1.1 Rading and response to reading

English first additional language

Grade 9

Fun at the fair

Module 2

Reading and response to reading

Activity 1:

Reading and response to reading

[lo 1.1.1]

Listen while members of the class read the following story aloud and then answer the questions that follow, orally at first and then in your written book:

• The story will be broken up into sections to give you time to answer some questions before you go on to the next section.

Reminder : You are reading to the class and they have to answer questions afterwards, so it is very important that they understand what you are reading – SO READ SLOWLY AND CONTROL THE PACE. Prepare your reading BEFORE YOU START READING, as you have been taught.

The Young Roman Entrepreneur

Marcus Augustus was a young boy with ideas. As a small child, he had made toys out of nothing. He imagined that stones were chariots, and small pieces of wood were wolves and thieves who were trying to steal his chariots and all the sesterces that he owned, which he imagined were kept in a large treasure chest.

So early on he realised it did not always cost money to be creative.

When he was 16 years old, he decided to go to a local fair to display his toys.

A fair is a temporary market where buyers and sellers gather to transact business. It is organised at regular intervals, usually at a specific place at a certain time of the year and can last for a day or for a few days.

The Roman Fair, at the foot of the Palatine Hill was well known for enticing foreigners to Rome. It was always held on 1 May and this year it was a general fair and anybody could hire a table. Sometimes sellers exhibit different products (like Roman tunics and other clothing like togas and hair adornments) or are all in the same business line (like only exhibiting books).

Marcus knew that nobody else was selling stone toys, so he had a good chance to do well - and a chance to impress his successful father.

Now, listen carefully while more members of the class continue reading:

“After all, the Romans had introduced markets and fairs into Northern Europe in the first place, to encourage trade with their conquered provinces and to spread political propaganda. And Marcus was very proud of his heritage and the might of the Roman Empire.

Marcus came from a well-to-do family. He knew from what he had been told at school that in the past, each individual or family group worked hard to make a livelihood. They just survived on what they collected (like nuts and berries), harvested (like potatoes and grapes) or hunted (mainly poaching rabbits and smaller buck), and that they usually had nothing left to exchange.

Later on, fruit, skins and metals (found only in one area) were bartered for salt and textiles (only found in another area). Marcus imagined what it must have been like to make such exciting exchanges and what a business it must have been to set up a meeting between two partners dealing in different commodities. He wished that he could have been present to witness the exchanges for himself.

As it was only the 2nd century, commerce was beginning to pick up.