The Body Guide for home reading 2011

The body: guide for home reading

Chapter 1
“The most important things are the hardest things to say” do you agree with this idea? What is difficult for the narrator to say?

Chapter 2
Describe the tree house, the gang and the activities they did there.

Chapter 3
1-Who had disappeared?
2-What did they do about it?
3-What do you think might have happened to the boy?

Chapter 4
1-Why does the narrator say that Vern is stupid?
2-Why was he digging?
3-What had happened with his map?
4-What do you think had happened to the jar?
5-Who was Charlie Hogan? What did he say about the missing boy?
6- What can´t the members of the gang tell the police?
7-What did Vern do after hearing their conversation? Would you have done the same?

Chapter 5
1-What was his friends´reaction to the news?
2- What plan did they work out?
3-What information do you get about their parents? What about Chris´s father in particular?

Chapter 6:
1-Why does Gordie think that for his parents one gift from God was enough?
2-Why does he think of himself as the invisible man?
3-How did Gordie feel about his brother?

Chapter 7
Who brought the gun?
What happened?
Did Chris do it on purpose? Was he “as innocent as a baby”?

Chapter 8
What happened at the railway?
What did Teddy enjoy doing? What is your opinion of his behaviour?
What was Gordie’s attitude to the situation? Would you have done the same?

Chapter 9
What did they do at the dump?
Who is Chopper? Who is Milo? What were the rumours about them? Were they true?

Chapter 10
What happened between Teddy and Milo?
What was Teddy’s reaction? How did he feel?
What would you do if someone said something like that about your father?

Chapter 11:
1-Someone in this chapter says “Talk is cheap”. What do you think this person means? When would you use this expression?
2-Who said each of these sentences and why?
· “I´m a baby –cry, right?”
· “I didn´t either love or hate my father ,who had never beaten me, as far as I could remember”
· “Are you saying you want to go back?”
· I didn´t imagine then that in about a dozen years I’d turn a simple example of the night-sweats into about a million dollars”
· ....was the hardest guy in our gang, but he was also the guy who made the best peace”


Chapter 12 :
2-Explain these quotations: Who said this? When? Why?
*Teddy’s eyes were shining: this was better than lorries
*But if a train comes, there´s nowhere to go, he said. He wasn’t looking at Teddy, he was looking down at the river.
*I had to go on. If I turned back, I’d be a pussy for life
*I have never been as frightened as I was at that moment. I thought of Ray Brower and that Vern and I would soon be joining him
*They were both mouthing a single word and the word was JUMP!

Chapter 13:
1-How did Gordie feel and why?
2-How did the children feel in connection with school? Do you have the same feelings about school and summer holidays?( Pg 34- last Paragraph)
3-“ By next June it’ll be all over between us” Why do you think Chris made this prediction?
5-Do you agree with these ideas?
Rank them :
completely agree 1
partially agree 2
agree 3
partially disagree 4
completely disagree 5

Ø Friends drag you down
Ø Gordie’s dad doesn’t hit him, but that is even worse because he has put him to sleep
Ø Chris was bossy and seemed to be more mature than the rest.
Ø Chris felt discriminated at school
Ø Chris thought teachers decide on your future career, not you.
Ø Your friends are like drowning guys who are holding on to your legs. You can’t save them. You can only drown with them.

6-Complete this statement made by Chris: I wish I ............


Chapter 14:
When the night came, what did the children do in the middle of the forest?
What did Gordie do to entertain them?

Chapter 15:
What did they decide to do as they were afraid?
What did Gordie dream?


Chapter 16:
1-What did Gordie find when he woke up and went to the railway tracks?
2-Was this a bad experience? Why / not?

Explain this quotation:“Its hard to make strangers care about the good things in life”

Chapter 17:
1-What happened when they saw the stream?
2- What was the matter with the water?
3- How would you have felt if you had been in the stream?

Chapter 18:
1- What was the matter? What did they realise as they were walking?
2-How did they feel and why?

Chapter 19:
Explain this quotation: “if we hadn’t walked along the tracks maybe Chris and Teddy and Vern would still be alive today”
Who were also going to see the body?

Chapter 20:
1- What was the weather like?
2- What did they see? Where?
3- What did Gordie notice about the shoes?
4- What did they do with the body?

Chapter 21:
1-Who arrived?
2-What happened?
3- Why did the gang want the body?

Chapter 22:
1- What did Chris do to stop them? Do you think he was brave?
2- The members of the gang were extremely angry. What do you think they will do to them later?

Chapter 23.
1-why did they need to look for the cartridges?
2-What could have happened to Ray Brower according to what they see?
3-What was missing in the scene? What may have happened to it?

Chapter 24:
1-Why does Gordie think that “Love has teeth”? Do you agree?

Chapter 25:
1-When Gordie returned home, what was his mother’s reaction? Was that what you expected?

Chapter 26:
1-How did the gang take revenge? 2-Why is this chapter called “some people drown”?

Chapter 27:
What happened to each character later in life?
Which of the predictions made by Gordie became true?

MODULE 2 practice activities

Rewrite the following sentences with used to/didn’t use to or would/wouldn’t. In some cases both used to and would are possible.

0 My father often worked overtime when he was younger.

_ My father used to work overtime when he was younger_______________.
1 Every time he came to visit me in Warsaw my friends gave a party.

__________________________________________________________________________ .

2 When Susan was a student she never talked about her friends behind their backs.

__________________________________________________________________________ .

3 They had many friends in their hometown but now in London they feel very lonely.

__________________________________________________________________________ .

B Put the verbs in brackets into the Past Simple, the Past Continuous or the Past Perfect.


