Quick Check 3 in English 4

Spring has come. The frogs are at the pond. The mother frogs are laying their eggs. Mother frogs lay many eggs. Each egg is about the size of a match head.

In a few days a tadpole starts to grow inside each egg. A tadpole is a baby frog. Soon the tadpole starts to wiggle inside the egg.

When it's very small, the tadpole stays close to some water plant. A little tadpole can't swim very fast. So it must hide from fish and other water animals that might try to eat it. As the tadpole gets older, its head gets bigger. It also loses its outside gills and grows new gills inside its body. Its tail gets bigger too. Now it can swim better and get more food.

Most of the time a tadpole eats algae. Algae are tiny green water plants. But sometimes a big tadpole will eat a smaller tadpole.

When the tadpole reaches its full size, it starts to change into a frog.

First its back legs get big. If the tadpole loses a toe at this time, it can grow a new toe. If it loses a leg, it can grow a new leg, It can even grow a new tail. It is now six to eight weeks old.

After the tadpole's back legs have grown big, its front legs get big. At about this time, the tadpole's mouth gets big and wide too. The tadpole loses its gills. It grows lungs. When it has lungs, the tadpole can leave the water. It can live on land.

The tadpole now looks like a frog, except for its tail. The tail starts to get smaller and smaller. And one day in late summer the tail is all gone.

The tadpole isn't a tadpole anymore. It's a frog.