Hours 1/2/4 Elephant Seals Rhythm and Pitch Article

Name ______#______Date ______Hour ______

Hours 1/2/4 Elephant Seals Rhythm and Pitch Article

(20 point formative assessment)

Part I Comprehension Questions Directions: Use the article to answer the questions below; write the letter of the answer on the line provided.

Read the section titled “A First For Mammals Other Than Humans.”

_____1. Which sentence from the section shows WHY the findings of this study are important?

(A) This is the first time scientists have identified a mammal that uses rhythm in this way.

(B) Mathevon thinks the seals are probably able to recognize many other qualities of the sounds.

(C) The new study was "beautifully designed,” scientist Andrea Ravignani said.

(D) He has been trying to understand why music is so important to people.

Read the following selections from the section “Elephant Seals' Calls Of The Wild.”:

Casey has studied elephant seal calls before. Her previous research showed that elephant seals can identify the calls of other seals. This made her curious as to how they do it.

Mathevon, Casey and their team observed the California seals for five years. Over time, the researchers started to recognize particular animals by the rhythms of their calls. That made them wonder if the seals could do the same.

_____2. Which detail from this selection BEST supports the conclusion that the researchers were very dedicated to better understanding how seals communicate?

(A) Their previous research showed important information about how seals recognize each other.

(B) The researchers spent five years studying the same group of seals to learn from them.

(C) The researchers could recognize the sounds of different seals by the rhythm of their call.

(D) They had a question about how the seals recognized one another that they wanted to answer. T

Read the list of sentences below:

1. An experiment studied how seals use rhythm to recognize each other’s sounds.

2. Understanding how seals use rhythm can help understand why rhythm is important to people.

3. Seals can probably recognize other qualities of sound that are more complicated.

4. An experiment on seals was completed to explain why people enjoy music.

_____3. Which of the following are two MAIN ideas from the article?

(A) 1 and 3 (B) 2 and 4

(C) 4 and 1 (D) 1 and 2

_____4. What is the MAIN idea of the section “Mating Season Along California Coast”?

(A) Male seals fight each other during mating season.

(B) Alpha seals are stronger fighters than beta seals.

(C) Seals use calls to communicate during mating season.

(D) Beta seals are unable to mate with female seals.

Part II ABC Vocabulary Directions: Use the article to list any vocabulary words that you think might be important in the ‘how do sound waves behave?” unit in the spaces below; two examples have been provided for you:

A / B / C / D / E
F / G / H / I / J
K / L / M
music / N / O
P / Q / R / S
sound / T
U / V / W / X / Y