0 We __ went____ (go) to France just after the school ended.
1 In 1965 my parents __________ (move) into what __________ (be) a storage space before. This was their first home.
2 I was very nervous because I __________ (not give) a speech to a big audience before.
3 I’m sorry I couldn’t talk when you called yesterday. I __________ (have) a big argument with my sister.
4 For the first time we were not late. The performance __________ (begin) when we arrived at the opera
house.
5 Tom decided to break up with Lucy because she __________ (let) him down many times.
6 We didn’t have much time to talk. He came in just as I __________ (leave).
7 I __________ (not know) anything about Greek cuisine until I went to Athens last year.

C Choose the types of stories and films from the box to complete the definitions. There are more expressions in the box than you need.

autobiography, cartoon, horror story, ghost story, thriller, science fiction, spy story, western, travel story

0 An __autobiography__ is a story of a person’s life, written by that person.
1 A _____________ is a story or film which makes people laugh and has a happy ending.
2 A _____________ is about a period of fighting between countries or states.
3 A _____________ is a book or film which makes people frightened and in which characters are vampires or imaginary monsters.
4 A _____________ is a film in which characters and scenes are drawn.

D Complete the sentences with appropriate words. The first letter of each word is provided.


1 Everybody admired her o_____________ performance as Ophelia.
2 The children were e_____________ excited about their trip to Disneyland.
3 He is such an attractive young man that most girls f_____________ for him the moment they set eyes on him.
4 Romeo was certainly the most difficult p_____________ in the play.
5 I’m not easily frightened but the film was so s_____________ that I kept my eyes closed most of the time.

Narrative Tenses

Activity 1:
Complete the stories with Simple Past, Past Continuous and Past Perfect :

Story 1:Last Friday I 0 (arrange) to meet my boyfriend at a restaurant. I (1) (arrive) first and because it (2) (pour) with rain, I went inside. After an hour my boyfriend (3) (arrive)! His clothes (4) (be) soaking wet and he was covered in mud. Apparently he (5) (wait) at a bus stop when a car (6) (drive) straight through a puddle and (7) (splash) him from head to toe. The driver (8) (refuse) to let him on the bus and he(9) (walk) ever since. He couldn't stay at the restaurant soaking wet so we (10) (have) a take away at home instead.

Story 2: While I (play) football I (hurt) my leg. However, until I (see) a doctor I ( not realise) that I (break) it.

Story 3: The police (go) to the bank after a neighbour (phone) to tell them what (happen). They soon (discover) that the robbers (escape) in a stolen car. The men (kill) one of the guards who (try) to stop them as they (drive) away. The guard (jump) out in front of them but they just (run) over him.

Story 4: Suddenly they (hear) a strange noise and (look) at each other in terror. All evening they (play) cards and (watch) television without thinking of the ghost.

Activity 2:
Choose one of the mini stories and write down the events that happened before and after the situation described.

Revision module 1

Underline the correct alternative in each sentence.

I feel /am feeling that I understand the process very well.
I’d prefer to make/making an appointment now.
I don’t think/am not thinking you should invite him to your wedding.
She’d love to help/helping you but she is very busy at the moment.
I can’t stand to wait/waiting for latecomers.
My brother hates to wear/wearing formal clothes.
You look/are looking absolutely terrific today!

Put the verbs in brackets into the Present Simple, the Present Continuous or the Present Perfect.


We regularly ______ (meet) to play the guitar together.
I __________ (visit) three natural history museums so far.
We __________ (move) to a bigger flat. Could you help us transport our furniture?
I can’t make a cake because Tom __________ (forget) to buy eggs.
You shouldn’t wear this old-fashioned hat, you __________ (need) a new one.
The crime rate in New York __________ (go down) in the past ten years.
Professor Brown is an expert on Greek philosophy. At the moment he __________ (write) an article on the life of Socrates.
It __________ (not snow) here a lot at this time of year.

Complete the sentences with the correct form of the word in brackets.


He is a ___________________ (success) writer.
He talked about his friend’s accident with great __________ (sad).
Bad grades at school have a __________ (disaster) effect on her motivation.
My sister is a very __________ (ambition) student. She always wants to be the best.
My grandfather got a medal for his __________ (brave) during World War II.

Ana has great __________ (difficult) in understanding her Italian friend.

Read the text below and use one word to fit each space.

I am a good mixer, so I tend to (0) ___make___ friends quite easily and have a lot of people around. Many of them are very interesting, but nobody really compares with Alice. She is fifty-three years old and still very active. She can’t (1) __________ leading a boring life and (2) __________ up a new activity every year. She has already tried diving and bungee (3) __________ and now she is very much (4) __________ car racing. But one of her greatest dreams is to get into The Guinness Book of Records for spending the longest time on a (5) __________ island. I seriously doubt if she will ever succeed because she is a very sociable person and needs people to live.

Reported Speech

Choose the best reporting verb:
http://www.english-test.net/esl/learn/english/grammar/ii178/esl-test.php

Finish these sentences using reporting verbs:
http://wwwedu.ge.ch/cptic/prospective/projets/anglais/exercises/reported1.htm

Fill in the blanks to report the dialogues:
http://odl.vwv.at/english/odlres/res8/Grammar/grammar_exercises/reported_speech/repspeech.htm

Conditionals and wishes

Complete the sentences using conditional II:
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/if2.htm

Complete the sentences using conditional III:
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/if3.htm

Choose the best alternative:
http://www.better-english.com/grammar/wish2.htm

ING or TO INFINITIVE?

Complete using a verb in the gerund or the infinitive
http://www.englishpage.com/gerunds/gerunds_infinitives_1.htm