Reading comprehension:exploring the foja
in2005,researchers from the institute of scienceovered several new species of plants and animals during a trip to the remote foja mountains ofwestern new guinea.
ateam of explorers returned to the foja mountains in the summer of2007. on this trip,they found an extraordinary rat. it wasenormous. the giant rat might be a species new to science.biologist martua sinaga believes thiswas another important discovery for the region.
"the giant rat isabout five times the size of atypical rat,"sinaga said,picking it up to pose for a photo. "with no fear of humans,it came into camp several times during the trip."the rat came into the camplooking for food and at first the scientists thought it might be acat. "i have a cat about the same size"explained another researcher,kris helgen, "but then i realized this was something different."at 82 centimeters long,weighing 1.4 hilograms,it is the largest species of rat known anywhere in the world.