Enhancing Inference Skills Practice 2

BBC Scotland News
24 September 2012

Tracing the development of play in Scotland
By Gillian Sharpe

Reprinted with permission from the BBC News.

Part One

1	An ideal childhood is generally considered to be a carefree one, full of play. The Scottish Parliament
2	recently heard a call from a campaign group for there to be a legal right to play. But when did the idea
3	of play, as opposed to children just playing, become so important?
4	"I like playing outdoor games lots," says nine-year-old Kate. "And I also like playing imaginary games,
5	just with a few toys or animals or dolls, or something like that. If you have lots of work and no play,
6	you're going to be very dull and you won't have any fun."
7	But when did an idea of play as being important in itself come to the fore? Professor Robert Davis of
8	Glasgow University says that while children have always played wherever and whenever they are living,
9	there was a real change in thinking towards the end of the 18th Century.
10	"The concept of children's play as being something defining about childhood itself receives far greater
11	attention," he said. "We started to prize childhood in a special way, as a phase in the development of
12	human beings it was vital to protect for the future wellbeing of every individual."

1.	Where is Scotland?
	Your answer: Answer: Scotland is a country north of England. It is a separate country in a historical sense, but it is not a sovereign country like the USA, the Philippines or India. It forms part of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom (UK) and therefore it is not an independent country, although it does have its own parliament. Its people are all citizens of the UK and so there is no such thing as a Scottish passport or an English passport. Click on the word Scotland to see exactly where it is.

2.	Which of these cities are in Scotland?
	a)	Glasgow	Correct
	b)	Manchester	Incorrect
	c)	Edinburgh	Correct
	d)	Nottingham	Incorrect

3.	The Scottish Parliament recently heard a call from a campaign group for there to be a legal right to play (Lines 1-2). Does the word call refer to:
	a)	A phone-call	Incorrect
	b)	A demand	Correct
	c)	Shouting	Incorrect
	d)	A suggestion	Incorrect

4.	What does play mean in this article? (Line 2)
	Your answer: Answer: It refers to the kinds of activities children do to entertain themselves such as playing with toys, riding on swings in the park, roleplaying alone or with friends, taking part in children’s games like ‘hide-and- seek’, etc.

5.	The verb play in this sense can be used with:
	a)	Children	Correct
	b)	Teenagers	Incorrect
	c)	University students	Incorrect
	d)	Adults	Incorrect

6.	Why might this group of people be campaigning for a legal right to play? (Line 2) What does this imply?
	Your answer: Answer: It implies the campaigners believe play is a very important part of child development and it suggests that not all children are being given enough time to play.

7.	What does dull mean in line 6?
	a)	disappointed	Incorrect
	b)	rich	Incorrect
	c)	tired	Incorrect
	d)	uninteresting	Correct

8.	What is the meaning of come to the fore in line 7?
	Your answer: Answer: To appear/to emerge

9.	Why is the verb receives in line 10 in the present tense, when Professor Davis is clearly referring to the past?
	Your answer: Answer: In spoken English the present tense is sometimes used to talk about the past as a way of bringing past events to life in the present moment.

10.	What is the meaning of prize in line 11?
	Your answer: Answer: To value highly

Task Two

13	These ideas were influential in the embryonic early-education movement, and were famously put into
14	practice in a small settlement in South Lanarkshire. New Lanark may be busy with tourists and a couple
15	of chattering school parties on the day of my visit, but 200 years ago it was a cotton mill and village.
16	It is now a World Heritage Site in recognition of the huge influence it had on ideas about how people
17	should be treated at work and what a decent childhood involved.
18	Under the management of the social pioneer Robert Owen, children were not allowed to work in the
19	mill until they were 10 years old - quite a contrast to what was happening elsewhere in the 19th
20	Century. He believed everyone had the right to education and recreation.
21	Lorna Davidson, the director of the New Lanark Trust, said the regime was much more concerned with
22	children as little human beings rather seeing them as being "like any other machines". She said the
23	forecourt outside The Institute for the Formation of Character had been the world's first playground,
24	and that time was built in for exercising and drilling during the day. "Now if you think that it wasn't
25	until the 1870s that they finally passed legislation to stop young children being used as chimney
26	sweeps, you can see that Robert Owen was around half a century ahead of his time," she says. "He very
27	much recognised the importance of playing out in the fresh air, of children enjoying themselves."
28	The playgrounds of today are of course very different places. For instance, the first sand pits only
29	appeared in the American city of Boston in the 1880s.

11.	What does embryonic early-education movement refer to? (Line 13)
	Your answer: Answer: Early education means early childhood education. Education for young children was just beginning and so it is described here as embryonic, a word usually used to describe an animal in its earliest stages of development. A movement in this sense is a change of opinion about how people live or feel.

12.	Why is the word famously used in line 13?
	Your answer: Answer: Because New Lanark was one of the first places in Scotland, maybe even in the UK, to educate young children in school.

13.

What is a World Heritage Site? (Line 16)

Your answer:

Answer:

It is a place recognized by UNESCO (The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) as being special either culturally or physically. Can you name these World Heritage Sites and the countries they are in? Click on the pictures to see if you are right.


