Lesson 1

How Others See Me

YOUR GOALS

This lesson allows you to begin your journey into understanding yourself
which will hopefully lead you to mastering yourself. You must aim to:

1. Use single word adjectives in describing yourself and your classmates.

2. Explain why your views about yourself may be different from how others view
you.
3. Narrate an incident in your life which is similar to the one found in the selection.
4. Distinguish between figurative and literal language.
5. Unlock the meaning of words as used in sentences.
6. Differentiate a narrative text from other types of texts.
7. Use determiners correctly.
8. Write an anecdote following the features of narrative texts.

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1. How I View Myself

On a half-sheet of paper, complete the visual organizer below by writing at five

traits which you believe you have.

WHAT I THINK
OF MYSELF

Task 2. How Others View Me

Grade 7 English Learning Package 1

 For this activity, you will need a piece of paper, and some tape. Write your name at the
center of this paper. It is advisable to encircle your name. Once your teacher has
finished giving you instructions, you are to move around the classroom, look for your
classmates, and write only one word on each of their respective papers. That word must
be an adjective which you think best describes that classmate. After five minutes, take
the piece of paper from your back and look at how your classmates described you. Now
compare the descriptions that your classmates wrote for you with those you wrote for
yourself. How similar are they? How different are they?

YOUR TEXT

THE CENTIPEDE by
Rony V. Diaz

When I saw my sister, Delia, beating my dog with a stick, I felt hate heave like a caged, angry
beast in my chest. Out in the sun, the hair of my sister glinted like metal and, in her brown dress, she
looked like a sheathed dagger. Biryuk hugged the earth and screamed but I could not bound forward nor
cry out to my sister. She had a weak heart and she must not be surprised. So I held myself, my throat
swelled, and I felt hate rear and plunge in its cage of ribs.

I was thirteen when my father first took me hunting. All through the summer of that year, I had
tramped alone and unarmed the fields and forest around our farm. Then one afternoon in late July my
father told me I could use his shotgun.
Beyond the ipil grove, in a grass field we spotted a covey of brown pigeons. In the open, they
kept springing to the air and gliding away every time we were within range. But finally they dropped to the
ground inside a wedge of guava trees. My father pressed my shoulder and I stopped. Then slowly, in a
half-crouch, we advanced. The breeze rose lightly; the grass scuffed against my bare legs. My father
stopped again. He knelt down and held my hand.
―Wait for the birds to rise and then fire,‖ he whispered.
I pushed the safety lever of the rifle off and sighted along the barrel. The saddle of the stock felt
greasy on my cheek. The gun was heavy and my arm muscles twitched. My mouth was dry; I felt vaguely
sick. I wanted to sit down.
―You forgot to spit,‖ my father said.
Father had told me that hunters always spat for luck before firing. I spat and I saw the breeze
bend the ragged, glassy threads of spittle toward the birds. ―That‘s good,‖ Father said.
―Can‘t we throw a stone,‖ I whispered fiercely. ―It‘s taking them a long time.‖
―No, you‘ve to wait.‖
Suddenly, a small dog yelping shrilly came tearing across the brooding plain of grass and small
trees. It raced across the plain in long slewy swoops, on outraged shanks that disappeared and flashed
alternately in the light of the cloud-banked sun. One of the birds whistled and the covey dispersed like
seeds thrown in the wind. I fired and my body shook with the fierce momentary life of the rifle. I saw three
pigeons flutter in a last convulsive effort to stay afloat, then fall to the ground. The shot did not scare the
dog. He came to us, sniffing cautiously. He circled around us until I snapped my fingers and then he came
to me.
―Not bad,‖ my father said grinning. ―Three birds with one tube.‖ I went to the brush to get the
birds. The dog ambled after me. He found the birds for me. The breast of one of the birds was torn. The
bird had fallen on a spot where the earth was worn bare, and its blood was spread like a tiny, red rag. The
dog scraped the blood with his tongue. I picked up the birds and its warm, mangled flesh clung to the
palm of my hand.
―You‘re keen,‖ I said to the dog. ―Here. Come here.‖ I offered him my bloody palm. He came to
me and licked my palm clean.

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 I gave the birds to my father. ―May I keep him, Father?‖ I said pointing to the dog. He put the
birds in a leather bag which he carried strapped around his waist.
Father looked at me a minute and then said: ―Well, I‘m not sure. That dog belongs to
somebody.‖ ―May I keep him until his owner comes for him?‖ I pursued.
―He‘d make a good pointer,‖ Father remarked. ―But I would not like my son to be accused of
dogstealing.‖
―Oh, no!‖ I said quickly. ―I shall return him when the owner comes to claim him.‖
―All right,‖ he said, ―I hope that dog makes a hunter out of you.‖
Biryuk and I became fast friends. Every afternoon after school we went to the field to chase quails
or to the bank of the river which was fenced by tall, blade-sharp reeds to flush snipes. Father was away
most of the time but when he was home he hunted with us.

Biryuk scampered off and my sister flung the stick at him. Then she turned about and she saw
me.
―Eddie, come here,‖ she commanded. I approached with apprehension. Slowly, almost carefully,
she reached over and twisted my ear.
―I don‘t want to see that dog again in the house,‖ she said coldly. ―That dog destroyed my
slippers again. I‘ll tell Berto to kill that dog if I see it around again.‖ She clutched one side of my face with
her hot, moist hand and shoved me, roughly. I tumbled to the ground. But I did not cry or protest. I had
passed that phase. Now, every word and gesture she hurled at me I caught and fed to my growing and
restless hate.

My sister was the meanest creature I knew. She was eight when I was born, the day my mother
died. Although we continued to live in the same house, she had gone, it seemed, to another country from
where she looked at me with increasing annoyance and contempt.
One of my first solid memories was of standing before a grass hut. Its dirt floor was covered with
white banana stalks, and there was a small box filled with crushed and dismembered flowers in one
corner. A doll was cradled in the box. It was my sister‘s playhouse and I remembered she told me to keep
out of it. She was not around so I went in. The fresh banana hides were cold under my feet. The interior of
the hut was rife with the sour smell of damp dead grass. Against the flowers, the doll looked incredibly
heavy. I picked it up. It was slight but it had hard, unflexing limbs. I tried to bend one of the legs and it
snapped. I stared with horror at the hollow tube that was the leg of the doll. Then I saw my sister coming. I
hid the leg under one of the banana pelts. She was running and I knew she was furious. The walls of the
hut suddenly constricted me. I felt sick with a nameless pain. My sister snatched the doll from me and
when she saw the torn leg she gasped. She pushed me hard and I crashed against the wall of the hut.
The flimsy wall collapsed over me. I heard my sister screaming; she denounced me in a high, wild voice
and my body ached with fear. She seized one of the saplings that held up the hut and hit me again and
again until the flesh of my back and thighs sang with pain. Then suddenly my sister moaned; she
stiffened, the sapling fell from her hand and quietly, as though a sling were lowering her, she sank to the
ground. Her eyes were wild as scud and on the edges of her lips, drawn tight over her teeth, quivered a
wide lace of froth. I ran to the house yelling for Father.
She came back from the hospital in the city, pale and quiet and mean, drained, it seemed, of all
emotions, she moved and acted with the keen, perversity and deceptive dullness of a sheathed knife,
concealing in her body that awful power for inspiring fear and pain and hate, not always with its drawn
blade but only with its fearful shape, defined by the sheath as her meanness was defined by her body.
Nothing I did ever pleased her. She destroyed willfully anything I liked. At first, I took it as a
process of adaptation, a step of adjustment; I snatched and crushed every seed of anger she planted in
me, but later on I realized that it had become a habit with her. I did not say anything when she told Berto
to kill my monkey because it snickered at her one morning, while she was brushing her teeth. I did not say
anything when she told Father that she did not like my pigeon house because it stank and I had to give
away my pigeons and Berto had to chop the house into kindling wood. I learned how to hold myself
because I knew we had to put up with her whims to keep her calm and quiet. But when she dumped my
butterflies into a waste can and burned them in the backyard, I realized that she was spiting me.
My butterflies never snickered at her and they did not smell. I kept them in an unused cabinet in
the living room and unless she opened the drawers, they were out of her sight. And she knew too that my
butterfly collection had grown with me. But when I arrived home, one afternoon, from school, I found my

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butterflies in a can, burned in their cotton beds like deckle. I wept and Father had to call my sister for an
explanation. She stood straight and calm before Father but my tear-logged eyes saw only her harsh and
arrogant silhouette. She looked at me curiously but she did not say anything and Father began gently to
question her. She listened politely and when Father had stopped talking, she said without rush, heat or
concern: ―They were attracting ants.‖

I ran after Biryuk. He had fled to the brambles. I ran after him, bugling his name. I found him
under a low, shriveled bush. I called him and he only whimpered. Then I saw that one of his eyes was
bleeding. I sat on the ground and looked closer. The eye had been pierced. The stick of my sister had
stabbed the eye of my dog. I was stunned. For a long time I sat motionless, staring at Biryuk. Then I felt
hate crouch; its paws dug hard into the floor of its cage; it bunched muscles tensed; it held itself for a
minute and then it sprang and the door of the cage crashed open and hate clawed wildly my brain. I
screamed. Biryuk, frightened, yelped and fled, rattling the dead bush that sheltered him. I did not run after
him.
A large hawk wheeled gracefully above a group of birds. It flew in a tightening spiral above the
birds.
On my way back to the house, I passed the woodshed. I saw Berto in the shade of a tree, splitting
wood. He was splitting the wood he had stacked last year. A mound of bone-white slats was piled near his
chopping block. When he saw me, he stopped and called me.
His head was drenched with sweat. He brushed away the sweat and hair from his eyes and said
to me: ―I‘ve got something for you.‖
He dropped his ax and walked into the woodshed. I followed him. Berto went to a corner of the
shed. I saw a jute sack spread on the ground. Berto stopped and picked up the sack.
―Look,‖ he said.
I approached. Pinned to the ground by a piece of wood, was a big centipede. Its malignantly red
body twitched back and forth.
―It‘s large,‖ I said.
―I found him under the stack I chopped.‖ Berto smiled happily; he looked at me with his muddy
eyes.
―You know,‖ he said. ―That son of a devil nearly frightened me to death‖
I stiffened. ―Did it, really?‖ I said trying to control my rising voice. Berto was still grinning and I
felt hot all over.
―I didn‘t expect to find any centipede here,‖ he said. ―It nearly bit me. Who wouldn‘t get
shocked?‖ He bent and picked up a piece of wood.
―This wood was here,‖ he said and put down the block. ―Then I picked it up, like this. And this
centipede was coiled here. Right here. I nearly touched it with my hand. What do you think you would feel?
‖
I did not answer. I squatted to look at the reptile. Its antennae quivered searching the tense
afternoon air. I picked up a sliver of wood and prodded the centipede. It uncoiled viciously. Its pinchers
slashed at the tiny spear.
―I could carry it dead,‖ I said half-aloud.
―Yes,‖ Berto said. ―I did not kill him because I knew you would like it.‖
―Yes, you‘re right.‖
―That‘s bigger than the one you found last year, isn‘t it?‖
―Yes, it‘s very much bigger.‖
I stuck the sliver into the carapace of the centipede. It went through the flesh under the red armor;
a whitish liquid oozed out. Then I made sure it was dead by brushing its antennae. The centipede did not
move. I wrapped it in a handkerchief.
My sister was enthroned in a large chair in the porch of the house. Her back was turned away
from the door; she sat facing the window. She was embroidering a strip of white cloth. I went near, I stood
behind her chair. She was not aware of my presence. I unwrapped the centipede. I threw it on her lap.
My sister shrieked and the strip of white sheet flew off like an unhanded hawk. She shot up from
her chair, turned around and she saw me but she collapsed again to her chair clutching her breast,
doubled up with pain The centipede had fallen to the floor.

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 ―You did it,‖ she gasped. ―You tried to kill me. You‘ve health… life… you tried…‖ Her voice
dragged off into a pain-stricken moan.
I was engulfed by a sudden feeling of pity and guilt.
―But it‘s dead!‖ I cried kneeling before her. ―It‘s dead! Look! Look!‖ I snatched up the centipede
and crushed its head between my fingers. ―It‘s dead!‖
My sister did not move. I held the centipede before her like a hunter displaying the tail of a deer,
save that the centipede felt thorny in my hand.

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. Using Context Clues in finding Synonyms

Encircle the letter of the option that best approximates the underlined word in each sentence.
1. George could only stand in shock as Lilian tramped across the field, her angry eyes latched on to
him.
A. tread heavily B. walked slowly C. limped quickly D. darted past
2. The vendor, hoping to finish selling his goods before noon, ambled toward the group of clueless
tourists.
A. crawled B. sold C. walked D. limped
3. While Jonathan escaped the accident with just a scratch on his arm, his car was badly mangled.
A. spared B. scratched C. returned D. ruined
4. Lourdes watched the performance with apprehension; she felt that anytime now, someone would
make a mistake and the audience would laugh at her class.
A. fascination B. dread C. rapture D. listlessness
5. The mayor denounced the kidnapping of the eight year old year, and vowed that he would do
everything in his power to get the girl back and punish the kidnappers to the fullest extent of the law.
A. condemned B. criticized C. commented D. contorted
6. Kyla‘s lips started to quiver when she heard that her daughter had been kidnapped.
A. close B. open C. shrink D. tremble
7. The prima ballerina snickered when she saw her main rival stumbling over the new dance steps.
A. laughed derisively B. coughed politely C. commented D. parodied

Task 2. Literal or Figurative?

Determine whether each statement below is literal or figurative. Write L if the statement is literal (i.e. there
is no other meaning). Write F if the statement is figurative (i.e. there is an underlying meaning).
1. Berto was tasked by Delia to kill Berto‘s adopted dog.
2. Centipedes often scare people because of how they look.
3. Delia‘s resentment toward Eddie could be traced back to their mother‘s death.
4. Eddie saw his sister as a thorn on his side – something which should be plucked.
5. Eddie‘s feelings toward his sister could be compared to that of an overheated kettle.
6. Eddie‘s sister was stunned when she saw the centipede.
7. Even as a young boy, Eddie already had the instincts of a hunter.
8. For most of the story, Eddie and Delia were like oil and water.
9. Once, Eddie thought that Delia was extending the olive branch to him.
10. Their father often told Eddie and Delia to keep the peace.

Task 3. Locate, Reflect, Evaluate!

Locate information in the selection to complete the table below. Make sure you can defend your answers.

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How Eddie Viewed His How Eddie Viewed How Eddie’s Sister How Eddie’s Sister
Sister Himself Viewed Him Viewed Herself

Once you have finished with the table above, answer the following questions in your notebook. Be
prepared to share your answers with the rest of the class.
1. Do you think Eddie‘s actions at the end of the story were justified? Why or why not?
2. Had you been in the same situation, would you have done what Eddie did? Why or why not?
3. Why is the story entitled as such? What is the title‘s significance to the developments in the
story?

Task 4. Watch Out!

