Use Inference Skills to Answer Questions About a Text

In this activity, we will read a fictional extract and use our inference skills to see what we can learn about the characters.

Read the following extract:

Greta sat down at her desk to study. Those exams were getting closer and she couldn’t get rid of the nagging thought that she should be doing more work. She picked up her pen and opened her book. Having read a few sentences about the ancient practices of medicine and curses, she couldn’t control her eyes any longer and they wandered and stared out of the window.

Glowing red, the sun lay low in the sky and cast pink rays over her view making everything she knew so well look oddly unfamiliar. A cat was brilliantly illuminated as it tiptoed over the rooftop of her neighbour. It stretched, luxuriating in the last heat of the day and then played with what could have been a spider. Catching and chasing it as if it were a kitten again.

'Come on Greta!' Greta thought to herself. 'Study!' But, just as Greta turned her attention to her books she heard a fizzing sound that ended with a pop from out of her window and her head whipped back round to see where the noise had emulated from.

The cat that had been playfully picking its way across the rooftops had now lain down. It seemed more like a clump of a cat. Except… it seemed too big for a cat… maybe more of a dog size or a small deer curled around as if sleeping. Then slowly, very slowly, the huddled silhouette started to grow. It unfurled itself slowly inch by inch until, much to Greta’s surprise, a fully grown man stood on top of Greta’s neighbour’s house. She gasped.

As if it heard her, the figure turned and Greta quickly hid under her window sill. But it was too late, Greta and the man had shared eye contact. He had seen her.

Now let's have a go at the questions.

You can look at the extract at any point by clicking on the red help button on the screen.