Check out the text interpretation activities we prepared for the 9th grade.
1. Reading Interpretation Activity from O Caçador de Pipas
Read the text and answer the interpretation questions.
"I BECOME WHAT I AM TODAY at the age of twelve, on a cloudy and freezing winter day in 1975. I remember the exact moment it happened, when he was crouched behind a partially collapsed mud wall, peering down the alleyway that led to the frozen creek. It was a long time ago, but I've discovered that it's not true what they say about the past, that we can bury it. Because, one way or another, he always manages to escape. Looking back now, I realize I've spent the last twenty-six years of my life spying on that deserted alley. One day last summer my friend Rahim Khan called me from Pakistan. He asked me to come see him. Standing there in the kitchen with the phone to my ear, I knew full well that it wasn't just Rahim Khan on the other end of that line. It was my past of unatoned sins. After I hung up, I went for a walk along Spreckels Lake, on the northern edge of Golden Gate Park. The early afternoon sun sparkled on the water where dozens of miniature boats were sailing, propelled by a light breeze. Then I looked up and saw a pair of red kites hovering in the air, with long blue tails. They danced high above the trees at the west end of the park, over the windmills, flying side by side like a pair of eyes looking down on San Francisco, the city I now called home. And suddenly, Hassan's voice whispered in my ear: "For you, I would do this a thousand times!" Hassan, the boy with the harelip who ran after kites like nobody else."
(HOSSEINI, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 2005.)
Question 1. Why does the narrator claim that he became what he is today at the age of twelve? Justify your answer with an excerpt from the text above.
The narrator states that he became what he is today at the age of twelve, because of something he witnessed when he was that age. He remembers the episode very well and, for some reason, regretted it, scarring it for life. "Looking back now, I realize I spent the last twenty-six years of my life peering down that deserted alley."
Question 2. The text mentions kites twice. Is there any intention of the author in these references he made to kites?
The author's intention seems to be to show the reader that the kites bring back memories of the narrator, because the text ends with a memory of a boy named Hassan saying something to him heard. According to the narrator, this boy ran after kites like no one else.
question 3. Why did the narrator go for a walk after receiving the phone call from his friend?
The narrator went for a walk to reflect on the phone call, which had disturbed him (“It was my past of unatoned sins.”).
Question 4. How does the narrator feel about his past? Remove from the text the sentence in which a figure of speech was used to convey this idea.
The narrator feels troubled and regretful about his past. In this sentence, the use of metaphor conveys this idea: “It was a long time ago, but I discovered that it is not true what they say about the past, this story that we can bury it.”
The metaphor is “burying the past”, comparing the past to an object that you can throw dirt over to hide it.
2. Text interpretation activity of the chronicle O Homem Trocado, by Luis Fernando Verissimo
Read the text and answer the interpretation questions.
"Man wakes up from anesthesia and looks around. He's still in the recovery room. There is a nurse beside him. He asks if everything went well. - Everything perfect - says the nurse, smiling.
— I was afraid of this operation...
- Why? There was no risk.
“With me, there's always a risk. My life has been a series of mistakes...
And he says that the mistakes began with his birth. There was an exchange of babies in the nursery and he was raised until he was ten years old by an oriental couple, who never understood the fact that they had a light-colored son with round eyes. Discovered the mistake, he went to live with his real parents. Or with his real mother, because the father abandoned the woman after she couldn't explain the birth of a Chinese baby.
(...)
He had been arrested by mistake. Several times. He received subpoenas to pay debts he didn't make.
Even he had had a brief, mad joy, when he heard the doctor say:
— You are disillusioned.
But it was also a doctor's mistake. It wasn't that serious. A simple appendicitis.
"If you say the operation went well...
The nurse stopped smiling.
“Appendicitis? he asked hesitantly.
— É. The operation was to remove the appendix.
"Wasn't it supposed to change sex?"
(VERISSIMO, Luis Fernando. Comedies to Read at School. Rio de Janeiro: Objective, 2001.)
Question 1. The main character of the story said that he had a crazy joy. What is he referring to?
When the main character said he had crazy joy, he was referring to the fact that the doctor said he I was disillusioned, because the doctor had made a mistake and the character didn't have anything serious, there was just a simple appendicitis.
Question 2. Throughout the story, the character tells a series of mistakes that happened throughout his life. Indicate which were the first and last mistakes counted.
The first mistake in the character's life was at his birth, when he was exchanged in the nursery with an oriental baby. The last mistake, up to the time the story is told, was the surgery, which was to remove the appendix, but they changed the sex.
Question 3. At the end of the story, the smiling nurse stops smiling. Why?
The nurse stops smiling when she discovers that the patient, the main character, had undergone the wrong surgery. Instead of taking out the appendix, they had switched her sex.
Question 4. Indicate some elements that convey humor in this chronicle.
This chronicle resorts to humor through the amount and types of mistakes throughout the character's life - from birth to the moment in which the story takes place. In the end, the story ends before we know the character's reaction to hearing that he had undergone the wrong surgery.
3. Opinion article text interpretation activity
Read the text and answer the interpretation questions.
An Educational Revolution to Complete Abolition
"The new book by Cristovam Buarque, The Last Trench of Slavery, is part of the best tradition of thinkers who knew how to project Brazil beyond the immediate. Faced with our immoral social inequality, everyone is tempted to discuss social policies with immediate effect. It is about alleviating the suffering of millions of Brazilians. As soon as possible. But this should not exempt us from thinking about the medium and long terms. And imagine changes so that our development corrects backwardness, poverty and exclusion. Only then will we have a country project.
(...)