A. Study the following sentences. Choose the determiner that will best complete each sentence.
1. ____ stolen cart was returned to the farmer the following day by the policemen.(an, the, their)
2. Joseph ignored ________ warning that nobody should leave the building. (Luke‘s, his, he‘s)
3. Lily managed to round up _____ bystanders to serve as the audience for her seminar. (much, a
little, a few)
4. Liza tried to retrieve _____ cap, but she was afraid to climb the tree. (this, her, their)
5. Mr. Reyes told the restless crowd that everyone had to wait for ____ hour for the guest speaker. (a,
an, the)
6. My father gave me ____ watch before I left for Manila. (these, this, an)
7. The branch manager told his staff to make sure that _____ important documents should be sent to
the main office by the end of the day. (a, an, the)
8. The company lost _______ boxes of its products when its delivery truck fell off a cliff. (three
hundred, these, theirs)
9. The lawyers gave the complainants _____ days to respond to the motion. (fifteen, the, those)
10. The teacher gave the students an exam after a few of them challenged her lecture. ____ a behavior
was unacceptable to the teacher. (what, such, theirs)

B. Determine whether the sentences are using the underlined determiners correctly. If the underlined
determiner is wrong, encircle it, then provide the determiner that will make the sentence correct. If the
sentence already makes proper use of the underlined determiner, write C in front of the number.
1. A history of the Philippines was at first written by Americans.
2. A new president is often given a hundred days by the media before they begin criticizing his or her
policies.
3. As punishment for their offense, the students were told to make sure that a school was always
clean.
4. Because Mario couldn‘t find his wallet, he borrowed money from his colleague.
5. Due to a President‘s motorcade, we were stuck in traffic for two hours.
6. Jonathan‘s record, which has remained unbroken until this day, remains the legend.
7. Many water was needed in order to quench the debater‘s thirst.
8. Marjorie decided to leave her house when she saw several rat colonies in her kitchen.
9. People should keep his noses in their own business.
10. This documents in my hands will determine the outcome of this election.

YOUR FINAL TASK

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A Story from my Past
Think of a story from your childhood when you played a prank on a sibling, friend, or parent. If
you are still in good terms with that person, interview him or her so that you can get a more complete view
of that episode. Complete the statement that follows the grid.

I played a prank on… Because… The Result was… I learned that…

Once you are done with the grid, you may be asked by your teacher to share your anecdote with
your classmates. Write it in story form. You may change the names of the persons involved.

Lesson 2
Valuing My Family

YOUR GOALS

This lesson makes you realize that family members wherever they may be still form the core
of our personhood. As you appreciate more your family, you must be able to:

1. Use demonstrations and examples to know meaning of words and phrases

2. Determine the order of significant events in the text that you listened to
3. Compare and contrast ideas presented in a selection or a set of related selections
4. Identify simile that shows comparison
5. Use information presented in a reading selection to infer, evaluate, and express critical ideas
6. Use correct determiners
7. Identify the features of primary and secondary sources
8. Distinguish between and among a journal entry, an anecdote, a travelogue, a personal letter,
and a blog entry

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1. Word Play

1. Demonstrate the following phrases:

a. with animation and lively talk

b. disengaged a ponderous bundle
c. breathless exclamation of delight
d. a swift constriction in her throat

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 2. An itinerary is a detailed plan for a trip. Make an itinerary for your grade level field trip.
Consider expected time of departure and arrival and time allotment for each place. Be guided
by the table below.

Time Venue/Place Activity

Task 2. Total Recall

How do you and your family remember a dead loved one? How did Mr. Angeles remember his dead
children?

YOUR TEXT

1. Read silently the part assigned to you.

2. Listen for the cue when you are to read your part.
3. Listen to the details that tell about how Mr. Angeles remembered his dead children as the rest of
the members read their parts.

The Mats by
Francisco Arcellana

1 For the Angeles family, Mr. Angeles'; homecoming from his periodic inspection trips
was always an occasion for celebration. But his homecoming--from a trip to the
South--was fated to be more memorable than, say, of the others.

He had written from Mariveles: "I have just met a marvelous matweaver--a real artist--
and I shall have a surprise for you. I asked him to weave a sleeping-mat for every one of
the family. He is using many different colors and for each mat the dominant color is that
of our respective birthstones. I am sure that the children will be very pleased. I know you
will be. I can hardly wait to show them to you."

Nana Emilia read the letter that morning, and again and again every time she had a
chance to leave the kitchen. In the evening when all the children were home from school
she asked her oldest son, José, to read the letter at dinner table. The children became
very much excited about the mats, and talked about them until late into the night. This
she wrote her husband when she labored over a reply to him. For days after that, mats
continued to be the chief topic of conversation among the children.

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Finally, from Lopez, Mr. Angeles wrote again: "I am taking the Bicol Express tomorrow. I
have the mats with me, and they are beautiful. God willing, I shall be home to join you at
dinner."

2 The letter was read aloud during the noon meal. Talk about the mats flared up again
like wildfire.
"I like the feel of mats," Antonio, the third child, said. "I like the smell of new mats."

"Oh, but these mats are different," interposed Susanna, the fifth child. "They have our
names woven into them, and in our ascribed colors, too."

The children knew what they were talking about: they knew just what a decorative mat
was like; it was not anything new or strange in their experience. That was why they were
so excited about the matter. They had such a mat in the house, one they seldom used,
a mat older than any one of them.

This mat had been given to Nana Emilia by her mother when she and Mr. Angeles were
married, and it had been with them ever since. It had served on the wedding night, and
had not since been used except on special occasions.
It was a very beautiful mat, not really meant to be ordinarily used. It had green leaf
borders, and a lot of gigantic red roses woven into it. In the middle, running the whole
length of the mat, was the lettering: Emilia y Jaime Recuerdo.

The letters were in gold.

3 Nana Emilia always kept that mat in her trunk. When any one of the family was
taken ill, the mat was brought out and the patient slept on it, had it all to himself. Every
one of the children had some time in their lives slept on it; not a few had slept on it more
than once.

Most of the time the mat was kept in Nana Emilia's trunk, and when it was taken out and
spread on the floor the children were always around to watch. At first there had been
only Nana Emilia to see the mat spread. Then a child--a girl--watched with them. The
number of watchers increased as more children came.

The mat did not seem to age. It seemed to Nana Emilia always as new as when it had
been laid on the nuptial bed. To the children it seemed as new as the first time it was
spread before them. The folds and creases always new and fresh. The smell was
always the smell of a new mat. Watching the intricate design was an endless joy. The
children's pleasure at the golden letters even before they could work out the meaning
was boundless. Somehow they were always pleasantly shocked by the sight of the mat:
so delicate and so consummate the artistry of its weave.

Now, taking out that mat to spread had become a kind of ritual. The process had
become associated with illness in the family. Illness, even serious illness, had not been
infrequent. There had been deaths...

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4 In the evening Mr. Angeles was with his family. He had brought the usual things
home with him. There was a lot of fruits, as always (his itinerary carried him through the
fruit-growing provinces): pineapples, lanzones, chicos, atis, santol, sandia, guyabano,
avocado, according to the season. He had also brought home a jar of preserved sweets
from Lopez.

Putting away the fruit, sampling them, was as usual accomplished with animation and
lively talk. Dinner was a long affair. Mr. Angeles was full of stories about his trip but
would interrupt his tales with: "I could not sleep nights thinking of the young ones. They
should never be allowed to play in the streets. And you older ones should not stay out
too late at night."

The stories petered out and dinner was over. Putting away the dishes and wiping the
dishes and wiping the table clean did not at all seem tedious. Yet Nana and the children,
although they did not show it, were all on edge about the mats.

Finally, after a long time over his cigar, Mr. Angeles rose from his seat at the head of the
table and crossed the room to the corner where his luggage had been piled. From the
heap he disengaged a ponderous bundle.

5 Taking it under one arm, he walked to the middle of the room where the light was
brightest. He dropped the bundle and, bending over and balancing himself on his toes,
he strained at the cord that bound it. It was strong, it would not break, it would not give
way. He tried working at the knots. His fingers were clumsy, they had begun shaking.

He raised his head, breathing heavily, to ask for the scissors. Alfonso, his youngest boy,
was to one side of him with the scissors ready.

Nana Emilia and her eldest girl who had long returned from the kitchen were watching
the proceedings quietly.

One swift movement with the scissors, snip! and the bundle was loose.
Turning to Nana Emilia, Mr. Angeles joyfully cried: "These are the mats, Miling." Mr.
Angeles picked up the topmost mat in the bundle.

"This, I believe, is yours, Miling."

6 Nana Emilia stepped forward to the light, wiping her still moist hands against the
folds of her skirt, and with a strange young shyness received the mat. The children
watched the spectacle silently and then broke into delighted, though a little self-
conscious, laughter. Nana Emilia unfolded the mat without a word. It was a beautiful
mat: to her mind, even more beautiful than the one she received from her mother on her
wedding. There was a name in the very center of it: EMILIA. The letters were large,
done in green. Flowers-cadena-de-amor--were woven in and out among the letters. The
border was a long winding twig of cadena-de-amor.

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The children stood about the spreading mat. The air was punctuated by their breathless
exclamations of delight.

"It is beautiful, Jaime; it is beautiful!" Nana Emilia's voice broke, and she could not say
any more.

"And this, I know, is my own," said Mr. Angeles of the next mat in the bundle. The mat
was rather simply decorated, the design almost austere, and the only colors used were
purple and gold. The letters of the name Jaime were in purple.

"And this, for your, Marcelina."

Marcelina was the oldest child. She had always thought her name too long; it had been
one of her worries with regard to the mat. "How on earth are they going to weave all of
the letters of my name into my mat?" she had asked of almost everyone in the family.
Now it delighted her to see her whole name spelled out on the mat, even if the letters
were a little small. Besides, there was a device above her name which pleased
Marcelina very much. It was in the form of a lyre, finely done in three colors. Marcelina
was a student of music and was quite a proficient pianist.

7 "And this is for you, José."

José was the second child. He was a medical student already in the third year of
medical school. Over his name the symbol of Aesculapius was woven into the mat.

"You are not to use this mat until the year of your internship," Mr. Angeles was saying.

"This is yours, Antonia."

"And this is yours, Juan."

"And this is yours, Jesus."

Mat after mat was unfolded. On each of the children's mats there was somehow an
appropriate device.

At least all the children had been shown their individual mats. The air was filled with
their excited talk, and through it all Mr. Angeles was saying over and over again in his
deep voice:

"You are not to use these mats until you go to the University."

Then Nana Emilia noticed bewilderingly that there were some more mats remaining to
be unfolded.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 11

"But Jaime," Nana Emilia said, wondering, with evident repudiation, "there are some
more mats."

8 Only Mr. Angeles seemed to have heard Nana Emilia's words. He suddenly stopped
talking, as if he had been jerked away from a pleasant fantasy. A puzzled, reminiscent
look came into his eyes, superseding the deep and quiet delight that had been briefly
there, and when he spoke his voice was different.

"Yes, Emilia," said Mr. Angeles, "There are three more mats to unfold. The others who
aren't here..."

Nana Emilia caught her breath; there was a swift constriction in her throat; her face
paled and she could not say anything.

The self-centered talk of the children also died. There was a silence as Mr. Angeles
picked up the first of the remaining mats and began slowly unfolding it.

The mat was almost as austere in design as Mr. Angeles' own, and it had a name. There
was no symbol or device above the name; only a blank space, emptiness.

The children knew the name. But somehow the name, the letters spelling the name,
seemed strange to them.

Then Nana Emilia found her voice.

"You know, Jaime, you didn't have to," Nana Emilia said, her voice hurt and surely
frightened.

9 Mr. Angeles held his tears back; there was something swift and savage in the
movement.

"Do you think I'd forgotten? Do you think I had forgotten them? Do you think I could
forget them?

"This is for you, Josefina!

"And this is for you, Victoria!

"And this is for you, Concepcion."

Mr. Angeles called the names rather than uttered them.

"Don't, Jaime, please don't," was all that Nana Emilia managed to say.
"Is it fair to forget them? Would it be just to disregard them?" Mr. Angeles demanded
rather than asked.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 12

10 His voice had risen shrill, almost hysterical; it was also stern and sad, and
somehow vindictive. Mr. Angeles had spoken almost as if he were a stranger.

Also, he had spoken as if from a deep, grudgingly-silent, long-bewildered sorrow.

The children heard the words exploding in the silence. They wanted to turn away and not
see the face of their father. But they could neither move nor look away; his eyes held
them, his voice held them where they were. They seemed rooted to the spot.

Nana Emilia shivered once or twice, bowed her head, gripped her clasped hands
between her thighs. There was a terrible hush. The remaining mats were unfolded in
silence. The names which were with infinite slowness revealed, seemed strange and
stranger still; the colors not bright but deathly dull; the separate letters, spelling out the
names of the dead among them, did not seem to glow or shine with a festive sheen as
did the other living names.

Task 1. Check Point

Answer the following questions:

1. What presents did Mr.Angeles bring home for the family?

2. What made these mats special and unique?
3. How were the last three mats different from the rest?
4. What was the effect of death on the Angeles family?

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. We Are Family

1. Describe the relationship among the members of the Angeles family using a sociogram.
2. Include the following details:
a. Names of the family members
b. Relationship to each other
c. Qualities or characteristics
d. Attitudes/Reactions towards the members
e. Family issues

Task 2. Spoken For

1. Write down the similarities and differences among the mats using the table.

Features of the mats Nana Miling Marcelina ----- -----

a. Materials
b. Design

2. Share your findings with the group using expressions like both, similar to, different from, on the
other hand, and the like.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 13

 3. Using the same group, talk about Filipino attitudes and practices regarding death.
4. Make an oral report of their similarities and differences.

Task 3. As You Like It

1. Read the following sentences and take note of the underlined phrases.

a. Talk about the mats flared up again like wildfire.

b. To the children it seemed as new as the first time it was spread before them.

c. The mat was almost as austere in design as Mr. Angeles' own, and it had a name.

d. The separate letters, spelling out the names of the dead among them, did not seem glow

or shine with a festive sheen as did the other living names.

2. Answer the following questions:

a. What two items are being compared in each sentence?

b. What words or expressions are used to compare them?
c. How does simile make a sentence more meaningful?

3. Compare and contrast the following people with objects. Use as and like in your sentences. Be
imaginative.
a. Your best friend
b. Your favorite artist
c. A political figure
d. A modern hero
e. You

4. Make a research regarding other cultures‘ burial practices and beliefs. Write a comparison-
contrast paragraph about these in relation to the Filipino culture. Use similes in your paragraph.

Task 3. Certainly Certain

1. Study the following phrases:

a. an occasion for celebration

b. a marvelous matweaver
c. our respective birthstones
d. that mat in his truck
e. whose name was in the center 2. Answer the questions that follow:
a. What word introduces each phrase?
b. What do these words do to the nouns in the phrases?
3. Look for phrases that are introduced by the determiners like a, an, the, that,, his, etc.

