Inheritance — Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

Inheritance

Have you ever noticed that you might have your mother’s eye color or your father’s smile? The traits we get from our parents are passed down through a process called inheritance. Inheritance is how living things receive characteristics from one generation to the next.

A trait is any feature that can be observed in a living thing. Eye color, hair color, height, and the shape of a leaf are all examples of traits. Some traits, like the color of your eyes, are inherited from your parents. Other traits, like the muscles you build through exercise, develop during your life and are not passed on.

Living things inherit traits through tiny structures called genes. Genes are sections of a long molecule called DNA, which is found inside the cells of every living thing. DNA acts like a set of instructions that tells the body how to grow, develop, and work. Each child gets half of their genes from their mother and half from their father.

Because children inherit genes from both parents, they often have a mix of traits from each. Two brown-eyed parents might have a child with brown eyes, but it is also possible for two brown-eyed parents to have a blue-eyed child if both parents carry a hidden gene for blue eyes. Scientists who study inheritance are called geneticists.

Inheritance is not just for people. Plants and animals also pass traits to their offspring. Farmers and gardeners take advantage of this when they choose seeds from the strongest, tastiest, or most colorful plants. Over many generations, this kind of selection can produce new varieties of crops, flowers, and even pets.

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