Activity of text interpretation, aimed at students in the seventh year of elementary school, entitled Our life. In it, the narrator tells the hard life that he and his brothers led when they worked on a certain farm. The farm said it paid the salary, but there was never any salary. […] And we were forced to work from sunrise to sunset. Get to know this shocking story by reading the text. Then answer the various interpretative questions proposed!
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SCHOOL: DATE:
PROF: CLASS:
NAME:
Read:
At home, the situation was difficult. The father had become unemployed. The mother thought that any job could at least pay for the food. We lived in Mambaí, State of Goiás. Then a job appeared on a farm near the Gerais of Bahia, very close to the border. I went to work together with my brothers on this farm. It was the project of a large bank, supported by the government.
The farm said it paid the salary, but there was never any salary. At the end of the month, everything that was eaten or used was discounted. There was nothing left of money. And we were forced to work from sunrise to sunset.
'Slave work,' said the pedestrians in Mambaí who had already been through this.
─ But using a child is a mischief! ─ said the owner of the bar one day.
They also said that these farms use children as workers because it's cheaper. Four or five cost the same as an adult, they eat less, they obey better, and each one does a grown-up job.
The farm foreman said that the money could be left over if we worked properly. I've heard of people who left there with debt, but not money.
If only we were eating well… My mother didn't know the food on the farm was bad. I thought it was a child's freshness. But it wasn't, no. In the morning, watery coffee with crusty bread. For lunch, just stuff pure noodles or rice with flour.
For work on the farm to pay off, the foreman made us work hard. I am fourteen years old. I'm strong. But my brothers and a bunch of other weak-bodied kids did adult heavy lifting – mowing and weeding was hard to chip, but we still took it. The worst was carrying heavy wheelbarrows full of material for the crops.
Nobody has any idea of the hard life we were leading on this farm in the Gerais of Bahia.
Paula Saldanha. “Heroes of the Generals”. São Paulo, FTD, 1998, p. 7-9.
Question 1 - The purpose of the text is:
( ) disclose something.
( ) report a fact.
( ) narrate a story.
Question 2 - In the part “They also said that these farms use children as workers because it's cheaper.”, the narrator reveals:
( ) why these farms use children as workers.
( ) the purpose of these farms using children as workers.
( ) the consequence of these farms using children as workers.
Question 3 - The narrator of the text exposes an opinion in the passage:
( ) “It was the project of a large bank, supported by the government.”
( ) "In the morning, watery coffee with crusty bread."
( ) "Nobody has any idea of the hard life we led on this farm in the Gerais of Bahia."
Question 4 – The underlined expression indicates a place in the passage:
( ) “In my home, the situation was difficult.”
( ) “at the end of the month, everything that was eaten or used was discounted."
( ) “At lunch, just stuff pure noodles or rice with flour.”
Question 5 - In “I thought it was a child's freshness.”, the narrator expresses the thought:
( ) from your father.
( ) from your mother.
( ) of the farm foreman.
Question 6 – In the sentence "But it wasn't, no.", the repetition of the term "no":
( ) reinforces the denial.
( ) indicates a correction.
( ) establishes a contradiction.
Question 7 – In the segment "For service at the rendering farm, the foreman made us work hard.", the word "firm" expresses:
( ) the way the capable person made us work.
( ) the way the capable made us work.
( ) the intensity with which the capable person made us work.
Question 8 – According to the narrator, he and his brothers carried out very heavy work on the Gerais farm in Bahia. The worst of them was:
( ) "scrub"
( ) "weeding"
( ) “carry heavy wheelbarrows”
By Denyse Lage Fonseca
Graduated in Languages and specialist in distance education.
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