CBSE solutions for English Communicative - Main Course Book Interact in English Class 9 chapter 1.3 - Can You Know People You Haven't Met [Latest edition]

Is it possible to make accurate guesses about the people you have never met? Read the poem, to see how conclusions can be drawn about people. 

Abandoned Farmhouse 
He was a big man, says the size of his shoes On a pile of broken dishes by the house; A tall man too, says the length of the bed In an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man, Says the Bible with a broken back On the floor below a window, bright with sun; But not a man for farming, say the fields Cluttered with boulders and a leaky barn. 
A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall Papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves Covered with oilcloth, and they had a child Says the sandbox made from a tractor tyre. Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves And canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar-hole, And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames. It was lonely here, says the narrow country road. 
Something went wrong, says the empty house In the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields Say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars In the cellar say she left in a nervous haste. And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard Like branches after a storm - a rubber cow, a rusty tractor and a broken plow, a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say. Ted Kooser 

Complete the following sentences about the poem.

1. In the first stanza, the poet refers to four pieces of evidence: large shoes, a long bed, the Bible, fields cluttered with boulders and a leaky barn. This leads the poet to conclude that ‘the man of the house’ was ________________
2. I think that the child was probably about six years old because_____________ .
3. The poet suggests that a woman lived in the farmhouse because______________ .
4. The family probably left the farmhouse because____________________________ .

The poet draws conclusions about the family without having met them. He does this in lines such as : 

Something went wrong, says the empty house 
in the weed-choked yard ... 
This is a style of English that is very suitable for a poem. But in ordinary speech or writing we use expressions such as : 

For example, we could say : 
• There are large shoes in the farmhouse. So it is likely that the farmer was a big man. 
• It seems that they had a child, because there is a sandbox made from a tractor tyre. 
• The kitchen shelves were covered with oil cloth. This suggests that a woman lived in the farmhouse. 
Make other sentences like this, using ideas from the poem. 

Imagine that a Social Worker comes to the abandoned farmhouse to find out what may have happened to the family. She makes the following observations in her note-pad 

On the basis of these notes, the Social Worker presents the facts as she sees them to her Head of Department. Unfortunately, she spills ink on her report. Complete her report. 

When I reached the farmhouse , I saw that the house was empty , which ........ I wondered where they might have gone . .................. the owner was not a farmer , because of the boulders in the field and the leaky barn .............. the family was poor , because I saw several sealed jars in the cellar . Also ............ a woman lived there .  It was obvious she had left in a hurry . what was most touching was that the toys were scattered in the yard . 

When we write informal letters (to a friend, or to a member of our family) we use this layout.

Amit from Hyderabad has got admission in a college at Bengaluru. He has to share his room with another boy. When he arrives at the hostel he learns that his room mate has gone home for a few days. Based on his observations of the room, Amit writes a letter to his friend, Sumit, about his new room mate. (You may use some of the expressions suggested in C.3.) As Amit, write the letter. 
In your writing, remember to follow CODER