Young Explorers’ Guide: Living Treasures

162 pages

English

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Young Explorers’ Guide: Living Treasures , livre ebook

Québec Amérique - Qa International Collectif

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

162 pages

English

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

• A one-of-a-kind treasure hunt
• An exhilarating adventure that lets you decide which way to go
• An encyclopedia that reads like an adventure novel
• An amazing time machine
• A world of knowledge to discover

Informations

Publié par	Québec Amérique
Date de parution	09 août 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782764409138
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	102 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0400€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

QA INTERNATIONAL

YOUNG EXPLORER'S GUIDE

Some plants and animals on our planet are so incredible that the first human beings to see them were speechless with astonishment.

Set out for the far reaches of the Earth, on the trail of these living treasures, using the fins, paws, or feathers of the great travelers. Become a famous explorer, and set your own itinerary as you journey across continents and through the ages.

But as you travel through time and space, remember that you are not just a tourist. Along the way, you must collect letters that will help you solve a number of riddles.

Cataloguing in Publication Data Young Explorers’ Guide: Living Treasures

Includes index. For ages 8 and over.

Young Explorers’ Guide: Living Treasures QA International 329 De La Commune St. West, 3rd Floor Montreal, Quebec H2Y 2E1 Canada T514.499.3000F514.499.3010 www.qa-international.com

ISBN 978-2-7644-0913-8

© QA International, 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in Singapore. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 11 10 09 08 07 06

Editorial Director François Fortin Caroline Fortin Editor Martine Podesto Chief Writer Marie-Anne Legault Translator Donna Vekteris Graphic Designer Josée Noiseux Layout Émilie Corriveau Danielle Quinty Art Director Anouk Noël Illustrators Manuela Bertoni Alain Lemire Raymond Martin

Illustrator (cover) Jocelyn Gardner Project Managers Nathalie Fréchette Odile Perpillou Research and Photo Acquisition Gilles Vézina Fact Checking Stéphanie Lanctôt Proofreading Veronica Schami Editorial Services Production Guylaine Houle Prepress Kien Tang

YOUNG EXPLORER'S GUIDE

QA INTERNATIONAL

y u Oceania

Asia

Europe

Africa Y Senegal River, West Africa, p. 23 UEgypt, p. 55 Red Sea Coast,

Europe Q Davis Strait, Greenland (Denmark), p. 59 W Northumberland County, England (U.K.), p. 29 EFrance, p. 99 Vendée Marshes, RGreece, p. 151 Olynthos, T Dereivka, Ukraine, p. 69

I Roha (Lalibela), Ethiopia, p. 91 OTanzania, p. 129 Serengeti Plain, Pp. 117 Northern Namibia, { Gansbaai, South Africa, p. 73 }Madagascar, p. 147 Forêt d’Ambre,

Asia qMongolia, p. 41 Gobi Desert, wIndia, p. 109 Coromandel Coast, e Dali State, China, p. 139 r Sumatra Island, Indonesia, p. 15 t Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia, p. 95

Antarctica

Africa

{

}

North America [ Aleutian Islands,Alaska (U.S.), p. 143 ] St. Lawrence Valley, Canada, p. 77

Oceania and Antarctica yYork Peninsula, Cape Australia, p. 63 u Queensland Coast, Australia, p. 37 i Port Jackson (Sydney), Australia, p. 7 o South Australia, p. 103 p Cape Crozier, Antarctica, p. 125

Central America G K J L South : America

AFRICA

ASIA

] North America

OCEANIA AND ANTARCTICA

RIDDLES EUROPE

[

NORTH AMERICA

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

A Sierra Nevada, California (U.S.), p. 45 S Nonsuch Island, Bermuda, p. 19 DHawaii (U.S.), p. 87 Island of Maui, F Sonoran Desert, Mexico, p. 121

Central and South America GCosta Rica, p. 33 Drake Bay, H Galapagos Rift, p. 135 J Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, p. 51 K Kaw Swamp, French Guiana, p. 11 L Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil, p. 81 : Andes mountain range, Peru, p. 113

Riddles to Solve

EUROPE In the 16th century, in Autun, France, these animals were called to justice for having eaten the villagers’ harvest. The lawyer who defended them managed to obtain the minimum sentence: God’s curse.

AFRICA In Ancient Egypt, these animals were worshipped as gods. When one of them died, the members of its adopted family shaved their eyebrows as a sign of mourning.

