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Raintree 2 The Good Seed

 Summary: The Good Seed

This Chinese tale explores the theme of honesty. Heirless King Chang is growing old and is looking for

a successor to the throne. He thinks of a contest to determine the ideal person. He summons the

children in the kingdom to the palace and hands each of them a seed. He gives them a year’s time to

transform the seed into a plant, declaring that the child with the best sapling will be crowned the

next ruler of the kingdom. Among them is Ping, a boy who loves plants and hence is ecstatic to

receive the seed.

What the children don’t know is that the seeds are cooked and thus can never germinate. At the end

of the year, every child returns to the palace with a healthy-looking plant. Ping is the only boy

without a sapling to show for his efforts. This suggests that every child used deception to impress

the king by substituting the cooked seed with a normal seed—all except Ping who honestly tried his

best to grow a sapling out of the original seed, without knowing that it was cooked.

Naturally, King Chang appoints Ping as his successor sending a powerful message to the other

children on the importance of being honest.

UNIT 5 THE GOOD SEED

EMBEDDED QUESTIONS

1. Ping was happy to get the flower seed because he loved plants.

2. Ping got a flower seed from the king. Ping planted the seed in a flowerpot. Ping put the seed in a

bigger pot. At the end of the year, Ping’s pot was empty.

3. honest; wise; clever; kind

Comprehension

A. 1. b 2. c 3. a 4. c 5. b

B. 1. King Chang was getting old. So he wanted to choose a good and honest king to the throne.

2. Ping filled a flowerpot with soil and planted the seed. Every day, he watered the seed. But nothing

happened. The plant did not sprout. He put the seed into a bigger pot with more soil. Still nothing

happened.


3. Ping took good care of the seed but it did not sprout. At the end of the year, Ping had an empty

pot. He felt ashamed to go to the palace with an empty pot.

4. a. Ping said these words.

 b. He was talking about the great care he took of the seed. But the seed did not sprout.

 c. King Chang said he had found the next king. King Chang explained that the seeds he gave the

children were cooked. They cannot grow into a plant.

C. 1. The other children understood that the seeds that King Chang gave them would never grow into

plants. So they planted different seeds which sprouted.

2. King Chang smiled on seeing Ping’s empty pot because he understood that Ping was the only

honest boy. King Chang knew that Ping would be a good king.

D. Yes, he did the right thing.

Grammar

A. 2. am reading 3. is flying 4. are playing 5. is drinking 6. are watching

B. 2. e 3. a 4. f 5. b 6. d

C. 2. have 3. has 4. have 5. has 6. have

Vocabulary

2. sister 3. son 4. grandmother 5. lioness

Listening

[Listen and colour.

1. Colour the sun orange.

2. Colour the tree trunk brown.

3. Colour the tree leaves dark green.

4. Colour the bushes light green.

5. Colour the sky blue.]

Speaking

1. e 2. d 3. a 4. b 5. c

Dictionary Work

Answers vary

Writing

 Hello! I am Ping. I am so happy that I passed King Chang’s test. Yesterday I was so sad. I did not want

to go to the palace because my flowerpot was empty. But my father told me to go and tell the truth

to King Chang. When I told the truth to the king, I thought he would be angry. But he just smiled and

said I was the next king.

THE GOOD SEED

A. Answer in brief.

1. Who was king Chang? What did he want to do?

 Ans: King Chang was a king in China. He was very old. He wanted to choose a good and honest

king to the throne.

2. What advice did Ping’s father give him?

 Ans: He advised Ping to go to the king with the empty pot and tell him the truth.

3. What reward did Ping get for speaking the truth?

 Ans: King Chang was very happy with Ping as he was an honest boy, so he chose Ping to be the

next king of China.

B. Answer in detail.

1. What task did the king set for the children in his kingdom to choose the next king?

 Ans: King Chang called all the children in the kingdom to his palace and gave each of them a

special flower-seed to plant. He asked them to come back the following year with the plants.

2. What happened when Ping went with his empty pot to the king’s garden?

 Ans: When Ping went to the palace garden, there was a big crowd in the garden. King Chang was

looking at all the flowers. Soon, he came to Ping’s pot. He looked at the empty pot and asked Ping

why his pot was empty.

3. What did Ping answer when the king asked him why his pot was empty? What did Chang do?

 Ans: Ping said that he planted the seed that the king gave him and took good care of it, but it just

did not sprout. The king smiled as he as was very happy with Ping’s honesty and made him the

next king.

C. Read the lines and answer the questions.

1. “How will I find such a person?” (The Good Seed)

 a. Who said these words?

 b. What did he mean by ‘such a person?’

 c. Did he find the person he was looking for?

 Ans: a. King Chang said these words.

 b. By ‘such a person,’ King Chang meant a good and honest king for China.

 c. Yes, he found Ping who was very honest and chose him to be the next king.

2. “You did your best. Go to the king with the empty pot. Tell him the truth.”

 a. Who said these words and to whom?

 b. What do these words tell us about Ping’s father?

 c. Did he give correct advice to his son?


 Ans: a. Ping’s father said this to Ping.

 b. These words tell us that Ping’s father was an honest man.

 c. Yes. He taught his son to be honest and truthful. 


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