Reading Comprehension — The Spider's Web

Read two short passages about how a spider weaves its web and hunts and answer ten questions.

Weaving the Web

First the garden spider makes the frame of its web. It stretches strong threads between the branches, going back and forth along them to make them thick, like ropes.

Next it makes the spokes. Starting from the middle, it runs out to the edge with a thread, then comes back to the middle and runs out again. The spokes are spaced so evenly that they look as if they were drawn with a ruler.

Last of all comes the hardest part. Starting at the outside, the spider walks round and round, laying a thread that spirals in towards the middle, always the same distance from the last one.

Then the spider builds a little silk room among some leaves nearby. From there it can rest and keep watch over its web.

The Hunt

Early one morning the children sat by the stream to watch the spider. Dewdrops shone on the web like pearls.

A blue dragonfly flew into the web. The web shook, and the spider rushed down from its room. But the dragonfly beat its wings hard and broke free, tearing a big hole.

The spider mended the hole so neatly you could hardly see it. Then it sat in the middle of the web with its eight legs spread out, to feel the smallest shake, and waited without moving.

Soon a fat bumblebee crashed into the web. The spider ran out, but it did not grab the bee straight away. A bee might sting! Instead, it wrapped the bee in silk, round and round, until the bee could not fight back. Only then did the spider bite.

Adapted from The Story-book of Science by Jean-Henri Fabre (1917).