Task 4. Making It Whole

Read through the text. Supply the blanks with appropriate determiners. Write your answers on the blanks.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 14

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON MAT
WEAVING IN THE PHILIPPINES:
Mat Industry in Apalit, Province of Pampanga, Luzon
Patricio C. Gozum

There are two principal causes for the development of mat industry in Apalit : first is the supply
of labor, and second, the proximity of material. 1. _____ industry is appropriately called home
industry of the Apalit mothers and women. In general, 2. _____ girls learn the job at a very early
age. It has been the custom there, especially among the poor and middle classes, with the
exception of the very few rich families, that 3. _____ woman who does not know how to make
mats is very lazy and is not one whom the Apalit young men regard with much respect. Thus the
women who work primarily to increase 4. _____ family income and those who learn the industry
to gain the respect of the people, form the aggregate labor for the development of 5. _____
industry. The increased demand for mats has recently encouraged the mat weavers.

The material used is the leaves of the buri palm. The plant grows abundantly in Arayat ; but the
facility of transportation is such that, though 6. _____ plant does not thrive well in Apalit, the
weavers can get their materials easily. The Pampanga River serves as 7. _____ easy means
for taking the buri leaves to Apalit with but very slight expense in comparison with what the
weavers get for their finished mats. The green leaves sink, but they can easily be made to float
by using 8. _____ banca (boat) of considerable size across which are fastened bamboo poles
to which in turn are attached the heavy buri leaves. Then they float and are carried along the
river by the current from Arayat down to Apalit where they are distributed to 9. _____
industrious women and girls.

In 10. _____ industry, there is also a division of labor. The women cannot leave the homes and
go to Arayat to get the material, so the men who can save time from their blacksmithing or
farming have to go and get it.
Nowadays there are 11. _____ men who usually go to buy the buri leaves and sell them when
they go to Apalit, getting thus some profit for their enterprise. The boys or husbands of 12.
_____ weavers take the leaves in bulk to their homes, strip them from their stems and remove
the ribs. The women and children then do the rest of the work until mats ready for market are

Grade 7 English Learning Package 15

made. The buri left in the sunshine until it is dry. As soon as it is dry, it is rolled up so that 13.
_____ curled parts will become straight or flat. Now it is ready to be cut into narrow long strips to
be woven into mats. The mats thus made are called diawa. Oftentimes, they first boil 14. _____
buri with water mixed with vinegar before they dry, roll, and strip it. The mats thus made with this
boiled buri are called linaga, distinguished from diawa in that the former is very white while 15.
_____ latter is greyish.

Retrieved 29 January 2012 from nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/publications/afs/.../a74.pdf

YOUR FINAL TASK

Task 1. Nothing But the Truth

1. When conducting research, what library sources do you use?
2. Below are different sources of information, Group them into two. The first two items are done
for you.

interviews books

experiments encyclopedia magazines newspapers

observations questionnaires speeches computer
software documents

3. What is the common characteristic of the sources in the first column? in the second column?
4. What is the importance of primary sources in doing research?
5. When are secondary sources used?

Task 2: Sourcing Information

1. Locate examples of primary and secondary sources. In particular, look for a journal entry, an
anecdote, a travelogue, a personal letter, and a blog entry in the library.
2. Study them and summarize your findings in the table.
Sources Characteristics

3. Choose one from the tasks:

a. Assume that you are Mr. Angeles. Make a travelogue about your trips in Southern
Philippines.
b. Write a journal entry regarding personal experiences of losing a loved one.
c. Write a personal letter to Mr. Angeles expressing your sympathy and encouragement.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 16

 d. Write an anecdote on coping with a loss.

Lesson 3

Reconciling the Past and the Present

YOUR GOALS

This lesson makes you understand the importance of relationships and decision-making in
relation to societal norms. As you weave the old and the new, you must be able to:

1. Identify terms that express local color and use them to better understand a text
2. Note specific words or expressions that signal or emphasize crucial details in the narrative
listened to
3. Express agreement or disagreement on ideas presented in the selection
4. Identify and use analogy when comparing and contrasting
5. Use predictive and anticipatory devices about the topic of reading selection
6. Use information presented in a reading selection to infer, evaluate, and express critical ideas
7. Use varied noun complementation forms
8. Identify the features of secondary information sources
9. Write an anecdote based on a significant personal experience

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1. Password

1. Draw the following:

a. caretela
b. calesa

Grade 7 English Learning Package 17

 c. camino real
d. papayas in bloom
e. saw-tooth rim of the hills
f. coconut husk
g. sinta

2. Study the following words and tell what they represent.

a. Ca Celin
b. Baldo
c. Labang
d. Manang/Manong
e. Maria
f. Leon
g. Hoy!
h. Waig
i. Lacay Julian

3. Read through again the sets of words in numbers 1 and 2.

a. What is common among them?
b. In what context are they usually used?
c. What does local color do when telling a story and describing a place, person, object,
or event?

Task 2. Once in a Lifetime

1. What do Filipinos usually consider in choosing a lifetime partner? Make a list of these
considerations and rank them according to importance.
2. Find out if these considerations are also observed by Noel and his family.

Task 3: Father and Son

1. Listen as your classmates read the dialogue between Baldo and his father. 2.
Take note of words or expressions that emphasize crucial details.

YOUR TEXT

How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife by

Manuel Arguilla
(an excerpt)

There was no light in Father's room. There was no movement. He sat in the big armchair by the
western window, and a star shone directly through it. He was smoking, but he removed the roll
of tobacco from his mouth when he saw me. He laid it carefully on the windowsill before
speaking.

"Did you meet anybody on the way?" he asked.

"No, Father," I said. "Nobody passes through the Waig at night."

He reached for his roll of tobacco and hitched himself up in the chair.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 18

"She is very beautiful, Father."

"Was she afraid of Labang?" My father had not raised his voice, but the room seemed to
resound with it. And again I saw her eyes on the long curving horns and the arm of my brother
Leon around her shoulders.

"No, Father, she was not afraid."

"On the way---"

"She looked at the stars, Father. And Manong Leon sang."

"What did he sing?"

"---Sky Sown with Stars... She sang with him."

He was silent again. I could hear the low voices of Mother and my sister Aurelia downstairs.
There was also the voice of my brother Leon, and I thought that Father's voice must have been
like it when Father was young. He had laid the roll of tobacco on the windowsill once more. I
watched the smoke waver faintly upward from the lighted end and vanish slowly into the night
outside.

Task 1. Checkmate

Answer the following questions:

1. Who were Baldo and his father talking about?

2. How did Baldo describe the woman?
3. What was the reaction of the father regarding the woman? Cite details from the text you listened
to.
4. What was the relationship of the woman to Manong Leon? Say the lines that indicate the
relationship.
5. Find out the whole story behind the dialogue. Read ―How My Brother Leon Brought Home a
Wife‖ by Manuel Arguilla.

She stepped down from the carretela of Ca Celin with a quick, delicate grace. She was lovely.
She was tall. She looked up to my brother with a smile, and her forehead was on a level with his
mouth.

"You are Baldo," she said and placed her hand lightly on my shoulder. Her nails were long, but
they were not painted. She was fragrant like a morning when papayas are in bloom. And a small
dimple appeared momently high on her right cheek. "And this is Labang of whom I have heard
so much." She held the wrist of one hand with the other and looked at Labang, and Labang
never stopped chewing his cud. He swallowed and brought up to his mouth more cud and the
sound of his insides was like a drum.

I laid a hand on Labang's massive neck and said to her: "You may scratch his forehead now."

She hesitated and I saw that her eyes were on the long, curving horns. But she came and
touched Labang's forehead with her long fingers, and Labang never stopped chewing his cud

Grade 7 English Learning Package 19

except that his big eyes half closed. And by and by she was scratching his forehead very
daintily.

My brother Leon put down the two trunks on the grassy side of the road. He paid Ca Celin twice
the usual fare from the station to the edge of Nagrebcan. Then he was standing beside us, and
she turned to him eagerly. I watched Ca Celin, where he stood in front of his horse, and he ran
his fingers through its forelock and could not keep his eyes away from her.

"Maria---" my brother Leon said.

He did not say Maring. He did not say Mayang. I knew then that he had always called her Maria
and that to us all she would be Maria; and in my mind I said 'Maria' and it was a beautiful name.

"Yes, Noel."

Now where did she get that name? I pondered the matter quietly to myself, thinking Father might
not like it. But it was only the name of my brother Leon said backward and it sounded much
better that way.

"There is Nagrebcan, Maria," my brother Leon said, gesturing widely toward the west.

She moved close to him and slipped her arm through his. And after a while she said quietly.

"You love Nagrebcan, don't you, Noel?"

Ca Celin drove away hi-yi-ing to his horse loudly. At the bend of the camino real where the big
duhat tree grew, he rattled the handle of his braided rattan whip against the spokes of the wheel.

We stood alone on the roadside.

The sun was in our eyes, for it was dipping into the bright sea. The sky was wide and deep and
very blue above us: but along the saw-tooth rim of the Katayaghan hills to the southwest flamed
huge masses of clouds. Before us the fields swam in a golden haze through which floated big
purple and red and yellow bubbles when I looked at the sinking sun. Labang's white coat, which
I had wshed and brushed that morning with coconut husk, glistened like beaten cotton under the
lamplight and his horns appeared tipped with fire.

He faced the sun and from his mouth came a call so loud and vibrant that the earth seemed to
tremble underfoot. And far away in the middle of the field a cow lowed softly in answer.

"Hitch him to the cart, Baldo," my brother Leon said, laughing, and she laughed with him a big
uncertainly, and I saw that he had put his arm around her shoulders.

"Why does he make that sound?" she asked. "I have never heard the like of it."

"There is not another like it," my brother Leon said. "I have yet to hear another bull call like
Labang. In all the world there is no other bull like him."

She was smiling at him, and I stopped in the act of tying the sinta across Labang's neck to the
opposite end of the yoke, because her teeth were very white, her eyes were so full of laughter,

Grade 7 English Learning Package 20

and there was the small dimple high up on her right cheek.

"If you continue to talk about him like that, either I shall fall in love with him or become greatly
jealous."

My brother Leon laughed and she laughed and they looked at each other and it seemed to me
there was a world of laughter between them and in them.

I climbed into the cart over the wheel and Labang would have bolted, for he was always like
that, but I kept a firm hold on his rope. He was restless and would not stand still, so that my
brother Leon had to say "Labang" several times. When he was quiet again, my brother Leon
lifted the trunks into the cart, placing the smaller on top.

She looked down once at her high-heeled shoes, then she gave her left hand to my brother
Leon, placed a foot on the hub of the wheel, and in one breath she had swung up into the cart.
Oh, the fragrance of her. But Labang was fairly dancing with impatience and it was all I could do
to keep him from running away.

"Give me the rope, Baldo," my brother Leon said. "Maria, sit down on the hay and hold on to
anything." Then he put a foot on the left shaft and that instand labang leaped forward. My
brother Leon laughed as he drew himself up to the top of the side of the cart and made the slack
of the rope hiss above the back of labang. The wind whistled against my cheeks and the rattling
of the wheels on the pebbly road echoed in my ears.

She sat up straight on the bottom of the cart, legs bent together to one side, her skirts spread
over them so that only the toes and heels of her shoes were visible. her eyes were on my
brother Leon's back; I saw the wind on her hair. When Labang slowed down, my brother Leon
handed to me the rope. I knelt on the straw inside the cart and pulled on the rope until Labang
was merely shuffling along, then I made him turn around.

"What is it you have forgotten now, Baldo?" my brother Leon said.

I did not say anything but tickled with my fingers the rump of Labang; and away we went---back
to where I had unhitched and waited for them. The sun had sunk and down from the wooded
sides of the Katayaghan hills shadows were stealing into the fields. High up overhead the sky
burned with many slow fires.

When I sent Labang down the deep cut that would take us to the dry bed of the Waig which
could be used as a path to our place during the dry season, my brother Leon laid a hand on my
shoulder and said sternly:

"Who told you to drive through the fields tonight?"

His hand was heavy on my shoulder, but I did not look at him or utter a word until we were on
the rocky bottom of the Waig.

"Baldo, you fool, answer me before I lay the rope of Labang on you. Why do you follow the Waig
instead of the camino real?"

His fingers bit into my shoulder.

"Father, he told me to follow the Waig tonight, Manong."

Grade 7 English Learning Package 21

Swiftly, his hand fell away from my shoulder and he reached for the rope of Labang. Then my
brother Leon laughed, and he sat back, and laughing still, he said:

"And I suppose Father also told you to hitch Labang to the cart and meet us with him instead
of with Castano and the calesa."

Without waiting for me to answer, he turned to her and said, "Maria, why do you think Father
should do that, now?" He laughed and added, "Have you ever seen so many stars before?"

I looked back and they were sitting side by side, leaning against the trunks, hands clasped
across knees. Seemingly, but a man's height above the tops of the steep banks of the Wait,
hung the stars. But in the deep gorge the shadows had fallen heavily, and even the white of
Labang's coat was merely a dim, grayish blur. Crickets chirped from their homes in the cracks
in the banks. The thick, unpleasant smell of dangla bushes and cooling sun-heated earth
mingled with the clean, sharp scent of arrais roots exposed to the night air and of the hay
inside the cart.

"Look, Noel, yonder is our star!" Deep surprise and gladness were in her voice. Very low in the
west, almost touching the ragged edge of the bank, was the star, the biggest and brightest in
the sky.

"I have been looking at it," my brother Leon said. "Do you remember how I would tell you that
when you want to see stars you must come to Nagrebcan?"

"Yes, Noel," she said. "Look at it," she murmured, half to herself. "It is so many times bigger
and brighter than it was at Ermita beach."

"The air here is clean, free of dust and smoke."

"So it is, Noel," she said, drawing a long breath.

"Making fun of me, Maria?"

She laughed then and they laughed together and she took my brother Leon's hand and put it
against her face.

I stopped Labang, climbed down, and lighted the lantern that hung from the cart between the
wheels.

"Good boy, Baldo," my brother Leon said as I climbed back into the cart, and my heart sant.

Now the shadows took fright and did not crowd so near. Clumps of andadasi and arrais
flashed into view and quickly disappeared as we passed by. Ahead, the elongated shadow of
Labang bobbled up and down and swayed drunkenly from side to side, for the lantern rocked
jerkily with the cart.

"Have we far to go yet, Noel?" she asked.

"Ask Baldo," my brother Leon said, "we have been neglecting him."

Grade 7 English Learning Package 22

"I am asking you, Baldo," she said.

Without looking back, I answered, picking my words slowly:

"Soon we will get out of the Wait and pass into the fields. After the fields is home---Manong."

"So near already."

I did not say anything more because I did not know what to make of the tone of her voice as
she said her last words. All the laughter seemed to have gone out of her. I waited for my
brother Leon to say something, but he was not saying anything. Suddenly he broke out into
song and the song was 'Sky Sown with Stars'---the same that he and Father sang when we
cut hay in the fields at night before he went away to study. He must have taught her the song
because she joined him, and her voice flowed into his like a gentle stream meeting a stronger
one. And each time the wheels encountered a big rock, her voice would catch in her throat, but
my brother Leon would sing on, until, laughing softly, she would join him again.

Then we were climbing out into the fields, and through the spokes of the wheels the light of the
lantern mocked the shadows. Labang quickened his steps. The jolting became more frequent
and painful as we crossed the low dikes.

"But it is so very wide here," she said. The light of the stars broke and scattered the darkness
so that one could see far on every side, though indistinctly.

