8vo Básico >Inglés
Reading Comprehension:
Implicit information
Hi, I’m Victoria. I’m 15 years old. I’m not very good at
literature but I keep trying to do my best. Last class, the teacher
presented a nice poem about a man that was complaining about
something. The teacher was reading it and when he reached to the
sentence “my heart is broken, my soul is broken, and everything is
destroyed because of you my love”. He asked me about the meaning of
the sentence. I said: -”it is about a man that had a terrible accident
as his heart is broken”-. Everybody laughed at me even the teacher
looked at me and he said: -“Are you serious Victoria?”-. Tomorrow, I
have another literature lesson, I don’t want my classmates to laugh at
me again but I really don’t understand why my answer was incorrect,
can you help me?
In your opinion, why did Victoria’s classmates laugh at her?
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What is Victoria’s problem?
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What would be an appropriate answer to the question made by Victoria’s teacher?
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What is implicit information?
Implicit information is any idea implied or understood though not directly expressed. As the
information is not present in the text, the reader must analyze the explicit information given, understand the
message behind the words and then extract the implicit information hidden in the message.
In the previous experience, Victoria listened to her teacher reading a poem. As she was just paying
Challenges
attention to the explicit information provided, in this case a man whose heart, soul and everything was
o Students may have trouble with implicit ideas in poetry.
broken, she was unable to express the hidden message behind the words, a man suffering for love. Victoria
o Students may need help trying to figure out information or ideas
failed in finding the implicit information of the sentence read as she was neither analyzing nor understanding
that are suggested but not stated directly in content area
and extracting the correct ideas from the poem.
materials.
Solutions
Text
“A poem”
… my heart is broken, my soul is broken, and
everything is destroyed because of you ,my love”.
Explicit information:
Analysis of the information:
A man whose body and soul are
broken
It’s a poem about a man saying
that his body and soul are broken
because of love
Reason: because of his love
Implicit information:
A man whose body and soul are broken because of love is not physically sick but
emotionally devastated; probably he broke up with his girlfriend.
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Strategies to extract implicit
information
Identify key explicit information
Analyze the explicit information
Understand the hidden message behind words
1. Identify key explicit information
To identify key explicit information is to find specific relevant information in a text. Names, actions, dates,
places, feelings, etc can be considered as explicit information.
2. Analyze the explicit information
When you read a text especially those where an opinion, feeling or something personal is described, you have to
examine in detail the explicit information provided in order to discover or understand the intended message.
3. Understand the hidden message behind words
When you analyze a message, you can understand or discover ideas that are not explicit on it, but are very
important in order to fully understand what the writer wanted to express. In poetry they are called metaphors.
Nevertheless, hidden information can be present in any type of text, and those ideas are widely known as implicit
information.
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1. Identify key explicit information
After the literature class, Victoria was really disappointed. She decided to read the poem
again in order to understand it better and have a proper answer next class.
1. Read the poem
Saturday night, one night without my one love
I’m sitting on the floor, I’m sitting alone
My cat and my tears are the best companions
Oh my love, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong?
my heart is broken, my soul is broken,
and everything is destroyed because of you my love.
I’m sitting on the floor, I’m sitting alone
What did I do wrong? What did I do wrong?
While reading the poem she highlighted some pieces of explicit information. Look at the pieces of
information that she found
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
One night without my love
Sitting alone
Cat and tears best companions
Heart and soul broken
Everything destroyed because of love
Question: what did I do wrong?
While reading the poem, Victoria highlighted the most important or key explicit information in
order to understand why her answer was incorrect.
2. Analyze the explicit information
Using the previous information, Victoria started analyzing the text by breaking down into
components the ideas of the poem.
2. Read the following chart about the key explicit pieces of information and Victoria’s
analysis of them.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
One night without my love = the man is without his girlfriend.
Sitting alone = he isn’t with anyone at the moment.
Cat and tears best companions = he was crying maybe he is sad
Heart and soul broken= he does not feel well
Everything destroyed because of love = his love broke everything
Question: what did I do wrong? = he is unsure about his actions.
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3. Understand the hidden message behind words
Using the analysis, Victoria highlighted some ideas that allowed her to deeply understand the main
idea of the poem.
3. Look at the chart and read Victoria’s conclusions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
One night without my love = the man is without his girlfriend.
Sitting alone = he isn’t with anyone at the moment.
Cat and drop best companions = he was crying maybe he is sad
Heart and soul broken= he does not feel well
Everything destroyed because of love = his love broke everything
Question: what did I do wrong?= he is unsure about his actions.
If a man used to have a girlfriend, now he is crying because
his love broke his heart but he is unsure about what he did
wrong, this poem is about someone who is or used to be in
love and now is suffering because the relationship is over.
Victoria found out that her classmates were laughing at her because she misunderstood the ideas
of the poem. She was not paying real attention to metaphors or implicit information; she was
unable to say that the poem was about a man suffering for love.
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Now let’s practice!
1. How do you think these people feel? What feelings can we deduce from these comments?
“When we celebrated Mother’s day, my children totally forgot about it and
didn`t give me anything. My husband forgot it too.”
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“My parents gave me a new car for my 18th birthday, and that same day Helen
accepted to be my girlfriend.”
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“I have three tests this week and if I fail I will not pass this class. I haven’t studied
anything yet and I don’t understand the contents much. I don’t think I’ll make
it.”
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“The teacher wants us to copy from the chalkboard all the time. That’s all we do
in 90 minutes, we cannot speak at all and if we speak out of turn, he sends us
out of the room”
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“My father told us today that next summer we are going to Cancun by plane,
and it’s going to be the first time I fly by plane.”
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Read the text. Then, write down all the ideas you can deduce from this text but which are not
expressed literally.
“When I woke up last Saturday I looked at the clock and saw that it was 7
o’clock but I could still stay in bed. I didn’t have to wear my uniform and I
could spend all day playing outside with my brothers, watching TV or relaxing.
I didn’t have any homework to do because we had had the last exam the day
before, and my parents loved us so much that I didn’t have anything to worry
about... All of a sudden I remembered it all. I don’t know how the teacher
noticed but he was red with anger when he came to my seat, without saying a
word he opened my pencil case and found the tiny paper I had hidden there
with the answers for the test. I didn’t feel well anymore, he would call my
parents first time on Monday and they would know the truth. I had to find a
way of telling them what had happened ...”
Example:
From the text above we can deduce that…
- The protagonist of the story is a student.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
Time to sum up
Victoria failed in extracting implicit information. As you have learnt here, extracting implicit
information is very important when you read texts, especially those that describe feelings or
opinions. To summarize, complete the following chart with the strategies that you need in order
to find implicit information.
Strategies to find implicit information
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Difficulties applying it:
Difficulties applying it:
Difficulties applying it:
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