There are
two main kinds of sloth; the two-toed and the three-toed. Of these, the three-toed
is considerably the more slothful. It hangs upside down from a branch suspended
by hook-like claws at the ends of its long bony arms. It feeds on only one kind
of leaf, Cecropia, which happily for the sloth grows in quantity and is easily
found.
No predators attack the sloth-few indeed can
even reach it-and nothing competes with it for the Cecropia. Lulled by this
security, it has sunk into an existence that is only just short of complete
torpor. It spends eighteen out of twenty-four hours soundly asleep. It pays
such little attention to its personal hygiene that green algae grow on its
coarse hair and communities of a parasitic moth live in the depths of its coat
producing caterpillars which graze on its mouldy hair. Its muscles are such
that it is quite incapable of moving at a speed of over a kilometer an hour
even over the shortest distances and the swiftest movement it can make is a
sweep of its hooked arm. It is virtually dumb and its hearing is so poor that
you can let off a gun within inches of it and its only response will be to turn
slowly and blink. Even its sense of smell, though it is better than ours, is
very much less acute than that of most mammals. And it sleeps and feeds
entirely alone.
Questions
1. The purpose of the passage is to
(A) compare the two-toed and the
three-toed sloths
(B) explain the parasitic relation of a
type of moth to the sloth
(C) describe the behavior of the
three-toed sloth
(D) condemn the way the sloth takes
care of itself
2. It can be inferred from the passage that
the sloth uses its hooked claws mainly to
(A) hang on tree branches
(B) clean its coat
(C) catch prey
(D) swing from one place to another
3. What does the sloth eat?
(A) Caterpillars
(B) Cecropia
(C) Moths
(D) Algae
4. How does the sloth spend most of its time?
(A) Eating
(B) Sleeping
(C) Grooming itself
(D) Finding food
5. It can be inferred from the passage that
if a person makes a loud noise near a sloth, the sloth will
(A) attack the person
(B) run away as fast as it can
(C) show little response
(D) become deaf
6. The author's discussion of the sloth
focuses primarily on the animal's
(A) solitary nature
(B) physical handicaps
(C) diet
(D) inactivity
Please tally your answer with the below provided answers and
then comment here how much you got!
Answers
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