Activity of text interpretation, aimed at students in the fifth year of elementary school, on balloons designed by Santos-Dumont. Let's meet them? So, embark on reading the text flying with the wind! Then answer the various interpretative questions proposed!
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SCHOOL: DATE:
PROF: CLASS:
NAME:
Read:
In 1897, Santos-Dumont arrived in France with a fixed idea: flying. At the time, this was only possible with balloons. And what an adventure it was to embark on one of them! As the balloons flew in the wind, no one was quite sure where they would descend. Santos-Dumont realized, however, that he needed to master balloons, the only inventions that had flown so far, to try to develop, in the future, flying machines that human beings could drive. So, he made several balloon flights and, from that, he noticed that he could make a smaller and simpler balloon than the ones created so far.
As you know, the balloon is a large ball made of fine silk, filled with gas and coated with varnish. He has a small basket, attached by ropes to the gas ball. The balloon itself is light, but the varnish and apparatus to support the basket are heavy. In Santos-Dumont's time, balloons still had decorations, which meant extra weight.
When designing his first balloon, Santos-Dumont innovated by simplifying the invention as much as possible, removing everything that was superfluous. And we're not just talking about the decorations. The Brazilian studied the strength of silk and ropes, the amount of varnish generally used and the size of the basket that used to be used in order to reduce the weight of the balloon and reduce it to a minimum required. So he created a balloon that weighed 30 kilos, when inventions of this type weighed, on average, 500. Your name? Brazil.
Brazil it was so small that French builders thought it would not be able to take off. When Santos-Dumont reached the heights with his invention, he caught attention. After Brazil, he even had another balloon built, in which he could take, as a companion, two more passengers: the L'America.
Henrique Lins de Barros. “Ciência Hoje das Crianças” magazine. Edition 279.
Available in: .
Question 1 – Read back:
“At the time, this was only possible with balloons.”
What does the text refer to?
Question 2 – According to the author of the text, “no one knew for sure where it would descend”. Why?
Question 3 – Identify a comment about a fact:
( ) “And what an adventure it was to embark on one of them!”
( ) "He has a basket, attached by ropes to the gas ball."
( ) "After Brazil, he even had another balloon built […]"
Question 4 – The excerpt “[…] the balloon is a large ball made of fine silk, filled with gas and coated with varnish.” It's:
( ) a narration.
( ) a description.
( ) an argument.
Question 5 - According to the text, “[…] Santos-Dumont innovated by simplifying the invention as much as possible, removing everything that was superfluous”. What does “superfluous” mean?
Question 6 – In “[…] it used to be used in order to reduce the weight of the balloon and reduce it to the minimum necessary.”, the author refers to:
Question 7 – In the "Thus, created a balloon that weighed 30 kilos […]”, the underlined term indicates:
( ) place.
( ) mode.
( ) time.
Question 8 – Note this segment of the text:
“Brazil it was so small what the French builders thought it would not be able to take off.”
The underlined word starts a fact that:
( ) is the cause of another.
( ) is the purpose of another.
( ) is the consequence of another.
By Denyse Lage Fonseca
Graduated in Languages and specialist in distance education.
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