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 New Words

Getting Stung on Purpose

These are new words to practice.

Say each word 10 times.

✲ anemone ✲ poisonous

✲ invertebrate ✲ paralyze

✲ tentacles ✲ immunity

✲ nematocysts ✲ predator

Before or after reading the story, write one sentence

that contains at least one new word.
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____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

©Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 51 #8037 Nonfiction Reading: Science

 Story

Getting Stung on Purpose

A sea anemone may look like a flower, but it is an animal. It is an invertebrate.

An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. People mistake sea anemones
for flowers because of the way the creature anchors itself to the ocean floor and
its colorful tentacles. A sea anemone’s tentacles are long, slender parts. They
grow around the anemone’s mouth. They wave back and forth in the water.

A sea anemone’s tentacles may look pretty, but they are deadly to most fish.
This is because the tentacles contain nematocysts. Nematocysts are stinging
cells. If a fish swims around an anemone’s tentacles, it will get stung. The
poisonous stings will paralyze or kill the fish. When something is paralyzed, it
cannot move. The paralyzed or dead fish will then become the anemone’s meal.
The anemone will use its tentacles to carry its meal to its mouth.

The clown fish uses the sea anemone for safety. The fish hides among its
tentacles. Why doesn’t the clown fish die from the anemone’s poisonous stings?
The clown fish does not die because it gets stung on purpose! First, the clown
fish swims around the anemone’s tentacles. It does not touch them. Then, it
begins to touch them every so slightly.

As the clown fish carefully darts in and out of the tentacles, it slowly builds
up immunity to the anemone’s stings. The fish becomes protected from the
anemone’s poisons. A clown fish’s immunity does not last forever. If a clown
fish leaves its anemone for more than one hour, it will no longer be immune. It
will have to be stung all over again to build up its immunity.

What happens if a fish swims to

another anemone? The immunity
to one anemone does not cross
over to another anemone. The
fish will have to be stung again! It
will have to develop immunity to
the new anemone’s poison. When
the immune fish is safe swimming
in the anemone’s tentacles, it is
also safe from its predators! The
anemone’s poisonous tentacles
will kill predators that would
ordinarily eat the clown fish!

#8037 Nonfiction Reading: Science 52 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

 Quiz

Getting Stung on Purpose

After reading the story, answer the questions.

Fill in the circle next to the correct answer.

1. How long can a clown fish stay 4. Why might it be good for a sea
away from its anemone before anemone to have a clown fish
losing its immunity? swimming among its tentacles?
a 15 minutes a The sea anemone can
b 30 minutes paralyze and eat the clown
fish.
c 45 minutes
b The clown fish can sting the
d 60 minutes sea anemone’s predators.
c The clown fish is protected by
2. Which animal is an invertebrate? the immunity it builds up.
a a slug d The predators that come to
b a mouse eat the clown fish are stung
and eaten by the anemone.
c a whale
d a person 5. Think about how the word immune
relates to protected. Which words
3. This story is mainly about relate in the same way?
a immunity from sea anemones. immune : protected
b sea anemones and predators.
a left : stay
c clown fish and sea anemones.
b alive : killed
d a sea anemone’s poisonous
tentacles. c wrong : mistaken
d move : paralyzed

©Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 53 #8037 Nonfiction Reading: Science

 New Words

Disease Detectives

These are new words to practice.

Say each word 10 times.

✲ symptoms ✲ investigate

✲ notified ✲ source

✲ disease ✲ exhibiting

✲ epidemiologist ✲ toxins

Before or after reading the story, write one sentence

that contains at least one new word.
____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

#8037 Nonfiction Reading: Science 126 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

 Story

Disease Detectives

A group of people in Hawaii had gotten sick. All the people had the same
symptoms, or signs, of the same illness. The Center for Disease Control (CDC)
was notified, or informed. The CDC is a government organization. It was
founded in 1946. Its mission is to examine and fight disease throughout the
world. When the CDC was notified, it sent epidemiologists to investigate.

An epidemiologist is a “disease detective.” Epidemiologists track diseases. They

investigate disease outbreaks. First, they try to find out a disease’s source,
or where it came from. Then they try and find ways to stop the disease from
spreading. The epidemiologists from the CDC questioned the people in Hawaii
exhibiting, or showing, the same symptoms.

The epidemiologists found that everyone had attended the same picnic. They
had eaten the same dish. The dish was made with boiled seaweed. Further
questions showed that people who attended the picnic and did not exhibit
symptoms had not eaten the dish. The epidemiologists had tracked the disease
outbreak to the dish, but the investigation was far from over.

The seaweed dish was a traditional Hawaiian

dish. It had been made and eaten for years
and years. Why was it making people
ill now? To find out, the epidemiologists
took the dish remains. They tested the
leftovers. They found toxins, or poisons,
in the seaweed. The epidemiologists
had found the disease-producing toxins,
but their investigation was not over. The
epidemiologists began on the next step.
They asked more questions. They found out
where the seaweed had been harvested.

