25-07-2014 07:00

There are plains in China where it rains very little. The plains usually get less than 40 millimetres a year. However, rain flooded the plains recently, and people discovered an unusual animal.

It is a kind of shrimp, and it is considered a living fossil. It is a species which is over 200 million years old, and it eats smaller animals. The shrimp lives only for 90 days, but its eggs can survive for 25 years. When there is water again, they hatch.

The shrimps are rare in China, but there is an area in California where they are numerous.

Difficult words: plain (large area of flat dry land), species (animal kind), hatch (leave the eggs), numerous (there are a lot of them).

You can read the original story and watch the video in the Level 3 section.