In the folklore of the Navajo people, it was said that frogs and toads fell from the sky when it (1)________. The phenomenon that gave rise to this belief involved the spade foot toad, which remains dormant beneath the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, (2)_________ the heat and drought for as long as eight or nine months. With the onset of summer thunderstorms, however, the toads respond to the vibrations of drumming raindrops and emerge, as if fallen from the sky with the rain, (3)__________their ...

In the folklore of the Navajo people, it was said that frogs and toads fell from the sky when it (1)________. The phenomenon that gave rise to this belief involved the spade foot toad, which remains dormant beneath the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, (2)_________ the heat and drought for as long as eight or nine months. With the onset of summer thunderstorms, however, the toads respond to the vibrations of drumming raindrops and emerge, as if fallen from the sky with the rain, (3)__________their brief and frantic mating season.

The male spade foot sits in a muddy pool and fills the night with his calls, attempting to attract a female of the same species. Once a female joins him, she may lay as many as 1,000 eggs in the small pool of rainwater. From that point it’s a race against the elements for the young, (4)_________ must hatch and mature with remarkable speed before the pool evaporates beneath the searing desert sun. As the pool grows smaller and smaller, it became thick with tadpoles fighting for survival in the mud, threatened not only by the loss of their watery nest but also by devouring insects and animals. In as few as nine days after fertilization of the eggs, those lucky enough to survive develop through each tadpole stage and finally emerge as fully formed toads. After (5)______ themselves on insects, the young toads like their parents, burrow underground, where they will lie dormant awaiting the next summer’s storms.