• Practice for every day of the school year • Help students prepare for standardized testing

Main Idea and Details
Students look for the central idea or message of a passage or story. They also 
find details that best support the main idea.
Sequence
Students look for the order of events or steps in a process.
3453.indb 118
5/6/10 4:00 PM

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Name: 
© Evan-Moor Corp. • EMC 3453 • Daily Reading Comprehension 
119
WEEK 19
DAY 1
READ THE PASSAGE
Stop after each paragraph and think about what the paragraph said.
Made to Live in Water
People breathe air and so do dolphins. They breathe through an opening in the 
top of their head. The opening is called a blowhole. The blowhole is a flap of skin 
that can open and close. When a dolphin swims to the water’s surface, it uses 
strong muscles to open its blowhole. The blowhole closes as a dolphin dives back 
underwater.
People do not have to think about breathing while they sleep. Breathing 
happens automatically. A dolphin must be awake to control its blowhole. And it 
needs to rest. How can it breathe 
and
rest? When a dolphin rests, it swims slowly. 
Half of its brain shuts down. The other half stays alert for danger. It also signals 
the dolphin when to rise out of the water for a breath of air. After a couple of hours, 
the halves of the dolphin’s brain trade jobs.
SKILL PRACTICE
Read the question. Fill in the bubble next to the correct answer.
 1. What is the passage mainly about?
A 
how dolphins compare to people
B 
how dolphins breathe 
C 
how dolphins sleep
D 
how mammals breathe and sleep
 2. When a dolphin rests, 
.
A 
it swims quickly
B 
it does not breathe
C 
half of its brain stays awake
D 
its blowhole closes tightly