Reading week 2

tightly on and biked down the road carrying it.

        From the old wharf by the factories, I threw the bottle far out into the tide.  The water there was swift enough to carry it out to sea at least.

        That was last year.

        Amy is still in my class and she still seems lonely.  I haven't heard about the letter.  But then, that sort of mail can take ages to get to Australia or America.

Source:  School Journal, Pt 3, No. 1, 1991. Learning Media. Illustrated by Sarah Mathieson.

 

Personal mail

This task is about making inferences by identifying information in a story.

Read the story "Personal Mail" and follow the instructions below.

Read each sentence below and circle whether it is true or f

Down behind our place flows the muddy old river.  I often go there after school and watch the sticks and leaves drift sluggishly past.

        One time I found a plastic drink bottle stranded on the green slime.

        Noticing something different about the bottle, I fished it out.  Cutting the bottle open, I pulled out a piece of paper.  On the paper was written this letter.

        125 Riverside Road

        Wakanui

        New Zealand

        Dear friend,

                    If you find this letter please write to me.  I have brown hair and am 9 years old.    Please write to me, specially if you live in Australia or America.  I don't have many     friends here.

        Love from

        Amy Brown

        "What a laugh," I thought.  Amy Brown lives just up the river from us.  She's in my class, too.  Amy is strange and she really doesn't have many friends.  She's often away from school, and the kids only take notice of her if they want to tease her, or want something from her, like money for ice blocks.

        I put her letter in my pocket to show it around at school.

        But by the end of the week that letter was still in my pocket.  I supposed that really, like Amy, I was a bit lonely, too.  Or perhaps I just didn't have enough courage to be that mean.

        What about her letter?

        On Saturday morning I got another empty drink bottle and poked her letter into it.  I screwed the topalse. On the lines below each sentence, write some words from the story that help show whether the sentence is true or false. The first one has been done for you.

”Down behind our place flows the muddy old river.” a)      The boy in the story lives near a river.                                                                     True   /   False
True_its at The back of his house he goes nearly every after school time.__________________________________________________         ____________________________________________________

b)      The water in the river flows quickly.                                                                       True   /   False

        ___False because the mudd can sometimes slow down the water in the river ..___________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

c)      When the boy first reads the letter he thinks it is a bit of a joke.          

True   /   False

       True because when he reads it he says what a joke. ______________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

d) The reason the boy decides not to show the letter around at school is that he is worried he will get into trouble.

True   /   False

               False because he sent a letter back to her and by the end of the week it was still in his pocket ______________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

e)      The boy has lots of friends.                                                                                     True   /   False

Maybe because it says he sometimes feels lonely as well .______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

f)   The boy throws the bottle out to sea because he thinks it will have  a better chance of floating to another place than it will in the river.

True   /   False

       

       True he might think that it will take a long time to wash out to sea ______________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

g) The boy is the sort of person who notices how other people are feeling.

     True   /   False

       

        __True because everybody has feelings. ____________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

h)      The boy never tells Amy about finding her letter.                                      

True   /   False

        ______________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

i)       The boy wants to believe that the bottle will arrive in Australia or America.

True   /   False

Australia and true because he chucked it as far as he can.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

j)   Briefly describe a time when you felt a bit like the boy in this story.

        once in my basketball team nearly everybody was like leaving out in the conversation _____________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

        ______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________