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Paper 1a
There are two types of questions here. First skim through a passage, and then use contextual clues to work out the meanings of some words. Finally, look at the questions at the end and see if you can remember where the relevant information is.
1 Triceratops
This creature from 70 million years ago was built like a tank covered in plate armour. An adult male weighed  10 tonnes and was formidably armed with two long horns on either side of its head and a shorter one on the nose. Around its neck was a huge frill of solid bone. Clearly this animal would attack with its mighty head. One can imagine the great battles among  males during  mating season. It was a vegetarian living in great herds. With the weak and young in the middle of the herd and the powerful males around the edge, it must have been a very brave or clever predator which made many meals of triceratops.
Questions
a. What does mighty mean?
b. Find a word meaning circular decoration.
c. What is a predator?
2 Deinonychus
This seems likely to have been a top predator 110 million years ago. Individuals were not particularly large (2 metres tall and 3m long), but they were designed to run fast on their hind legs, each armed with a large and very sharp claw that could rip almost any animal open. Their arms had three sharp talons for holding on to their prey and their light skulls had powerful jaw muscles to make their bite with long backward-leaning teeth truly devastating. They seem to have hunted in packs and probably showed a high level of intelligence as they planned their next meal.
Questions
d. Find a word meaning back.
e. What is a talon?
f. What sort of noun is pack?
3 Liopleurodon
This late Jurassic monster from 150 million years ago was certainly the largest carnivore and possibly the largest animal ever. It was 25m long with a skull one quarter of its length and enormous jaws packed with teeth like daggers for fighting. At nearly 150 tonnes, it would have been very slow moving on land, but as it was a marine reptile, it could scent its prey from great distances and pursue it till it ended up chopped into pieces by those razor-sharp teeth. Small creatures were safe as the monster would not bother to eat them.
Questions
g. What is a carnivore?
h. Find a word meaning very large.
i. Does pursue mean i. eat, ii. chase, iii. smell?
4 Quetzalcoatlus
This giant pterosaur from 70 million years ago must have darkened the sky as it passed overhead with its 11m-plus wingspan. Its head alone would have been as big as a human.  Scientists guess that it glided the warm air currents looking down with its sharp eyes for dead or dying dinosaurs and then flew down for a meal. It liked to live inland, perhaps along river banks. It seems to have had some sort of furry covering.
Questions
j. Gliding is a method of _____________.
k. Find a word meaning suppose.
l. What does sharp mean here?
5 Stegosaurus
The stegosaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur about 9m in length. It flourished 140 million years ago in fairly open woodland, probably in small family groups. That makes it sound rather easy prey, but it was heavily armoured, with 17 plates standing up in an unknown pattern along its back. The spine-like plates on its long tail were especially strong and sharp, and if attacked, it would have defended itself with this massive weapon. There is a possibility that when the stegosaurus was angry, its spines turned red - that would have been quite a sight!
Questions
m. Find a word meaning lived and did well.
n. What does armoured mean?
o. What does massive mean?
6 Brachiosaurus
The brachiosaurus enjoyed a good view of the enormous forests of 150 million years ago. The 25m-long dinosaur had an extremely long neck and could reach up to eat leaves 16m above the forest floor. It spent all the time eating, needing 200 kilograms of leaves a day to stay alive. It swallowed its food unchewed and it was then crushed by stones in a part of the stomach before being slowly digested. Graceful as the brachiosaurus seems to have been, it was not very bright with a very small brain to control its huge body.
Questions
p. Think of another word for forest.
q. When you swallow, you pass something along/down your ____________.
r. What is the noun from digested?
Test your memory
Which of the creatures described in the passages
i) were meat-eaters?
ii) lived the most recently?
iii) was like a bird?
iv) had the least intelligence?
v) was the tallest?
vi) was the largest?
vii) was most like the triceratops?
vii) lived in the sea?
ix) was the smallest?
x) probably ate meat but was not a killer?
xi) fought with its head?
xii) fought with its tail?
Answers
a. powerful, b. frill, c. animals that eat other animals, d. hind, e. claw, f. collective, g. meat-eater, h. enormous, i. ii, j. flying, k. guess, l. far-seeing, m. flourished, n. protected, o. big and heavy, p. jungle/wood, q. throat, r. digestion
Test your memory: 2/3/4, 1/4, 4, 6, 6, 3, 5, 3, 2, 4, 1, 5



Creatures of the past