Jump to conclusions

Activity: jump to conclusions

Describe a situation that is open to interpretation for the students (see box for examples). When you finish, ask them to work in pairs and make as many sentences as possible as to what may have happened. For this they should use modal verb + have + past participle, e.g.

When I arrived at school today, there were papers all over the floor in the hall and the director’s office.

Possible conclusions:

• There may have been a break-in.
• The director might have gone crazy and thrown the papers around.
• Some students may have played a joke.
• The director must have been furious.

Possible situations:

• You were stuck in traffic for two hours.
• You heard loud dance music coming from the staff room.
• No students came to class.
• When you walked in, all the students started laughing.
• X (a student’s name) was fifteen minutes late.