Answer: They spend the winter on the Texas coast (at and around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge) and nest in Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada.

Answer: By flying it with their parents.

Answer: about 15

“only about fifteen whooping cranes were counted.”

Answer: Hunters shot them, and settlers drained and plowed the wetlands where they nested and fed.

Answer: It allowed biologists to understand and protect both ends of the cranes' journey, not just the wintering grounds.

Answer: The whooping crane recovered from about fifteen birds to around 500 because of decades of patient conservation work, but it is still endangered and its story shows that saving a species takes long-term commitment.

Answer: The short fragment slows the reader down and emphasizes how shockingly few birds were left. It makes the danger of extinction feel real before the writer explains the recovery.

Answer: They do not breed until they are several years old, and a pair usually raises only one chick a year, so the population can grow only a little each year.

Answer: Any two: the wild Texas–Canada flock depends on one wintering area and one nesting area, so a single disaster could do great harm; cranes can collide with power lines during migration; drought can reduce the blue crabs and fresh water they depend on.

Answer: a scene-setting opening, followed by the problem, the recovery, ongoing threats and a reflective conclusion

The headings move from the opening scene through decline, recovery and threats to a reflection on why it matters.

Answer: That a species can be saved, even from the edge of extinction, if people decide it is worth saving and keep up the work over a long time.

Answer: recovered after coming very close to disaster (extinction)

The brink is the edge, here the edge of extinction.

Answer: loud and trumpet-like

A bugle is a brass instrument like a trumpet.

Answer: It places the reader in the scene (“Stand on an observation platform”) and builds suspense (“you may see one”) before naming the bird. Vivid details such as the “red crown and black wingtips” and the crane stabbing at the mud for a blue crab help the reader picture it.

Model answer: The story of the whooping crane shows that saving an endangered species takes protection, knowledge and, above all, patience. By 1941, hunting and the draining of wetlands had reduced the wild Texas flock to “only about fifteen” birds. The first step in their recovery was protection: the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1937, protected their wintering grounds, and laws protected the birds from hunting. Knowledge was just as important. When the nesting area was found in Wood Buffalo National Park in 1954, biologists could protect “both ends of the journey,” and careful winter counts let them track the flock's progress. However, the most important ingredient was time. Because cranes do not breed until they are several years old and usually raise only one chick a year, growth came slowly, “a few birds one year, a few more the next.” It took more than eighty years to reach around 500 birds. Even now, the species is still endangered because it depends on one wintering area and one nesting area. The crane's story proves that recovery is possible, but only when people make a long-term commitment and keep working long after the first success.