The Sixth Sense: Intuition
Learning Goals
In this chapter, you will learn to:
- Use pre-reading strategies
- Make predictions to check your understanding of a text
- Build your vocabulary
- Understand the main ideas, details, and sequence of a text
- Draw conclusions about characters’ emotions
- Add suffixes to 1-1-1 words
- Use commas in place names and dates
- Edit for subject-verb agreement
- Write a narrative paragraph
Get Ready to Read
Think about the questions below or discuss them with a partner.
- Describe a time when you had a gut feeling that was either right or wrong.
- Do you think people should trust their gut feelings?
- Do you think some people can predict the future?
Reading Strategy
Readers check their understanding of a text while they read. One strategy is to make predictions while you read. For example, read the first paragraph of The Sixth Sense: Intuition.
A fire broke out in the kitchen of a house in Chicago, Illinois. A team of firefighters kicked down the door of the house. They stood in the living room as they sprayed water at the fire in the kitchen. Strangely, the fire would not go out. One of the firefighters had a feeling that something was very wrong. “Get out, now!” he ordered. The team ran out of the house. Moments later, the floor they had been standing on in the living room collapsed.
Predict why the floor collapsed. Predict how the firefighter knew to get his team out of the house. Then read on to see if your predictions were correct. This strategy helps you actively think about what you are reading, to build a deeper understanding.
Use this strategy as you read The Sixth Sense: Intuition.
Vocabulary
Find these words in the text. Use the context to choose the best meaning.
| order | collapse | unusually | reputation | shortcut | inferior |
| reason | valued | spiritual | bias | accurate |
1. A quicker and easier way to get someplace or do something is called a _____________________.
2. A tendency to unfairly think of some things are better than others is called a _________________.
3. _____________________ means to break apart or fall down suddenly.
4. Something is _____________________ if it is free from mistakes or errors.
5. _____________________ means in a way that is not normal.
6. _____________________ means less in quality or importance.
7. _____________________ describes things related to the human soul.
8. _____________________ is the power of the mind to think and understand in a logical way.
9. A _____________________ is the way people think about something or someone.
10. Something that is _____________________ is thought of as important.
11. _____________________ means to tell someone to do something.
Check Your Understanding
1. Which of these sentences summarizes the main idea?
a. Firefighters use intuition to decide if a situation is safe.
b. Intuition is not as useful as reason when making decisions.
c. Intuition is a useful ability of the human brain that we should use in balance with reason.
Answer these questions using complete sentences.
2. What is intuition?
3. What is the main idea of paragraph six?
4. What is the main idea of paragraph seven?
5. How did the firefighter explain why he knew to get out of the burning house?
6. How did the researcher explain why the firefighter knew to get out of the burning house?
7. Find three synonyms for intuition used in the text.
8. What did scientists think of as better than intuition?
9. What different ways of knowing in First Nations cultures are mentioned in the text?
10. How do you think the firefighter felt when he saw the floor of the house collapse?
Spelling
A 1-1-1 word is a word that has one syllable, one vowel, and ends with one consonant. Always double the consonant before adding a suffix to a 1-1-1 word.
| Examples of 1-1-1 Words | |
| run | running |
| stop | stopping |
| trip | tripping |
| drop | dropping |
| clap | clapping |
Study these words. Arrange a date to be tested on your ability to spell these words.
1. getting
2. putting
3. planned
4. sunny
5. hunter
6. loaded
7. sharpest
8. baggage
9. shipping
10. leader
1. One way to learn new words is to look for patterns. Which of these words are 1-1-1 words and which are not? Make two lists. Try not to look at the list above.
| lead | sharp | put | load | get |
| ship | bag | sun | plan | hunt |
| 1-1-1 Words | Not 1-1-1 Words |
|
|
Spell each word correctly after adding the suffix. Try not to look at the spelling list.
2. lead + er = ________________________
3. sharp + est = ________________________
4. put + ing = ________________________
5. load + ed = ________________________
6. get + ing = ________________________
7. ship + ing = ________________________
8. bag + age = ________________________
9. sun + y = ________________________
10. plan + ed = ________________________
11. hunt + er = ________________________
Commas with Place Names and Dates
Grammar Rule
- Use a comma between the name of a city and the name of a province or state.
Example: A fire broke out in the kitchen of a one-storey house in Chicago, Illinois.
- Use a comma between the name of a province and the name of a country.
Example: Over 4 million people live in British Columbia, Canada.
- Use a comma between the day and the year in a date.
Example: The fire broke out on March 6, 1998.
Fill in the commas in the sentences below.
1. There is a place called Intuition Peak in South Shetland Islands Antarctica.
2. Carl Jung was born on July 26 1875. During his life, he developed a theory that we are all born with memories from our ancestors.
3. Jung died on June 6 1961. He died in Zurich Switzerland. Since then, his idea has been proven wrong.
4. Sigmund Freud was born on May 6 1856. He spent most of his life in Vienna Austria. He studied the human mind. He thought he could help people with their mental problems by studying their dreams.
5. Freud died on September 23 1939. He died in London England.
Subject-Verb Agreement
You have learned that subject refers to the people, places, or things that do the action in a sentence. In this lesson, you’ll study how verbs must agree with their subjects.
There is a popular blog on the Internet called “I Can Has Cheezburger?” The blog is full of pictures of cats using grammar in ways that might make your instructor cringe. The cats tend to use verbs that do not agree with their subjects. For example, this cat says, “I are serious cat” instead of “I am a serious cat.”
