Nature · Level 1 · 115 words

The Frog That Freezes

Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.

The wood frog lives in cold northern forests. It cannot dig deep or fly south. So in late autumn it lets winter win. The frog hides under leaves. When hard frost comes, ice forms under its skin. Its heart slows, then stops. It does not breathe. All winter it lies still, like a frog made of glass.

But the frog is not dead. Before it freezes, its body fills with sugar. The sugar works like antifreeze in a car. It keeps the ice from cutting the soft parts inside. In spring the ground warms, and the ice inside melts. Its heart gives one beat, then another. Soon the frog hops off to find a pond.

Comprehension questions

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4 questions
1. What is the passage mainly about?

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D. How the wood frog survives winter by freezing and then thawing out alive.
The passage covers the whole cycle: the frog freezes in autumn, lies still all winter, and wakes when the ice inside it melts. The sugar and the frost are parts of that story, not the main point on their own.

2. Why does the wood frog "let winter win"?

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B. It has no way to escape the cold, so freezing is its only choice.
The second sentence is the clue: the frog "cannot dig deep or fly south." Other animals escape winter by going under it or leaving. This frog can do neither, so its body found a third way: go through the freeze instead of around it.

3. In "All winter it lies still," the word "still" means:

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C. without moving
"Still" has several meanings. This one follows "Its heart slows, then stops" and "It does not breathe": the sentence is describing a body with no movement at all.

4. According to the passage, what does the sugar in the frog's body do?

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A. It keeps the ice from cutting the soft parts inside.
The passage states the sugar's job right after the antifreeze comparison. Melting is a different step; the warm spring ground does that, not the sugar.

Source: Written for Fluency. Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.