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Rain Forest

Rain Forests are Amazing!

Rain Forests are Amazing!
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.23

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    monthly, rainfall, rainforest, rainforests, species, temperate, leopard, rain, below, huge, muddy, damp, nearby, above, dart, million
     content words:    United States, Northern Hemisphere, United Kingdom, Southern Hemisphere, South Africa, New Zealand, Central America, South America

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Other Languages
     Spanish: ¡Los Bosques Tropicales son Asombrosos!

Rain Forests are Amazing!   
1     Rain forests are amazing! We usually think of rain forests being in the tropical areas of the world. Many of them are. When we walk on the damp, muddy ground of a tropical rain forest, we see trees standing high to the sky. We see plants displaying the most brightly colored flowers to attract bees and butterflies. We see a couple of monkeys jumping from one tree to another. We see two toucans using their huge, colorful beaks to toss nuts to each other. We see a poison dart frog carrying its young on its back. Watch out! We also see a leopard staring at us! Tropical rain forests are so full of life because the weather here is hot and humid all year round. The average temperature is 77 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average monthly rainfall is 4 inches. About two-thirds of all the plant and animal species in the world live in rain forests.
 
2     Where can we find rain forests? Is there one in the United States? Yes, a temperate (cooler climate) rainforest exists in parts of California, Washington and Oregon. All the tropical rain forests are near the Equator. The Equator is an imaginary line that crosses our planet right in the middle. Above the Equator is the Northern Hemisphere, including countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, and China. Below the Equator is the Southern Hemisphere, including countries like Australia, South Africa, Argentina, and New Zealand. Regions in Asia, Africa, Australia, Central America, and South America all have the Equator nearby. So, we can find tropical rain forests there. The Amazon of South America is the largest rain forest in the world. It covers an area of more than 1.5 million square miles - about half of the size of the United States!
 
3     Temperate rainforests are found in the United States, in Scotland and Norway in northern Europe, in southern Australia and New Zealand, and even in Japan!
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