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

DAY
5
Tell students they will practice both the 
Character and Setting
and 
Fantasy vs. Reality
skills. Remind 
students of each skill, if necessary, and then read the instructions at the top of the page aloud. 
Remind students of the 
Make Connections
strategy. Then have students read the passage. When 
students have finished, direct them to complete the skill practice activity. Review the answers 
together. For the strategy practice activity, pair students or complete it as a group.
Character and Setting
Students study a passage to better understand who or what is at the center
of the action and when and where the action takes place.
Fantasy vs. Reality
Students identify which things in the passage could or could not happen in real life.
3453.indb 100
5/6/10 4:00 PM

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Name: 
© Evan-Moor Corp. • EMC 3453 • Daily Reading Comprehension 
101
WEEK 16
DAY 1
READ THE PASSAGE
Find out how a zoo doctor does her job.
Working with Wild Things
How do you give a fish a pill? How do you help a hurt giraffe? Dr. Cheryl Cullion 
(KUHL-lee-un) knows. She is a zoo doctor. She cares for nearly 1,000 animals. She 
has patients that growl, swing, and stomp. And all of her patients are wild.
Giving zoo animals their medicine can be difficult. Some animals just eat their 
pills. Others need to be tricked. Dr. Cullion knows what works. She hides pills in the 
fish that penguins eat. She adds a cherry flavor to the medicine for monkeys. To 
help fish, she quickly stuffs a pill into their gills.
Being a zoo doctor is a challenging job. Dr. Cullion once had to check the health 
of monkeys that were new to the zoo. She needed to watch them to make sure that 
they ate. But there was a problem. All of the monkeys looked alike! So the doctor 
made some safe colors from vegetables. She dyed each monkey’s fur a different 
color. Then she could tell them apart. They were punky monkeys!