"You miss the houses, and the cars, and the people and the noise, don't you?" My brother
Leon stopped singing.

"Yes, but in a different way. I am glad they are not here."

With difficulty I turned Labang to the left, for he wanted to go straight on. He was breathing
hard, but I knew he was more thirsty than tired. In a little while we drope up the grassy side
onto the camino real.

"---you see," my brother Leon was explaining, "the camino real curves around the foot of the
Katayaghan hills and passes by our house. We drove through the fields because---but I'll be
asking Father as soon as we get home."

"Noel," she said.

"Yes, Maria."

"I am afraid. He may not like me."

"Does that worry you still, Maria?" my brother Leon said. "From the way you talk, he might be
an ogre, for all the world. Except when his leg that was wounded in the Revolution is troubling
him, Father is the mildest-tempered, gentlest man I know."

We came to the house of Lacay Julian and I spoke to Labang loudly, but Moning did not come
to the window, so I surmised she must be eating with the rest of her family. And I thought of the
food being made ready at home and my mouth watered. We met the twins, Urong and Celin,

Grade 7 English Learning Package 23

and I said "Hoy!" calling them by name. And they shouted back and asked if my brother Leon
and his wife were with me. And my brother Leon shouted to them and then told me to make
Labang run; their answers were lost in the noise of the wheels.

I stopped labang on the road before our house and would have gotten down but my brother
Leon took the rope and told me to stay in the cart. He turned Labang into the open gate and we
dashed into our yard. I thought we would crash into the camachile tree, but my brother Leon
reined in Labang in time. There was light downstairs in the kitchen, and Mother stood in the
doorway, and I could see her smiling shyly. My brother Leon was helping Maria over the wheel.
The first words that fell from his lips after he had kissed Mother's hand were:

"Father... where is he?"

"He is in his room upstairs," Mother said, her face becoming serious. "His leg is bothering him
again."

I did not hear anything more because I had to go back to the cart to unhitch Labang. But I hardly
tied him under the barn when I heard Father calling me. I met my brother Leon going to bring up
the trunks. As I passed through the kitchen, there were Mother and my sister Aurelia and Maria
and it seemed to me they were crying, all of them.

There was no light in Father's room. There was no movement. He sat in the big armchair by the
western window, and a star shone directly through it. He was smoking, but he removed the roll of
tobacco from his mouth when he saw me. He laid it carefully on the windowsill before speaking.

"Did you meet anybody on the way?" he asked.

"No, Father," I said. "Nobody passes through the Waig at night."

He reached for his roll of tobacco and hitched himself up in the chair.

"She is very beautiful, Father."

"Was she afraid of Labang?" My father had not raised his voice, but the room seemed to
resound with it. And again I saw her eyes on the long curving horns and the arm of my brother
Leon around her shoulders.

"No, Father, she was not afraid."

"On the way---"

"She looked at the stars, Father. And Manong Leon sang."

"What did he sing?"

"---Sky Sown with Stars... She sang with him."

He was silent again. I could hear the low voices of Mother and my sister Aurelia downstairs.
There was also the voice of my brother Leon, and I thought that Father's voice must have been
like it when Father was young. He had laid the roll of tobacco on the windowsill once more. I

Grade 7 English Learning Package 24

watched the smoke waver faintly upward from the lighted end and vanish slowly into the night
outside.

The door opened and my brother Leon and Maria came in.

"Have you watered Labang?" Father spoke to me.

I told him that Labang was resting yet under the barn.

"It is time you watered him, my son," my father said.

I looked at Maria and she was lovely. She was tall. Beside my brother Leon, she was tall and
very still. Then I went out, and in the darkened hall the fragrance of her was like a morning when
papayas are in bloom.

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. First Impressions

1. What are your ideas about city women?

2. Is Maria a typical city woman? Illustrate her based on what Baldo had seen from their first
meeting to their arrival at home.
3. Will Maria a good wife for Leon? Justify your agreement or disagreement by citing
lines/details/events in the story.

Task 2. Rite of Passage

1. Was Maria accepted by the family?

2. Trace their journey showing the different tests she had undergone.
3. Use a six-frame comic strip to present your answers.
4. Do you agree in the way Leon‘s family tested Maria? Support your answer based on the text
and your experience.

Task 4. Mirror Image

1. Complete the following phrases. Get your answers from the selections. Example: white is to good
as black is to evil

a. fragrance is to sweet as _________ is to papayas in bloom

b. Nagrebcan is to sky sown with stars as Ermita beach is to __________
c. cars and noise are to city as clean air, free of dust and smoke is to_________
d. Maria is to __________ as Noel is to _________
e. call of Labang is to earth trembling underfoot as _________ is to a drum

2. Answer the following questions:

a. What two items are being compared in each phrase?
b. Why are these items compared?

Grade 7 English Learning Package 25

 c. What words are used to show this comparison?
d. How is this figure of speech different from simile and metaphor?

3. Bring out a picture of a scenic spot in the Philippines. Study it and write descriptive sentences
using analogy.

Task 3. Paint Me a Picture

1. Study the sentences and find out the relationship between the bold and italicized words.

a. There was a world of laughter between them and in them.

b. Crickets chirped from their homes in the cracks in the banks.
c. Father gave instructions to pass the Waig and into the fields instead of the camino real.
d. Labang‘s white coat, which I had washed and brushed that morning, glistened like beaten
cotton.
2. What is being modified in by the groups of words of laughter? in the cracks? to pass the
Waig and into the fields? which I had washed and brushed that morning?
3. How are these modifiers or complements formed?
4. What do noun complements do in sentences?
5. Look for examples of noun complements in the story. Identify their forms using the table
below.

Prepositional Phrases Infinitives Clauses

Task 4: Create and Share

1. Below is the copy of the song titled ―Sky Sown With Stars.‖
2. Locate noun complements in the song.
3. With your groupmates, understand the song and replace the noun complements with
another set of noun complements.
4. Make sure that the new set will create different images in the song. Examples:
Original: A thousand times in my dreams I have walked with you,
Hand in hand, down the glittery way,
Without a worry, not a care in the world

New: A thousand times of joy and pain, I have walked with you,
Hand in hand, down the glittery way,
Without a worry, not a care to be drowned by rain and fear

Sky Sown With Stars

Grade 7 English Learning Package 26

 A thousand times in my dreams I have walked with you,
Hand in hand, down the glittery way,
Without a worry, not a care in the world,
No sorrow, no torture, no dismay,
There we were: two figures in the incessant night,
Swallowed by the searing darkness,
Embraced by the fleeting sadness,
And then we would look to the sky and see,
The shining harvest of the distant
stars, Our sky, our sky, my Starlight,
Our sky sown with stars.

We would find a blissful spot along the shore, And

sit down together, in the flowing sand, Feeling it
warm our bodies.
We would see the waves crash gently, on the beach, And
retreat towards the ocean again.
The dark blue sky and pale yellow moonlight,
Would touch our skin and beg us to look up again,
To the dark blue blanket in the sky,
Our dark blue blanket in the sky, Our
sky sown with stars.

You would lay your drowsy head on my shoulder, and

I would sense your sorrows, fears, and joys,
As the night grows younger, the breeze colder, I
would kiss your eyes and hold your hand,
Tonight, I am the universe's happiest being.
With you, with you, my Muse,
Together in this eternity of light,
Souls in love, souls in deep love,
Bound together in the evening,
Looking up the sky, heavenward to the stars, Our
sky still sown with stars.

Then you would weep gently in your bliss,

And I would taste the sadness, taste the tears,
The beauty makes us sigh, the sky made us cry,
Our heavens, our skies, still glittering away,
We savor the sweet night until the break of day,
No word has passed thru our lips,
Just the touch, the love, in our fingertips,
Glancing at each other in deep passion,
Our voices lost in the silent hum of the ocean,
Our souls wedlocked in the pale moonlight,
Our foreheads touching, see the sky! The warmth!
Our sky, my Muse, this is ours, our sky, Our
ocean, our sand, our moment, our love,
And our sky sown with stars.

Retrieved 29 January 2012 from http://www.ziyifilms.com/zboard/showthread.php3?t=7572

Grade 7 English Learning Package 27

YOUR FINAL TASK

Task 1. Seeking Second Opinion

1. Differentiate primary from secondary sources.
2. Name examples of secondary sources found in the library.
3. When do we use secondary sources in doing a research?
4. Look for secondary sources on any of the following topics:
a. Manuel Arguilla
b. Nagrebcan
c. Filipino courtship and marriage customs
d. Rural and city life
e. Gender issues in relationships
5. Take down important notes and cite the secondary that you used.

Task 2: A Slice of Life

1. Think of an experience when expectations of loved ones like family or of society are not met.
2. What were these expectations?
3. Why were you not able to fulfill them?
4. How did your decision affect your relationship with these people?
5. Write an anecdote narrating this experience. Highlight lessons learned from defying expectations.

Lesson 4
Loving is Giving

YOUR GOALS

This lesson allows you to look into the importance of meaningful relationships
established over time. Discover how love entails sacrifice. You must aim to:

1. Draw out the message of a song listened to.

2. Compare and contrast the emotion of the song and the poem.
3. Express differing views on when loveis worth fighting for.
4. Establish a familiar ground on tribal culture.
5. Use information presented in acreation story to infer, to evaluate, and to express

critical ideas.

6. Determine the purpose of irony in a story.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 28

 7. Narrow a topic to manage the selection of information from available search

engines or tools in the library.

8. Create a travelogue.
9. Use varied verb complementation forms.
10. Compose a song.
11. Express creatively perspectives on a significant human experience drawn out
from the discussions.

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1.Sit Back, Relax, and Relish the Music

There are a lot of songs that take you somewhere back to your past. It may be a
past experience from your life or a past experience from a story you have seen in a film
or you have read from a book. Songs may even bring you back from the stories told to
you by a family member or a close friend.

Listen to the song (and glance at its lyrics) and you may:

1. Take down words that caught your attention;

2. Draw images which you could associate with the song;
3. Write big words which may represent the emotion caught by the song; 4.
Enumerate as many feelings that the song may draw out from you; and,
5. Write your responses in your notebook.

I Don’t Want You to Go

(Music Version: By Kyla; MTV Direction: TrebMonteras II fromhttp://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics© 2012)

I'm holding on
When all but the passion's
gone
Here I am
And from the start
Alone and I don't understand Maybe I was tryin' too hard
Exactly how it all beganThe dream just walked away It's crazy coz it's breakin' my heart
Things can fall apart but I know,
That I don't want you to go

Grade 7 English Learning Package 29

And heroes die,When they ignore the cause inside dont_want_you_to_go.html ] Oh it's
just too much Takin' all the whole
But they learn from what's left behind world all by myself But it's not
And fight for something else enough Unless I stop trusting
somebody
else, Somebody
And so it goes else
That we have both learned how to grow And love again
[ Ly
And from the start And from the start
Maybe we were tryin' too hard Maybe we were tryin' too hard It's
It's crazy coz it's breakin' our heart crazy coz it's breakin' our hearts
Things can fall apart but I know, That I Things can fall apart but I know,
don't want you to goricom: That I don't want you to go, no
Maybe we were tryin' to hard It's
crazy coz it's breakin' our hearts
Things can fall apart
but I know,
That I don't want you to go
Oh no, don't want you to go

What was the message of the persona in the song? Write T (True) if you agree with the
statement and F (False) if you disagree. Write your answer in a one-half lengthwise
sheet of paper.

_____ 1. The persona in the song expresses the pain of letting go.
_____ 2.The persona, too, has let go of the relationship.
_____ 3. The persona is aware of how things will go in the end.
_____ 4. The persona and the beloved have grown by letting go.
_____ 5. The persona is ready to love again.

PAIR WORK. Seat close next to your seatmate and share ideas.
1. Pick a statement from the 5 items and share your answer to your partner.
2. Take a line from the song to support your answer.
3. Share a story you have encountered from the past, whether fiction or non-
fiction, which you could relate with the song.
4. Write down your and your seatmate‘s insight about the song.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 30

Task 2.On the Other Side

Have you ever thought of a reply to the song? Have you

ever wondered what could be in the mind of the other pe rson
who is also saying goodbye? Read on and answer the
questions the follow.

I Watch You Go

By Susanah Thompson © 1996 from http://journeyofhearts.org/kirstimd/watch.htm

I see your eyes, Where I can cry the tears And let the
one final glance as you look back at me, salt water cleanse the wounds So
Although I swore they can begin to heal But now is
not the time.
I would never have to let you go It‘s a
promise I cannot keep. One hand raised
I salute you
With a wave of good-bye Wishing
I need to live you all the blessings of this earth
and you need to grow. And when we meet again it
won‘t be the same But we
will always know
My heart folds back onto itself
And I just bend my knees and lower my How much we loved and trusted
center and shared Victories, losses,
To withstand the buffet of the winds adventures and just the
passage of time.
That will blow me, and
through me Look back no more
Without you standing there to shelter me. Eyes to the future And I will
just stand here and watch
you go.
The tether is cut,
and you are free to fly

and I lose an anchor, and my cheeks

burn,
from the icy wind
and the few tears that sneak past the wall
That I am leaning on so

that I can stand and watch

you go.

And someday soon I think

I will find a haven

Grade 7 English Learning Package 31

 Does the persona in the poem carry the same weight of pain with that of the persona in
the song? Write T (True) if you agree with the statement and F (False) if you disagree.
Write your answer in a one-half lengthwise sheet of paper.

_____ 1. The persona speaks more of courage in letting go.

_____ 2. The persona asserts the need to let go.
_____ 3. The persona does not feel much hurt or pain.
_____ 4. The persona still cares for the other person.
_____ 5. The persona treasures everything they have been through.
PAIR WORK. Seat close next to your seatmate and share ideas.
1. Pick a statement from the 5 items and share your answer to your partner.
2. Take a line from the song to support your answer.
3. Define together what letting go means.
4. Write down what you and your seatmate do not agree upon.

Task 3. Face-to-Face!

A Debate. What are the two sides of the coin in separation? Should you fight for the one
you love? Or should you let go and take in all of the hurt for the other‘s sake? People in
a relationship do not exist on its own. Assume, think, approximate!

There are several possible reasons why the persona in the song and the poem
would need to let go or should not let go:

1. Intervening parents
2. Differing culture or religion
3. Imposing rules of society
3. Tempting career advancement
4. Existing physical distance
5. Discovering a third party

In defending one‘s argument, you need to:

1. Identify your side of the issue (Fight for it / Let go);
2. Deliver a minute presentation of your issue;
3. Allow the other side to present a minute argument; 4. Permit the opponent for
a rebuttal (opposing view); and, 5. Take turns in presenting the argument.

There are four sets of debate in the class. Each set and each group in each set plans
and collaborate to:
1. Choose one topic ground for debate from the given reasons;
2. Choose a side to defend (for/against);
3. Designate the following tasks: presenter of the issue, leader for research,
leader for formulating questions, and the recorder of tasks accomplished; 4.
Gather materials for support; and,
5. Prepare for debate on Day 4.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 32

 HOMEWORK:
1. Read the story Wedding Dance by Amador Daguio
2. Answer the preview items (Task 4) before reading the text.

Task 4. Yes, Filipinos Can Dance!

