The garden and the record
CEFR A2132 words
Desde hace tres semanas cuido unas plantas con mi vecina Bea. Tenemos dos grupos de macetas iguales en el mismo balcón. El grupo de la izquierda recibe agua cada día; el de la derecha, cada dos días. Usamos la misma cantidad de agua en cada riego y escribimos la fecha en un cuaderno.
El lunes Bea vio algunas hojas amarillas a la izquierda y dijo que quizás había demasiada agua. Yo quería cambiar los dos grupos de sitio. Bea recordó que queríamos comparar la frecuencia del riego, no la posición. Dejamos las macetas donde estaban y seguimos anotando.
El jueves llovió sobre todo el balcón. Anotamos la lluvia también, porque las plantas recibieron agua fuera de nuestros turnos. Todavía no decidimos cuál de las dos frecuencias funciona mejor; necesitamos observar más días.
Words you may not know
- macetasplant pots
- riegowatering
- frecuenciafrequency
- anotandomaking notes
Questions
You answer them with the text in front of you. It isn't memory: it's understanding.
They exchange the groups’ positions but keep each group’s watering schedule. Which group would then receive water daily?
The group now on the right — Daily watering belongs to the group originally on the left. Moving the groups without changing their schedules puts that group on the right.
During a dry three-day period, both groups are watered on day one. On how many of those days would only the left-hand group receive scheduled water?
One of the three days — Left is watered daily, on days one, two and three. Right is watered every two days, on days one and three. Only day two has a left-only watering. Two counts days one and three as left-only; three ignores right’s turns; none treats the schedules as identical.
Which observation is the one Bea connects to possible excess water?
Yellow leaves in the daily-watered group — Yellow leaves are on the left, which receives daily watering. Bea suggests excess water as a possible explanation, before Thursday’s rain.
Bea writes down scheduled waterings during a dry six-day period starting with a turn for both groups. How many more watering dates belong to the left-hand group?
Three more watering dates — Left receives six scheduled turns, one each day. Right receives three, on days one, three and five. Six minus three gives three more dates on the left. Two undercounts daily turns; one confuses the interval with the difference; four removes an extra right-hand turn.
Start a dry four-day period with a scheduled watering for each group on day one. Using their existing schedules, which group receives twice as many scheduled waterings?
The left-hand group — Left is watered on days one, two, three and four; right on days one and three. With the same amount per turn, left receives four scheduled inputs against two.
After the discussion, which watering schedule belongs to the plants whose leaves changed colour?
Daily watering — The yellow leaves are in the left group, which is watered daily. The neighbours keep the groups in place and do not announce a schedule change.