阅读理解。
One day Edward brought a caterpillar ( a kind of worm) into the classroom he had found in an
ear of corn. We placed the caterpillar in a glass fish tank with a metal mesh（网状物）cover for
its protection. We couldn’t be sure what type of leaves the caterpillar would eat, but as it had been
found in an ear of corn we decided to feed it leaves from particular garden vegetables.
Soon we began collecting information about the caterpillar and noticing changes. The children
wrote about what they saw in small groups. Three weeks into the caterpillar observation, the teacher
started a whole-group discussion going like this:
Teacher: “What do you notice about the caterpillar?”
Students: “It’s twice as big as when Edward brought it to the class.”
The students also commented that the caterpillar’s color had changed- yellowish and brownish
colors clearly appeared.
Teacher: “What do you think will happen next?”
Students: “I think it’s gonna make a cocoon（茧）.”
Teacher: “Wait a minute! What do you mean? The caterpillar will become a cocoon?”
There was a considerable pause allowing the children to organize their thoughts and make a
prediction. At this point we took an informal survey showing more than half the class believed the
caterpillar would make a cocoon.
Then, to further our learning, we connected the research to literature by reading The Very Hungry
Caterpillar by Eric Carle(1969). This book presents a fictional account of the “transformation”
undergoing by a caterpillar: egg- larva- pupa- butterfly. When reading the book, the teacher used the
terms kids already knew like larva or pupa. She also pointed out an error in the book, moths have
cocoons and butterflies have chrysalides（蝶蛹）.
Eventually, it developed a cocoon, which lay unnoticed for a week as the children had become
distracted by other activities and events in our school and classroom. One day, the class noticed an
open “case” with the contents gone. The children decided the caterpillar had “finished growing” and
had changed into a butterfly or a moth. They guessed the creature had managed to escape through
a tear in the mesh cover of the tank and found its way to a nearby park where there were many trees
and some gardens. All these conjectures seemed reasonable and were supported by the teacher.
1.The children gave the caterpillar vegetable leaves in the garden as food based on ______.
A. what it looked like
B. where it tended to make its way
C. where it had been found
D. what they had learned from watching it
2.Which is NOT one of the changes happening to the caterpillar while it was in the classroom?
A. Color.
B. Size.
C. Form.
D. Behavior.
3.The underlined word “conjectures” in the last paragraph could be replaced by ______.
A. experiments
B. guesses
C. statistics
D. elements
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. Firsthand Nature
B. Animal Protection
C. An Amazing Caterpillar
D. An interesting Experience
