Unit 11
The mighty tree began to creak and the boy’s sister cried out, “There are too many of you! You will kill the tree!” No one listened and soon the tree crashed to the ground. As the tree touched the ground, rain began to fall furiously. Within minutes, the forest was flooded. The villagers fled to high ground, leaving their fruit behind them. There they sat, miserably for many weeks. They were cold and hungry. **
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At last, when the rain stopped and the waters went down, the villagers went back down the hill. The tree of life had gone but, all over the forest, were hundreds of new trees. The flood which had destroyed the tree of life had also scattered seeds and each new tree bore just one kind of fruit. The villagers had learnt their lesson. From then on, they took only what they needed from the trees and they taught their children to share.
1 According to the story, what did people eat a long time ago ? 2 Why didn’t the boy tell anyone about the tree he had found? 3 His sister became suspicious . What does that mean?
a) She knew he had found the tree of life. b) She thought something odd was going on. c) She had a bright idea. 4 What caused the tree to fall? 5 What caused the new trees to grow?
Cause and effect
6 Who behaved well in this story? Why do you think that? 7 Which characters behaved badly? Why do you think that? 8 What is the moral of this story?
• Encourage students to use context clues to work out the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary. • Question 3: Tell students to find the sentence in the story and to read the sentences before and after to try to work out the meaning of ‘became suspicious’. • Questions 6 and 7: Encourage students to find evidence in the story to support their answers. • Question 8: Discuss this question with the class. Explain that a moral is a lesson which can be found in a story or an experience.
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