4th Grade Reading Comprehension (Set 2) - Camel

_____How long could you live without food or water? One or two days maybe? The camel is an animal that can survive many days without food or drink. Camels would have great problems if they couldn’t do this, because most of them live in very dry parts of the world.
_____A camel is a rather strange looking animal. It has a hump on its back and big flat feet. Each part of its body helps keep the camel alive in a place where little else can live. A camel can store extra food or fat in its hump. This food can keep it alive for many days. The flat feet of a camel do not SINK in soft sand. And its hard mouth can even chew on sharp desert plants! Long eyelashes keep sand out of the camel’s eyes.
_____Camels do not really like people, but they are a big help to them just the same. Desert people use camels the way we use cars. They ride on camels and use them to carry things across the hot sand. Camels are sometimes called “ships of the DESERT.”