Garden Valley International School, Morinda

Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

CHAPTER-3
FIBRE TO FABRIC

DEFINES:

1. Selective breeding: the process of selecting parents for obtaining special

characters in their offspring is termed as selective breeding.
2. Shearing: The process of removal of hairs from sheep is called Shearing.
3. Anthrax: Anthrax is serious bacterial disease of sheep and cattle which
affect the skin and lungs.
4. Sericulture: The process of rearing silk worms for obtaining silk yarn is
called Sericulture.
5. Cocoon: Cocoon is a silky case spun by the larva for forming the pupa.
6. Reeling: The process of obtaining silk fibre from cocoons is called Reeling.
7. Fleece: Fleece is hair or fur of sheep or yak.
8. Scouring: the sheared skin with hair is washed in tanks to remove grease,
dust and dirt. This is called Scouring.

EXERCISE QUE ANS:

Question1. You must be familiar with the following nursery rhymes:

(i) ‘Baa baa black ship, have you any wool.’

(ii) ‘Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.’

Answers the following:

(a) Which parts of the black sheep have wool?
(b) What is meant by the white fleece of the lamb?

Answer: (a) The hairy skin i.e. fleece of the black sheep have wool.
(b) White fleece means the white coloured hair of the lamb. 

Question 2. The silkworm is (a) a caterpillar, (b) a larva.Choose the correct option.

(i) a
(ii) b
(iii) both a and b
(iv) neither a nor b.
 Garden Valley International School, Morinda
Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

Answer: (iii) both a and b

Question 3. Which of the following does not yield wool?

(i) Yak
(ii) Camel
(iii) Goat
(iv) Woolly dog

Answer: (iv) Woolly dog.

Question 4. What is meant by the following terms?

(i) Rearing
(ii) Shearing
(iii) Sericulture

Answer: (i) Rearing : It means taking care of herds of animals which includes

feeding, grazing, breeding, etc. for economical purpose like meat and other useful
products.
(ii) Shearing : The removal of fleece of the sheep along with a thin layer of skin
from its body is called shearing.
(iii) Sericulture : The rearing of silkworms to obtain silk economically is called
sericulture.

Question 5. Given below is a sequence of steps in the processing of wool. Which

are the missing steps? Add them.

Shearing, ---------------, sorting, ----------------, ---------------.

Answer: Shearing, scouring, sorting, burrs picking, dying, rolling

Question 6. Make the sketch of two stages in the life history of the silk moth
which are directly related to the production of silk.
 Garden Valley International School, Morinda
Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

Answer:

Question 7. Out of the following, which are the two related to the production of
silk. Sericulture, Floriculture, Moriculture, Apiculture and Silviculture.

Answer: Sericulture and Moriculture.

 Question 8. Match the words of Column I with those given in Column II.

Column I Column II
1. Scouring (a) Yields silk fibres
2. Mulberry leaves(b) Wool yielding animal
3. Yak (c) Food of animal
4. Cocoon (d) Reeling
  (e) Cleaning sheared skin.

Answer: 1. (e)  2. (c)  3. (b)   4. (a)

Question 9. Given below is a crossword puzzle based on this lesson. Use hints to
fill in the blank space with letters that complete the words.

Down
D1. Thorough washing
D2. Animal fibre
D3. Long thread like

Across
A1. Keeps warm.
A2. Its leaves are eaten by silk worms.
 Garden Valley International School, Morinda
Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

A3. Hatches from egg of both structures

Answer:

EXTRA QUE ANS:

1. How do the hair of certain animals help in keeping their bodies warm?

Ans. The thick coat of hair traps a lot of air, which is a poor conductor of heat and
hence don't allow the exchange of heat from animal's body to the enviornment,
keeping it warm.

2. Write various steps for processing fibres into wool.

Ans.The wool which is used for knitting sweaters or for weaving shawls is the
finished product of a long process,which involves the following steps:

Step I: The fleece of the sheep along with a thin layer of skin is removed from its
body. This process is called shearing. Machines are used to shave off hair. Usually,
hair are removed during the hot weather. This enables sheep to survive without
their protective coat of hair. The
hair provide woollen fibres. Woollen fibres are then processed to obtain woollen
yarn. 
 Garden Valley International School, Morinda
Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

Step II: The sheared skin with hair is thoroughly washed in tanks to remove grease,
dust and dirt. This is called scouring.

Step III: After scouring, sorting is done. The hairy skin is sent to a factory where
hair of different textures are separated or sorted.

Step IV: The small fluffy fibres, called burrs, are picked out from the hair.
The fibres are scoured again and dried. This is the wool ready to be drawn into
fibres.

Step V: The fibres can be dyed in various colours, as the natural fleece of sheep
and goats is black, brown or white.

