Fleas

Fleas

Fleas
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.12

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		superb, epidemic, hatches, metamorphosis, notorious, plague, prestigious, achievement, worldwide, larva, focus, enable, outbreak, species, unwilling, culprit
	content words:		Animal Kingdom

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Spanish: Las Pulgas

Fleas

¹     In the Animal Kingdom, there are many superb jumpers. For example, kangaroos can reach a height of more than 10 feet in a single hop. Pumas -- or mountain lions -- can leap as high as 18 feet. Yet, none of these animals can lay claim to being the world's best jumper. This prestigious title is for the tiny common insect we often find in our home on our pet dogs -- fleas.

²     Certainly, fleas cannot compete with other contestants in terms of the actual height they can bounce. Their best record is merely one foot. Fleas win the title because they are able to jump the highest relative to their body size. Let's consider the facts. Kangaroos are about 6 feet tall; they can jump 2 times their height. Pumas are better than kangaroos. They are capable of reaching 5-6 times their height in one hop. For fleas, they can leap more than 130 times their height, making them the gold medallist in the high jump!

³     Of course, when we think of fleas, we often focus more on their notorious reputation than on their athletic achievement. That is because fleas suck blood and spread diseases. In fact, the rat flea is the culprit behind the devastating epidemic of bubonic plague or "Black Death" that ravaged Europe in the 14th century. The outbreak killed more than 25 million people, or a third of the population in Europe at the time.

Paragraphs 4 to 5:
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