Chilling Out in Igloos

Transcription

1 PASSAGE 1: Web Site Chilling Out in Igloos In the far north, some people make homes out of snow! Imagine this. It s winter. You re at home. Outside, a storm is brewing. Inside, a fire is burning. A pot of food is cooking. It smells delicious. Yum! Next to you, your brothers and sisters are sleeping. They are wrapped up in blankets. It feels very cozy. Now imagine that the walls are made of snow. Could a home with snow walls be that cozy? The answer is yes! Igloos are homes made from snow. Inside they re very cozy. You d be surprised. Read these questions and answers to find out more about igloos. What exactly is an igloo? The word igloo means house. Igloos are small huts. They re used in very cold places. They aren t always made from snow. Some are made from animal skins. Some are stone. But most are made of snow. Who makes igloos? The Inuit (IHN-oo-iht) people do. Inuit means real people. The Inuit live in northern Canada and Greenland. They have been making snow igloos for thousands of years. They ve figured out the best way to make these houses. Most Inuit don t use snow igloos anymore. They live in modern houses. However, they sometimes use igloos for special trips. Page 1 of 6

2 Why did the Inuit build igloos? Where the Inuit live, it s very cold. There aren t a lot of things to build with. Wood is scarce. Now they can get wood from other places. Before, though, people used what they had. What the Inuit had was snow. A lot of snow! How are igloos made? First the snow is shaped into blocks. The blocks must be exactly alike. This takes practice. Then the blocks are stacked. They form a dome. The top is rounded. The inside is hollow. The inside walls are melted with hot lamps. They refreeze as ice. This is done again and again. Finally, the igloo becomes solid. The walls are often covered with skins. That makes the igloo warmer. Are igloos strong? They re very strong. A person can stand on the top of an igloo without making it collapse. What about when the weather gets warm? Then they melt. Igloos are temporary. People rebuild them each year. What is inside of an igloo? There are benches made of snow. One bench is a bed. But nobody wants to sleep on a snow bed! So the Inuit cover their beds with wood. Then they put branches on top of the wood. The last layer is animal skins. All those layers make their beds warm. Where can you find igloos? You can find igloos in Canada and Greenland. There are no igloos in Alaska. That surprises some people. The Inuit have found many clever ways to live in their frozen land. Igloos are extreme homes for extremely interesting people. Page 2 of 6

3 PASSAGE 2: Magazine Article The Cities in the Caves People have built homes in strange places. Find out about one of the strangest. Would you like to live underground? Imagine a whole underground city. It s inside a mountain. It s 12 floors deep. It has many rooms, big and small. It even has grocery stores. You have to climb down a ladder to enter it. Light comes from holes open to the sky. There s not much light, though. It s dark down there! This city really exists. It s one of many. The underground cities are in a country called Turkey. They re in an area called Cappadocia (kah-puh-doh-shuh). Volcanoes, Rocks, and Mountains The story starts a long time ago. There weren t even any people alive yet. Three huge volcanoes erupted. They shattered great mountains. They melted the rock inside the mountains. The rocks turned into a kind of rock called tuff. Tuff is not very tough. It s soft. Wind and water carved holes in it. Caves formed in the mountains. Then many years went by. People began to use the caves. Soon, they learned how soft the tuff was. It was easy to carve. So the people dug rooms from the stone. They made schools and homes. They made chimneys and doors. The caves became underground cities. A Safe Place to Hide The people went in the caves to flee from enemies. The underground cities were safe. People could conceal themselves. No one could find them. They hid until their enemies went away. Armies didn t want to climb the mountains. So they didn t even try to invade. Page 3 of 6

4 Houses in the Hillside People didn t want to live underground all the time, however. They also built houses aboveground. They carved them into the mountainside. This made the houses cool in summer and warm in winter. If things got crowded, they could dig another room! Soon, there were many cities carved into the mountains. Thousands of people lived in them. The cities were a strange sight. They still looked like mountains. But they had windows and doors. It was as if the mountains had eyes! Cave Houses Today Today, people don t live in the underground cities. They still have houses carved into the mountainside, though. These houses are pleasant places to live. They re very comfortable. Besides, it s fun to live in a mountain. You can see a long way out your window. You never have to paint your house. Mow the lawn? Forget it! If you ever go to Turkey, you can see what it s like. Some of the houses are hotels now. Anyone can stay in them. Try not to bump your head on the ceiling, though. Tuff is not that soft. Page 4 of 6

5 PASSAGE 3: Nonfiction Book High & Dry Does it rain a lot where you live? Do you get floods? Has your house ever filled with water? If so, you know how messy floods can be. Some places have lots of floods. Water fills the streets. Rooftops become islands in a muddy sea. Some people think that nobody should live in these places. Others say that it just takes planning ahead. That s what people in the Mekong (MAY-kahng) Delta do. What is the Mekong Delta? It s a watery area in southern Vietnam (vee-et-nahm). There are many rivers there. During the rainy season, the rivers flood. Water covers the land. But people stay dry. How come? They know the floods will come. So they build their houses on stilts. Living on Stilts Many people in the Mekong Delta live in stilt houses. The stilts hold the houses above the water. When the rivers flood, the water rises. The stilts are tall. So the water stays beneath the houses. The houses stay dry. Most people build their own stilt houses. They use tree trunks as stilts. The floors are bamboo. They cover their roofs with reeds. All those plants grow in the delta. Stilt houses line the riverbanks. Many have porches. None have garages, though. Most people don t have cars. They go everywhere in boats. Kids go to school by boat. Adults go to work by boat. They even go shopping by boat! Floating Stores The Mekong Delta is famous for its floating markets. The stores are all on boats. Sellers arrive early. They tie their boats together. Some boats sell fish. Others have melons and pineapples. One sells sandwiches. Another sells T-shirts. Among them are some that sell toys. Page 5 of 6

6 Hundreds of boats crowd the market. Shoppers paddle from store to store. Their boats bump against each other. It gets noisy. People greet each other loudly. Fruit sellers shout out prices. Fish sellers show off their catch. It s a colorful scene. No visitor to Vietnam should miss it. Imagine living in a stilt house. You could swim anytime. You could fish from your porch. You d fall asleep listening to the river. The water would be right under your bed! Doesn t it sound nice? In the Mekong Delta, people have built stilt houses for thousands of years. They re perfect homes for such a watery place. Page 6 of 6