[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-486995-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-486995-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","scarecrows-around-the-world-solve-each-problem","Scarecrows Around the World - Solve Each Problem","","A passage explains what a scarecrow is and traces its origins, showing that early “scarecrows” varied across cultures—from Egyptian quail traps and Greek guardian images to Japan’s kakashi and medieval Britain’s birdscarers. It also examines why stationary figures lose effectiveness as birds adapt, noting scientific findings that bird control requires movement, change, noise, or pairing. Finally, it connects the tradition’s survival to people’s affection, festivals, and folk art displays.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/","Exam",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/scarecrows-around-the-world-solve-each-problem/486995/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/scarecrows-around-the-world-solve-each-problem/486995.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"acoobca","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-09-30",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What central debate shapes the scarecrow’s story in the passage?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It centers on whether scarecrows truly work and how the custom spread worldwide.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the passage explain the origin of Japan’s kakashi?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It begins with rice farmers hanging old rags, fish bones, and meat to create a smelly deterrent, and later evolves into a human figure while keeping the original name.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why do scientists doubt the scarecrow’s reputation with birds?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Birds notice that a stationary scarecrow never threatens them, so its deterrent effect fades quickly unless it is moved, changed, or combined with other signals.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},486995,1790837493,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,95,100,105,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":33,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":123,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},3985747870733,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Picture a lone figure standing in a field at dawn, arms flung wide, a battered hat tilted over a face of stuffed cloth. You know exactly what it is, and so does a crow perched on the fence a few feet away-which is precisely the problem. A scarecrow is a human-shaped decoy that farmers set up to frighten birds away from their crops, usually a wooden cross draped in old clothes and packed with straw. For thousands of years, people have trusted this quiet guardian to protect the harvest, yet the story of the scarecrow is really a debate: does it actually work, and how did such a strange custom spread across the whole world?  \nThat debate is much older than you might guess, because the first scarecrows were not scarecrows at all. Along the Nile around 3,000 years ago, Egyptian farmers stretched nets over wooden frames to trap quails that raided their wheat, turning pest control into dinner. The ancient Greeks took a different route, carving wooden statues of Priapus, a minor god of gardens, and standing them among the vines to guard the grapes. Notice the distinction: the Egyptians built a trap, while the Greeks built an image meant to warn intruders away. Both ideas survive in today's scarecrow, which is part figure and part bluff.  \nThat idea of a guardian figure took on strikingly different shapes depending on where farmers lived. In Japan, rice farmers hung old rags, fish bones, and meat on tall poles and set them smoking, creating a smelly deterrent they called kakashi, a word that comes from a verb meaning \"to stink. \" Later the kakashi became a full human figure with a straw hat and a bow, but the old name stuck, a reminder of its reeking beginnings. In medieval Britain, meanwhile, landowners are said to have sent young children called \"birdscarers\" into the fields to run about, clap, and throw stones at crows. When plague swept through and left fewer workers in the 1300s, some historians argue, stuffed figures began replacing the missing children.  \nWhether or not a shortage of children truly created the modern scarecrow, the finished figure clearly borrowed from all these traditions. European settlers carried the custom to North America, where Indigenous farmers had long used their own methods, including people who sat on raised platforms to shout at birds. The classic straw-stuffed dummy you imagine-crossed poles, flannel shirt, painted burlap face-really took shape in these fields, cheap to build from whatever was lying around. Here the object had become pure image, no trap and no smoke, relying entirely on the bluff the Greeks had started. And a bluff, as any crow will tell you, has a short shelf life.  \nThat short shelf life is exactly what makes scientists doubt the scarecrow's reputation. Crows and other birds are clever enough to notice that the silent figure never moves or threatens them, so within days they treat it as a convenient perch rather than a danger. Researchers who study bird control generally agree that a stationary scarecrow loses its effect quickly unless it is moved often, changed, or paired with noise, motion, or reflective objects. In other words, the very thing that makes a scarecrow comforting to us-its stillness-is what makes it useless to the birds it is supposed to fool. The evidence suggests the scarecrow may have survived less because it works and more because we love the sight of it.  \nLoving the sight of it is why the scarecrow refuses to retire, even now that machines and lasers do the real work of guarding crops. Towns across Britain, the United States, and Japan hold scarecrow festivals each autumn, where residents build hundreds of figures dressed as superheroes, celebrities, and storybook characters and line the streets with them. Japan's village of Nagoro became famous for a different reason: a woman named Tsukimi Ayano filled her nearly empty village with life-sized straw dolls, far outnumbering the human residents. What began as a smoky pole on the Nile has ended up as folk art po","cbCaipCDWkjzzDXq","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipCDWkjzzDXq","pdf",94748,"English","# Central debate and origins\n## Japanese kakashi and medieval Britain\n# Scientific skepticism and bird behavior\n## Why scarecrows persist today\n# Festivals and Nagoro","[{\"question\":\"What central debate shapes the scarecrow’s story in the passage?\",\"answer\":\"It centers on whether scarecrows truly work and how the custom spread worldwide.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the passage explain the origin of Japan’s kakashi?\",\"answer\":\"It begins with rice farmers hanging old rags, fish bones, and meat to create a smelly deterrent, and later evolves into a human figure while keeping the original name.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do scientists doubt the scarecrow’s reputation with birds?\",\"answer\":\"Birds notice that a stationary scarecrow never threatens them, so its deterrent effect fades quickly unless it is moved, changed, or combined with other signals.\"}]","Scarecrows Around the World - Solve Each Problem | PDF",1790807579,25]