Galvez Victoria Francesca

Primary 5 Suggested Comprehension Open-Ended (COE) Passage

Adapted from Rice with rain (page 1 to 4), by Ho Minfong, Victoria
Galvezs copy, Times Books International (1986), 184 pages.
1 Heat the colour of fire, sky as heavy as mud, and under both the
soil hard, dry, unyielding.
2 It was a silent harvest. Across the valley, yellow rice fields
stretched, stooped and dry. The sun glazed the afternoon with a
heat so fierce that the distant mountains shimmered in it.
3 Fanning out in a jagged line across the fields were the harvesters,
their sickles flashing in the sun. Nobody spoke. Nobody laughed.
Nobody sang. The only noise was wave after wave of sullen hisses
as the scant rice stalks were slashed and flung to the ground. The
dust in the sky, the cracked earth, the shrivelled rice stalks.
Everything, including the harvesters energy, was zapped.
4 A single lark flew by, casting a swift shadow on the stubbled fields.
From under the brim of her hat, Jinda saw it wing its way west. It
flew to a tamarind tree at the foot of the mountain, circled it three
times and flew away.
5 A sign of good luck, Jinda thought. Maybe the harvest will not be
so poor after all. She straightened up, feeling prickles of pain shoot
up her spine, and gazed at the brown fields before her.
6 In all her seventeen years, Jinda had never seen a crop as bad as
this one. Sighing, she bent back to work. Her shirt stuck to her in
clammy patches, and the sickle handle was damp in her palm. She
reached for a sheaf of rice stalks and slashed through it.
7 Reach and slash, reach and slash. It was a rhythm she must have
been born knowing, she mused, so deeply ingrained was it in her.
8 Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dao, her elder sister. Dao
was stooped even lower than the other harvesters in their row, and
was panting slightly as she strained to keep up.
9 From the edge of the field came the sudden sound of a thin, shrill
wail.
10 Your babys crying, Dao! Jinda exclaimed.
11 Her sister ignored her.

12 Ois crying, Jinda repeated, her eyebrows furrowed. Cant you

hear him?
13 I hear him. Mind your own business, Dao snapped.
14 But couldnt you even try to attend to him? Jinda insisted, as
the wailing crescendoed. I think you should at least try.
15 Dao slashed through a sheaf of stalks and hurled them to the
ground. When I want your advice, sister, she retorted, Ill ask for
it.
16 How different this is from past harvests, Jinda contemplated. Just
three years ago, before the drought, she and Dao and gaily chatted
away as they cut stalks heavy with grain. They had conversed about
what they might purchase after the harvest new sarongs, some
ducklings, a bottle of honey.
17 There had been so much of everything then, Jinda reflected
wistfully. So much food and rice wine, so much music and
movement. And best of all, so much laughter. Jinda smiled at the
memory but her heart also ached. It was all in the past.
18 Gone was the laughter, two very poor harvest later. There was
nothing but the whisper of sickles against dry stalks in parched
fields. Daos husband had left to work in the city and Dao had to
fend for her son on her own. Jinda stole a glance at her sisters grim
face. The cheerful Dao had become a shadow of herself.
19 Jinda tucked her sickle into the waist of her sarong and
approached her sister. Want to go down to the river? she quipped.
The baby likes the cool water, and you can bathe him there.
20 The sides of Daos lips curled upwards, and Jinda knew that their
fight was over.

Possible COE questions

1. According to paragraph 1, the weather is likened to heat the
colour of fire, sky as heavy as mud. What do you think this implies
about the weather? (Language and Inferential)
It implies that the weather is probably red and scorching hot (1,
inferred), and that the sky is brown / dark and overcast (1, inferred).
2. Why do you think that the harvesters slashed and flung their rice
stalks to the ground in silence? (Inferential)
The harvesters were probably worried / not in an upbeat mood
because it was a poor harvest (1). The weather was very hot and
the harvesters probably felt exhausted while harvesting their crops.
3. How do you think Jinda felt when she saw the single lark circle the
tamarind tree and fly away? Why did she felt this way? (Inferential
and Direct)
Jinda probably felt relieved / hopeful (inferred) because the solo lark
was a symbol of good fortune and hope that the harvest would not
be exceedingly poor (1).
4. Do you think that Jinda was an experienced harvester? Give two
pieces of evidence from the passage to support your answer.
(Inferential and Direct)
Yes, I think that Jinda was an experienced harvester (1, inferred).
The activity of reaching and slashing rice stalks was a pattern that
she had known for all her life, and was deeply engraved in her (1).
5. How do you think Dao felt as she harvested the rice stalks? Give
two pieces of evidence to support your answer. (Inferential and
Direct)
Dao was probably fatigued / exhausted (1, inferred). She put in more
effort than other harvesters as she bent lower than them to cut the
stalks. She laboured hard to keep pace with them and was losing
her breath (1).
6. How do you think Dao felt when Jinda told her to feed her baby?
Give two pieces of evidence to support your answer. (Inferential and
Direct)
Dao probably felt irritated / annoyed / irked (1, inferred). Dao replied
to Jindas request curtly / rudely / shortly and instructed Jinda to stay
out of her affairs. Dao also informed Jinda that she did not need
Jindas advice (1).

7. Give one adjective to describe the previous harvests in

paragraphs 16 and 17. Give two pieces of evidence to support your
choice of this adjective. (Inferential and Direct)
The previous harvests were probably rich / plentiful / abundant (1,
inferred). The harvests had yield stalks that were full of grain, and
there was plenty of food and rice wine (1).
OR The previous harvests were probably joyful / lively / spirited (1,
inferred). There was an abundance of music and dance, and joy /
laughter / cheer (1).
8. Which four-word phrase tells you that Dao was not like her
previous cheerful self? (Language)
It is a shadow of herself.
9. How do you think Jinda felt when she recalled the previous
harvests? (Inferential)
Jinda probably felt nostalgic / longing / desire for the previous
harvests (1). She also felt discouraged / saddened that these
harvests were things of the past (1).
10. Refer to paragraphs 19 and 20. How would you describe Jinda
and Daos relationship? Give a piece of evidence to support your
answer. (Inferential and Direct)
Jinda and Dao probably shared a close / intimate relationship (1,
inferred). They made up quickly after they argued over whether Dao
should feed her baby.
11. True / False question
11a. Jinda laboured easily in the fields and she did not feel any pain.
False. Jinda laboured hard in the fields and felt tinges of pain move
rapidly up her spine when she straightened her back.
11b. During the previous harvests, the sisters anticipated the new
items they would obtain after the harvests.
True. The sisters spoke about the new sarongs, ducklings and honey
they would buy after the harvests.
12. Sequence of events

Jinda and the other harvesters slashed rice stalks silently in the
fields: 1
Jinda spotted a lark and interpreted it as a symbol of good fortune: 2
Dao spoke curtly to Jinda when Jinda pushed her to feed her son: 3
Jinda reminisced about the past harvests with a sense of longing
and regret: 4