Read a Plan, Describe a Route

This drawing shows an imaginary study space. It is not a map of an actual room at Ponpes Temas. The entrance is at the bottom of the drawing. When you enter and face the top of the page, the desk is on your left and the shelf is on your right. There is a small blue box on the lower shelf. It has a white label. Two green folders are on the desk, next to a red notebook. The notebook belongs to the teacher in this story, so the students ask before using it. To reach the shelf from the entrance, go straight to the centre mark and turn right. The drawing has no distance scale. It tells you where things are in the model, not how many metres you must walk.

The class is comparing three imaginary boxes. Box A is twenty centimetres wide. Box B is thirty centimetres wide, and Box C is also thirty centimetres wide. All three widths use the same unit. Box B is wider than Box A. Box B is as wide as Box C. Boxes B and C are the widest boxes in this set. The table does not tell us their height, depth, mass, price, or age. A wider box is not always the most useful choice. We need to know what we want to store and how much space is available. Sara suggests checking these details before choosing. Amin agrees that a clear reason is more useful than saying that one box is simply the best.