Filipinos don‘t just sing well, Filipinos dance well, too. From the given clues and
the picture that accompanies it, be able to match the type of some Filipino dances taken
from varied regions of the country. Write your answers on a one-fourth sheet of paper.
A tribal dance from the Bagobo tribe which This is a festival dance performed by the
portrays the cycle of planting and harvesting Ifugao men and women during a major feast
rice accompanied by gangsa or gongs.

1. 2.
Cordillera Dance,
Muslim dance,
Benguet
Leyte

This is a couple‘s dance in which the girl holds a This is a circle dance, which is being
handkerchief laced with camphor oil, a substance performed to celebrate the arrival of
that supposedly induces romance. successful headhunters.

Tribal Dance, Davao Cordillera Dance,

Ifugao
3. del Norte
4.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 33

 What would those dances be?
a. Dinuyyab. Bagobo Rice Cycle

c. Alcamflord. Bendayan
e. Itik-Itik

YOUR TEXT

Wedding Dance by
Amador Daguio
1
Awiyao reached for the upper horizontal log which served as the edge of the head high
threshold. Clinging to the log, he lifted himself with one bound that carried him across
to the narrow door. He slid back the cover, stepped inside, then pushed the cover back
in place. After some moments during which he seemed to wait, he talked to the listening
darkness.

2
"I'm sorry this had to be done. I am really sorry. But neither of us can help it."

3
The sound of the gangsas beat through the walls of the dark house like muffled
roars of falling waters. The woman who had moved with a start when the sliding door
opened had been hearing the gangsas for she did not know how long. There was a
sudden rush of fire in her. She gave no sign that she heard Awiyao, but continued to sit
unmoving in the darkness.

4
But Awiyao knew that she heard him and his heart pitied her. He crawled on all
fours to the middle of the room; he knew exactly where the stove was. With bare fingers
he stirred the covered smoldering embers, and blew into the stove. When the coals
began to glow, Awiyao put pieces of pine on them, then full round logs as his arms. The
room brightened.

5
"Why don't you go out," he said, "and join the dancing women?" He felt a pang
inside him, because what he said was really not the right thing to say and because the
woman did not stir. "You should join the dancers," he said, "as if--as if nothing had
happened." He looked at the woman huddled in a corner of the room, leaning against
the wall. The stove fire played with strange moving shadows and lights upon her face.
She was partly sullen, but her sullenness was not because of anger or hate.

6
"Go out--go out and dance. If you really don't hate me for this separation, go out
and dance. One of the men will see you dance well; he will like your dancing, he will
marry you. Who knows but that, with him, you will be luckier than you were with me."

Grade 7 English Learning Package 34

 7
"I don't want any man," she said sharply. "I don't want any other man."

8
He felt relieved that at least she talked: "You know very well that I won't want any
other woman either. You know that, don't you? Lumnay, you know it, don't you?"

9
She did not answer him.

"You know it Lumnay, don't you?" he repeated.

"Yes, I know," she said weakly.

10
"It is not my fault," he said, feeling relieved. "You cannot blame me; I have been
a good husband to you."

11
"Neither can you blame me," she said. She seemed about to cry.

12
"No, you have been very good to me. You have been a good wife. I have
nothing to say against you." He set some of the burning wood in place. "It's only that a
man must have a child. Seven harvests is just too long to wait. Yes, we have waited too
long. We should have another chance before it is too late for both of us."

13
This time the woman stirred, stretched her right leg out and bent her left leg in.
She wound the blanket more snugly around herself.

14
"You know that I have done my best," she said. "I have prayed to Kabunyan
much. I have sacrificed many chickens in my prayers."

"Yes, I know."

15
"You remember how angry you were once when you came home from your
work in the terrace because I butchered one of our pigs without your permission? I did it
to appease Kabunyan, because, like you, I wanted to have a child. But what could I
do?"

16
"Kabunyan does not see fit for us to have a child," he said. He stirred the fire. The
spark rose through the crackles of the flames. The smoke and soot went up the
ceiling.

18
Lumnay looked down and unconsciously started to pull at the rattan that kept
the split bamboo flooring in place. She tugged at the rattan flooring. Each time she did
this the split bamboo went up and came down with a slight rattle. The gong of the
dancers clamorously called in her care through the walls.

19
Awiyao went to the corner where Lumnay sat, paused before her, looked at her
bronzed and sturdy face, then turned to where the jars of water stood piled one over the

Grade 7 English Learning Package 35

other. Awiyao took a coconut cup and dipped it in the top jar and drank. Lumnay had
filled the jars from the mountain creek early that evening.

20
"I came home," he said. "Because I did not find you among the dancers. Of
course, I am not forcing you to come, if you don't want to join my wedding ceremony. I
came to tell you that Madulimay, although I am marrying her, can never become as
good as you are. She is not as strong in planting beans, not as fast in cleaning water
jars, not as good keeping a house clean. You are one of the best wives in the whole
village."

21
"That has not done me any good, has it?" She said. She looked at him lovingly.
She almost seemed to smile.

22
He put the coconut cup aside on the floor and came closer to her. He held her
face between his hands and looked longingly at her beauty. But her eyes looked away.
Never again would he hold her face. The next day she would not be his any more. She
would go back to her parents. He let go of her face, and she bent to the floor again and
looked at her fingers as they tugged softly at the split bamboo floor.

23
"This house is yours," he said. "I built it for you. Make it your own, live in it as
long as you wish. I will build another house for Madulimay."

"I have no need for a house," she said slowly. "I'll go to my own house. My parents
are old. They will need help in the planting of the beans, in the pounding of the rice."

24
"I will give you the field that I dug out of the mountains during the first year of our
marriage," he said. "You know I did it for you. You helped me to make it for the two of
us."

"I have no use for any field," she said.

He looked at her, then turned away, and became silent. They were silent for a
time.

25
"Go back to the dance," she said finally. "It is not right for you to be here. They
will wonder where you are, and Madulimay will not feel good. Go back to the dance."

26
"I would feel better if you could come, and dance---for the last time. The
gangsas are playing."

"You know that I cannot."

27
"Lumnay," he said tenderly. "Lumnay, if I did this it is because of my need for a
child. You know that life is not worth living without a child. The men have mocked me
behind my back. You know that."

Grade 7 English Learning Package 36

 "I know it," she said. "I will pray that Kabunyan will bless you and Madulimay."

28
She bit her lips now, then shook her head wildly, and sobbed.

29
She thought of the seven harvests that had passed, the high hopes they had in
the beginning of their new life, the day he took her away from her parents across the
roaring river, on the other side of the mountain, the trip up the trail which they had to
climb, the steep canyon which they had to cross. The waters boiled in her mind in
forms of white and jade and roaring silver; the waters tolled and growled, resounded in
thunderous echoes through the walls of the stiff cliffs; they were far away now from
somewhere on the tops of the other ranges, and they had looked carefully at the
buttresses of rocks they had to step on---a slip would have meant death.

30
They both drank of the water then rested on the other bank before they made
the final climb to the other side of the mountain.
31
She looked at his face with the fire playing upon his features---hard and strong,
and kind. He had a sense of lightness in his way of saying things which often made
her and the village people laugh. How proud she had been of his humor. The muscles
where taut and firm, bronze and compact in their hold upon his skull---how frank his
bright eyes were. She looked at his body the carved out of the mountains five fields for
her; his wide and supple torso heaved as if a slab of shining lumber were heaving; his
arms and legs flowed down in fluent muscles--he was strong and for that she had lost
him.

32
She flung herself upon his knees and clung to them. "Awiyao, Awiyao, my
husband," she cried. "I did everything to have a child," she said passionately in a hoarse
whisper. "Look at me," she cried. "Look at my body. Then it was full of promise. It could
dance; it could work fast in the fields; it could climb the mountains fast. Even now it is
firm, full. But, Awiyao, I am useless. I must die."

33
"It will not be right to die," he said, gathering her in his arms. Her whole warm
naked naked breast quivered against his own; she clung now to his neck, and her hand
lay upon his right shoulder; her hair flowed down in cascades of gleaming darkness.

34
"I don't care about the fields," she said. "I don't care about the house. I don't
care for anything but you. I'll have no other man."

"Then you'll always be fruitless."

35
"I'll go back to my father, I'll die."

"Then you hate me," he said. "If you die it means you hate me. You do not want
me to have a child. You do not want my name to live on in our tribe."

She was silent.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 37

 36
"If I do not try a second time," he explained, "it means I'll die. Nobody will get
the fields I have carved out of the mountains; nobody will come after me."

37
"If you fail--if you fail this second time--" she said thoughtfully. The voice was a
shudder. "No--no, I don't want you to fail."

38
"If I fail," he said, "I'll come back to you. Then both of us will die together. Both
of us will vanish from the life of our tribe."

39
The gongs thundered through the walls of their house, sonorous and faraway.

40
"I'll keep my beads," she said. "Awiyao, let me keep my beads," she halfwhispered.

"You will keep the beads. They come from far-off times. My grandmother said
they come from up North, from the slant-eyed people across the sea. You keep them,
Lumnay. They are worth twenty fields."

"I'll keep them because they stand for the love you have for me," she said. "I love
you. I love you and have nothing to give."

41
She took herself away from him, for a voice was calling out to him from outside.
"Awiyao! Awiyao! O Awiyao! They are looking for you at the dance!"

"I am not in hurry."

"The elders will scold you. You had better go."

"Not until you tell me that it is all right with you."

42
"It is all right with me."

He clasped her hands. "I do this for the sake of the tribe," he said.

"I know," she said.

He went to the door.

43
"Awiyao!"

44
He stopped as if suddenly hit by a spear. In pain he turned to her. Her face was
in agony. It pained him to leave. She had been wonderful to him. What was it that made
a man wish for a child? What was it in life, in the work in the field, in the planting and
harvest, in the silence of the night, in the communing with husband and wife, in the
whole life of the tribe itself that made man wish for the laughter and speech of a child?
Suppose he changed his mind? Why did the unwritten law demand, anyway, that a

Grade 7 English Learning Package 38

man, to be a man, must have a child to come after him? And if he was fruitless--but he
loved Lumnay. It was like taking away of his life to leave her like this.

45
"Awiyao," she said, and her eyes seemed to smile in the light. "The beads!" He
turned back and walked to the farthest corner of their room, to the trunk where they kept
their worldly possession---his battle-ax and his spear points, her betel nut box and her
beads. He dug out from the darkness the beads which had been given to him by his
grandmother to give to Lumnay on the beads on, and tied them in place. The white and
jade and deep orange obsidians shone in the firelight. She suddenly clung to him, clung
to his neck as if she would never let him go.

46
"Awiyao! Awiyao, it is hard!" She gasped, and she closed her eyes and buried
her face in his neck.

47
The call for him from the outside repeated; her grip loosened, and he buried out into
the night.

48
Lumnay sat for some time in the darkness. Then she went to the door and
opened it. The moonlight struck her face; the moonlight spilled itself on the whole
village.
49
She could hear the throbbing of the gangsas coming to her through the caverns
of the other houses. She knew that all the houses were empty that the whole tribe was
at the dance. Only she was absent. And yet was she not the best dancer of the village?
Did she not have the most lightness and grace? Could she not, alone among all women,
dance like a bird tripping for grains on the ground, beautifully timed to the beat of the
gangsas? Did not the men praise her supple body, and the women envy the way she
stretched her hands like the wings of the mountain eagle now and then as she danced?
How long ago did she dance at her own wedding? Tonight, all the women who counted,
who once danced in her honor, were dancing now in honor of another whose only claim
was that perhaps she could give her husband a child.

50
"It is not right. It is not right!" she cried. "How does she know? How can
anybody know? It is not right," she said.

51
Suddenly she found courage. She would go to the dance. She would go to the
chief of the village, to the elders, to tell them it was not right. Awiyao was hers; nobody
could take him away from her. Let her be the first woman to complain, to denounce the
unwritten rule that a man may take another woman. She would tell Awiyao to come
back to her. He surely would relent. Was not their love as strong as the river?

52
She made for the other side of the village where the dancing was. There was a
flaming glow over the whole place; a great bonfire was burning. The gangsas clamored
more loudly now, and it seemed they were calling to her. She was near at last. She
could see the dancers clearly now. The man leaped lightly with their gangsas as they
circled the dancing women decked in feast garments and beads, tripping on the ground

Grade 7 English Learning Package 39

like graceful birds, following their men. Her heart warmed to the flaming call of the
dance; strange heat in her blood welled up, and she started to run. But the gleaming
brightness of the bonfire commanded her to stop. Did anybody see her approach? She
stopped. What if somebody had seen her coming? The flames of the bonfire leaped in
countless sparks which spread and rose like yellow points and died out in the night. The
blaze reached out to her like a spreading radiance. She did not have the courage to
break into the wedding feast.

53
Lumnay walked away from the dancing ground, away from the village. She
thought of the new clearing of beans which Awiyao and she had started to make only
four moons before. She followed the trail above the village.

54
When she came to the mountain stream she crossed it carefully. Nobody held
her hand, and the stream water was very cold. The trail went up again, and she was in
the moonlight shadows among the trees and shrubs. Slowly she climbed the mountain.

55
When Lumnay reached the clearing, she could see from where she stood the
blazing bonfire at the edge of the village, where the wedding was. She could hear the
far-off clamor of the gongs, still rich in their sonorousness, echoing from mountain to
mountain. The sound did not mock her; they seemed to call far to her, to speak to her in
the language of unspeaking love. She felt the pull of their gratitude for her sacrifice. Her
heartbeat began to sound to her like many gangsas.
56
Lumnay though of Awiyao as the Awiyao she had known long ago-- a strong,
muscular boy carrying his heavy loads of fuel logs down the mountains to his home.
She had met him one day as she was on her way to fill her clay jars with water. He had
stopped at the spring to drink and rest; and she had made him drink the cool mountain
water from her coconut shell. After that it did not take him long to decide to throw his
spear on the stairs of her father's house in token on his desire to marry her.

58
The mountain clearing was cold in the freezing moonlight. The wind began to
stir the leaves of the bean plants. Lumnay looked for a big rock on which to sit down.
The bean plants now surrounded her, and she was lost among them.

59
A few more weeks, a few more months, a few more harvests---what did it
matter? She would be holding the bean flowers, soft in the texture, silken almost, but
moist where the dew got into them, silver to look at, silver on the light blue, blooming
whiteness, when the morning comes. The stretching of the bean pods full length from
the hearts of the wilting petals would go on.

60
Lumnay's fingers moved a long, long time among the growing bean pods.

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. How Ironic!

Grade 7 English Learning Package 40

 Have you ever said one thing yet mean another thing? That is so ironic!

It happens often when your teacher asks you if you understood the discussion
then you would reply, ―Yes, Sir,‖ or ―Yes, Ma‘am,‖ when you really are not so
sure you understood. Or when your friend tells you how good the film was and
you would say, ―I agree,‖ yet the expression in your face is so flat.

Write I (Ironic) if the statement of the characters in the story is ironic, and then
explain the meaning behind the ironic statement. If the statement is not ironic just leave
the item blank. Write your answer on a one-whole sheet of paper.

