03 The Life Cycle of a Frog

Female frogs lay large clumps of eggs, called spawn, in the water. After about three weeks, the embryo leaves the egg mass and turns into a tadpole.

Tadpoles have long tails and gills. They eat small plants and also use these plants as camouflage from predators.

Tadpoles grow hind legs, and front legs come soon after. The tail then becomes smaller and the lungs develop to help it breathe on land.

The tadpole slowly becomes more frog-like. The tail becomes smaller, while the legs continue to grow. The frog has lungs that are fully developed and it lives on land most of the time. For food it eats insects and worms.

Word List

clump : a large group of something

embryo : an animal that hasn't been born yet

hind : back, behind

You Practice

I. Answer the following questions.

1） Where does a female frog lay eggs?

2） Why are plants useful to tadpoles?

3） When a tadpole turns into a frog, what happens to the tail?

4） What do frogs eat?

5） Where do frogs live?

II. Use information from the reading to complete the chart. Write Yes or No.

III. Fill in the missing words for each sentence.

1） An e _ _ _ _ _ has not been born yet.

2） Lungs help a frog breathe a _ _.

3） A tadpole has a long t _ _ _.

4） Tadpoles eat small p _ _ _ _ _.

5） A clump of frog eggs is called s _ _ _ _.