dive oysters aqualungs a pearl a mask

1. They help pearl divers to breathe under water.

2. They have a shell and they live under the sea.

3. It grows inside an oyster or a clam.

4. A pearl diver wears this on his face.

5. You do this when you go into the water with your head first.

Pearls are beautiful and they are always expensive. In the past only rich people could buy pearls. Now pearls are much cheaper because people grow them on oyster farms. Many people make rings, ear-rings, bracelets and necklaces with pearls.Some people put pearls on their clothes and shoes, too.

Many kings and queens have pearls in their crowns. Look at this picture of Queen Elizabeth the First of England. There are pearls in. her crown, on her ears, on her clothes and in her hair. Most pearls are small, hard and round. Most of them are white

but some are yellow, green, blue, grey, black or light purple. The most expensive pearl in the world is not round. It looks like an egg. It is not very big. It weighs 15.13 grams. It used to be in a king's crown Someone bought it for US$864,280 in 1988.

There are a few giant pearls. The biggest pearl in the world is called the Pearl of Laozi. It is 24 centimetres long and weighs

6.37 kilograms! A poor fisherman found it in Palawan in the Philippines on 7 Ma 1934. It inside a giant clam.