Text Desert People Level P
Text Desert People Level P
Text Desert People Level P
Desert
People
PT
Written by
David Meissner
BRITISH ENGLISH
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Desert
People
Photo Credits:
Front cover: Hemis/Alamy Images; back cover: Ruth Fremson/AP Images;
title page, page 17: Terry Trewin/epa/Corbis; pages 3, 7 (background):
Robert Glusic/Photodisc/Getty Images; pages 4, 5: iStockphoto.com/
Chee-Onn Leong; page 6 (background): iStockphoto.com/Alexander
Hafemann; page 7 (top): Francis Morgan/ Learning AZ; page 8:
iStockphoto.com/Anton Foltin; pages 9, 11: iStockphoto.com/James
Metcalf; page 10: iStockphoto.com/Erik Bettini; page 12: Jon Arnold
Images/photolibrary; page 13: iStockphoto.com/Maze; page 15:
Photodisc; page 16 (main): Antony Mcauley/Dreamstime.com; page 16
(inset): iStockphoto.com/Okan Metin; page 18: iStockphoto.com/Joost van
Stuijters; page 19: iStockphoto.com/Scott Hirko
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
Bedouin: (BED-oo-in)
Tohono Oodham: (toe-hoe-noh OH-eh-dom)
Desert People
Level P Levelled Book
Learning AZ
ISBN 1-59827- 987- 4
Written by David Meissner
All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com
www.readinga-z.com
Correlation
LEVEL P
Fountas & Pinnell
Reading Recovery
DRA
M
28
28
Table of Contents
What Is a Desert?.................................... 4
Desert Living .......................................... 5
The Tohono Oodham ............................ 7
The Bedouin .......................................... 12
More Desert People.............................. 17
Glossary ................................................. 20
What Is a Desert?
Would you know a desert if you
saw one? Would it have camels or
rattlesnakes? Would it have sand
or rocks?
Earth has many different kinds of
deserts but all deserts are dry. They
usually get less than 25.4 centimetres
(10 in) of rain a year. Some deserts are
very cold but most are sunny and hot.
Desert People Level P
CONTINENT
CLIMATE
310,100 sq km
North America
9,064,960 sq km
Africa
1,036,000 sq km
Asia
Gobi
139,860 sq km
South America
Driest desert in
the world
Atacama
Sahara
SIZE
Sonoran
TERRAIN
Gravel plains,
mountains, sand
dunes
Flat basins,
mountains
Atacama
Indians
Mongols
EXAMPLE OF
DESERT PEOPLE
Desert Living
Compare these four deserts. Notice that they are all different.
Word Wise
Meat
The Tohono Oodham hunted
rattlesnakes, rabbits and birds in the
desert. In the mountains, they killed
deer, mountain sheep and sometimes
even bears.
A desert jackrabbit
10
Desert Foods
The Tohono
Oodham also
gathered wild
desert foods like
chilli peppers,
Prickly pear cactus fruits
onions, beans
and cactus fruits. In the mountains,
they found acorns, roots and pine nuts.
Oodham men even made four-day trips
to the ocean to get salt!
The Oodham traded salt and cactus
syrup with other native peoples for
corn, beans and wheat. This food helped
the Oodham during long periods
without rain.
Drinking Water
Some Oodham villages were near springs
and streams. Inhabitants of other villages
dug wells in the ground. Many people
lived far away from water. Young girls
hiked into mountain canyons to get water.
Desert People Level P
11
Bedouin tents are low to the ground so the wind will not blow
them over.
The Bedouin
Can you imagine moving to a new
place every week? Another desert
people, known as the Bedouin, moved
from place to place on camels in search
of food and water. Because they moved
so often, the Bedouin owned very few
items. Bedouin means people of
the desert.
The Bedouin lived in tents. In a few
hours, they could pack up and move.
Today, many Bedouins still travel the
Syrian, Arabian and Sahara deserts.
12
13
14
Gobi Desert
Arabian Desert
Australian Desert
Sahara Desert
Kalahari Desert
Deserts cover roughly one-fifth of the Earths surface. Can you find the Sonoran Desert? The Sahara Desert?
Sonoran Desert
Atacama Desert
Meat
The Bedouin hunted desert animals for
food. Sometimes trained dogs rode with
the Bedouin to track animals. Can you
imagine a dog riding a camel?
Drinking Water
The Bedouin knew where to find oases.
They dug wells to pull water from the
ground. They carried the water in bags
made of camel skin.
15
16
17
Tr
y
hi
Glossary
adapt (v.)
to adjust to new
conditions (p. 5)
Australian
Aborigines (n.)
Atacama
Desert (n.)
Bushmen (n.)
dung (n.)
nomads (n.)
oases (n.)
19
20