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Animal Themes
Insects


Cockroaches


Cockroaches
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.98

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    brown-banded, cerci, ecology, eradicate, fecal, hair-like, maturity, ootheca, top-notch, existence, worldwide, oval-shaped, finding, estimate, resistance, extremely


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Cockroaches
By Vickie Chao
  

1     Did you ever get scared by what you saw when you opened a kitchen cabinet door? Just as you were about to take something out of it, you saw a brown object scurrying away. You pulled back your hand in a reflex. You screamed. You held your breath. When you finally regained your wits, you grabbed the nearest thing so you could use it to smash the brown object. Alas, it was just not meant to be. The brown object had escaped into a narrow crevice and disappeared. As you closed the kitchen cabinet door, you felt dread. You knew that pests had invaded your home. The brown object you just spotted was a cockroach!
 
2     Scientists believe that cockroaches (or roaches) have been around for a long time. Throughout all those years of existence, they have witnessed a countless number of animals that first became endangered and then simply vanished in the world. Sure, cockroaches have had their own share of setbacks, but they never gave in. They know that they have what it takes to overcome any obstacle.
 
3     Cockroaches are excellent hunters. They prefer to forage at night. When they come out of their hideouts after dark, they rely on the bristles on their legs as well as the two, hair-like antennae on their heads to search for food. To cockroaches, plants, food scraps, and papers are just as tasty as, say, dead insects and animal droppings!

Paragraphs 4 to 9:
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