shaman: a person who uses ancient healing traditions for cures
sap: sugary liquid produced by plants
Let's practise
Every day Gabriela followed the shaman through the forest and learned about the hundreds of plants he used for medicines; plants to cure earaches and stomach aches, snake and insect bites.
One day Nahtahlah noticed Gabriela scratching her elbow. Going over to a weedee tree, he peeled the bark away. He spread the bright red sap on Gabriela's arm. By the next day the fungus and itching had disappeared.
After several months Gabriela left. But every year she returned to Kwamala to learn more and more of the shaman's wisdom.
Lynne Cherry and Mark J Plotkin: adapted from The Shaman's Apprentice: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest (Voyager Books, 2001)
Show Glossary
The main idea in the text is …
Tick one.
Gabriela travelled through the forest.
Trees are important.
Gabriela visits the forest every year.
Plants in the forest are used as natural medicines.
1 mark
- Read the question and read it again. What is it asking?
Show me
It is asking you to choose the answer that describes the main idea in the text.
- Is the fact that Gabriela travelled through the forest described throughout the text?
Show me
No. It says she followed the shaman at the start of the text.
- Are trees important, as given in choice 2?
Show me
The bark of a tree was used to cure Gabriela's arm so this could be a possible answer.
- Look at the two choices left. Is it possible to eliminate one of them?
Show me
The third choice can be eliminated. She visits the forest, but the text only mentions this at the end.
- Choices 2 and 4 are left. Which one is closest to giving the main idea in the text?
Show me
The final choice.
- Reread the text to make sure that you are confident choice 4 is the main idea in the text. Then tick the correct box.
Show me
The main idea is that plants in the forest are used as natural medicines.
- Check your answer.