Nick is a tricycle man. He waits for riders every morning.

'Please take me to the bus station," says Mr. Perez.

'Please take me to the market," says Mrs. Pardo. "Please
take us to school," say Mike and Kris.
•But I can take only one Of you," says Nick to the children.
"Oh, I can sit behind you Nick,' says Mr. Perez.
"Kris or Mike can take my seat."
"Thank you, Mr. Perez," say Mike and Kris.

ROCKS FROM OUTER SPACE

The pieces Of rocks that come from Outer space have three
names: meteor, meteorite, and meteoroid.
A meteoroid is a piece 01 matter moving in space. It moves
as fast as 40 miles a second. It may be large or small. Most
are smaller than a grain of sand.
As a meteoroid comes into the air near the earth, it catches
fire, Most meteoroids bum up before they hit the earth. The flash
of light from the burning meteoroid is called a meteor _ If a piece of
meteoroid falls to the ground, it is called a meteorite.
people have studied these rocks for many years. They
wanted to research ways to keep meteoroids from making holes in
spacecrafts. Thick walls may help. Or perhaps spacecrafts can be
covered with a metal skin that will seal itself.

Underwater
Humans do not have the capacity to breathe underwater
unaided by external devices. A diver who wants to stay
underwater for more than a few minutes must breathe air on a
special mixture Of gases. He can wear diving suits and have air
pumped to him from above or he can carry tanks Of air on his back
and breathe through a hose and a mouthpiece.
Early divers discovered that it is not enough to supply air to
breathe comfortably underwater. The diver's body is under great
pressure in deep water because water weighs 800 times as much
as air. Tons of water push against the diver deep in the sea. When
this happens, his blood takes in some of the gases he breathes.
When the diver rises to the surface, the water pressure
becomes less. If he rises too quickly, the gases in his blood form
bubbles that make breathing difficult. He suffers from bends,
causing him to double up in pain.
BIGGEST HOUSE
A little snail told his father, "I want to have the biggest house."
"Keep your house light and easy to carry," said his father.
But, the snail ate a lot until his house grew enormous_
"You now have the biggest house," said the snails.
After a while, the snails have eaten all the grass in the farm_
They decided to move to another place.
"Help' I cannot move," said the snail with the biggest house-
The snails tried to help but the house was too heavy _
So the snail with the biggest house was left behind_
BEETLE

Beetles can adapt to any kind of environment. They can be found crawling, burrowing, flying, and
swimming on every part of the earth except the ocean. Why do beetles survive well on our planet?
First, they have tough compact bodies. These help them hide, find food, and lay eggs in places where
other insects could never go
Almost all beetles have tough front wings which are colorful and carry beautiful patterns. These wings
also act as suit of armor to protect the beetles’ transparent hind wings which are used for flying.
Beetles have mouth parts designed for chewing different food. They eat other insects, animal dung,
and even cloth. They also feed on the bark, leaves, flowers, and fruits of any kind of plant. They can
even chew around the stems of poisonous plants to let the deadly sap drain.

THE GREAT RUNNER

Atalanta is a lovely princess and a great runner.
One day, her father told her, “It’s time you get married." “I will marry a man who will beat me in a race,”
replied
Atalanta.
Many young men tried their luck. But they all lost. Hippomenes asked the goddess of love for help.
“Here are three golden apples,” she said. “During the race, throw one apple in front of Atalanta. She will
stop to pick it up. That should slow her down.”
Hippomenes heeded her advice and won the race. Thus, Atalanta became his wife.

The Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system. It interprets stimuli and tells the body
how to react.
The brain has three major parts. The part that controls
balance, coordination and muscle movement is called the cerebellum. It makes sure that the muscles
work well together.
For example, a gymnast is able to balance on a beam because of the cerebellum.
The medulla is a long stem that connects the brain to the spinal cord. It tells one's body to do things
without thinking about them. Digesting food or breathing even while asleep are examples of these
involuntary actions.
On the other hand, there are actions that one decides to do.

It is the largest part of the brain the cerebrum that is responsible for these voluntary movements.
Without it, one will not be able to kick a ball or dance at all.
The brain might seem small but it is so powerful as it controls one’s entire body.