Unless you are writing for this blog, use the verbs “be” and “have” correctly. Here’s a quick review:
Grammar Rule
| Be (Simple Present) | Be (Simple Past) | |||
| I | am | I | was | |
| You | are | You | were | |
| He/She/It | is | He/She/It | was | |
| We | are | We | were | |
| They | are | They | were |
| Have (Simple Present) | |
| I | have |
| You | have |
| She/He/It | has |
| We | have |
| They | have |
Choose the verb that agrees with each subject.
1. These words have/has no rhymes: diamond, skeleton, silver, and month.
2. A butterfly have/has the ability to taste with its feet.
3. Elephants is/are the only land animals that can’t jump.
4. Mohammed is/are the most common name in the world.
5. Station wagons was/were replaced by mini-vans and SUVs.
6. The umbrella was/were invented in Africa as a way to protect people from the sun.
Grammar Rule
- Sometimes there are words between the subject and the verb. These words often trick people into using the wrong verb form.
People in Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world.- People in Japan have the highest life expectancy in the world.
Underline the subject in each sentence. Choose the verb that agrees with the subject.
7. Couples who marry in January, February, and March have/has the highest divorce rates.
8. The cherry trees on my street is/are so beautiful.
9. The eyes of a chameleon is/are able to move in two different directions at the same time.
10. The kitten with the big green eyes was/were the cutest.
11. The cookies on the kitchen counter wasn’t/weren’t actually for you.
Writing
Writing Task
Choose one of the writing tasks below:
1. People often report having feelings or dreams that predict or warn them about a future event. For example, the firefighter in the text you read knew he needed to get his team out of the house, even though he didn’t know why. Moments later, the floor they were standing on collapsed. Have you ever had a gut feeling like this? Write a paragraph telling the story of what happened.
2. There’s an old saying that goes, “You can’t believe everything you think.” Tell the story of a time when you thought something was true, but it turned out to be completely wrong.
Follow the TOWER method:
- Think of experiences you have had that fit the writing task you have chosen. Decide which one will make the best story. Think about who was involved, what happened, where it happened, and why it happened.
- Organize your ideas into a beginning, middle, and end.
- Write a first draft. Include a topic sentence, details, linking words, and a concluding sentence.
- Edit your work, with the help on your instructor and The Sixth Sense: Intuition story checklist.
- Rewrite your paragraph. You may wish to type it on a computer. Finally, hand it in to your instructor.
Ask your instructor for a copy of the checklist, or print one from the link above. For a printable version, see Appendix 2.
Answer Key
| Vocabulary | |
| QUESTION | ANSWER |
| 1 | shortcut |
| 2 | bias |
| 3 | collapse |
| 4 | accurate |
| 5 | unusually |
| 6 | inferior |
| 7 | spiritual |
| 8 | reason |
| 9 | reputation |
| 10 | valued |
| 11 | order |
| Check Your Understanding | |
| QUESTION | ANSWER |
| 1 | c |
| 2 | Intuition is the ability to know something without proof. |
| 3 | Sometimes intuition is more useful than reason. |
| 4 | We can’t always trust our intuition because our brains often have biases. |
| 5 | The firefighter believed he knew to get the team out of the house because he had the ability to know the future. |
| 6 | The researcher believed that the firefighter’s intuition recognized that there was a fire in the basement. |
| 7 | Three synonyms for intuition found in the text are gut feeling, instinct, and sixth sense. |
| 8 | Scientists have often thought of reason as better than intuition. |
| 9 | The text mentions three ways of knowing recognized by First Nations cultures. Knowledge can be passed down from elders. It can be gained from experience. It can also be revealed through dreams, visions, and intuitions. |
| 10 | Answers may vary. The firefighter may have felt relieved that he got his team out of the building, shocked that he could have died, and surprised that he somehow knew the situation was not safe. |
| Spelling | |
| QUESTION | ANSWER |
| 1 | 1-1-1 Words: put, get, ship, bag, sun, plan |
| Not 1-1-1 Words: lead, sharp, load, hunt | |
| 2 | leader |
| 3 | sharpest |
| 4 | putting |
| 5 | loaded |
| 6 | getting |
| 7 | shipping |
| 8 | baggage |
| 9 | sunny |
| 10 | planned |
| 11 | hunter |
| Commas with Place Names and Dates | |
| QUESTION | ANSWER |
| 1 | There is a place called Intuition Peak in South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. |
| 2 | Carl Jung was born on July 26, 1875. During his life, he developed a theory that we are all born with memories from our ancestors. |
| 3 | Jung died on June 6, 1961. He died in Zurich, Switzerland. Since then, his idea has been proven wrong. |
| 4 | Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856. He spent most of his life in Vienna, Austria. He studied the human mind. He thought he could help people with their mental problems by studying their dreams. |
| 5 | Freud died on September 23, 1939. He died in London, England. |
| Subject-Verb Agreement | |
| QUESTION | ANSWER |
| 1 | have |
| 2 | has |
| 3 | are |
| 4 | is |
| 5 | were |
| 6 | was |
| 7 | Couples who marry in January, February, and March have the highest divorce rates. |
| 8 | The cherry trees on my street are so beautiful. |
| 9 | The eyes of a chameleon are able to move in two different directions at the same time. |
| 10 | The kitten with the big green eyes was the cutest. |
| 11 | The cookies on the kitchen counter weren’t actually for you. |
Attributions
Glass ball
Image by FeeLoona is in the public domain.
Firefighter
Image by skeeze is in the public domain.
Sigmund Freud
Image by skeeze is in the public domain.
Serious cat
Serious cat by brownpau is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
Baby elephant
Image by designerpoint is in the public domain.