The Grand Canyon Arizona, The USA	The Sphinx Cairo, Egypt	The Opera House Sydney, Australia

14.	What does decent mean in line 17?
	Your answer: Answer: It means good, proper or appropriate in a social sense.

15.	What does the phrase – quite a contrast to what was happening elsewhere in the 19th Century – refer to? (Lines 19-20)
	Your answer: Answer: Outside New Lanark children under the age of 10 were expected to go to work, to do manual jobs in factories, workshops, etc; whereas in New Lanark Robert Owen did not allow this to happen.

16.	What might drilling mean in line 24?
	Your answer: Answer: It is a kind of physical exercise, usually military exercise such as marching.

17.	What is a chimney sweep? (Lines 25-26)
	Your answer: Answer: It is a person who cleans the inside of chimneys using a long brush. Click on the word chimney sweep to see a picture.

18.	Why was this job particularly unpleasant for children, do you think?
	Your answer: Answer: It was a very dangerous and dirty job. Little children were employed to climb up the insides of chimneys to clean them. They sometimes fell and seriously hurt themselves or even died. They would sometimes suffocate to death as they inhaled large amounts of dust and the accumulation of dirt inside their lungs often gave the children cancer.

19.	Why is Robert Owen described as being around half a century ahead of his time? (Line 26)
	Your answer: Answer: Because banning young children from working was not socially accepted on a larger scale until 50 years or so later.

20.	Why was sand put into the middle of the American city of Boston in the 1880s? (Lines 28-29)
	Your answer: Answer: So that children could play in the sand.

Task Three

30	But does the very idea of separate places for children to play say anything about how, historically,
31	children themselves were viewed, or what kind of mischief they might get up to?
32	Colin Heywood of Nottingham University said that in the late 19th Century, adults had been worried
33	about children doing things like knocking on doors or breaking windows with their balls. "So people
34	start to think, well we've got children in schools, we've got children out of the factories, out of the
35	workshops," he said. "We want them to spend their time productively though, we don't just want them
36	hanging around the streets - so they start to think about designing spaces for children.
37	"So there's an element of wanting to take children off the streets and get them to do something useful
38	that would make them good citizens."
39	Helping their families and the community at large was a familiar part of life for Highland children, as it
40	was in other parts of the country. Historically, they were expected to help with tasks like planting and
41	harvesting, reflected in a break from school which was known as the tattie holidays.
42	'Expected to work'
43	"It's only probably in western society in the last 50 years or so that childhood has been recognised as a
44	discrete period of one's life where one maybe shouldn't be burdened with responsibilities," says
45	Jennifer Maxwell, curator of the Highland Museum of Childhood in Strathpeffer. "But these children
46	were learning early on the skills and the tasks that they needed for their adult lives that they were
47	expected to take up."
48	Indeed, in many parts of the world children are still expected to work. "It's a luxury of our society that
49	we have extended the period where children are unconnected with work," says Professor Davis of
50	Glasgow University. "One becomes a full member of society in most other parts of the world, and in
51	most periods, by actively contributing to wealth production, food production and subsistence more
52	generally."
53	So does how we view childhood matter?
54	Professor Davis thinks it does. "The developments we've seen in childhood in the last 200 years are not
55	simply another potential model of childhood, but actually may represent a breakthrough in the
56	understanding of what a healthy, vital childhood can be - and therefore setting important benchmarks,
57	goals even, for every civilised society to attain," he said.

21.	What does mischief mean in line 31?
	Your answer: Answer: Naughty children’s behaviour that is not intended to be seriously harmful, such as knocking on doors or breaking windows.

22.	Why did people in the late 19th Century start to think about designing spaces for children? (Line 30)
	Your answer: Answer: To keep them out of trouble, away from mischief.

23.	Who do you think Highland children in line 39 refers to?
	Your answer: Answer: Children who live in the mountains of Scotland.

25.	In line 44 what sorts of responsibilities are implied?
	Your answer: Answer: The responsibilities children had in going out to work and earning money to help feed the family

26.	Indeed, in many parts of the world children are still expected to work. (Line 48) Can you give a few examples of the kinds of work you know/think children do?
	Your answer: Answer: Worldwide the highest area of employment for children is in agriculture. Child labour occurs mostly in different parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, but it also exists in the US, Canada, Europe and other nations. Children work in shops, they sell goods on the street, they pick and recycle rubbish, they work in factories, polish shoes, etc.

27.	What is meant by the following – “One becomes a full member of society in most other parts of the world, and in most periods, by actively contributing to wealth production, food production and subsistence more generally.” (Lines 50-52)
	Your answer: Answer: In many parts of the world young children are still expected to contribute to society by working.

28.	Choose the best summary of the final paragraph. (Lines 54-57)
	a)	We have finally reached a good understanding of what childhood should be like in a civilised society.	Correct
	b)	We now have one potential model of what childhood should be like in a civilised society.	Incorrect
	c)	There may be other models of childhood that would represent a new way of thinking about what childhood should be like in a civilised society.	Incorrect
	d)	Because it has taken 200 years to come up with our current model of what childhood should be like in a civilised society, it must be a good quality model.	Incorrect

29.	How is the meaning of the word vital different in lines 12 and 56?
	Your answer: Answer: Vital = Very important Vital = Full of life

30.	What are benchmarks in line 56?
	Your answer: Answer: Levels of quality