Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming? Introducing the Selection Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas Writing Skills Focus:

Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming?

Introducing the Selection

Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas

Writing Skills Focus: Preparing for Timed Writing

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Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming?Introducing the Selection

Is the will to escape one of instinct or intellect?

More than 225,000 people died.

On December 26, 2004, a major undersea earthquake sparked gigantic ocean waves that devastated South and Southeast Asia.


After the storm, stories circulated of the strange behavior of animals that fled in advance of the tsunamis.

Elephants screamed and ran for higher ground.

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Dogs refused to go outdoors.

Flamingos abandoned their low-lying homes.

A well-written magazine or newspaper article contains details that support the writer’s main idea.

Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming? Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources:

Analyzing Main Ideas



These supporting details may include:

• facts (statements that can be proved)

• statistics (facts in number form)

• quotations (a person’s exact words)

• evidence (examples)

To synthesize, or combine, sources on a topic, first compare the main ideas in each.

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4Then, consider how those ideas relate to other sources you’ve read on similar topics.



Into Action: Fill in a chart to help you identify the main idea and supporting details.

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main idea

supporting detail supporting detail

supporting detail supporting detail

Preparing for Timed Writing

Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming? Writing Skills Focus

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As you read, pay attention to the structure of the text, including the use of headings, paragraphs, and lists to convey ideas. Also record how you might synthesize the information in this article with the information presented in “The Great Escape.”

Vocabulary

Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming? Vocabulary

domestic adj.: not wild; tame.

impending adj.: about to happen; looming.

emigrated v.: moved to another country.

Even domestic animals retain their wild instincts.

The sentence below may help you understand how the word domestic is used in “Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming?”

What types of domestic animals might make good pets?

Try to think of animals other than dogs, cats, and fish.


Although my pet Eureka is a tame, domestic house cat . . .

I can sometimes see the wild nature of her animal cousins in the way she prowls the back yard.


No one knew the damage the impending tsunami would cause.

The sentence below may help you understand how the word impending is used in “Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming?”

How do you think the animals sensed the impending disaster?


My dog Easy is terribly afraid of thunderstorms. He seems to hear a looming storm before my brother and I even notice a dark cloud in the sky.


The researcher emigrated to the United States from Pakistan ten years ago.

The sentence below may help you understand how the word emigrated is used in “Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming?”

Have you ever met someone who emigrated to another country?

Why do you think someone might move from his or her native land?


My college roommate Kwame emigrated to Canada from Rwanda when he was four years old. His family moved to escape a bloody civil war.


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The End

Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming? Introducing the Selection Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas Writing Skills Focus:

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