Irrelevant Details #2

Your purpose with this activity is to find the one irrelevant detail, the one that DOES NOT belong in each of the passages.

DIsclaimer - I found these old sheets and have no source to give credit.

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(1) The solar system is believed to have formed, perhaps five billion years ago, from a spinning cloud of gas called a nebula. (2) As this nebula contracted, it began to spin faster and faster. (3) Probably it spun off rings of planetary matter as it became more disk-like. (4) These rings later contracted into planets. (5) Earth is the third planet from the sun.

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(1) Some people do not know that the whale is a mammal just like a human. (2) Humpback whales will sometimes leap clear up out of the water, an act known as breaching. (3) A humpback whale can weigh thirty tons and measure 15 meters in length. (4) So it takes an enormous amount of energy for a whale to breach.

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(10) The largest organ in the human body is the skin. (2) One of the skin's functions is to help regulate the amount of body heat that flows in and out of the body. (3) Heavy smoking ages skin very quickly. (4) When it is cold, we cover the skin with extra layers of clothing to slow down the outward flow of heat. (5) When it is hot, evaporation of sweat cools us down.

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(1) The largest set of wings on any bird, more than three meters across, is found on the albatross. (2) They are so heavy that it is difficult for the albatross to flap them in order to take off and fly. (3) Not all large birds can fly. (4) Albatross often nest on steep cliffs so that they can simply fall off into the air. (5) Once they are airborne, they soar gracefully.

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(1) Lake Baikal in central Asia is the deepest lake in the world. In places, it is 1.5 kilometers deep. (2) The lake contains about one sixth of the world's fresh-water supply. (3) It contains over 1,200 species of animals and 500 species of plants. (4) Many of these plants and animals are not to be found anywhere else on Earth. (5) The name Baikal comes from the Mongolian word that means "nature".

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) Ice floats on water because it is not quite as dense as water is. (2) the chemical formula for water is H₂O. (3) If ice were denser than water, then lakes and other bodies of water would freeze from the bottom up during the winter. (4) Fish would surface and eventually die.

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(1) Being thin was not always viewed as being desired. (2) Thinness became the most alarming and deadliest of obsessions. (3) Once upon a time, thin women were considered poor and sickly, unsuitable for nurturing a large family. (4) What exactly happened to change our view of beauty. (5) The bathing suit undoubtedly played a role in determining the ideal body shape.

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(1) Blue jeans in the last thirty years have attained such popularity that they have become an American icon. (2) It was not until the late 1960s, however, that blue jeans became the universally worn clothing item it is today. (3) In the history of fashion, no other garment has served as an example of status ambivalence and ambiguity than blue jeans. (4) At its birth, blue jeans were created for the California coal miners in the mid-nineteenth century. (5) Levi Strauss was 17 years old when he emigrated from Bavaria to New York in 1847.

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(1) Even if it sounds odd to many of us, some ice cream manufacturers allegedly once tried a ketchup ice cream. (2) Ketchup dates back as far as 1600 AD, when sailors traveling to China discovered a sauce called ketsiap. (3) It was a sauce that was made out of soy or oysters and didn't contain tomatoes. (4) This version quickly changed ingredients to include mushrooms, anchovies and lemon peel. (5) This version quickly ketchup began the transformation to today's sweet tomato version.

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