CAT AND MOUSE

A mouse and a cat lived in an old house. The mouse stayed in a hole while the cat slept under the table.
One night, the mouse got out of its hole. “Mmm, Cheese!" it thought, as it went up the table. As it
started nibbling the cheese, a fork fell. It woke the cat up so it ran up the table. But the mouse was too
fast for the cat. It quickly dashed to its hole. Safe at last!
MARIAN’S EXPERIMENT
Marian came home from school. She went to the kitchen and saw her mother cooking.
“Mama, do we have mongo seeds?" asked Marian. “I will do an experiment.”
“Yes, we have some in the cabinet," answered Mama. Marian got some seeds and planted them in a
wooden
box. She watered the seeds every day. She made sure they got enough sun. After three days, Marian
was happy to see stems and leaves sprouting. Her mongo seeds grew into young plants.
Reference: Philippine Informal Reading Inventory 2008-2009 Edition

JUST HOW FASTMany things around us move at different rates. Glaciers, which are frozen rivers of
snow, move less than one foot in a day. A box turtle travels about ten feet per minute, while a snail
travels five inches per hour. A chimney swift flies almost ninety miles per hour. This is the fastest
speed recorded for any living creature.
A hydroplane skims across the top of the water at nearly 300 miles an hour. Some racing cars travel
more than 500 miles per hour. The wind in a tornado may move at 600 miles per hour but sound waves
are faster with a speed of up to 740 miles per hour.
The Earth moves around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. At 186,000 miles per second, light is faster!
Science has yet to discover anything that would surpass this speed.
Reference: Philippine Informal Reading Inventory 2008-2009 Edition

AIR CURRENTS
Wind is the natural movement of the air from one place to another. It affects the climate of a place.
There are three major air streams that greatly affect our climate.
From November to February, mornings are colder because of the northeast monsoon wind. It blows
from Siberia which is a very frigid place. It brings along temperature and rain that make us shiver.
The wind from June to October, is warm and humid. During this time, the western section of our country
experiences strong rains brought about by the southwest monsoon wind blowing from Australia.
From March to early May, trade winds coming from the east or northeast reach the Philippines. It brings
rains to the eastern part of our country. Trade winds are warm and moist and bring hot temperature
with little rain.
Isn’t it amazing that each one of these air streams brings some amount of rain to the
Philippines?

TRADING PLACES

On a trip to a university, the driver told the professor, “I’ve heard

you give this speech many times. I can deliver it for you." The
professor said, “The people in this university haven’t
seen me yet. Give the lecture. I’ll pretend to be your driver.” When
they arrived, the driver was introduced to be the
professor. He gave an excellent speech. Everybody applauded. Afterwards, somebody asked a question
which the driver couldn’t answer. In order to get out of the sticky situation, he said, “Oh, that’s such an
easy question. Even my driver can give you the answer!”
Reference: http://www. puffun. com/stories/chauffer. Phtml

ON MARKET DAY
Every Saturday, Manuel goes to market with his father, Mang Ador. They always pass by Aling Juaning’s
stall to buy meat. They go to Mang Tinoy’s for fresh vegetables. They also visit Aling Tita’s seafood
section.
Whenever Mang Ador buys something, Manuel always tries to predict what his father will cook for
lunch. Today Mang Ador bought tamarind, tomatoes, string beans, radish, and shrimp.
“I know what we will have for lunch,” says Manuel happily. Can you guess it, too?

FLYING ROCKS
There are rocks in our Solar System that never flocked together to form planets. Larger ones called
asteroids gather in the Asteroid Belt, a strip found between Mars and Jupiter. Some asteroids don’t
move along this belt but have paths that bring them close to the earth. These are called Apollo
Asteroids.
There may be half a million asteroids whose diameters are bigger than one kilometer. The largest
asteroid is over 1000 kilometers across. It is speculated that many asteroids were once larger but
they collided with each other and became small fragments.
Unlike asteroids, meteoroids are small rocky bodies, that are scattered in space and do not orbit the
sun. They cross the Earth’s orbit and are often seen burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere at night. The
faint flashes of light they make are called shooting stars.