READING 4 Bottlenose Dolphins

Bottlenose DOLPHINS

Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold. 1.8

Bottlenose dolphins are very popular animals. We often see them in aquariums, sea parks, TV shows, and movies. Because of the shape of their nose, they look like they always have a smile on their faces.

Bottlenose dolphins live in warm climates. They live underwater, but they rarely stay there for more than seven minutes. Humans are involuntary1 breathers. We don’t usually think about breathing. But dolphins have to remember to breathe. One side of their brain is always active. This means they never fully sleep.

Dolphins have an excellent sense of hearing. They use clicking sounds to find food. The sound echoes2 back and tells them where the food is.

Bottlenose dolphins are social animals. They usually swim in groups of 10 to 15. Together they hunt3 for food. They sometimes hunt with fishermen near their fishing boats. Once in a while a dolphin hunts alone. Sometimes a dolphin gets lost. Each dolphin has a unique4 whistle, so it uses its whistle to call out to the group.

Bottlenose dolphins usually live about 40 to 50 years.

1 involuntary: done without thinking 2 to echo: to be repeated by bouncing off a surface 3 to hunt: to search for 4 unique: one of a kind; not like anything else