Multiple Sources

What idea do "How We Speak" and "Vocal Chords?" share?

• Several parts of our bodies work together to let us speak.

• Your mouth and tongue help you form vowels.

• We can make sounds because we have vocal folds.

• Air travels from the lungs to the voice box.

Choose one detail from each source to support the idea that several body parts work together to help us speak.

• "Speaking is possible because we have special parts in our bodies: lungs, throat, voice box, tongue, and lips." ("How We Speak")

• "When we speak we release air from our lungs." ("How We Speak")

• "The larynx, often called the voice box, contains vocal chords that stretch across the opening". ("How We Speak")

• "Actually, vocal chords are vocal folds, or many layers of tissue that vibrate in your larynx." ("What are Vocal Chords?")

• "What happens next is that we use our throat, tongue, mouth, and lips to shape the sounds into vowels and consonants." ("What are Vocal Chords?")

Which word in the paragraph below means "capable of bending easily without breaking".

So why can't a dog speak? The big difference is in a dog's anatomy. A dog's mouth is not as flexible as a humans. A dog can't move its mouth to make it smaller or roll its tongue in different positions. So after the air passes through the vocal chords, the dog can't change the sound very much.

• positions

• anatomy

• difference

• flexible

What information in "What are Vocal Chords?" helps the reader understand why dog's can't speak, as stated in, "Dogs and Birds: Making Noise"?

• People can make higher sounds by tightening their vocal chords and lower sounds by relaxing their chords.

• Even though we don't often think about how we say words and sentences, we don't learn to speak automatically.

• People move their mouths to form words from the sounds made by the vocal chords.

• The vocal chords of humans are not like the strings of a guitar because they have a V-Shape.

Explain how people and animals make noise. Use evidence from "How We Speak", "What are Vocal Chords?", and "Dogs and Birds: Making Noise".