What the Studies Say: teacher key

Cats, grade 10 edition, written for 10th grade. How a cat's urgent purr works on people, whether big cats really purr, and what scientists still cannot say about how wildcats became house cats.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What happened when the team removed the embedded cry from the purrs?
   • Listeners rated the calls as less urgent (answer)
   • Listeners rated them as more urgent
   • Cats stopped purring
2. Why did the team train owners to record their own cats?
   • Owners are paid
   • The cats would not make these purrs for strangers (answer)
   • The owners know how to sing
3. What did the 2002 review find about cat species?
   • No big cats purr
   • 20 of 36 cat species purr, including some big cats (answer)
   • Only house cats purr
4. What does the house-cat DNA suggest about the Chinese cats?
   • They may not be the source of modern pets (answer)
   • They are the only ancestors of pet cats
   • They were wildcats that could not be tamed
5. What does embedded mean?
   • Tucked inside (answer)
   • Thrown away
   • Spread wide

Words

• solicitation: asking for something
• embedded: tucked inside
• skittish: easily scared
• millet: a grain
• domestication: taming over generations