Answer key: Carnivorous plants

Lesson Plan: Carnivorous Plants Are Getting Bigger and Hungrier 

II. While Reading Tasks

Word Inference

  1. sagacious |səˈgāSHəs| adjective-having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment; shrewd: they were sagacious enough to avoid any outright confrontation.
  2. stick up for idiom-to speak in favor of; come to the defense of; support: She always sticks up for him.
  3. anatomy |əˈnatəmē| (abbr.: anat.) noun (pl. anatomies)-the branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms, esp. as revealed by dissection and the separation of parts.
  4. guano |ˈgwänō|-noun (pl. guanos) the excrement of seabirds and bats, used as fertilizer.
  5. Echolocation also called bio sonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals. Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them.
  6. decode |diˈkōd| verb  analyze and interpret (a verbal or nonverbal communication or image): a handbook to help parents decode street language.
  7. genome |ˈjēˌnōm| noun-Biology-the haploid set of chromosomes in a gamete or microorganism, or in each cell of a multicellular organism.
  8. hint |hint|-noun-a slight or indirect indication or suggestion: he has given no hint of his views.
  9. mechanism |ˈmekəˌnizəm|-noun a natural or established process by which something takes place or is brought about.
  10. kebab |kəˈbäb| (also kabob) noun-a dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted or grilled on a skewer or spit.

Source: New Oxford American Dictionary

Reading Comprehension: Fill-ins

“In environments that are sunny and moist but nutrient-poor, the capture of prey can give plants a real competitive advantage,” said Thomas Givnish, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Carnivorous plants thrive in open bogs; in damp, fire-swept sand; by roadside puddles; in the leached mud of a mountainside — bright, sodden spots where competitors are negligible, the insects gullible, and nutrients alone limit plant growth.”

 Grammar Focus: Preposition Exercise

  1. A bounty of new research reveals new information.
  2. The plant holds water in its slender goblet of a leaf.
  3. The researchers traveled to the specified location, on a lone mountain in southeastern Brazil.
  4. Industry could learn a lot about how to make enzymes more tolerant to extreme conditions simply by studying the Venus flytrap.