BACK TO WORKSHEETS
Understanding, or comprehending a text is an important skill in English.
To fully understand a text, we need to look at the vocabulary, punctuation, sentence types and lots more.
A great way to develop your skills is to look at a text and locate evidence to support your understanding. Evidence can help support your argument or point of view on a topic.
In this activity, we will read a fictional description and work to build our skills in finding the evidence needed to support a statement. We will also begin to use inference and deduction to work out how some of the vocabulary choices give us more information.
Here is the description.
The old man who lives down the street from us is a real piece of work. I mean, he's like something out of a movie, but not in a good way. He's this super-grumpy, miserable guy who seems to have a permanent frown etched onto his face.
First of all, he's ancient. Seriously, I don't even know how old he is, but he looks like he's been around since the dinosaurs. He's all hunched over and shuffles when he walks, like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. And he's always dressed in these old, worn-out clothes that probably went out of style before I was even born.
His face is like a roadmap of wrinkles, and he's got this scraggly white beard that makes him look like he's auditioning for the role of Santa Claus in a horror movie. His eyes are like tiny, angry dots, and they seem to glare at anyone who dares to look in his direction.
But it's not just his appearance that's miserable. He's got this aura of gloom around him that's impossible to ignore. Whenever I see him outside, he's either muttering to himself or scowling at something. I've heard he yells at kids who accidentally kick a ball into his garden, like it's a personal affront to his existence.
And forget about trying to have a conversation with him. I once said hello when I saw him getting his post, and he just grunted in response and kept shuffling along like I didn't even exist. It's like he's allergic to any form of human interaction.
Honestly, I feel kind of sorry for him. I can't imagine what kind of life he's had to turn out so bitter and miserable. But at the same time, I don't really want to get too close to him. He's like a living, breathing storm cloud, and I'd rather not get caught in his rain.
