THE VOCABULARY DETECTIVE

CASE 20 · PAGE 88

The invitation with a condition

Two teenage detectives examining clues with a magnifying glass and notebook.

Listening is optional. It can help you follow the story and hear how the words are pronounced. You can solve the case using the book alone.

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The story from your book · 52 seconds

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reconcile

explicit

implicit

qualify

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Read along with the story

Ben had spent the weekend recording his story. Now he was ready to enter the school showcase. The poster said, “Bring your own story!” But the entry form asked for a typed document.

He tried to reconcile the two messages: could both make sense without changing either one? The form was explicit about format. It named the accepted file type directly; the poster said nothing about files.

The poster never said “Do not copy another writer,” but that warning was implicit in “your own story.” Ben understood it without seeing those exact words. Whether a recording counted as an entry was less clear.

A note beside the poster seemed to qualify the invitation by adding a condition. Ben read it with the current form. He hoped he could still enter, even if he had to type out the story he had recorded.