I wrote a very successful exam based on the first couple of chapters of Encounters I. It imagines today's students grown up and their children finding old photos of them with their baldy haircuts and ears full of earrings, and asking who these strange looking children are. My students just loved, because it is about them. They want more of the same, so perhaps other teachers may find it useful.
When Itai was 50 he was a very successful businessman. Then one day, he won some money in the lotto, so he and his family decided to move to a beautiful, new house with a full sized movie room, a swimming pool on the roof, a skating rink, a football field, a basketball court, and of course, tennis courts . While they were packing up the things, his oldest son, named Ben, found a large, old, brown envelope. "What is this Dad," he said, carelessly tossing to his fath er. "Should I throw it out?" 1 "Are you crazy?", his father exclaimed, " This is my personal bag of memories, from when I was a young boy in school like you." Ben was curious. He began pulling things out of the envelope. He found an ol d photograph with some boys in it. "Who are these horrible looking kids?" he asked.
"What do you mean horrible looking?" said his father.
"Well," said Ben, " For example, who is this tall guy with no hair and 10 earrings in his ears?"
10 "You little bastard" said Itai, "that is me, your father, when I was in school." "What?" said Ben, "You, the successful businessman, you shaved off your hair when you were in school? And you had earrings??! So why won't you let me hang flies from my nose, and paint my tongue green and my ass blue like the other kids today."
20
"Because those are crazy fashions" said Itai. "When I was young at least our fashions were nice and sensible, but today you kids are crazy. No son of mine is going to school with a purple ass and green tongue. " Ben did not try and argue any more. He knew that his father would just beat him up if he did. Instead he asked more questions about the photograph.
25 "Who are these other crazy looking kids in the photograph?" he asked. "Well," said Itai, "that tall kid with the nice, strange smile, is Ido. He was really good at English I remember, but he just liked to talk and talk all the time, instead of work. That's why he became a member of the Knesset w hen he grew up."
"What," said Ben, "You went to school with the Minister of Education? Why did you never tell me?"
His father replied, "We had a fight over a girl in Yud Bet, and we never spoke again. "
30 "Who won the fight?" Ben asked interestedly. "Well, I won the fight at the time, but that's how I ended up marrying your mother. So I guess I really lost."
"Hmm", said Ben, "You know, this kid Ido, at that age, really looks a lot like me!."
"Yes," said his father. "Well, let's not talk about that."
Ben pulled another picture out of the envelope. "Who is this funny looking guy with the beard and glasses ?" he asked.
40 "That was our English teacher. You are named after him. He was really wonderful. He brought us songs and movies and tried to make our lessons interesting." "I bet you really enjoyed his lessons then. Is that why you named me after him?" asked Ben.
"Not exactly", answered his father. "The fact is that we were not very nice. Sometimes we worked, but sometimes we were real little bastards. Later I heard that he jumped off the roof of the school. I was so sorry then for the way I behaved. That that is why I named you after him."
"How sad!" said Ben. He pulled out another picture. "What is this funny looking building?" he asked
"That is our school."
50 "What?? " cried Ben. "Didn't you learn at home with the teacher talking to you on computer? You mean you actually went to a special building to learn? I did not know you were so old. I thought that only happe ned hundreds of years ago, in the Middle Ages. What was it like?" 60 "Oh it was terrible. In the summer the air conditioning was so strong that we all froze. And in the winter the heating was so strong that we all got too hot. And we had stairs, oh it was terrible. We had to walk up and down the stairs all day. How we suffered!! And we actually had to write with our own hands!! We could not just talk to the computer and have it write for us. And if the teacher wanted to punish us he would give us horrible looks!!! Sometimes he looked at us so angrily !! 65 "Oh, my poor father" said Ben. "I never realised how much you suffered in school."
75NAME_______________- CLASS________________ DATE _____________
IN LINES 1 - 10.
What work did Itai do?
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Why did Itai and his family decide to move into a new house?
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What was special about the new house?
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Why did Itai ask Ben if he was crazy?
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LINES 10 - 29
Who was the tall guy with no hair and ten earrings in his ears?
__________________________________________________________
Why did Itai call his son "a little bastard"?
__________________________________________________________
Why was Ben surprised at how his father looked in the photograph?
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What 3 fashions did Ben want to copy?
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Did his father want him to do it? Why or why not?
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Did Ben try to argue with his father about the fashions? Why, or why not?
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LINES 30 -45
Did Ben think that the children in the photograph looked nice or not? How do you know, what words in the article tell you this?
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What did Ido look like?
__________________________________________________________
What was Ido's job when he grew up? Why?
__________________________________________________________
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Are Itai and Ido still friends? Why, or why not?
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Who won the fight? Why does he say he really lost?
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What does Itai not want to talk about? Why do you think he does not want to talk about it?
__________________________________________________________
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LINES 45 - 57
COMPLETE ACCORDING TO LINES 45 - 57
Ben thought that the man in the photograph looked / strange / great / nice / , and he asked his father / what / who / which/ the man was. His father answered that it was their English teacher, and that he was / terrible / cruel / great /. He explained that this teacher tried to make lessons that were not / boring / interesting / exciting / for them. Because of this, Ben thought that they must have really / hated / liked / slept / the English lessons, / but / and / anyway / his father explained that this was not really what happened. Itai told him that they behaved / good / well / badly / in the English lessons very often. But later Itai was / happy / sad / did not care / about this, because he heard that the teacher had / run away / killed himself / killed a student / . This explains / who / why / where / he named his son after that teacher.
Lines 58 - 75
COMPLETE THE FOLL0WING ACCORDING TO LINES 58 -75. YOU CAN USE ANY LOGICAL WORDS.
The last picture that Ben pulled out of the envelope was a picture of the _______________ his father went to, when he was a young __________ . Ben thought that it looked very _______________ . He was very _____________ when he heard that his father learned in a _____________ with other students. This was because he expected that his father learned at ______________, with the teacher making contact with him on a _____________ . He asked his father what it was ____________ to learn together with other students,
His father told him that it was ________________ to learn at a school. In the summer it was too ______________ , because of the very good ___________________ . And in the winter it was too ______________, because of the very good _____________ . His father also told him it was very hard because of althe physical work they had to do - for example, they had to ___________ a lot, and also _____________ a lot. ( Not like when the father, Itai, is now grown up and anyone can just ___________ to a _______________ , and it will do all the work for you.) Also, sometimes the teacher would __________ at them in an angry way. This made Ben feel very ____________ for his father, because he thought that when he was a boy at school he suffered from all the ______________ conditions.