_____ 1. . ―Of course, I am not forcing you to come, if you don't want to join my
wedding ceremony.‖ ( Awiyao, Paragraph 20)
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

______ 2. ―I have no need for a house… I have no use for any field.‖ (Lumnay,
Paragraphs 23 & 24)

_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
______ 3. "I will pray that Kabunyan will bless you and Madulimay." She bit her
lips now, then shook her head wildly, and sobbed. (Lumnay,
Paragraphs 27 & 28)
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

______ 4. "No--no, I don't want you to fail." (Lumnay, Paragraph 37)

_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

_______ 5. "It is all right with me." (Lumnay, Paragraph 42)

_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

One More. Are all statements a form of verbal irony? Explain.

_______________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Grade 7 English Learning Package 41

Task 2. Locate, Reflect, Evaluate!

Locate information in the selection to determine whether each statement is true

(T) or false (F). Write your answer in the one-whole sheet of paper.

_____ 1. The story says aloud that a man who loves unconditionally should give
up his or her happiness for the beloved.
_____ 2. The title speaks of the dance that happened in the wedding of Awiyao
and Madulimay.
_____ 3. Awiyao and Lumnay still confessed their love for each other in the midst
of their separation.
_____ 4. The presence of darkness in the story symbolizes the sadness in their
hearts in contrast to the ember in the fire logs that represents their
strong and deep love for each other.
_____ 5. The beads given to Lumnay by Awiyao will be given to Madulimay in
the wedding.
_____ 6. Awiyao is more courageous than Lumnay to surrender his love and take
all the hurt that goes with it.
_____ 7. The tribe‘s convention and practice on raising a family bore much
burden to Awiyao and Lumnay.
_____ 8. The gangsas represent the tribe‘s rule and power.
_____ 9. Lumnay is triumphant in the end of the story.
_____ 10. The story speaks of sacrifice and love.

Task 3. The Dance in the Story

Basic dance necessitates a step forward and a step backward. A step forward
to a dancing partner may mean intimacy and a step backward away from the dancing
partner may mean letting go.

PAIR WORK. Write F (Forward) if the character just did a forward step and B
(Backward) if the character did a backward step through the
given lines in the story.

_____ 1. Awiyao went to the corner where Lumnay sat. (Para. 19)
_____ 2. But her eyes looked away. (Para. 22)
_____ 3. He let go of her face. (Para. 22)

Grade 7 English Learning Package 42

 _____ 4. He looked at her, then turned away…(Para. 24)
_____ 5. She flung herself upon his knees and clung to them. (Para. 32)
_____ 6. …Gathering her in his arms. (Para. 33)
_____ 7. She clung now to his neck, and her hand upon his right
shoulder…(Para. 33)
_____ 8. She took herself away from him. (Para. 41)
_____ 9. He clasped her hands. (Para. 42)
_____ 10. He went to the door. (Parag. 42)
_____ 11. He stopped. (Para. 44) He turned back. (Para. 45)
_____ 12. She suddenly clung to him, clung to his neck as if she would never let
him go. (Para. 45)
_____ 13. Her grip loosened. (Para. 47)
_____ 14. He buried out into the night. (Para. 47)

Task 4. You Can Dance!

What can be more close to the story than being part of the story--this time in a
different dimension. Interpret the emotion, thoughts, and promises that Awiyao and
Lumnay have for each other in the story through a dance. Were they really saying
goodbye to each other for real? Or were they giving a commitment they would hold on
to even if they would be separated from each other.

In groups of ten, be able to:

1. Choose a song to capture the mood of the night, the intensity of the struggle of
emotion, and the depth of feeling Awiyao and Lumnay have for each other;
(The song choice alone gives away a big part of your interpretation of what‘s
going on with the two characters.)
2. Decide if there will be set of pairs for the group presentation or the members of
the group will belong to two sets, respectively for the moves of the two
characters;
3. Define clearly the end of the dance for it will answer the questions presented
for this activity—is it goodbye or renewed commitment?;
4. Make it creative but keep the moves simple, just enough for the given time of
preparation; and,
5. Rehearse for Day 4 presentation.

Task 5. Watch Out!

Study the following sentences. Each item has two sentences, one is with the
correct use of verb forms (words that follow the verb) while the other one has an
incorrect use of verb forms. Choose the correct sentence. Write your answer on a
onehalf-sheet of paper.

_____ 1. a. Lumnay seems having a problem.

b. Lumnay seems to have a problem.
_____ 2. a. Awiyao must start moving on with his life.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 43

 b. Awiyao must stop to move on with his life.
_____ 3. a. Awiyao and Lumnay found their love unbroken even with the tribe‘s
intrusion.
b. Awiyao and Lumnay
_____ 4. a. Lumnay explained to end her life.
b. Lumnay explained ending her life.

Verbs have features or complements to determine how many other words would
follow. Many verbs can be followed by:

1. An object;
2. A verb structure; or,
3. An expression that has information about the object (of the verb).

CHECK THE RULES!

So what are these forms or features which may follow the main verb in the
sentence?

1. Verbs followed by one object: the direct object (DO) or the indirect object (IO).
a. Awiyao asked Lumnay.
b. Awiyao asked a question.

2. Verbs followed by two objects: the indirect object, usually a person, comes first
before the direct object.

a. Awiyao asked Lumnay a question.

b. Awiyao gave her the beads.

Some of the verbs which can be followed by two objects are: bring, buy, cost,
get, give, leave, lend, make, offer, owe, pass, pay, play, promise, read, refuse,
send, show, sing, take, teach, tell, wish, write.

3. Verbs explain, suggest, and describe are not used with the structure IO + DO.
a. ―Awiyao, please explain your decision to me.‖ (DO + IO)
b. ―Can you describe a good wedding dance to me?‖ Incorrect: ―Can
you describe me a good wedding dance?‖

4. Verbs followed by object + infinitive, rather than by a that-clause

a. ―I don‘t want him to go.‖
Incorrect: ―I don‘t want that he goes.‖
b. ―We didn‘t allow Awiyao and Lumnay to continue living together.‖
Incorrect: ―We didn‘t allow Awiyao and Lumnay that they continue living
together.‖
Task 6. It Wasn’t Meant to Be

Grade 7 English Learning Package 44

 Tragic love stories happen when people who are so much in love don‘t end up
together. Know about them as you identify the verb feature pattern. Choose from the
patterns below. Write the letter of the correct answer on the one-half sheet of paper.
A. Verbs followed by one object
B. Verbs followed by two objects
C. Verbs followed by object + infinitive

1. Phantom of the Opera (2004);

______ a. The phantom led us to believe that he loves Christine.
______ b. Christine leaves the Phantom heart-broken when she goes with
Raoul.

2. Ghost (1990)
______ a. Molly and Sam looked like the perfect couple with a love everyone
would dream about.
______ b. Molly has the love of her life taken away from her all too soon.

3. Titanic (1997)
______ a. It was the ship of dreams and Rose met Jack Dawson.
______ b. Rose never told anyone about Jack until telling her story of the
Titanic.

4. Gone with the Wind (1939)

______ a. Scarlet and Rhett were made for each other.
______ b. Scarlet realizes that she loves Rhett, but it‘s too late.

5. The Bridges of Madison Country (1995)

______ a. The film shows us how love can really catch you off guard.
______ b. Francesca loves Robert, but she cannot leave her children.

Task 7. A Trip to the Countryside

Lumnay would have wanted to have anyone as company in her time of

solitude. Would anyone be delighted to be by her side, to walk through the
clearing, and to sit in the middle of the bean flowers?

In groups of three, you need to create a travelogue and invite people to

the countryside where Lumnay resides. A travelogue is a full-page
advertisement of a destination place for travelers.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 45

In creating a travelogue, do not forget to:

1. Research about the place;

2. Choose the best scenery

of potential interest;

3. Decide what to include about the

place: the animals, the
people, or the food;

4. Refer to some significant

elements in the story of Awiyao
and Lumnay; and,

5. Make a colorful and creative

layout of your travelogue.

YOUR FINAL TASK

A Peek Into the World of Awiyao and Lumnay

You are challenged to perform a creative take on the literary piece, The Wedding
Dance, through your big steps in your Face-to-Face! (the informal debate) challenge
and your small steps in the You Can Dance! Challenge (the interpretative dance).

In the Face-to-Face challenge, you are required to:

1. Evaluate your individual and group performance;
2. Choose the side of the issue after hearing both sides form all the sets
listened to;
3. Justify your choice of the side by mentioning and explaining the best
argument (quote the one who said it); and,
4. Rate through the scale of: 3, high level of performance; 2, moderate level of
performance; and 1, displays low level of performance.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 46

 The score sheets for the Face-to-Face challenge:

Self-Evaluation Group Evaluation

Participation P erformance Group Grade

Planning Opening
statement
Preparing
Rebuttals
Performing
Support
Total
Total

In the You Can Dance challenge, you are required to:

1. Evaluate your group performance;
2. Choose the best interpretation from the group presentations (excluding your
group);
3. Justify your choice of the best interpretative dance; and,
4. Rate through the scale of: 3, high level of performance; 2, moderate level of
performance; and 1, displays low level of performance.

The score sheets for the You Can Dance challenge:

Grade 7 English Learning Package 47

YOUR GOALS

This lesson allows you to envision possibilities in your dreams and construct
means to arrive at it. Discover how you can face your fear, extinguish your weakness,
and bank on your strength as you go out and meet people in the big world. You must
aim to:

1. Create rap music.

2. Differentiate several table manners and practices from varied households.
3. Imagine and visualize a given setting.
4. Express meanings from a text listened to.
5. Interpret the concept of contradictory words used together.
6. Use information presented in a creation story to infer, to evaluate, and to express

critical ideas.
7. Make connections between the story discussed and several other lines lifted from
other readings.
8. Create unified sound and music against selected scenes in the story for a silent
movie effect.
9. Use varied verb complementation forms.
10. Create a travelogue which will feature the special dish of a selected locale for the
story.
11. Narrow a topic to manage the selection of information from available search

engines or tools in the library.

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1.Wrap Up the Food!

Work in groups of five. Fill in the blanks with your favorite food. After completion,
your group should create a beat to tune it into a rap or chant. Do not forget to create a
title for your rap. Write the complete lyrics on a one-half sheet lengthwise.

_________________________________

___________, __________, __________, __________, _________

I’m hungry. I’m hungry. I’m hungry. I’m hungry.

___________, __________, __________, __________, _________

I’d like some. I’d like some. I’d like some. I’d like some.

___________, __________, __________, __________, _________

Grade 7 English Learning Package 48

 Just a little. Just a little. Just a little. Just a little.

___________, __________, __________, __________, _________

That’s enough. That’s enough. That’s enough. That’s enough.

___________, __________, __________, __________, _________

I’m full. I’m full. I’m full. I’m full!

Task 2.Please, Pass the Food!

What is it like to eat in somebody else‘s house? Are there things you do or you should
not do at a dinner table? Is it polite to eat everything on your plate or in your dish? Is it
polite to eat with your hands? Make a survey!

1. Create a list of questions for you and your classmates.

2. Be able to survey at least 5 of your classmates.
3. Tell them to answer your survey form after their response.
4. Create a table similar with the sample below on a one whole sheet of paper.

My Classmates‘ Responses
My
Questions Response Signature
1 2 3 4 5

1. Is it
polite to eat
with your
hands?

2.

3.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 49

4.

5.

Task 3. Does it Sound Familiar?

When something sounds familiar, one can actually imagine it. Take this for an example:
a rooster that crows early in the morning. Can you imagine it? Can you even imagine
that sound from the rooster? Try listening to your classmate if it would still sound
familiar.

Work in Pairs. Take turns in reading and listening to the text. Assign who is
partner A and who is partner B.
1. Partner A reads first while Partner B listens.
2. After listening write down as many familiar words as you can.
3. Do not write down any word if ever there is nothing familiar to you.

PARTNER A
The local bakery was a two mile bike ride from my house in the Philippines. Shortly after
the first mile, the humid weather thickens the aroma of freshly baked pan de sal that even on an
empty stomach, I am able to sprint quickly up the hill where the panaderia is perched. Getting a
brown paper bag full of hot bread rolls straight from the charred wooden peel defined my
childhood‘s Saturday mornings. The rest of the family would wait eagerly for my return with
either a cup of steaming coffee or raw carabao milk in hand.
-From Pan de Sal – Filipino Salted Bread; Feb 2012, http://www.applepiepatispate.com

Grade 7 English Learning Package 50

 PARTNER B

He sips his coffee as he watches

the multitude pass by.

Hoping to glimpse, a fraction

of sunrise on their faces.

Hoping to catch a glance, a smile

perhaps that could warm his cold

heart and maybe bring some kind

of fulfilment on this empty morning.

- Early Mornings by Ramon Alessandro; 2 July 2011; http://definitelyfilipino.com

Where would you most likely imagine the place for the text you have listened to?
Explain your answer.

_______________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

Task 4. Say What?

―O, miserable abundance, O, beggarly riches!‖

-John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

Have you ever heard those expressions? Why would abundance be miserable?
Why would someone who has riches be beggarly? These expressions are apparent
contradictions. It is called an OXYMORON.

Here are some more oxymoronic expressions: act naturally, random order,
original copy, found missing, old news, peace force, deafening silence.

Look for the oxymoronic expressions from the statements below. Then specify
the meaning of the expression based from the given context. Write your answer on a
one-fourth sheet of paper.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 51

 1. "Ralph, if you're gonna be a phony, you might as well be a real phony."
- Richard Yates, "Saying Goodbye to Sally." The Collected Stories of Richard Yates. Picador, 2002

Meaning: ____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

2. "O brawling love! O loving hate! . . . O heavy lightness! serious vanity!

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this."
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Meaning:____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

3. "A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."

- G.K. Chesterton, George
Bernard Shaw, 1909
Meaning: ____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Use the following oxymoronic expressions in a sentence. Write your answer on a

one-half crosswise sheet of paper.

1. small crowd : _________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

2. ill health : ____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

3. clearly misunderstood : _________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Grade 7 English Learning Package 52

 What is the purpose of oxymoronic expressions in your statements?

________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________
HOMEWORK:
1. Read the story The Bread of Salt by Amador Daguio
2. As you read, do not forget to pause at stop points and respond to the quick
queries. Write your answer on a one-half crosswise sheet of paper.

YOUR TEXT The Bread of Salt

by NVM Gonzalez (1958)

1
Usually I was in bed by ten and up by five and thus was ready for one more
day of my fourteenth year. Unless Grandmother had forgotten, the fifteen centavos
for the baker down Progreso Street - and how I enjoyed jingling those coins in my
pocket!- would be in the empty fruit jar in the cupboard. I would remember then that
rolls were what Grandmother wanted because recently she had lost three molars.
For young people like my cousins and myself, she had always said that the kind
2
called pan de salought to be quite all right. The bread of salt! How did it get
that name? From where did its flavor come, through what secret action of flour and
yeast? At the risk of being jostled from the counter by early buyers, I would push
my way into the shop so that I might watch the men who, stripped to the waist,
worked their long flat wooden spades in and out of the glowing maw of the oven.
Why did the bread come nut-brown and the size of my little fist? And why did it
have a pair of lips convulsed into a painful frown? In the half light of the street, and
hurrying, the paper bag pressed to my chest, I felt my curiosity a little gratified by
the oven-fresh warmth of the bread I was proudly bringing home for breakfast.

