ISALC: ESL 382: Computer Applications - Fall 2000
Hatchet: Student Survival Guide

This is what I knew about mosquitoes before reading Hatchet:

Every one knows about mosquitoes. Every one knows they are not usually harmful for humans. Some people thought the mosquitoes make many diseases for humans, but that is wrong. Mosquitoes carry some diseases, for example, Malaria. The mosquitoes live where they find any kind of water. For example, you can find mosquitoes in the river, lake, beach and ocean. They hatch from eggs. When the eggs hatch, they make many baby mosquitoes at the same time. That is what I knew about mosquitoes.

This is why mosquitoes were important in Hatchet:

Mosquitoes are very important in Hatchet. Brian doesn't know what to believe about mosquitoes because he saw in a movie that mosquitoes are harmful for humans, but most are not harmful for humans. After the plane crashed, he saw the mosquitoes. After that, the mosquitoes flew into his face and bit him a lot.

After reading Hatchet and completing my Internet research, this is what I have learned about mosquitoes:

All people know about mosquitoes. It's a kind of small insect which can fly. Some spread disease, but most are not harmful for humans. Mosquitoes originally came from New Guinea in west of Indian Ocean. After World War II, mosquitoes started to expand to Hawaii. Then they started to come into the U.S.

You can see mosquitoes with your eyes, but you can't see small parts of its body because it's very small. Its color is black and they have small legs, which look like spider legs. They have small head and small black eyes. Some people thought mosquitoes are harmful for people, but that is the wrong idea because they don't usually do anything that affects the body.

Mosquitoes like to live in places which have water. Some of them like to live in running water and some of them like to live in still water. That depends on the kind of mosquitoes. Also some mosquitoes like to live where they find trashy places.

I found an article about one kind of mosquito. This kind of mosquito is named Tiger mosquito. This kind of mosquito is not harmful. They are bigger than regular mosquitoes. They have big legs and his eyes are bigger than regular mosquito eyes. Also they like to live where they find water, but this kind of mosquito likes to live in still water. You can't see this kind of mosquito in the US. This kind of mosquito lives in India. These kind of mosquitoes are very noisy when they fly because their wings are big.

Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 10/20/00