Aesop’s prawns
Aesop prawns start life as colourless, almost transparent infants who drift with the tide. On reaching maturity, they drift inshore, reach out to grasp the first passing seaweed and, once established upon it, they proceed to colour themselves to blend with it. After a week, their colouring is complete and they are safe from the closest scrutiny.
Should disaster strike and their chosen home be destroyed, they first try to find a new home with the same colour scheme as the first. If this proves impossible, they philosophically settle for a different coloured home and restart their own colouring process. A week zips past – and they change colour to merge beautifully with their new homes once again.
Aside from taking on the colour of their homes, Aesop prawns also take on the colours of the day. Regularly at nightfall, they change to a deep transparent blue, reverting to their chosen house-colour as the sea lightens at dawn.
What are these amazing disguise kits? How do Aesop prawns paint themselves?
Interestingly, the decision‟ to adopt a particular colour is in no way an act of will on the part of the prawn”. Scattered over its body surface are small pigment cells, each containing a central bag of colours (a reservoir of primary pigments: red, yellow and blue) with five branches extending from it.
These pigment cells are influenced by the light that falls directly on them or enters through the prawn’s eyes. Different coloured lights activate the hormones that control the flow of pigments, causing them sometimes to flood the intricate network of branches, sometimes to scurry back to the central bag depending on the colour required. To make the animal red, for instance, only red pigments occupy the branches. When a green camouflage is required, the red is withdrawn to allow a free flow of a blue yellow mixture. And after dark, red and yellow are withdrawn to make way for the nocturnal blue “night suit‟ of the Aesop prawn. A system that provides the animal, at all times, with an enviable cloak of invisibility.
1. When Aesop prawns become mature they __________.
a) become transparent
b) become colourless
c) move inshore
d) they colour themselves
2. It is difficult to spy Aesop prawns because __________.
a) of their transparent colour
b) they lie hidden in the seaweed
c) they camouflage with the seaweeds
d) they lie too far to be seen
3. What makes for the blue “night suit‟ of the Aesop prawn?
a) the colours red and yellow are withdrawn
b) the colour red is withdrawn
c) the colour blue is withdrawn
d) a blue – yellow mixture is withdrawn
4. It takes the prawns __________ days to merge with their new homes:
a) six
b) eight
c) seven
d) four
5. The word “desirable‟ means
a) likeable
b) worth having or doing
c) noble
d) countable
6. Which of the following words is most similar in meaning to the word given below and also in bold as used in the passage?
Merge
a) Unite
b) Combine
c) Mix
d) Blend
7. Which of the following words is most similar in meaning to the word given below and also in bold as used in the passage?
Adopt
a) Assume
b) Appoint
c) Follow
d) Select
8. Which of the following words is most similar in meaning to the word given below and also in bold as used in the passage?
Camouflage
a) Disguise
b) Protective colouring
c) Smokescreen
d) Conceal
9. Choose the word /group of words which is most opposite in meaning to the word /group of words given below and also printed in bold as used in the passage.
Transparent
a) Opaque
b) Cloudy
c) Unclear
d) Vague
10. Choose the word /group of words which is most opposite in meaning to the word /group of words given below and also printed in bold as used in the passage.
Invisibility
a) Masked
b) Detectable
c) Ghostly
d) None of the above
———-Answer Key———-
1. (c)
2. (c)
3. (a)
4. (c)
5. (b)
6. (d)
7. (d)
8. (b)
9. (a)
10. (b)