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ESL Worksheets

1. This chapter is full of tension and events that move at shocking speed. The following events are in the wrong order. Rearrange them correctly by numbering them.

• Some militant students fired pistols into the air.
• Homemade bombs were thrown from the crowd.
• Soldiers opened fire on the crowd, killing and wounding students.
• A group of men attacked Ned.
• Jinda found Kamol at the Headquarters.
• On the platform, Ned started speaking.
• Jinda saw a hanged boy.
• At Ned’s insistence, Jinda left the platform and headed for home.
• A group of street gangsters attacked the shoe-shine boy.
• Jinda started her speech.
• Sri arrived with a film for processing. The photographer, a student, had been shot dead.
• Ned pointed out a shoe-shine boy to Jinda. The boy was imitating the speakers at the rally.

2. Jinda receives a letter from her little brother, Pinit. What news does it contain?

 

3. The chapter ends with Jinda crushing an orchid flower. What do you think that image means?

 

 

Chapter 13

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1. Why does Jinda remain in the shadows of the mango tree for so long?

 

2. What is Jinda’s mood during and after her father’s funeral? (Read carefully, especially: the bottom of p.146; the top of p.148; the top/middle of p.149; the bottom of p.150; the top of p.152.)

 

3. What has happened to Dao?

 

4. What is Jinda’s reaction to her sister’s problems?

 

 

Chapter 14

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1. How do the Maekung villagers react to Dao’s return?

2. Why is it difficult for Jinda to accept Vichien’s help with the ploughing?

3. How has Ned changed since the last time Jinda saw him (p.162)? List three changes:

• _____________________________
• _____________________________
• _____________________________

4. What does Jinda have in mind when she talks of "building a life together"? 5. What does Ned have in mind when he talks of "building a life together"?

 

6. Look again at the second page of Jiranan Prasertkul’s Foreword to the novel. What similarities are there between Ned and him?

 

 

Chapter 15

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1. What marvellous event accompanies the birth of Dao’s baby?

2. What is the effect of placing these two events in the closing chapter of a novel that has been dominated by drought, disease, death and danger?

3. Read Inthorn’s reply to Jinda’s question about the rice stalks turning brown. Summarise it in your own words. Why does Jinda find his explanation consoling now?

 

4. Imagine that four years later Ned communicates with Jinda again.

Either

(a) Write a letter from Ned to Jinda and write Jinda’s reply.

or

(b) Write a narrative, including dialogue, showing Ned’s arrival back in Maekung.

• You might find it helpful to look at the Foreword to the novel. The writer is not Ned, but you may feel that Ned would probably follow the same kind of path.
• You must bear in mind that a lot can change in four years. Ned has lived rough in the jungle, taken part in armed raids, taught Marxist theory and so on. What about Jinda? Has she continued to wait for Ned or agreed to marry a local man? Has the rent resistance movement continued? Has the harvest improved?

Frankie Meehan