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From the Belly of a Beast
There she blows!—there she blows! A hump like
a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick !
The sperm whale, star of the
classic novel Moby Dick,
deserves its fame. This
enormous creature is the
largest toothed animal
alive. Adult males can
measure over 20 meters in length, and their long, white
teeth, which weigh up to 1 kilogram each, are larger
than ___1___ of any creature now living on earth. To
snack on octopus
and giant squid, sperm whales sometimes
dive over 2,000 meters in the sea. Their lungs are
collapsible, helping them to dive to
these tremendous depths, and they find
their ___2___ by sending
concentrated streams
of sound out into the deep, dark waters. Like other
species of whale, sperm whales ___3___
through a hole in the top of their heads—sometimes
called a blowhole.
Ambergris is a
waxy
substance produced by whales in order to safely
___4___ the sharp
beaks of their favorite
snack—the giant squid. For centuries, this ___5___
disgusting substance produced in sperm whales''
intestines was used by
perfumeries to
stabilize various scents. For
___6___ reasons, the whales sometimes
vomit large masses of this
stinky substance into the sea, where it
eventually floats to land.
Because of the ___7___ of ambergris, it can be quite
valuable, as one 82-year-old woman in New York State
recently learned. She found a piece that weighed almost
four pounds with a value of over $18,000. She ___8___
trouble, though, when she tried to
identify the ambergris. Most companies now use
chemicals to fix perfume scents ___9___
the rare whale vomit. Therefore, very few people in the
world have the know-how to identify
this rare substance. If this woman can
determine that ___10___ she
found is indeed ambergris, she'll have
a small fortune. If not, she'll have a curious
lump that may or may not have come from the
belly of a beast. |
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Sponsored Links
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Answers |
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From the Belly of a Beast
There she blows!—there she blows! A hump like
a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick !
The sperm whale, star of the
classic novel Moby Dick,
deserves its fame. This
enormous creature is the
largest toothed animal
alive. Adult males can
measure over 20 meters in length, and their long, white
teeth, which weigh up to 1 kilogram each, are larger
than those of any creature now living on earth. To
snack on octopus
and giant squid, sperm whales sometimes
dive over 2,000 meters in the sea. Their lungs are
collapsible, helping them to dive to
these tremendous depths, and they find
their prey by sending
concentrated streams
of sound out into the deep, dark waters. Like other
species of whale, sperm whales
breathe
through a hole in the top of their heads—sometimes
called a blowhole.
Ambergris is a
waxy
substance produced by whales in order to safely
digest the sharp
beaks of their favorite
snack—the giant squid. For centuries, this
rather
disgusting substance produced in sperm whales''
intestines was used by
perfumeries to
stabilize various scents. For
unknown reasons, the whales sometimes
vomit large masses of this
stinky substance into the sea, where it
eventually floats to land.
Because of the rarity of ambergris, it can be quite
valuable, as one 82-year-old woman in New York State
recently learned. She found a piece that weighed almost
four pounds with a value of over $18,000. She
ran into
trouble, though, when she tried to
identify the ambergris. Most companies now use
chemicals to fix perfume scents
instead of
the rare whale vomit. Therefore, very few people in the
world have the know-how to identify
this rare substance. If this woman can
determine that what she
found is indeed ambergris, she'll have
a small fortune. If not, she'll have a curious
lump that may or may not have come from the
belly of a beast.
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