The epidemiologists went to the site where Hawaii

the seaweed had been harvested. They
swam around, looking for the toxin source. Finally, they found it. The source
was found in a clump of seaweed. The source was a blue-green algae that was
poisoning the seaweed. Epidemiologists had tracked the disease to its source.
Now they could stop the outbreak. They could stop people from harvesting
seaweed at that site. They could stop people from harvesting seaweed near
blue-green algae.

©Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 127 #8037 Nonfiction Reading: Science

 Quiz

Disease Detectives

After reading the story, answer the questions.

Fill in the circle next to the correct answer.

1. This story is mainly about 4. If many people were falling ill

in a certain section of the city,
a investigating a disease
epidemiologists might ask if
outbreak. the people
b the questions epidemiologists
ask. a knew how to ride bicycles.

c a traditional seaweed dish b spoke more than one

from Hawaii. language.
d the Center for Disease c were left handed or right
Control’s mission. handed.
d had the same drinking-water
source.
2. The toxin source was
a the picnic.
5. Think about how the word founded
b the seaweed. relates to end. Which words relate
c the blue-green algae. in the same way?
d the traditional seaweed dish. founded : end

3. Henry exhibited symptoms of a tracked : follow

being bored. Henry was most b exhibited : hide
likely
c notified : inform
a eating. d harvested : gather
b reading.
c yawning.
d playing.

#8037 Nonfiction Reading: Science 128 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

 Answer Key
What Swallowed Camels Blisters—To Pop or Not The Mammal with a Suit The Abandoned City of
1. A 4. C 1. B 4. A of Armor the Future
2. D 5. A 2. C 5. A 1. D 4. B 1. A 4. C
3. B 3. C 2. C 5. C 2. D 5. B
Why Mari Said, “No”! The World’s First Life 3. A 3. B
1. D 4. A Preserver Moon Rocks Ant Farmers
2. B 5. D 1. B 4. B 1. C 4. A 1. A 4. A
3. C 2. C 5. C 2. A 5. B 2. C 5. B
The Amazing Jumper 3. D 3. B 3. C
1. D 4. A What Is It? Injecting Poison on The Human Ecosystem
2. A 5. C 1. A 4. B Purpose 1. A 4. A
3. B 2. C 5. D 1. A 4. A 2. C 5. C
Conjoined Twins 3. C 2. B 5. D 3. D
1. B 4. C Getting Stung on Purpose 3. C The Richter Scale
2. D 5. A 1. D 4. D The 5,000-Year-Old Man 1. B 4. A
3. C 2. A 5. C 1. C 4. B 2. A 5. D
Identical Trees 3. C 2. A 5. D 3. D
1. D 4. B A Season for Potholes 3. D What the Meteorologists
2. C 5. B 1. A 4. B A Quiver of Cobras Found
3. D 2. D 5. A 1. B 4. D 1. B 4. B
The Extreme Sport of 3. B 2. C 5. D 2. A 5. C
Paper Folding The True Story Behind 3. A 3. A
1. B 4. C DNA The Price of a Crooked Observing the Jackal
2. D 5. C 1. D 4. A Finger 1. A 4. D
3. B 2. C 5. C 1. B 4. D 2. B 5. C
What Was Not a Grave 3. D 2. B 5. A 3. A
1. A 4. A Strange Stomach Stories 3. C Disease Detectives
2. B 5. D 1. B 4. C May I Draw a Round 1. A 4. D
3. C 2. D 5. D Perimeter? 2. C 5. B
A Town That Gets No Sun 3. B 1. B 4. A 3. C
1. C 4. B A Parachute and a Shark 2. D 5. D The Astronomer with the
2. C 5. A 1. A 4. D 3. B Metal Nose
3. B 2. B 5. B Why Warm Flowers? 1. C 4. B
45,000 Years of Penguin 3. C 1. B 4. D 2. B 5. A
Droppings A True Case from 1856 2. D 5. C 3. C
1. C 4. A 1. C 4. D 3. A Taking a Volcano’s Pulse
2. B 5. B 2. B 5. B Space Animals 1. D 4. B
3. A 3. D 1. D 4. A 2. C 5. A
Finding the Counterfeit What Came First 2. C 5. A 3. B
Coin 1. D 4. C 3. C The King of Soaring
1. C 4. A 2. C 5. A “Operation Successful, 1. A 4. D
2. B 5. C 3. D Patient Died” 2. D 5. C
3. D The Most Expensive 1. D 4. A 3. C
Amphibian Escort Rattle 2. A 5. B Tuberculosis and a Cave
1. B 4. A 1. B 4. A 3. D 1. A 4. B
2. D 5. D 2. A 5. C The Missing Crust 2. A 5. D
3. A 3. D 1. D 4. D 3. D
2. B 5. C
3. A
#8037 Nonfiction Reading: Science 144 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.