As you fan yourself, drink water and sit in the shade, consider the plight of urban animals.
Like humans, they need to beat the summer heat, which they do in their own specialized
ways. Squirrels and pigeons have higher body temperatures than humans do. The average
body temperature for humans is 37 °C; for pigeons, about 40 °C; and for squirrels, between
36.6 °C and 38.8 °C. That means that pigeons and squirrels don’t get as overheated as (5)
quickly as humans do. However, they still need to cool down. Burton Lim, a mammalogist
at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), explains that squirrels have sweat glands in between
their toes and between the pads at the bottom of their feet. These furry creatures also chill
out through respiration, and their fur acts as a cooling insulator. “Most of their foraging for
food—nuts and seeds—is usually done in the morning and late afternoon, when it’s cooler.” (10)
But Lim doesn’t rule out a squirrel getting heat stroke. “Any animal can get it if you leave
them out in the sun,” said Lim. Pigeons don’t sweat at all; they pant like dogs. All birds
respire from their mouths with their tongues, explains Brad Millen, a ROM technician who
specializes in ornithology. In addition, birds extend their wings away from their body so
that any light breeze will carry away excess heat. Like squirrels, pigeons restrict their (15)
activity to cooler daytime periods, and like humans, they use water—both drinking it and
splashing in it—to cool off. Maintaining an optimum body temperature is necessary for all
animals, and each creature has strategies for doing so.
OSSLT News
Local Athlete Breaks World Kettlebell Record
by Grant LaFleche
1It’s not likely to make national news, given the relative obscurity of her sport, but St. Catharines-based personal trainer Jennifer Hintenberger became a world kettlebell record holder.
2In a cloud of chalk, the St. Catharines kettlebell trainer and competitor smashed a record by hauling a 16-kilogram weight over her head 738 times for 60 minutes straight. She broke the old record held by an Australian athlete who completed 545 repetitions.
3Hintenberger set the new record at a charity competition to raise money for disaster relief.
4“This is such a great feeling,” Hintenberger said. “It’s a great sport and allows me to engage my competitive spirit. I cannot play rugby anymore. I’ve got three screws in my shoulder and had eight concussions. I have had figure skating injuries. So this is something that is a challenge and I can still be competitive.”
5Kettlebells is a sport that mirrors more traditional weightlifting using weights that, despite the name, look more like cannonballs with a fused handle than kettles. The primary difference between the two sports lies in the objective: where weightlifting competitions are won by the person who lifts the heaviest weight, kettlebell competitions are decided by who lifts a particular weight the most times within a time limit.
6Most competitions involve 10-minute events, but this one was called a “long cycle,” or marathon, in which competitors perform a single-arm lift—they can switch hands as often as they like—for an hour without setting the kettlebell down.
Questions
1. Which word is closest in meaning to "obscurity" as used in the sentence below? (1)
"It’s not likely to make national news, given the relative obscurity of her sport..."
2. In what way is kettlebells similar to weight lifting? (1)
3. What is a good sub-heading for each of the following paragraphs? (3)
Drag and drop THREE answer choices into the correct boxes.
An opinion about kettlebell×
Facts about kettlebell as a sport×
Comparisons between kettlebell and another sport×
The history of kettlebells as a sport×
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 6
4. What skill would contribute most to an athlete's success in a long-cycle kettlebell competition? (1)
5. What does the phrase “smashed a record” refer to in paragraph 2? (1)
6. What makes kettlebells a challenging sport? Use specific details from the reading selection to support your answer. (30)
Word Count: 0 / 105
