Once an avalanche has been
triggered, the cause no longer matters. Moving down a steep slope, it picks up
great speed and added snow. Some avalanches travel as fast as 200 miles per
hour. The force of an avalanche will mow down anything in its path. Whole
houses have been swallowed up by these fast-paced piles of snow. The wind that
is caused by an avalanche is almost as destructive as the snow itself. Winds
from an avalanche have been known to travel as fast as those of a tornado. So,
when approaching a thickly snow-covered mountain, speak softly
30 Abe's Favorite Story
If he hadn't turned to politics, Abe Lincoln
might have done well as a comic. It has been said that he was always ready join
in a laugh at his own expense. There is one particular story that he always
told with great glee. In his early days as a lawyer, Lincoln was on the
“circuit.” This meant going from town to town to hear and judge legal cases.
During one of these many trips, he was sitting in a train when a strange man
came up to him. The stranger looked at the tall, gawky lawyer quite sternly and
explained that he had something he believed belonged to Lincoln. Lincoln was a
bit confused. He had never seen the man before. He didn't see how a total
stranger could have something of his. Lincoln asked him how this could be. The
stranger pulled out a gleaming penknife and began to explain. Many years
before, he had been given the pocketknife. He had been told to keep it until he
was able to find a man uglier than himself. Lincoln's eyes always sparkled when
he reached this part of the story. He was never considered a handsome man. The
stranger had decided that Lincoln was ugly enough to deserve the knife. The
story always brought smiles to the faces of the audience that heard it. The
tale itself was funny. But even more delightful was the fact that a man as
great as Lincoln could still laugh at himself.
