Kokugo: イルカの眠り方

[Jembru]

As requested, here is the article about the sleeping habits of dolphins. It's an interesting read with some nice vocab here and there, and it's also something you can refer back to for ideas if you ever have to write an essay in Japanese. 

As ever, I must apologise for the quality if the images. Please don't be shy to request a sharper image if there's anything too hard to read. The shape of the book makes it hard to take a photo of the right hand side, so I've written the obscured line under the image. 


The line you can't quite see because of the shine reads; はやさがゆっくりとなり、いきつぎの回数も少なくなることが

[Jembru]

In the book this article is directly followed by a longer article about ants, and then the follow-up activity is to write a 感想文 (kansoubun) of the article. As I don't want to overload you with too much though, I thought you might like to do the accompanying workbook pages instead. 

I have the answer book too, so if anyone is brave enough to share their answers below (or you can PM me if you prefer), I'll let you know how you did!

[Bokusenou]

Great article! I always thought the way dolphins sleep was kind of cool. Growing up I went through a dolphin phase, and read every book in my local library about them. I wonder if they experience it kind of like how we experience daydreaming...

[stillstudying]

I just finished reading the article, for my preliminary run through. ^^ I found this one to be simpler to understand than the きつつきの商売 story, I don't know if they're intended for the same grade or not.

I didn't know about any of that before, so I found it to be informative for me. Now I'm going to go back and re-read it using a dictionary to look up what i don't know.

Also I think the picture quality is fine! I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm going to put my questions in a spoiler, just in case.

SPOILER: Click to show

in the line that says "水面に上がって、いきつぎをする" I'm a bit confused by いきつぎ, I've never come across this word before but looking it up I get "a breather, a breathing spell," which going off of the English I;m not sure what they're getting at... And it comes up again later so I'm assuming it is one word, is it supposed to be like a single breath?
Also, in the line that starts on the first page and ends on the second, does it mean that Sekiguchi thought that dolphins couldn't sleep during this time? A little confused about it since it seems to be negative.
むれを作り does this imply the dolphins grouped together while they swam in a circle?
かた目　for 1 eyeball, is it normally written like this or like 片目?
右半分　左半分　I know the meaning of these words through kanji, but I can't find them in any dictionaries... would the readings be みぎはんぶん　ひだりはんぶん? I'm guessing it's just the two words put together

[Jembru]

I guess I had better use a spoiler too then..

SPOILER: Click to show

いきつぎをする just means 'taking a breath' in this context.

ではないか is used in sentences like this to mean something like 'isn't it the case that..' when followed by phrases like と考える or と思う, its like 'wonder if it's not (the case that) or 'think it might be (the case that).. In this case you might translate it to something like, 'Sekiguchi wondered if this could mean the dolphins are sleeping at this time'.

You're right about むれを作り it is like saying 'the dolphins form a group'

かた目 is just written that way because the kids havent learn 片 yet.

I also think 右半分 and 左半分 are more naturally read みぎはんぶん and ひだりはんぶん, but I guess they could in theory be read うはんぶん and さはんぶん. The former feels more natural for sure, but you could always ask your teacher to be sure. And you're also right that it's just 右 and 左 modifying the word 半分.

[stillstudying]

Thank you so much! That clarified a lot for me. ^^