Passage 1
The Mother
At first, she had a forbidding exterior, but her body was softer. With her eight legs, she had carefully built a den to prepare for her offspring. Nestled amongst rocks at the bottom of the sea, the mother octopus had forty clusters in her clutch, each containing about a thousand eggs. Watching the small, grape-like bunches, she tended them in her den with great care, and she never left them, not even to snatch a bit of food for herself.
It was springtime, and for fifty days, she prepared for her children to be born. While she waited, she was rarely at rest because the mother continually watched over and cleaned the eggs. Sometimes, she took them in her fluid arms and held them close to her mouth, and other times, she would slowly walk around the rock the egg sacks were attached to. She lifted each delicate bunch, one at a time, and carefully cleaned it.
She ate very little for nothing was in her reach. Her appetite had eventually vanished; crabs, clams, and oysters were not as important as looking after her eggs.
On the day her baby octopods were born, they were the size of ladybugs. The little eggs burst open, and the little octopods came out. They did not look like their mother. Their arms were a circle of hair-like threads. She was exhausted but proud of the work she had done to take care of her little ones.
Passage 2
Octopus Facts
Octopi, the plural of octopus, live in many different parts of the ocean. In the ocean, they prefer to live in coral reefs. Octopi have eight arms. The arms of an octopus have cups that can suck. In fact, the arms can also detect the flow of water.
Most octopi have soft bodies without an internal skeleton or internal shells. They also lack a protective outer shell. The only hard part in the body of an octopus is a beak which is almost shaped like a parrot's beak. The beak helps the octopus to squeeze through narrow slits between underwater rocks. Being able to squeeze through very narrow slits between underwater rocks is very helpful when an octopus is fleeing from its enemies.
An octopus usually needs be careful of other fish. Some octopi may have two fins and an internal shell. In this case, it is harder for them to squeeze into small spaces.
A female octopus focuses entirely on her unhatched eggs before they hatch. A female octopus may also neglect to eat during the (roughly) one month period that she awaits her eggs to hatch. The entire month is spent taking care of her unhatched eggs.
Octopi have a relatively short life span. Larger species, such as the North Pacific Giant Octopus, may live for up to five years in good conditions.
4
How is the information in the second passage different from the information in the first passage?
A.
The first passage features outdated information; the second passage has current information on octopi.
B.
The first passage tells a story to teach the reader about octopi; the second passage uses only facts.
C.
The first passage focuses only on octopi mothers; the second passage focuses only on octopi food.
D.
The second passage explains what an octopus looks like, while the first passage does not give such details.