55
The mysterious chest
Textbook: Part 4, pp. 11–13
GoalGive general information on G‘iyos Kornilov’s story “Sirli sandiq”; know the main facts about Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur; practise drawing conclusions from clues.
New words
chest · sandiqabacus · cho‘tgreat ancestor · bobokalonhomeland · vatan
Explanation
Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur was born in Andijan in 1483 and died in 1530; he was a poet, scholar and statesman, the author of the “Boburnoma”. The textbook has G‘iyos Kornilov’s story “Sirli sandiq” (The secret chest) about Babur’s childhood and a talk with his mother. We do not retell it; we read our own text. A story about a historical person may combine real facts with conversations invented by the writer, so we check a historical fact in an encyclopedia. From an object’s features (shape, parts) we can draw a conclusion about its use — this needs logic.
Worked examples
Text “Grandfather’s chest”. In the summer holidays my grandfather opened an old chest. Inside were yellowed notebooks, an inkwell and a wooden abacus. Grandfather said: “Come on, guess what these things were used for.” Seeing the inkwell, I guessed that long ago people dipped their pens in ink to write. Grandfather slid the abacus beads and added numbers with me. In one notebook was his beautiful childhood handwriting. That day I understood that old things can also tell history.
From clue to conclusion: inkwell – people wrote with ink; abacus – people did sums. We find a thing’s use from how it looks.
Class activity
“What was it?”: in pairs one child describes an old object (or its picture), the partner works out its use from the clues.
Practice
1
What was in the chest?
Yellowed notebooks, an inkwell and a wooden abacus
2
What did the child guess on seeing the inkwell?
That long ago people dipped pens in ink to write
3
What was the abacus used for?
For counting and adding numbers
4
In which city was Babur born?
Andijan
5
What is Babur’s famous work?
The “Boburnoma”