Step VI: The fibres are straightened, combed and rolled into yarn. The longer
fibres are
made into wool for sweaters and the shorter fibres are spun and woven into
woollen cloth. 

3. Write Various Steps For Processing Fibres Into Wool.

The various steps for processing fibres into wool are as follows:
Shearing: The first st1ep is to remove fleece of the sheep along with thin layer of
skin. This process is called shearing.
Scouring: In this step, the sheared hair is washed thoroughly to remove grease, dust
and dirt.
Sorting: In this step, different textures of hair are separated or shorted.
Separating burrs: Burrs are small fluffy fibres which are picked out from the hair.
Dyeing: The fibres are dyed in various colours, as the original colour of fleece are
usually black white or brown.
Rolling: In this process, the fibres are straightened, combed and rolled into yarn.
And the fibres now as wool are ready to be oven.
4. In The Rearing Of Silkworms, After How Many Days The Caterpillar Stop
To Eating The Leaves Of Mulberry Tree?

In the rearing of silkworms, after 25 to 30 days the caterpillar stops to eating the
fresh leaves of mulberry tree and move to a tiny chamber of bamboo in the tray to
spin cocoons.
 Garden Valley International School, Morinda
Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

5. Explain The Phrase – “Unity Is Strength” On The Basis Of The Making Of

Fabric From Fibre.

Fibres and fabric play a large role in everyday applications. A fibre is a hair-like
strand of material. They are the smallest visible unit of a fabric and denoted by
being extremely long in relation to their width. Fibres can be spun into yarn and
made into fabric.
A single fibre is too weak to break but when some fibres together make a fabric, it
is difficult to tear. Fabric needs more energy to tear apart as compared to a single
fibre.

6. From what type of health problems the workers suffered while working in a
wool industry? [HOTS]
Answer:
People working in the wool industry sometimes get infected by a bacterium called
anthrax, during the sorting (separating) the fleece of sheep into fibres of different
qualities.
It leads to a fatal blood disease called sorter’s disease.

7. Paheli went to the market to buy sarees for her mother. She took out a
thread from the edge of the two sarees shown by the shopkeeper and burnt
them. One thread burnt with a smell of burning hair and the other burnt with
the smell of burning paper. Which thread is from a pure cotton saree and
which one from a pure silk saree? Give reason for your answer. 

Answer:
In first saree, one thread which burnt with a smell of burning hair is from pure silk,
silk and hair are protein fibres. So, on burning these threads, a smell of burning
hair comes out. In second saree, second thread which burnt with the smell of
burning cotton and paper because cotton and paper both are carbohydrates and on
burning they give similar smell.

8. Cocoon is used to obtain silk thread. How?

Answer:
A pile of cocoon is used for obtaining silk fibre. The cocoon are kept under the
sun, boiled water or exposed to steam.
The silk fibres separate out. The process of taking out threads from the cocoon for
use as silk is called reeling the silk.
 Garden Valley International School, Morinda
Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

9. Name different types of silk. Which variety of silk is most common and how
it is obtained?
Answer:
Different types of silk are mulberry silk, tassar silk, mooga silk and kosa silk. The
most common variety of silk is mulberry silk. It is obtained from the cocoons of
mulberry silkworm and is made up of protein. It is a natural silk and is an animal
fibre.

10. Write the difference between natural silk and artificial silk.
Answer:
Natural silk is obtained from the cocoons of silkworms and it is made up of a
protein. Natural silk is an animal fibre. Artificial silk is obtained from wood pulp
and it is made up of modified plant material ‘cellulose’.
If we perform the burning test, then natural silk fibre burns giving a smell of
burning hair while artificial fibre burns giving a smell of burning paper.

11. Why caterpillars need to shed their skin when they grow bigger?
Ans. Caterpillars’ bodies grow but their exoskeleton doesn't grow. Hence, they
have to shed their exoskeletons when they grow bigger.
12. What are the two types of fibres that form the fleece of a sheep?
Ans. The hairy skin of the sheep has two types of fibres that form its fleece: (i) the
coarse beard hair, and
(ii) the fine soft under-hair close to the skin.

13.Describe the life history of silk moth with the help of figures of various
stages.

Ans. The female silk moth lays eggs. Larvae hatches out from it and are known as
silkworms.

As they grow the silkworm gets ready to enter the next stage of life known as
pupa. Conversion of caterpillar to pupa involves a weaving of net around itself. It
swings from side to side in the form of the figure of eight (8) and secretes fibre
made of a protein during these movement of the head which gets hardened on
exposure to air and becomes silk fibre that completely covers the caterpillar. This
covering in known as cocoon.
 Garden Valley International School, Morinda
Science VII
-By Miss Hatinder Kaur

Silk fibre is obtained from this cocoon. The further growth of the silk moth
continues inside the cocoon.