Do you have any idea what bread is the

character-narrator talking about?

3
Well I knew how Grandmother would not mind if I nibbled away at one piece;
perhaps, I might even eat two, to be charged later against my share at the table.
But that would be betraying a trust; and so, indeed, I kept my purchase intact. To
guard it from harm, I watched my steps and avoided the dark street corners.
4
For my reward, I had only to look in the direction of the sea wall and the fifty
yards or so of riverbed beyond it, where an old Spaniard's house stood. At low tide,
when the bed was dry and the rocks glinted with broken bottles, the stone fence of
the Spaniard's compound set off the house as if it were a castle. Sunrise brought a
wash of silver upon the roofs of the laundry and garden sheds which had been built

Grade 7 English Learning Package 53

low and close to the fence. On dull mornings the light dripped from the bamboo
screen which covered the veranda and hung some four or five yards from the
ground. Unless it was August, when the damp, northeast monsoon had to be kept
away from the rooms, three servants raised the screen promptly at six-thirty until it
was completely hidden under the veranda eaves. From the sound of the pulleys, I
knew it was time to set out for school.
5
It was in his service, as a coconut plantation overseer, that Grandfather had
spent the last thirty years of his life. Grandmother had been widowed three years
now. I often wondered whether I was being depended upon to spend the years ahead
in the service of this great house.

With whom is the

character-narrator living?
living with?

One day I learned that Aida, a

classmate in high school, was the old Spaniard's niece. All my doubts
disappeared. It was as if, before his death, Grandfather had spoken to me about
her, concealing the seriousness of the matter by putting it over as a joke. If now I
kept true to the virtues, she would step out of her bedroom ostensibly to say
Good Morning to her uncle. Her real purpose, I knew, was to reveal thus her

assent to my desire.
6
On quiet mornings I imagined the patter of her shoes upon the wooden veranda
floor as a further sign, and I would hurry off to school, taking the route she had fixed for
me past the post office, the town plaza and the church, the health center east of the
plaza, and at last the school grounds. I asked myself whether I would try to walk with
her and decided it would be the height of rudeness. Enough that in her blue skirt and
white middy she would be half a block ahead and, from that distance, perhaps throw a
glance in my direction, to bestow upon my heart a deserved and abundant blessing. I
believed it was but right that, in some such way as this, her mission in my life was
disguised.
7
Her name, I was to learn many years later, was a convenient mnemonic for the
qualities to which argument might aspire. But in those days it was a living voice. "Oh
that you might be worthy of uttering me," it said. And how I endeavored to build my
body so that I might live long to honor her. With every victory at singles at the handball
court the game was then the craze at school -- I could feel my body glow in the sun as
though it had instantly been cast in bronze. I guarded my mind and did not let my wits
go astray. In class I would not allow a lesson to pass unmastered. Our English teacher
could put no question before us that did not have a ready answer in my head. One
day he read Robert Louis Stevenson's The Sire de Maletroit's Door, and we were so
enthralled that our breaths trembled. I knew then that somewhere, sometime in the
not too improbable future, a benign old man with a lantern in his hand would also
detain me in a

Grade 7 English Learning Package 54

secret room, and there daybreak would find me thrilled by the sudden certainty that
I had won Aida's hand.

From this point of the narrative,

would you say that this is going to be a
love story?

8
It was perhaps on my violin that her name wrought such a tender spell. Maestro
Antonino remarked the dexterity of my stubby fingers. Quickly I raced through
Alard-until I had all but committed two thirds of the book to memory. My short,
brown arm learned at last to draw the bow with grace. Sometimes, when
practising my scales in the early evening, I wondered if the sea wind carrying the
straggling notes across the pebbled river did not transform them into Schubert's
"Serenade."
9
At last Mr. Custodio, who was in charge of our school orchestra, became aware
of my progress. He moved me from second to first violin. During the
Thanksgiving Day program he bade me render a number, complete with pizzicati and
harmonics.
10
"Another Vallejo! Our own Albert Spalding!" I heard from the front row.
11
Aida, I thought, would be in the audience. I looked around quickly but could not
see her. As I retired to my place in the orchestra I heard Pete Saez, the trombone
player, call my name.
12
"You must join my band," he said. "Look, we'll have many engagements soon.
It'llbe vacation time."
13
Pete pressed my arm. He had for some time now been asking me to join the
Minviluz Orchestra, his private band. All I had been able to tell him was that I had my
schoolwork to mind. He was twenty-two. I was perhaps too young to be going
around with him. He earned his school fees and supported his mother hiring out his
band at least three or four times a month. He now said:
14
"Tomorrow we play at the funeral of a Chinese-four to six in the afternoon; in
theevening, judge Roldan's silver wedding anniversary; Sunday, the municipal dance."
15
My head began to whirl. On the stage, in front of us, the principal had begun a
speech about America. Nothing he could say about the Pilgrim Fathers and the
American custom of feasting on turkey seemed interesting. I thought of the money I
would earn. For several days now I had but one wish, to buy a box of linen stationery.
At night when the house was quiet I would fill the sheets with words that would tell
Aida how much I adored her. One of these mornings, perhaps before school closed
for the holidays, I would borrow her algebra book and there, upon a good pageful of
equations, there I would slip my message, tenderly pressing the leaves of the book.
She would perhaps never write back. Neither by post nor by hand would a reply reach
me. But no matter; it would be a silence full of voices.
16
That night I dreamed I had returned from a tour of the world's music centers;
the newspapers of Manila had been generous with praise. I saw my picture on the
cover of a magazine. A writer had described how, many years ago, I used to trudge

Grade 7 English Learning Package 55

the streets of Buenavista with my violin in a battered black cardboard case. In New
York, he reported, a millionaire had offered me a Stradivarius violin, with a card that
bore the inscription: "In admiration of a genius your own people must surely be
proud of." I dreamed I spent a weekend at the millionaire's country house by the
Hudson. A young girl in a blue skirt and white middy clapped her lily-white hands
and, her voice trembling, cried "Bravo!"
What people now observed at home was the diligence with which I attended to my
violin lessons. My aunt, who had come from the farm to join her children for the
holidays, brought with her a maidservant, and to the poor girl was given the chore
of taking the money to the baker's for rolls and pan de sal. I realized at once that it
would be no longer becoming on my part to make these morning trips to the
baker's. I could not thank my aunt enough.
17
I began to chafe on being given other errands. Suspecting my violin to be the
excuse, my aunt remarked:"What do you want to be a musician for? At parties,
musicians always eat last."
18
Perhaps, I said to myself, she was thinking of a pack of dogs scrambling for
scraps tossed over the fence by some careless kitchen maid. She was the sort you
could depend on to say such vulgar things. For that reason, I thought, she ought
not to be taken seriously at all.
19
But the remark hurt me. Although Grandmother had counseled me kindly to
mind my work at school, I went again and again to Pete Saez's house for rehearsals.
20
She had demanded that I deposit with her my earnings; I had felt too weak to
refuse. Secretly, I counted the money and decided not to ask for it until I had enough
with which to buy a brooch. Why this time I wanted to give Aida a brooch, I didn't
know. But I had set my heart on it. I searched the downtown shops. The Chinese
clerks, seeing me so young, were annoyed when I inquired about prices.

Specify the paragraphs which speak of reality for the character-narrator, and his dream-
state. Use paragraph number for your answer.

21
At last the Christmas season began. I had not counted on Aida's leaving home,
and remembering that her parents lived in Badajoz, my torment was almost
unbearable. Not once had I tried to tell her of my love. My letters had remained
unwritten, and the algebra book unborrowed. There was still the brooch to find, but I
could not decide on the sort of brooch I really wanted. And the money, in any case, was
in Grandmother's purse, which smelled of "Tiger Balm." I grew somewhat feverish as
our class Christmas program drew near. Finally it came; it was a warm December
afternoon. I decided to leave the room when our English teacher announced that
members of the class might exchange gifts. I felt
fortunate; Pete was at the door, beckoning to me. We walked out to the porch where,
Pete said, he would tell me a secret.
22
It was about an as alto the next Sunday which the Buenavista Women's Club
wished to give Don Esteban's daughters, Josefina and Alicia, who were arriving on
the morning steamer from Manila. The spinsters were much loved by the ladies.
Years ago, when they were younger, these ladies studied solfeggio with Josefina and

Grade 7 English Learning Package 56

the piano and harp with Alicia. As Pete told me all this, his lips ash-gray from
practicing all morning on his trombone, I saw in my mind the sisters in their silk
dresses, shuffling off to church for the evening benediction. They were very devout,
and the Buenavista ladies admired that. I had almost forgotten that they were twins
and, despite their age, often dressed alike. In low-bosomed voile bodices and white
summer hats, I remembered, the pair had attended Grandfather's funeral, at old Don
Esteban's behest. I wondered how successful they had been in Manila during the
past three years in the matter of finding suitable husbands.
23
"This party will be a complete surprise," Pete said, looking around the porch as
ifto swear me to secrecy. "They've hired our band."
24
I joined my classmates in the room, greeting everyone with a Merry Christmas
jollier than that of the others. When I saw Aida in one corner unwrapping something
25
two girls had given her, I found the boldness to greet her also. "Merry
Christmas," I said in English, as a hairbrush and a powder case emerged from the
fancy wrapping. It seemed to me rather apt that such gifts went to her. Already
several girls were gathered around Aida. Their eyes glowed with envy, it seemed to
me, for those fair cheeks and the bobbed dark-brown hair which lineage had denied
them.
26
I was too dumbstruck by my own meanness to hear exactly what Aida said in
answer to my greeting. But I recovered shortly and asked:
"Will you be away during the vacation?"
27
"No, I'll be staying here," she said. When she added that her cousins were
arriving and that a big party in their honor was being planned, I remarked:"So you
know all about it?" I felt I had to explain that the party was meant to be a surprise, an
asalto.
28
And now it would be nothing of the kind, really. The women's club matrons
would hustle about, disguising their scurrying around for cakes and candies as for some
baptismal party or other. In the end, the Rivas sisters would outdo them. Boxes of
meringues, bonbons, ladyfingers, and cinnamon buns that only the Swiss bakers in
Manila could make were perhaps coming on the boat with them. I imagined a table
glimmering with long-stemmed punch glasses; enthroned in that array would be a huge
brick-red bowl of gleaming china with golden flowers around the brim. The local
matrons, however hard they tried, however sincere their efforts, were bound to fail in
their aspiration to rise to the level of Don Esteban's daughters. Perhaps, I thought, Aida
knew all this. And that I should
share in a foreknowledge of the matrons' hopes was a matter beyond love. Aida and
I could laugh together with the gods.

What do you think was in the mind of the character-narrator at the moment? What are
his feelings about the upcoming events?

29
At seven, on the appointed evening, our small band gathered quietly at the gate
of Don Esteban's house, and when the ladies arrived in their heavy shawls and
trimpanuelo, twittering with excitement, we were commanded to play the Poet and
Peasant overture. As Pete directed the band, his eyes glowed with pride for his having

Grade 7 English Learning Package 57

been part of the big event. The multicolored lights that the old Spaniard's gardeners had
strung along the vine-covered fence were switched on, and the women remarked that
Don Esteban's daughters might have made some preparations after all. Pete hid his
face from the glare. If the women felt let down, they did not show it.
30
The overture shuffled along to its climax while five men in white shirts bore
huge boxes of goods into the house. I recognized one of the bakers in spite of the
uniform. A chorus of confused greetings, and the women trooped into the house;
and before we had settled in the sala to play "A Basket of Roses," the heavy
damask curtains at the far end of the room were drawn and a long table richly
spread was revealed under the chandeliers. I remembered that, in our haste to be
on hand for the asalto, Pete and I had discouraged the members of the band from
taking their suppers.
31
"You've done us a great honor!" Josefina, the more buxom of the twins, greeted
the ladies. "Oh, but you have not allowed us to take you by surprise!" the ladies
demurred in a chorus.
32
There were sighs and further protestations amid a rustle of skirts and the glitter
of earrings. I saw Aida in a long, flowing white gown and wearing an arch of
sampaguita flowers on her hair. At her command, two servants brought out a gleaming
harp from the music room. Only the slightest scraping could be heard because the
servants were barefoot. As Aida directed them to place the instrument near the seats
we occupied, my heart leaped to my throat. Soon she was lost among the guests, and
we played "The Dance of the Glowworms." I kept my eyes closed and held for as long
as I could her radiant figure before me. 33Alicia played on the harp and then, in answer
to the deafening applause, she offered an encore. Josefina sang afterward. Her voice,
though a little husky, fetched enormous sighs. For her encore, she gave "The Last
Rose of Summer"; and the song brought back snatches of the years gone by.
Memories of solfeggio lessons eddied about us, as if there were rustling leaves
scattered all over the hall. Don Esteban appeared. Earlier, he had greeted the crowd
handsomely, twisting his mustache to hide a natural shyness before talkative women.
He stayed long enough to listen to the harp again, whispering in his rapture:
"Heavenly. Heavenly . . ."

the household of Don Esteban? Do you think he Was the character-narrator

enjoying the festivity in
wants to be a part of the world of Aida? Was he enjoying the music or the company
of people?
34
By midnight, the merrymaking lagged. We played while the party gathered
around the great table at the end of the sala. My mind traveled across the seas to
the distant cities I had dreamed about. The sisters sailed among the ladies like
two great white liners amid a fleet of tugboats in a bay. Someone had thoughtfully
remembered-and at last Pete Saez signaled to us to put our instruments away.
We walked in single file across the hall, led by one of the barefoot servants.
35
Behind us a couple of hoarse sopranos sang "La Paloma" to the
accompaniment of the harp, but I did not care to find out who they were. The sight of so
much silver and china confused me. There was more food before us than I had ever

Grade 7 English Learning Package 58

imagined. I searched in my mind for the names of the dishes; but my ignorance
appalled me. I wondered what had happened to the boxes of food that the Buenavista
ladies had sent up earlier. In a silver bowl was something, I discovered, that appeared
like whole egg yolks that had been dipped in honey and peppermint. The seven of us in
the orchestra were all of one mind about the feast; and so, confident that I was with
friends, I allowed my covetousness to have its sway and not only stuffed my mouth
with this and that confection but also wrapped up a quantity of those egg-yolk things in
several sheets of napkin paper. None of my companions had thought of doing the
same, and it was with some pride that I slipped the packet under my shirt. There, I
knew, it would not bulge.
36
"Have you eaten?"

Oh, no. What did the character-narrator

just do? Who saw what he did? What do you think will happen?

