Editing

The Lazy Editor

When Killer Mice Attack

Yes, its for real. But dont be scared. Theyre not coming for you.
Theyre coming for the snakes. by Sarah McCarry
contains many terrible mistakes. Then follow the
prompts in the box on p. 29.

Guam is a small island in the Pacific Ocean, about

4,000 miles west of Hawaii. Its a beautiful place.

Songbirds flit among the trees, crystal-clear blue waters

teem with fish, and there are waterfalls throughout the

Their were thousands of them, and they came

dense jungle. But the tiny tropical paradise has a big

from the sky. Dangling from tiny parachutes, they

problem: snakes. An estimated 2 million brown tree

floated gently down, on a humanitarian mission to save

an embattled island from a relentless enemy. Were they
soldiers? Spies? Not exactly. They were micedead
miceand there job was to kill.

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Scholastic Scope March 2014

snakes are slithering around the island.

The snakes overrunning Guam likely arrived in

the 1950s, as stowaways on cargo ships and

planes. The snakes had no natural predators on Guam,

ILLUSTRATION BY TOM GARRETT; Fotolia

Directions: Read the following article, which

We love this story. Too bad we couldnt be

bothered to edit it! Will you fix it for us?
so the island was soon covered. In some areas, there are

Nothing has worked.

13,000 snakes per square mile! The snakes are wreaking

Nothing, that is, until

havoc on Guams delicate ecosystem. They like to prey

the mice assassins.

on birds, damage power lines, and to cause all kinds of

trouble. Nine out of the 12 bird species that are native to

Hardy as they are, brown tree snakes do have one

weakness: acetaminophen, an ingredient found

the island have become extinct, thanks to snacking

in painkillers like Tylenol. Just a total of 80 milligrams of

snakes. And the birds disappearance has damaged

acetaminophenan amount that is not harmful to

plant and tree species that depend on birds

to disperse their seeds.

But thats not all. The snakes, which can

grow to be 10 feet long, have a

Watch out, brown

tree snake. Those
parachuting mice
are coming for you.

dogs, cats, or most other animalscan kill a

brown tree snake dead. So scientists came up
with a plan. First, they laced dead mice with
acetaminophen. Then they attached each

tendency to bite humans. (Fortunately brown

and every mouse to a paper streamer that

tree snakes are only mildly venomous.) They

would work like a parachute. Finally, the mice

terrify tourists, who are urgent to Guams

were dropped over Guam from flying

economy, and cause millions of dollars

helicopters. The streamers caught in the

worth of damage and dozens of power

trees, delivering the poisonous mice right to

outages every year when they wriggle into electrical

equipment.

Scientists have tried a diversity of approaches to

control the snake population, including snake

traps, snake-sniffing dogs, and snake-hunting humans.

ILLUSTRATION BY dave CLEGG; Shutterstock (SNAKE)

Find It/Fix It

the snakes that hang out there.

Has it worked? So far, research shows the mice

have been effective in reducing and lowering the

snake population. But if you ever visit Guam, you might

want to look out for snakes . . . and falling mice.

Directions: Can you find the following errors in the

article and fix them? Write the answers on your own paper.

Paragraph 1: Sure, there, their, and theyre all sound the samebut they dont mean the same
thing. Please fix two there/their/theyre errors.
Paragraphs 2 & 3: Your job is to read these paragraphs, find two parallel-structure mistakes,
and to fix them.
Paragraphs 4 & 5: Looks like the writer got a little carried away with the thesaurus. A couple
of words in these paragraphs dont work in context. Please
Get
find and correct two word-choice mistakes.
for more practice,
MORE
Go to SCOPE online. Online!
Paragraphs 6 & 7: There are five redundant words or
phrases cluttering up these paragraphs. Please help!

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