Evidence, and what it will carry
Eight small facts. Each one supports a conclusion — but not always the conclusion it first suggests.
Match each to what it will actually carry.
Eight pieces of evidence. Match each to the conclusion it genuinely supports.
The desk
A described scene · read it twice
A desk in a shared office, photographed at 18:40 on a Tuesday, after everyone has gone. Nobody is in the picture.
On the desk: a laptop, closed, with a small strip of black tape over the camera. Beside it a keyboard with the letters worn off E, A, S and N, and no others. A mug with the handle glued back on, badly. A phone charger, plugged in, no phone.
Pinned to the partition: a child’s drawing of a green horse, dated in an adult’s handwriting — 11 March, three years ago. A printed rota with one shift circled twice. A postcard of a beach, blank side facing out.
On the floor beside the chair: a bag for sports kit, dry. A pair of shoes, one of them on its side.
On the desk again, at the edge, half under the monitor stand: a printed email with a highlighted line, folded so the highlighted line is on the outside.
Five questions. Sort what you know from what you can work out — and from what you have added.
1. Which of these is something you know?
2. The mug has been glued back together, badly. What does that support?
3. The keyboard has E, A, S and N worn off, and nothing else. What is the safest reading?
4. The email is folded so the highlighted line faces outwards. What does that suggest?
5. Which statement about the drawing goes beyond the evidence?
The scale, and the word that carries two jobs
How sure are you, and which word says so
| Strength | Present | What it claims |
|---|---|---|
| Certain, positive | She must be at lunch. | The only explanation left. Not "very likely" — the last one standing |
| Possible | She might / could / may be at lunch. | One explanation among several. No commitment |
| Possible, negative | She might not / may not be at lunch. | Possibly not — the negative of might, not of must |
| Certain, negative | She can’t be at lunch. | Eliminated. The evidence rules it out |
Two traps, and both are about the same word.
1 · must is not deve. Portuguese deve estar cansada sits near "probably". English she must be tired is the top of the scale: I have looked at the evidence and there is nothing else it can be. Translate straight across and you land a full step higher than you meant, every single time.
2 · the negative of must is can’t. Not mustn’t. In Unit 10 mustn’t was prohibition — you mustn’t park here. It still is. She mustn’t be at lunch is not a weaker guess; it is a sentence about permission, and it will be heard as one.
Six lines of one person reading the desk, out of order. Put them in the order that reasons from evidence rather than announcing conclusions.
- The one thing I am sure of is the drawing: an adult dated it, and adults date things they intend to keep.
- So they can’t have gone home for the night — nobody leaves without the phone.
- Everything else about the child is me, not the desk.
- There is a charger plugged in with no phone in it.
- They might be at the gym now, or they might have given it up in January like everybody else.
- The bag for sports kit is dry, and it is Tuesday evening.
Choosing the strength on purpose
One or two words per gap. The evidence in the sentence decides how strong you are allowed to be.
The charger is plugged in with no phone, so they be coming back. The kit bag is completely dry, so they have been to the gym today. The drawing is three years old, so the child be older now — but we do not know how much older. The email is folded with the highlight facing out, which mean they wanted to find it again, or mean they wanted it seen.
Six sentences. One error each. Two are grammar; four are strength — the sentence claims more or less than the evidence allows.
1. She mustn’t be in the building — her coat is gone.
2. He must be unhappy at home, because his desk is untidy.
3. They must to be at lunch.
4. The bag is dry, so he might not have been to the gym. — a dry bag settles it
5. She can be at the meeting — I saw it in her calendar.
6. He must have children because there is a drawing on his wall. — a visitor could have brought it
A place you know, read by somebody who does not
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 6 minutes each
Describe a real place you know well — your desk, a shelf, a kitchen table, a car boot — as objects only. Say what is there. Say nothing about who owns it.
Two minutes describing, four minutes of your partner reading it back to you.
- Describe only what could be photographed. No feelings, no history, no explanations.
- Your partner speculates aloud, marking every claim: must, might, can’t.
- You may only answer right, wrong, or not enough to say. Nothing else.
- At the end, tell them the one thing they got right that surprised you — and the one thing they invented.
If you would rather use a photograph, use one from your own phone, and you decide what is shown. It is your place and your call.
Listener: keep a tally of your own claims by strength. You will need the numbers in four minutes.
How strong were you, and were you right to be
Three questions about your own tally.
1. Which strength did you use most?
2. Of your must claims, how many were answered not enough to say?
3. What does that mean about how you sound in English?
Strength is a choice
Three questions. Thirty seconds.
1. What does deductive must actually claim?
2. What is the negative of deductive must?
3. Why do errors here go uncorrected?
Next. People who do this for a living — and what deduction sounds like when the stakes are real and the evidence is thin.