Salmon Find the Way Home
Written by Studio AM.
Your result
- Words per minute
- Score
- Pace
Words per minute mean something only with the score beside them. They describe this passage on this read. With fewer than 3 right, try the next slower pace.
Choose a pace and select Start. The passage is paced and timed, then the questions check what you understood. How pace mode works
Reading time 0:00
Many salmon leave freshwater as young fish and spend part of their lives at sea. When they are ready to reproduce, they often return to the river system where they hatched. This return journey involves more than one kind of clue.
Research suggests that salmon can use Earth's magnetic field during ocean navigation. The field varies across places, providing information that may help them reach the right coastal region. That broad guide is different from identifying a particular stream.
Smell is important near home. Young salmon learn odours associated with their river. Returning adults can use these chemical cues when choosing between waterways, including at a junction where streams meet. Not every fish returns to its original site; some enter other rivers.
For many Pacific salmon, spawning is followed by death. Their bodies bring nutrients from the sea into freshwater habitats. Animals such as bears carry some fish onto land, and the nutrients can reach nearby plants. Studies of nitrogen in leaves have helped researchers trace this connection between the ocean, salmon and riverside forests.
The passage is hidden while you answer. It comes back with your result.
Questions
Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you answer.
-
Question 1 of 4
What is the passage mainly about?
The answer is A: How salmon use different navigation clues to return to freshwater and bring ocean nutrients inland.
The passage explains magnetic and smell-related navigation, then describes how returning salmon connect ocean nutrients with freshwater and land.
-
Question 2 of 4
Which clue helps returning salmon recognise waterways near home?
The answer is B: the smell of its home water
The passage describes odours learned when the fish were young. Returning adults use those chemical cues near home.
-
Question 3 of 4
If familiar stream odours became harder to detect, which part of the journey might become more difficult?
The answer is C: Choosing between waterways near the home river.
The passage assigns local waterway recognition to smell. Difficulty detecting those odours could affect that stage even if magnetic guidance still worked.
-
Question 4 of 4
In this passage, "junction" means
The answer is A: a place where waters meet and the fish must choose a way
The text describes a junction as a place where streams meet and a fish may choose a route.
Score: none answered yet.