Anyone who has the privilege of reading his book soon becomes convinced of the importance of Cristovam's crusade for an educational revolution. Imagining a developed and socially fair Brazil depends on an essential condition: quality basic education with equal access for rich and poor. In this book, Cristovam shows that equitable access to quality schools is the main vector of development. More than a mere investment or social policy. And he presents a consistent proposal for a Single National Public System for basic education.
The map for someone to be free is provided by the school. Without quality education, no one can know the way to live freely in contemporary times. Only in the 21st century did Brazil begin to enroll everyone in school. But in unequal schools. There appears the last trench of slavery: the duality of the school-senzala and the school-casa-grande.
(...)
The social descendants of the enslaved are in low quality schools. Without access to the basic apparatus to exercise full citizenship in the new digital world. They are the vast majority of the Brazilian people. As for the social descendants of slaveholders, this sad country guarantees world-class schools and provides training with all the knowledge tools necessary to work and undertake in the new environment technological."
(Excerpt from an opinion article written by Maurício Rands, Lawyer graduated from FDR at UFPE, Ph. D. by Oxford University. Published in Correio Braziliense, 02/16/2023.)
Question 1. According to the text, what is the essential condition to complete Abolition in Brazil?
a) Quality education, equally, for rich and poor.
b) Single National Public System for basic education.
c) Correction of backwardness, poverty and exclusion.
Question 2. What is the author's intention with the phrase “Only then will we have a project for the country.”?
a) Say that the changes in Brazil were planned.
b) To say that Brazil is far from being a great country and that only with changes can it stand out, perhaps. The phrase is ironic.
c) Saying that abolition will only be complete with planning, in the medium and long terms, and not with social political discussions of immediate effect.
Question 3. The aim of the author of The Last Trench of Slavery is:
a) Reveal that there was no Abolition in Brazil.
b) Tell the story of Abolition in Brazil.
c) Reflect on the results of Abolition.
Question 4. Comment on the use of the word “trench” in the title of the book The Last Trench of Slavery.
Among the meanings of the word "trench", we find "gap", which can be understood as something that separates two things. In this case, the trench of slavery is the different education for rich and poor, the descendants of slaves. For the author, the process of abolition has not ended, being complete only when rich and poor have access to equivalent education.
4. Reporting text interpretation activity
Read the text and answer the interpretation questions.
Learn how to use sambas-enredo in History classes
"Rescue and critically look at moments and the lives of figures who were decisive for the course of Brazilian history. Bringing themes linked to national historiography in this way is a tradition of samba-plot compositions presented by associations carnivals in the country – from the best known, including internationally, such as those in Rio de Janeiro, to the smaller ones spread across small cities from the country.
(...)
This large offer of materials related to a popular festival - which unites elements of history, culture, music, dance and arts visuals - it's quite a tool to illustrate, engage and discuss history beyond the formality of books didactic. With the addition that these facts are told in simpler, more colloquial language and in a way that is so different from the rigor to which students are accustomed, which make them outstanding in teaching, evaluates Helena Cancela Cattani, historian, archivist, and researcher of Porto Alegre's carnival, who taught in the state network of Rio Grande do Sul until 2019.
(...)
Samba-enredo and the ethnic-racial cut
The sambas-enredo can also be an interesting tool to address issues related to the memory and construction of black Brazilian identities – themes that are even mandatory since 2003, with the approval of Law 10,639, which determined the inclusion in the official curricula of teaching History and Culture Afro-Brazilian.
Contact with samba since childhood, spent in the neighborhood of Padre Miguel (RJ), a community that maintains strong ties with carnival, inspired history professor Fabrício Castilho to unite samba and the racial theme as a common thread for some classes and for his thesis on master’s degree “Samba de Escola: the use of the concepts of memory and identity for the education of ethnic-racial relations” (and which also became book). The objective was to analyze in the classroom sambas-enredo produced by associations in Rio de Janeiro from several decades."
(BONINO, Rachel. Learn how to use the sambas-enredo in History classes. New school, [n.d.]. Available in: https://novaescola.org.br/conteudo/21596/saiba-como-usar-o-samba-enredo-nas-aulas-de-historia. Accessed on: 23 Feb. 2023.)
Question 1. What is the subject addressed in the text?
a) The importance of sambas-plots as a tool for learning history.
b) Inform which subjects are mandatory in the teaching of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture.
c) The impact of childhood experiences on adult life.
Question 2. “This great offer of materials linked to a popular festival - which unites elements of history, culture, music, dance and visual arts.” What party does the passage refer to?
a) Traditional festivities linked to the history of Brazil.
b) Folk festivals from each region of Brazil.
c) Carnival.
Question 3. According to the text, what is the importance of samba-plots?
a) Rescue and critically look at moments and the lives of figures who were decisive for the course of Brazilian history with simple language and less formalism.
b) Valuing Brazilian culture.
c) Animate the revelers during the samba school parades.
Question 4. What inspired Professor Fabrício Castilho to use samba in his classes?
b) The fact that the sambas-enredos rescue the lives of figures who were decisive for the course of Brazilian history.
a) Contact with samba since childhood.
c) The fact that samba uses simpler language than what students are used to.
Read too:
Text interpretation exercises
Exercises on verbs for 9th grade
FERNANDES, Marcia. Text interpretation activities for 9th grade.All Matter, [n.d.]. Available in: https://www.todamateria.com.br/atividades-de-interpretacao-de-texto-9-ano/. Access at:
See too
- Text interpretation exercises
- Reading Interpretation Activities for 8th Grade
- Text interpretation activities for 7th grade (with feedback)
- Exercises on Text Genres
- Verbal Conducting Exercises
- Opinion article
- 35 Coordinated Sentence Exercises with feedback
- Adjunct Adnominal
