Fitting in or standing out: details and vocabulary
Everyone sometimes wants to fit in with a group and sometimes wants to stand out. To answer detail questions, take the key words of the question (for example the first day), find them in the text, and read the sentence around them. Check names and numbers carefully, and remember that the text may use different words for the same idea. Then learn word families: one idea can be an adjective, a noun or a verb. Confident (adjective) becomes confidence (noun); curious becomes curiosity; strong becomes strength; to support is also a noun, support. When you fill a gap, look at the word before and after it: a, the and my are followed by a noun; very and more are followed by an adjective. Your book has a story-like text on page 18. Read it after this lesson and find two details with the method above.
| Adjective | Noun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| confident | confidence | He is confident. He has a lot of confidence. |
| curious | curiosity | She is curious. Her curiosity helps her learn. |
| strong | strength | The team is strong. Its strength is teamwork. |
| different | difference | My view is different. There is a difference. |
Taha is fourteen and he loves cooking. At his school the cooking club has twelve members, and he is the only boy. At first he felt different, and he nearly stayed at home on the first day. Then his teacher asked everyone to bring a family recipe. Taha brought his grandmother’s rice pudding, and the other members were curious about the secret spice. They asked him many questions, and he felt more confident with every answer. Later the club had to change its plan because the school kitchen was closed for repairs. Taha adjusted the recipes so that they could be cooked at home, and everyone helped each other. Now he says that being different is not a problem: it is part of his strength.
Detail hunt. Read the text again and write three questions about it (one with Why, one with What, one with How many). Give them to a grown-up. Then write one sentence about a time when you felt different and a second sentence about what helped you.