Lesson Plan: Did ‘Hobbits’ Actually Exist?
II. While Reading Activities
Word Inference
- archaeology |ˌärkēˈäləjē| (also archeology) noun-the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.
- fossil |ˈfäsəl| noun-the remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock.
- substantial |səbˈstanCHəl| adjective-of considerable importance, size, or worth: a substantial amount of cash.
- species |ˈspēsēz, -SHēz| noun (pl.same) -Biology a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.
- mouthful |ˈmouTHˌfo͝ol| noun (pl. mouthfuls) a long or complicated word or phrase that is difficult to say: Galinsoga was too much of a mouthful for most nonbotanists.
- nickname |ˈnikˌnām| noun verb [ with obj. and complement ] give a nickname to; call by a nickname: his fraternity brothers nicknamed him “The Bird” because of his skydiving skills.
- collaborator |kəˈlabəˌrātər| a person who works jointly on an activity or project; an associate: his collaborator on the book.
- ancestor |ˈanˌsestər| noun- a person, typically one more remote than a grandparent, from whom one is descended: my ancestor Admiral Anson circumnavigated the globe 250 years ago.
- haunt |hônt, hänt| noun-a place frequented by a specified person or group of people: I revisited my old haunts | Greenwich Village has been home to a number of literary haunts
- diminutive |diˈminyətiv| adjective-extremely or unusually small: a diminutive figure dressed in black.
Reading Comprehension
True /False/NA-Statements
Directions: Review the following statements from the reading. If a statement is true they mark it T. If the statement is not applicable, they mark it NA. If the statement is false they mark it F and provide the correct answer.
- F-In 2003, the archaeologist Michael Morwood and his colleagues discovered a skull and other bones.
- F- The hobbits of Flores and the hobbits of Middle Earth had only a few things in common.
- T-Tolkien wrote that his hobbits were related to men.
- T- The Flores hominins were very small, standing about 3 feet tall.
- NA-Tolkien might have actually seen a hobbit.
- F-They nicknamed the hominins of Flores hobbits.
- F-Tolkien portrayed Frodo and his comrades as diminutive people who lived in a village.
- T-The hobbits of Flores show no signs of agriculture.
- F-Homo floresiensis used stone tools to hunt dwarf elephants.
- T-The hobbits of Flores probably weren’t capable of language.
Grammar: Identifying Articles
The fossil record indicates that their ancestors arrived with stone tools on Flores about a million years ago.
For almost a million years, they lived an unchanging life, making no improvements on the stone tools on which their lives depended.
The youngest bones of Homo floresiensis date back to about the time when our own species arrived in Southeast Asia and Australia. Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people.
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