Making Inferences

Exercise 1: A. Read the text carefully. B. Read the questions carefully. The storm began suddenly at seven o'clock in the evening. Firstly, the pine trees behind the house began to sway violently, and then, branches cracked and broke. Next, shingles from the roof began to fly. Just after that, a tree near the street crashed across the electric wires, and the house was in darkness. The children were terrified when the lights went out; nevertheless, they helped fasten all the doors and windows. At nine o'clock, the wind ceased, and rain came pouring down in torrents. By flickering candlelight, the family went into Ellen's bedroom and found the room in a mess. Ellen ran for a bucket, and then, covered the bed with raincoats. Adapted from, Intermediate English Skills Development Series Book 3, 4B Making Inferences. C. Answer the following questions: 1. What caused the tree branches to break? A strong wind caused the tree branches to break. 2. Why did they use candles? There was no electricity; therefore, they used candles so that they would be able to see in the dark. 3. Why did Ellen get a bucket? Ellen got a bucket to catch the water leaking through a hole in the ceiling. 4. Why did they fasten the doors and windows? They fastened the doors and windows in order to prevent the storm damaging the inside of the house. Exercise 2 0. Kelly concludes that her family is throwing a surprise birthday party for her. 1. Linda took the brownie. 2. The teenagers had a party. 3. They are twins. 4. The dog was playing with the telephone and accidentally dialled 911. 5. She has been picked for the school football team.

Context Clues
Explanation: After his huge lunch at the restaurant, Roland was so farctate that he was unable to eat anything else for a full six hours. Farctate means full. Alternative: My wife often scolds me regarding my bad habit of tachyphagia. In other words, she doesnt approve of the fact that Im a fast eater. Tachyphagia means eating quickly. Contrast: Although most people prefer to wear shoes when they walk, you may occasionally meet a nelipot. Nelipot means person who doesnt wear shoes. Examples: The public are sick of paying taxes to support boondoggling activities, such as painting buildings that are already painted, paving roads that are already paved and repairing computer systems that arent broken. Boondoggling means doing unnecessary jobs to use up money. Exercise 1: A. Read the following sentences. B. Use context clues to help you define the word "green" in each situation. 1. "Why are leaves green?" asked the child who was looking at a tree. "Green" means the colour. 2. "You're looking very green" said the teacher to the child who had just eaten some rotten food. "Green" means sick. 3. "I am very green" said the woman who liked to recycle all of her rubbish. "Green" means environmentally friendly. 4. "I'm feeling very green" said the man when he saw his neighbour's expensive new car. "Green" means envious. 5. "He's very green, so let's help him out as much as possible" said the manager who was talking about a new employee at the office. "Green" means inexperienced/new.

Exercise 2 A. Read the following sentences. B. Use context clues to help you choose an appropriate word to fill each space. 1. I felt rather tired yesterday. I had been playing tennis all day, and then, I had to walk home because my car wouldn't start. 2. When he arrived at the theatre, his friends were already going inside. Some of them were carrying drinks and snacks while others were reading the programme in order to find out more about the play. 3. Bob bought himself a new 16GB MP3 player last week. All his friends had one, and he was tired of listening to theirs. Besides, he could go running on the beach with it in the evenings. 4. He found his keys under the car after looking for more than 10 minutes. He must have dropped them there when he got out after arriving home from work. If he hadn't found them, he would have had to take the bus.

Exercise 3: Read the following text; then, use the missing words to fill in the blank spaces. We think of weather in terms of how hot or cold it is outside. The type of precipitation is also important; is there going to be rain, snow or sleet? Is it going to be windy, humid, sunny, or cloudy? These are the things we experience, the factors that make up weather as far as our senses are concerned. The climate on Earth has a unique combination of these factors and what causes daily changes in the weather. Weather is the condition of the atmosphere hour-by-hour, day-byday. The weather can change drastically from one day to the next. It can be snowing in one place and sunny in a place 40 KM away. These types of weather are associated with weather systems. The study of weather systems helps predict the weather. Meteorology is the branch of science devoted to the study of weather patterns and weather prediction. Adapted from, Intermediate Academic Upgrading Science Learning Packages IAU-S 7.2. 40 KM away meteorology climate cold weather systems weather precipitation