Where, When, Why and How
RI.3.7
Read the text, then answer the questions.
Morse Code
Morse code turns every letter into a pattern of short and long signals: dots and dashes. The commonest letters were given the shortest patterns. E is one dot. T is one dash. Q, which is rare, is dash-dash-dot-dash. Because of that choice, an average message is much shorter than it would be otherwise. A message can be sent as sound, as light, or as taps on a pipe. That is why it survived so long: it needs almost no equipment. Timing carries the meaning. A dash is three times as long as a dot. The gap between letters is three dots long, and between words, seven. SOS was chosen because it is easy to recognise: three dots, three dashes, three dots.
- 1. What would a diagram of a Morse message need to show?
- 2. In a message, which gap is longer: between letters or between words?
Turning Milk into Cheese
Cheese begins as an accident that people learned to repeat. Milk is mostly water with fat and protein in it. To make cheese, the protein has to be separated out. A starter culture of bacteria is added first. The bacteria turn some of the milk sugar into acid, and the acid begins to make the protein clump together. Then rennet is added, which finishes the job. The milk splits into solid curds and watery whey. The whey is drained off. The curds are pressed, salted, and left to age. Time does the rest: a cheese aged for two years tastes nothing like the same cheese at two weeks.
- 1. Put these in order: the whey is drained, rennet is added, the curds are pressed.
- 2. What would a diagram for this text need to show?
LessonPrint · RI.3.7 · Set 22 · free to copy for classroom use