The Cane Toad Problem: Reading Comprehension Worksheet (Grade 7)
Free printable Grade 7 reading comprehension worksheet: an original non-fiction passage, "The Cane Toad Problem", with 7 factual and technique questions, each with a single correct answer. Answer key included.
Reading Comprehension: The Cane Toad Problem
Read the passage carefully, then answer the questions. Where choices are given, select the best answer.
In 1935, 102 cane toads were released in Queensland sugar cane fields. Farmers hoped the toads would eat the cane beetles destroying their crops. The plan failed almost immediately: the beetles lived high on the cane stalks, while the toads stayed on the ground.
The toads, however, thrived. A female cane toad can lay up to 30,000 eggs in a single clutch, and the toads faced few natural enemies. Glands on their shoulders ooze a toxin strong enough to kill goannas, quolls and even crocodiles that try to eat them. Today cane toads number in the hundreds of millions and have spread across northern Australia, advancing into Western Australia at around 50 kilometres per year.
Scientists are testing responses, from training native predators to avoid large toads, to trapping tadpoles using the toads' own chemical signals. None of these will remove the toads entirely. The cane toad remains a costly lesson: introducing one species to control another can create a far bigger problem than the one it was meant to solve.
- 1.In what year were cane toads released in Queensland?
- 2.How many cane toads were first released?
- 3.Why did the plan fail? Choose the best answer.
- a) The toads died in the cane fields
- b) The beetles lived high on the stalks while toads stayed on the ground
- c) Farmers stopped planting sugar cane
- d) The toads were eaten by goannas
- 4.Up to how many eggs can a female cane toad lay in one clutch?
- 5.At about what speed are the toads spreading into Western Australia?
- 6.What is the author's main purpose?
- a) To persuade readers to keep cane toads as pets
- b) To inform readers about the cane toad's introduction and its consequences
- c) To entertain readers with a made-up story
- d) To give instructions for trapping toads
- 7.Which language technique is 'a costly lesson'?
- a) Metaphor
- b) Simile
- c) Onomatopoeia
- d) Alliteration