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Tumbleweed - Activities
Meanings
What do these phrases mean in this article? (A dictionary and thesaurus will help!)
- a desolate landscape
- as American as apple pie
- a native American
- thrived
- Ground Zero
Questions
1. Why is tumbleweed a "rather peculiar plant"?
2. What happens when its seeds are ripe and ready to make new plants?
3. How do witchety grubs help tumbleweeds?
4. How long did it take for tumbleweeds to cover more than twelve US states?
5. In the American West, what did the horse provide as well as transport?
6. How does agriculture help tumbleweed thrive?
7. The article says that tumbleweed "has a lot going for it". What are some of the good points about it?
Cloze Activity
Here are some extracts from the article. Complete the sentences by filling in the spaces.
On our recent trip ______ Central Australia, we saw ______ of tumbleweed. Occasionally, with a ______ tailwind, the tumbleweed ______ faster than we did!
The tumbleweed is a rather peculiar ______, because it actually moves around - it does not ______ its whole life stuck in the ______.
Once its seeds are ripe, a ______ of cells in the stem of the plant weaken, and it ______ cleanly away. At this stage, the ______ is almost a perfect ball with about 250,000 ______ stored inside.
The wind then takes control of the ______. The ball is designed so that when the plant hits the ______ as it tumbles along, it bounces and it won't ______ all of its valuable seeds in just a single bounce.
Summary
This article has a number of sections. Each sections has a main point. Work out the main point of these sections and write them here.
Tumbleweed in Australia
Tumbleweed in America
Different types of tumbleweed
What tumbleweed has going for it
Debate
Think of all the arguments for and against these statements. (To help you, use this article and others that you can find.)
"Tumbleweed is the one plant we could well do without."
"Tumbleweed is more trouble than it is worth."
Research
Use this article, the Internet and libraries to find information on one of these topics:
1. The life cycle of tumbleweed.
2. The different species of insect whose larvae are "witchety grubs".
3. Tumbleweed seeds probably reached America mixed with flax seeds. How similar are these seeds in appearance?
4. The different ways that plants scatter seeds.
Instructions to Students
Use the library or the Internet to collect information about the topic. Find at least four different articles or chapters.
Write down about three ideas from each article you find.
You now have about a dozen ideas on this topic. Choose which idea is the most important, which is second-most important, and so on.
Write them in order, from most important to least important.
Write a paragraph to explain each idea.
Write down where you found the information you used. This is your "bibliography".
Be prepared to deliver your report on the date it is due!
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