HANDOUT 3: RFM Practice

GRADE 7 ENGLISH
TERM 1 / AY 2022-2023

A Family Tree

“Ready to pick lychees, Hannah?” Daddy asks as we pull into my grandmother’s

driveway. I answered yes as I scramble from the car. Daddy closes his car door and
1 strolls to the lychee tree in my grandmother’s front yard. “Hello, Family Tree,” Daddy
says, patting its trunk. There he goes again, treating that tree like it’s a person, I
thought, giggling. 5
I am still giggling at Daddy when the screen door opens, and my grandmother pops out
2 into the sunshine. I call her “Nainai”, a Chinese word for “Grandma.” Nainai used to live
in China, in province called Guangdong. That’s where she learned to grow lychees.
Nainai smiles and tugs on her baseball cap. The cap hides her short hair, which looks
like the black bristles in my hairbrush. “Hungry for lychees, Hannah?” Nainai asks. I 10
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shake my head. I don’t want them. Lychees look different from all the fruits I like. With
a laugh, Nainai pulls me into a hug. “More for me, then.”
“Let’s get busy!” Daddy says, rubbing his hands together. “Family’s Tree’s waiting.”
There Daddy goes again, calling Nainai’s tree by name. I’m giggling as he ruffles my
hair. Laugh if you want, Hannah, but this tree really is family. On cold nights, before 15
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Family Tree was fully grown, your nainai used to take my blanket and throw it over that
tree. I turn to Nainai. “Really?” She winks. “I had to protect my tree from bad weather
didn’t I? How else could it become a big, strong tree and grow fruit for my family?”
I grin as Daddy clamber up the tree. The lychees grow in cluster, and most are up high.
5 After Nainai passes Daddy the limb cutter, he slices through the end of a branch heavy 20
with fruit. “Daddy!” I wave the branch he’s cut. “Why are you cutting the tree you love?”
Daddy chuckles. “Don’t worry. Cutting the ends of branches doesn’t hurt Family Tree. It
makes her stronger.” He cuts down more branches, and Nainai and I pick their fruit.
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Each lychee looks like a giant cherry, but the skin feels prickly, like a pineapple. Nainai
peels and eats a lychee. “Scrumptious!” she says, smacking her lips. 25
Then I hear a loud sound of splintering wood. Daddy falls on the ground and under his
7 feet is a broken branch. “How about that? The branch broke oh so slowly and lowered
me right down,” Daddy says, laughing in disbelief. .

Grade 7 Page 1 of 2
 HANDOUT 3: RFM Practice
GRADE 7 ENGLISH
TERM 1 / AY 2022-2023

Answer the questions that follow.

From paragraph 1
1. What were Hannah and her father planning to do in her grandmother’s place?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. Why do you think Hannah thought that her father treats the tree as a person?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
From paragraph 2
3. Who was Nainai?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
4. Where did Nainai used to live?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
From paragraph 3
5. Why did Hannah not like lychees?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
From paragraph 4
6. What proved that Family Tree was just like any of their family members?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
7. What can you say about how Nainai took care of Family Tree?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
From paragraph 6
8. Why did Hannah’s father cut down the branches of the tree?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
From paragraph 7
9. Why was there a splintering sound?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
10. Why do you think Hannah’s father was ‘laughing in disbelief’?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Grade 7 Page 2 of 2