One Flexible Source Suitable for Many Different Readers World Book Is A
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One flexible source suitable for many different readers World Book is a reliable source of factual information, a basic for school assignments and everyday reference needs. But it also can prompt curiosity and widen imagination; it can excite readers of all ages and lead them to study and learn more. To effectively fulfill these roles for readers’ varied comprehension skills and varying information needs, World Book is designed to be a flexible source. Librarians and teachers know best their readers’ and students’ interests, needs, and skills. They perceive when a reader is ready to stretch or when a student needs support. World Book’s flexibility enables librarians and teachers to respond to a range of reader and student uses with a single convenient and trusted source. Article structure and features The “Fish” article is an example of how World Book crafts content to be appropriate for many readers’ needs. The following is characteristic of all World Book’s longer articles: • The introductory paragraphs highlight the most important aspects of the topic. The introduction to this article tells what fish are and where they live; their importance to humans, common physical features, and natural history. This may be all a reader wants or needs to know. • The outline is available to alert the reader to the remainder of the article and guide the reader through it. • World Book organizes many major articles into sections called “topical units.” Each topical unit stands on its own within the context of the larger article, following the principle that, for effective learning, subjects should be broken down into manageable units—particularly useful when a reader has a limited amount of time or a limited attention span. • Notice the definitions in context. World Book uses the simplest vocabulary possible, but some vocabulary that is critical to a subject may be above a reader’s comfort level. Definitions in context put simply worded explanatory material at the exact place in the text where it is needed. This device imparts important information and helps the reader master the topic. Mastery can lead to a feeling of accomplishment, which can encourage learners to continue to study. • Like the other types of illustrative material found in World Book articles, diagrams amplify the text. All the illustrations can be useful to visual learners, but diagrams may be particularly useful to them and can be used even with pre-readers. In the “Fish” article, note the diagrams labeled “Bony fish,” “Sharks, chimaeras, and rays,” and “Lampreys and hagfish.” These diagrams make clearly evident the structural differences among these classes of fish. • Similarly, phonetic and audio pronunciations contribute to the reader’s mastery of the topic: “Scientists who study fish are called ichthyologists «IHK thee OL uh jihsts»” • Such familiar devices as “see” and “see also” references throughout the text alert readers to other aspects of the topic, helping them understand the scope of the topic and its relationship to other topics. Such devices help to put the reader in control of both the information and the information source. Reading and comprehension levels Based on the results of World Book’s Classroom Research Program and periodic examination of selected curriculums, our editors write articles at the reading levels that correspond to the range of grades during which the subjects of the articles are most likely to be studied. Lengthy articles and lengthy sections within articles typically begin at the lowest reading level appropriate to the material. The sections that follow may rise in reading level over the course of the article, depending on the complexity of the concepts & the corresponding vocabulary. World Book’s editors understand that reading and comprehension skills can vary according to the subjects readers happen to be studying as well as according to their age. Even a very basic familiarity with a topic can enable a young reader to understand material written at a level somewhat higher than that which is typical of the student’s age. For example, having a pet at home— being guided in its care by adults and trading stories with friends who have pets— can enable a young child to absorb detail from a corresponding World Book article—“Cat,” “Dog,” “Iguana,” and so on. On the other hand, a reader of any age approaching a subject without any background knowledge can benefit from a simplified exposition, which could be lower than the reading level associated with the reader’s age. This is the framework within which World Book’s editors write. They must present information at the level of detail and in the vocabulary necessary to accurately describe a topic, appropriate for the grade range in which the subject generally is studied, without underestimating a reader’s curiosity and desire to be challenged or frustrating a reader’s need to be informed. The result of their efforts is World Book—one flexible source suitable for many different readers. A wrasse and a blenny that look alike behave very differently. The wrasse, bottom, helpfully re- moves parasites from the skin of larger fish. The blenny, top, attracts larger fish with its wrasselike appearance, then takes a bite out of them. The sargassum fish looks like the seaweed in which it lives. It is almost impossible to see as it climbs among the weeds with its pawlike fins. The beautiful lionfish has fins that look like a bird’s feathers. But the spines on its back are as sharp as needles and give off a painful poison. A lionfish can use its fins to lure prey. WORLD BOOK illustrations by Harry McNaught Fish brightly colored birds. Their rich reds, yellows, blues, and purples form hundreds of beautiful patterns, from stripes and lacelike designs to polka dots. Fish are vertebrates (backboned animals) that live in One of the world’s smallest fishes, the stout infantfish 1 water. There are more kinds of fish than all other kinds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, grows only about ⁄4 of water and land vertebrates put together. The various inch (7 millimeters) long. The largest fish is the whale kinds of fish differ so greatly in shape, color, and size shark, which may grow more than 40 feet (12 meters) that it is hard to believe they all belong to the same long and weigh over 15 tons (14 metric tons). It feeds on group of animals. For example, some fish look like tiny, drifting aquatic organisms called plankton and is lumpy rocks, and others like wriggly worms. Some fish completely harmless to most other fish and to human are nearly as flat as pancakes, and others can blow beings. The most dangerous fish weigh only a few themselves up like balloons. Fish have all the colors of pounds or kilograms. They include the deadly stonefish, the rainbow. Many have colors as bright as the most whose poi sonous spines may kill a human being. Fish live almost anywhere there is water. They are found in the near-freezing waters of the Arctic and in John E. McCosker, the contributor of this article, is a Senior the warm waters of tropical jungles. Other fish live in Scientist at the California Academy of Sciences. roaring mountain streams and in peaceful underground Fish 145 Interesting facts about fish One of the smallest fishes is the stout infantfish of Australia’s 1 Great Barrier Reef. It grows only about ⁄4 inch (7 millimeters) long. The largest fish is the whale shark. It may weigh more than 15 tons (14 metric tons) —over twice as much as an av- erage African elephant. This fish is harmless to people. It Whale eats mainly small floating or- shark ganisms. A four-eyed fish, the anab- leps, has eyes divided in two. The porcupinefish is covered with protective spines. For add- When the fish swims just be- ed protection, the fish fills itself with water to change from its low the surface, the top half normal appearance, bottom, to that of a prickly balloon, top. of each eye sees above the surface and the bottom half sees underwater. Anableps The black swallower can swallow fish twice its own size. Its jaws have “hinges” that enable them to open wide, and its stomach can stretch to several times its normal size. A fish swallowed whole is gradually digested. Black swallower The flying hatchetfish is one of the few fish that can really fly. A hatchetfish can take off from the water’s sur- face and fly as far as 10 feet (3 meters). The fish uses its pec- toral fins as wings. Flying hatchetfish Roy Pinney, Globe The walking catfish lives for An archerfish catches an insect resting above the surface by days out of water and even spitting drops of water at it. The drops strike with enough force “walks” on land from one lake to knock the insect into the water, where the fish can eat it. to another. The fish has spe- cial air-breathing organs and rivers. Some fish make long journeys across the ocean. uses its side fins and tail to help it crawl on the ground. Others spend most of their life buried in sand on the Walking catfish bottom of the ocean. Most fish never leave water. Yet some fish are able to survive for months in dried-up The most numerous fishes in the world are bristlemouths, a riverbeds. kind of tiny saltwater fish. Scientists believe that bristlemouths number in the billions of billions. Fish have enormous importance to human beings. They provide food for millions of people. Fishing enthu- phins, porpoises, and whales look like fish and have a siasts catch them for sport, and people keep them as backbone and fins, but they are mammals (animals that pets.