Short Read - The Vacant Country

• english
• Basisschool
• Groep 8

THE VACANT COUNTRY

Expected Learning Outcomes:

• Decode the title of the story.
  
• Express their views on past people’s imagination about future.
  
• Identify and match the pairs of words and phrases used in the text with their meanings. 
  
• Read the short read ‘The Vacant Country', and answer the questions based on the same. 
  

Case Study: In 1800, London's population was around 1 million and it was already the world's largest city. By 1900, it had grown to 6.7 million. People came from the countryside and other countries to find the work. During that century, London was a hard place to live for many with pollution, bad living conditions and much poverty.
Analyse the most significant reason for such disturbing living conditions.

Population explosion

Social factors

Unequal distribution of income

Climate change

What do you think the people of the past imagined would happen in the 21st century?

What do you infer from the title of the story?

Setting of the story

Plot of the story

painful feet from much walking.

trembling

doubtful

slavery

casual

Footsore

tremulous

incredulous

drudgery

offhand

Identify the meaning of the idiom:
'tongues were loosened'

1. talking a lot about someone and their behaviour.
2. to cause someone to talk more freely.
3. in an ironic, insincere way.

Why was walking considered as a rare exercise in that century?

1. Explosion in the usage of vehicles
2. Rich considered walking as an act of poor.
3. No place to walk because of concrete jungle throughout.

Identify the mood of the protagonist:
"He spoke of the happiness that was certainly now theirs, of the folly of not breaking sooner of the magnificent prison of London, of the old romantic days that had passed from the world forever."

1. miserable
2. ecstatic
3. worried

Why did the shepherd stare them incredulously?

1. He knew that they won't be able to adjust in the countryside life.
2. He knew that they were criminals.
3. He knew that they were the ones who were banished from the city.

Compare and contrast Denton's and Elizabeth's attitude towards future.

Value Points:

Denton thinks they will be happy.

Whereas, Elizabeth more cautious and knows it will be difficult.

What do you think the shepherd is trying to warn Denton about?

Value Points:

• People of the past had vey simple lives.
• Hard to give up comforts of present and go back to the past.
• Past hard as well.

Identify the given statement is a fact or an opinion.

'Those people of old, they had simple minds, limited expectations', he said.

1. Fact
2. Opinion

Success Criteria:
Now I CAN;

*Identify and match the pairs of words and phrases used in the text with their meanings. 
*Answer intermittent questions based on the story.

1. Agree
2. Disagree
3. I need some help.