ASIA In 1996, in Calcutta, India, this animal was stopped by the police for shoplifting. The police station was then besieged by its fellow creatures, who called for its liberation with loud cries.

OCEANIA AND ANTARCTICAAt a crime scene, this animal’s fingerprints could be confused with those of a human.

NORTH AMERICA On October 17, 2000, this large animal, weighing 300 pounds (135 kg), flew first-class with its owner on a flight from Philadelphia to Seattle.

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA This hardy and widespread animal can live for a month with its head cut off before finally dying of thirst or hunger!

World Map For the purposes of this adventure, the world is divided into six large regions, each with its own number of discovery destinations.You will find these regions, the discovery destinations, and the six riddles to solve on the world map on pages 4 and 5.We suggest you photocopy the map.This will allow you to orient yourself at any point.You can also use it to mark out your route and write down the letters as you find them.

Hidden Letters Each discovery destination corresponds to an article in the book. Reading an article MAY reveal one or more letters of the riddle linked to a particular region.To solve a riddle, you will have to travel around a region, find the hidden letters and put them in order.

Navigation The last page of each article offers you a choice of three new discovery destinations. It is up to you to choose what direction to take. Careful! You may sometimes have to retrace your steps to reach your desired destination.

Ready for the adventure? Start your voyage at Port Jackson, on page 7.

20 Port Jackson, Australia AD1798 ou are the governor of a gigantic island. This recently Y explored territory occupied by England is called the “Fifth Continent.” The colony is currently serving as a prison. Hundreds of English convicts have been sent here in the last few years. Sitting at your worktable, you are busy managing the affairs of the new colony when, suddenly, a group of agitated explorers bursts into your office. Your annoyance at this intrusion turns to curiosity when your visitors claim that the box they are carrying contains an absolutely amazing creature. They captured it by the Hawkesbury River. One of the explorers exclaims, “It’s a sort of fur-covered duck!” Another immediately interrupts him. “It’s a strange kind of otter that looks like a bird!” A third one adds, “It’s an incredible, bizarre mixture of different animals!” They open the box before you. Stunned, you exclaim, “Impossible!”

This strange creature the size of a cat does not look like any known animal! You quickly decide to ship it to England, where scientists will be able to study it more closely. Upon receiving the unusual package, the English naturalists cry “Hoax!” In vain, they search for stitches between the duck’s head, otter’s body, and beaver’s tail. This “hoax,” which in the end is not, turns out to be one of the greatest animal discoveries of all time! ••• In 1799, English naturalist George Shaw confirmed that the creature from Australia was authentic. He called itPlatypus anatinusfirst word is Greek (the for “flat-footed” and the second word is Latin for “ducklike”). A year later, German anatomist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach renamed itOrnithorhynchus, meaning “bird nose.” Today, its scientific name is a combi-nation of its former names: Ornithorhynchus anatinus. It’s commonly known as the “platypus.”

ABORIGINAL LEGEND In Australia, an Aboriginal legend tells how the first platypus would have been born out of the union of a male water rat and a female duck. Their offspring would have inherited the beak and webbed feet of their mother—and the brown fur and four legs of their father!

The platypus is an aquatic animal that brings together, in an unusual way, some of the traits of birds, mammals, and even reptiles. Like the duck, the platypus has a beak and webbed feet. It uses them to explore the lake and riverbeds in search of food, such as small shellfish and insect larvae. Like reptiles and birds, the female platypus

lays eggs. She hatches them in a burrow she has dug into a riverbank or lakeshore. This burrow may be more than 33 feet (10 m) deep! Like some snakes, the male platypus carries a powerful venom. It is located in the spurs on the animal’s hind feet. Being “stung” by a platy-pus can be fatal to asmall animal and extreme-ly painful to a human.

Platypus

Despite the features associated with birds and reptiles, scientists definitely consider the platypus a mammal. Not only is its body covered in dense fur, but the female has mammary glands for nursing her young after the eggs hatch. However, this creature is so unusual that a new category of mammal, the monotreme, had to be created in order to classify it.

34 MONOTREMES Monotremes are oviparous, which means the females lay eggs. This is different from other female mammals, which carry their babies in their abdomen until they are born. Monotremes include the platypus as well as five species of echidna, which are spine-covered animals found in Australia and New Guinea. Scientists call monotremes “living fossils” because they have preserved their distant ancestors’ primitive characteristics.These first mammals, which appeared more than 100 million years ago, were related to reptiles.

Echidna