Making Inferences

Level FiveMrs. Hunsaker

A Lunch Date

Gloria invited her friend Peter to lunch on Saturday. They met at Peter’s favorite restaurant at 12:30 and were seated right away. The waiter brought menus, and Gloria and Peter spent a few minutes reading them. Gloria decided to have a patty melt, and Peter wanted some fried chicken. They were served quickly, and they both thought the food had been prepared well. In fact, said Gloria, it was the most delicious patty melt she had ever eaten. When the waiter brought the check, Peter tried to pay for it, but Gloria insisted on taking it. “After all, I invited you!” she said. So Peter thanked her and said. “The next one’s on me!”

Gloria and Peter probably

like each other.

argue a lot.

don’t know each other very well.

The restaurant was probably

crowded.

dirty.

not very busy.

Gloria probably

paid for the meal.

forgot to pay for the meal.

tore up the check.

The next time they have lunch together.

Peter will serve the meal.

Peter will pay for the meal.

Gloria will pay for the meal.

A Hard Question

Who discovered America? If the question means, “Who were the first people to reach America?” then it’s easy to answer – and also impossible. We know they were the ancestors of the people we call Indians, but we will never know their names. The first Europeans to reach America may have been Leif Ericsson and the Vikings., about 1,000 years ago. But the Vikings did not stay long, and their discovery was forgotten. Christopher Columbus often gets the credit because when he discovered America, it stayed discovered. But Columbus was a latecomer, arriving nearly 500 years after Leif Ericsson. And then there’s the legend of Brendan, a priest from Ireland who may have reached America even before the Vikings. Other people have suggested that sailors from Egypt, Greece, or China might have discovered American even earlier than that. But if they did, they left no proof of their discoveries, either in America or in their own countries.

The question “Who discovered America?”

is easy to answer.

is a silly question.

depends on what we mean by “discovered.”

We don’t know what the first people in America called themselves because they

came to America so long ago.

could not talk.

are all dead.

The Vikings

reached America about 500 years ago.

reached America before Columbus.

were only a legendary people.

The idea that people from China may have discovered America probably comes from

an old Indian legend about visitors from over the sea.

written records in China.

Chinese boats found buried in California.

A New Game

James Naismith had a problem. He was a new sports coach at a school in Springfield, Massachusetts. The young men he taught liked football and baseball, but now it was December, and too cold for outdoor sports. Naismith’s players thought that gym exercises were boring. How could he keep them fit during the winter months? Naismith decided that a new, indoor team sport was the answer. But how would it be played? Naismith had an idea. Two boxes would be nailed up on poles at each end of the gym, as goals for players to throw a ball into. Naismith’s young men liked the new game. It soon spread across America and around the world. But it was never played as Naismith had planned it, with boxes on poles. When that first game was played., Naismith couldn’t find any boxes of the right size. He used empty peach baskets instead. Naismith’s game might otherwise be known today as “boxball”!

Naismith’s new game was

soccer.

basketball.

golf.

Naismith was worried that the young men would

give up interest in sports.

be out of shape by spring.

start playing football in the gym.

Naismith might never have invented his game if he had been living in

New York.

Florida.

Canada.

Of these three popular sports, the last to be invented was

football.

baseball.

basketball.

1001 Nights

There is a famous collection of stories called The Thousand and One Nights. These stories come from Persia, and are supposed to have been written by a woman named Scheherazade. According to legend, Scheherazade was the bride of a king known for his cruelty. He would marry a woman one day, and have her killed the next morning. One day he decided to marry Scheherazade. On their wedding night, Scheherazade began telling a story to entertain her young sister. As she had hoped, the king liked the story too. She stopped at the most exciting point, so the king let her live one more day to finish. She finished it the next evening and began another story. In this way she dept the king interested for 1001 nights. By the end of this time he had decided not to kill her. You have probably enjoyed Scheherazade’s stories, too. Some of them are “Aladin’s Magic Lamp,” “Sinbad the Sailor,” and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

The stories are said to have been made by Scheherazade, but

they were probably really written by the king.

it happened so long ago that no one really knows.

they were tree stories.

From the story we can guess that Scheherazade was very

beautiful.

rich.

clever.

Scheherazade probably married the king because she

was forced to.

wanted to get away from her family.

wanted someone to listen to her stories.

After 1001 nights, the king must have

been tired of hearing stories.

realized that he loved Scheherazade.

decided to print a book of Scheherazade’s stories.

Uncomplimentary Sobriquets.

Sobriquets are names that used to be given to kings and other rulers as descriptions, or to celebrate their deeds. You may have heard of Richard the Lion Hearted, William the Conqueror, and Ivan the Terrible. France had a king called Phillip the Fair; Germany was once ruled by Frederick the Red-Bearded. And there were many kings who earned the sobriquet, “The Great.” But others were less than great. There was King Ethelred the Unready of England, who “won” his sobriquet when an invasion caught him by surprise. Richard the Lion-Hearted’s brother, John, who lost a good deal of the family’s possessions, was called “John-Without-Land,” or simply, “Bad King John.” No explanation is necessary as to why Louis VI of France was called Louis the Fat. He ruled more than 200 years after Charles the Fat. You remember Charles the Fat. He was King of France before Louis the Stutterer, father of Charles the Simple. Yes, all of these were the real sobriquets of real kings!

A sobriquet is like

a nickname.

a family name.

an insult.

Richard the Lion-Hearted was best remembered for his

courage.

wisdom..

kindness.

Charles the Simple was probably a

wicked king.

wise king.

stupid king.

Ivan the Terrible was probably known best for his

ugliness.

cruelty.

singing.

You are ready to move to the next level!