37
I turned around. It was Aida. My bow tie seemed to tighten around my collar. I
mumbled something, I did not know what.
38
"If you wait a little while till they've gone, I'll wrap up a big package for you," she
added.
39
I brought a handkerchief to my mouth. I might have honored her solicitude
adequately and even relieved myself of any embarrassment; I could not quite
believe that she had seen me, and yet I was sure that she knew what I had done,
and I felt all ardor for her gone from me entirely.
40
I walked away to the nearest door, praying that the damask curtains might hide
me in my shame. The door gave on to the veranda, where once my love had trod on
sunbeams. Outside it was dark, and a faint wind was singing in the harbor.
41
With the napkin balled up in my hand, I flung out my arm to scatter the egg-yolk
things in the dark. I waited for the soft sound of their fall on the garden-shed roof.
Instead, I heard a spatter in the rising night-tide beyond the stone fence. Farther away
glimmered the light from Grandmother's window, calling me home. 42But the party
broke up at one or thereabouts. We walked away with our instruments after the matrons
were done with their interminable good-byes. Then, to the tune of "Joy to the World," we
pulled the Progreso Street shopkeepers out of their beds. The Chinese merchants were
especially generous. When Pete divided our collection under a street lamp, there was
already a little glow of daybreak.
43
He walked with me part of the way home. We stopped at the baker's when I
told him that I wanted to buy with my own money some bread to eat on the way to
Grandmother's house at the edge of the sea wall. He laughed, thinking it strange
that I should be hungry. We found ourselves alone at the counter; and we watched
the bakery assistants at work until our bodies grew warm from the oven across the
door. It was not quite five, and the bread was not yet ready.

What do you think was the character-narrator‘s

feeling at the moment? Was this the ending that you expected? Why? Why not?

Grade 7 English Learning Package 59

 YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. Breaded Contradiction

What are the mixed feelings of the character-narrator in the story? Choose the
oxymoronic expression which will fit the given statement. Write your answer on a
onewhole sheet of paper.

Set A a. act naturally

a. act naturallyb. awfully good
b. awful goodc. terribly pleased

c. terribly pleasedd. even odds

e. alone together
d. even oddse. alone together
_______ 1. Would there anything be more
______________ than a given
chance of a conversation with Aida?
_______ 2. He was ______________ upon knowing that he was invited to the
party.
_______ 3. It was difficult for him to _____________ before the girl he admires;
he was not confident if he would say the right things.
_______ 4. The character was at ___________ on how he would handle the
secret that was shared to him; so, he cautioned himself when Aida
talked with him.
_______ 5. The character-narrator cannot avoid thinking of a moment with
Aida—to be ________________ would be a dream come true.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 60

 Set B
a. loving hate
b. old news
c. deafening silence
d. real phony
e. miserable abundance

_______ 1. After the humiliating experience that the character-narrator

experienced, it is most certain that a ______________ atmosphere
with Aida would happen unless they will move on to maturity. _______ 2. The
character-narrator cannot decide what to pick from the buffet table –
with all the _________________of all the dishes he never imagined
before.
_______ 3. He thought himself as a ____________ with all his show of skills and
goodness, yet beneath it were unimaginable ways of fulfilling his
desire.
_______ 4. The beauty of the ladies in the house of Don Esteban was
____________ which goes with their display of charm and talent.
_______ 5. The walk home was a _________________ with his thoughts just
frozen, his lips closed, by the road--no one moved, nothing
unheard, all these stillness from the time Aida caught him in-the -act
Task 2. Locate, Reflect, Evaluate!

Locate information in the selection to determine whether each statement is true

(T) or false (F).

_____ 1. The character narrator is 14 years old.

_____ 2. The pan de sal bread is the story‘s bread of salt.
_____ 3. The pan de sal in the story is the character-narrator.
_____ 4. The character-narrator‘s liking for Aida is similar to his passion for
playing music.
_____ 5. The character-narrator is ready for an adult life since he is already
earning money with his music.
_____ 6. The character-narrator is a courageous young man.
_____ 7. Aida belongs to an affluent family like the character-narrator.
_____ 8. The character-narrator knows when and how to behave at his best.
_____ 9. The character-narrator shows maturity in most part of the story.
_____ 10. The character-narrator, like the pan de sal—well-cooked, that he is
buying in the end of the story, is already ripe and mature.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 61

Task 3. The Sound of Music
In groups of ten, create a silent-skit of the story, The Bread of Salt. In
accomplishing your presentation, be able to:

1. Choose significant parts in the story which will show the character-narrator‘s
strengths and weaknesses, or successes and failures.
2. Create music and sound which will accompany your presentation.
3. Narration or dialogue is not needed; the presentation is silent-skit.
4. Highlight a part of the presentation with your use of sound and music.
5. Rehearse your presentation.
6. Use props (properties) and costume to establish character and setting; be
resourceful.
7. Entertain questions of your classmate if they would want to clarify anything a
part of your silent-skit.
8. Evaluate the presentation of your group and the presentation of other
groups. Rate through the scale of: 3, high level of performance; 2, moderate
level of performance; and 1, displays low level of performance.

Score sheet for the silent-skit:

Group Plot choice Costume and Sound and Total

Props Music
1
2
3
4
5

Task 3.Watch Out!

Complete the meaning of the sentence by attaching a situation to the underlined

verb complement.

1. The character-narrator stopped to listen _____________________________.

2. The character narrator finally stopped playing _______________________.

3. The band wanted to render ______________________________________.

4. The band never wanted attending _________________________________.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 62

 Was there any difference in meaning when the verb complement uses the
infinitive, to + verb, form and when the verb complement is in the –ing form?

CHECK THIS OUT!

The verb complement form used depends on the meaning, which is not the same
in each case.

1. The character-narrator stopped to listen wholeheartedly to Aida‘s music.

2. The character-narrator stopped playing the violin.

In the first example, the infinitive from verb complement expresses the reason
for the action, while the –ing form verb complement refers to what stopped.

Task 4. Tune in the Verb Complement

Complete the sentences by filling in the verb complement of your choice. You
may refer to the details of the story and derive ideas from implied meanings in
the story, The Bread of Salt.
a. to go
1. The character-narrator remembered b. going ________________.

a. playing
2. The band just went on b. to play ________________.

3. Aida tried a. b. reaching outto reach out

___________________.

4. After Aida saw what the character-narrator just did, she really can‘t

help a. to b. sayinsayg _______________.

a. to
attend
b. attend
ing ___________________.
5. The character-narrator regret

Task 5. Food Trip!

Grade 7 English Learning Package 63

 Was it Leche Flan that made the character-narrator commit such embarrassing
deed before Aida? Who would resist a leche flan?

In groups of five, create a food travelogue poster. Select a specific town or city
from a particular region which would befit the setting described by the narrator. After
selecting the place in the country, your group should research about its culture and food
delicacy.

In creating a food travelogue, do not forget to:

1. Research about the place;

2. Choose the best scenery of potential interest;

3. Highlight the food and the culture that goes with

their delicacy;

4. If possible, find the places where the

ingredients of the food or delicacy can be found;

5. Provide pictures or drawing of the food together with the images of the
place; and,

6. Include elements from the story discussed.

Task 6. Party at Don Esteban’s

Why not feast over the travelogues of the class?

1. Put up the food posters on the wall and place your travelogue brochures on a
desk.
2. Bring some music to your class and get ready with the tour around the room.
3. Prepare two colors of paper strips, blue and red.
4. Give the blue strip to the group which you think has the most wonderful
destination travelogue.
5. Give the red strip to the group with the most attractive food travelogue.

YOUR FINAL TASK

Grade 7 English Learning Package 64

A Recipe for Chances

If you would be preparing for a writing task which would need supporting
materials from the library, would you know where to start? The very first step that you
should take is to narrow your topic. Start by writing your broad topic in the box. Then
follow the directions in the subsequent boxes. For help, refer to the examples along the
left.
Example: Your Topic:

Pursuing an ambition

Now enumerate 3 different areas which may

be factors or elements in the process.
Now enumerate 3 different areas which may be
facto rs or elements in the process.

Money Support
Skills Choose one of the above factors to consider
and list three ways that this area may appear
Group troublesome and/or helpful.

Choose one of the above factors to consider

and list three ways that this area may appear
troublesome and/or helpful.

The people in the profession may give

testimonial on how to get there.
Choose one from the 3 detailed topics above
then write a statement:
The coun selors in school present choices
for career. ____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
provide a review on their ____________________________________
The companies demand. high or low ____________________________________

Choose one from the 3 detailed topics above then write a statement:

The capacity of the r ight people to talk to in school enables the young men and
women to choose the right career.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 65

Lesson 6

Coping with Challenges

YOUR GOALS

This lesson helps you realize that our lives and our world is rocked by
challenges from time to time. We must learn to cope with these challenges, so we can
emerge as stronger and wiser individuals. You must aim to:

1. Make associations with titles and idioms to better understand a given text.
2. Identify and create symbols related to a text
3. Present points of view and opinions concerning the message of a selection in
creative oral means.
4. Formulate assumptions or predictions about the contents of the narrative texts.
5. Give examples of figures of speech that show contrast (irony, oxymoron, and
paradox).
6. Use information in reading texts to infer, to evaluate, and to express critical ideas.
7. Use basic electronic search engine protocols in researching for a given topic
8. Compose a personal letter to a friend, relative, or other people.
9. Formulate tips using meaningful kernel sentences.
10. Respond to ideas, issues, and concerns presented in a reading or viewing
selection in creative forms.

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1. Bottled up

On a half-sheet of paper, determine the meaning of the following idioms that use
the word, bottle. You may use a dictionary.

1. bottled-up emotions
2. bottle something up
3. hit the bottle
4. cork high and bottle deep
5. the genie if out of the bottle

Grade 7 English Learning Package 66

Task 2. Get Bottled?

Form groups. Think of several things that get put in a bottle. Draw these things
inside a bottle. Then, complete a list that presents the reasons for bottling-up the things
that you enumerated.
Task 3. What’s in a Title?

Several ideas are implied by a title. Among other things, a title gives you an idea
about what a text is about. Below is the title of the featured text. Make associations with
it. Give three guesses about what the text could be based on what the title ―The Baby
in the Bottle‖ presents. Write your guesses on a half-sheet of paper.

YOUR TEXT

The Baby in the Bottle by

Benjamin Bautista

The truth was, Mr. Libre felt sorry for his wife. He was very careful to hide it from
her, of course, but day by day, through the years, as he saw her watching the shriveled
half-black baby in the bottle, he felt more and more sorry for her. She would touch the
bottle gently, once in a while, and run her hands fondly over the cold glass; inside, the
stiff, skinless body of a four-inch boy now dead for five years, would bob up and down in
the green alcohol. And then sometimes, slowly, to herself, she would smile.

Mr. Libre‘s wife was a plain woman with high cheekbones and a sad mouth, who was
only twenty-nine years old but whose eyes were no longer young. Mr. Libre himself was
thirty-three but graying hair and some thick corded veins on his hands made him look
older. He was a small man and thin, and long hours of bending over receipts had given
him a stooped posture and made him appear even smaller and thinner.

Very often, whenever he could, Mr. Libre would try to walk to his wife to get her to start
talking too, but it became harder and harder for them to find things to talk about. The
talk always turned to the past and how different it might have been if they‘d had
children. Mr. Libre didn‘t want to talk about those things but his wife did, and gradually,
the pauses stretched longer and made them both uneasy. But he was always patient
with her; even if he was tired or irritable he never showed it in any way. By now he had
learned to put up with many good things.

He was married when he was twenty-two and just out of high school. He had been
alone in the city for four months when he met her. She understood his dialect and they
got along well together. At first he wanted to go on to college but when he thought it over
again, he felt that it wasn‘t fair. That would be asking too much from his wife.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 67

 They moved into a rented room which the owner said was the ground floor of a two-
story building, but it was just a room actually, with thick cardboard walls to divide it into
smaller rooms. They planned to move out after a few years because they thought the
room would be too small for the children to come, and they hoped to have many
children. But five years passed before they had their first child, and when it was only
four months in the womb, it was prematurely born.

It was a boy but it didn‘t even look like a baby. It had eyes and ears and arms and its
skinless body had been formed, but it was only four inches long and looked cold and
raw as though it was just a piece of peeled flesh that never had life at all. Mr. Libre felt it
to the nurses but his wife asked to keep it and take it home with her; he didn‘t know why,
until the doctor told him that his wife knew that she could never have any more children.
After that neither of them talked about it much and they slipped back to the routine of
everyday living. Still he took it on himself to try to make it easier for her through the
days.

One afternoon in the last busy week of January, Mr. Libre was looking over some old
files in the Recorder‘s cubicle when all of a sudden he remembered that on that day the
baby in the bottle was five years and seven months old. He thought no more about it but
kept it in the back of his mind to tell his wife that night; she wanted to hear him talk
about the baby. He went on checking the old files but when he was almost finished, his
eyes hurt again and he had to go back to his desk.

Mr. Libre was a clerk in the freight department of an import-export corporation and all
day he had to sit behind a high desk and sort out receipts and record them. At was not a
hard job but it kept him constantly busy because there were so many receipts and he
was so very careful about his work, he seldom found time to leave his desk from eight-
thirty to five o‘clock every day.

He had been with the firm for nine years now and he knew his work well but still did not
find it easy. It demanded so much concentration from him and there were days when it
all seemed to be painfully hard but it only made him try even harder. May times he
would have to focus his eyes on the pink, yellow and blue receipts and make an explicit
act of the will to follow the items on them. Usually he would have to strain his eyes
excessively so that often the muscles behind his eye sockets tightened and he would
feel a smarting throb in his eyes. He would stop work at once and close his eyes as
tightly as he could. The he would force a smile until his jaw hurt because, although that
didn‘t ease the pain any, it always held back the tears. Tears always embarrasses him.
They made him feel helpless.

He did not rest his eyes long because there were many late receipts that he had to go
through and he went back to work on them. But after a few minutes he grew restless
with the papers and he wanted to go over to the window and get a breath of air. But the
window was across the room and the assistant manager was talking to a typist only two
or three feet away. He tried to sit still on his high chair. He shut his eyes and took a deep

Grade 7 English Learning Package 68

breath and continued to line up the figures on the record sheet but his fingers shook and
the pencil point broke under his hand. He grew annoyed with himself for being upset
over a little thing like that. He was sure his wife was not having an easy day either.

Concentration always came hard to Mr. Libre because sometimes in the middle of the
day he would find it impossible to keep his thoughts off the many unrelated little things
that came into his mind. He would catch himself thinking of his wife eating lunch alone
every day or the cardboard walls of their room that seemed to close in on them or
perhaps the dead baby submerged in its bottle of green alcohol. He thought of his wife a
lot but many times he thought of the baby, too.
II

During the first few months and on to the end of that first year, the bottle had seemed
too small for the baby. It looked as though it needed a glass jar with a lid instead of that
bottle with a wide mouth; it floated limply on the surface and slumped against the glass
sides. But after a while the alcohol seeped through it and hardened it, and it sank stiffly
to the bottom. Then little by little it blackened and shriveled up and it would neither float
nor sink but bobbed up and down in its green world of alcohol and glass. And then the
bottle didn‘t seem too small for the baby any more because now the baby‘s shrunken
body was completely confined. The bottle fully contained it.

Mr. Libre fully noticed too that his wife had changed. In the beginning she was no
different at all, although at times she did not fall into brooding. Then slowly for no
apparent reason she grew quiet and kept to herself, and that was when the baby in the
bottle took a strange hold on her. He tried to understand her and be patient with her.
She did not want to be the way she was, he told himself, to live in a small cramped
world of her own, to look at the baby, make up daydreams about it all day, to want to
touch it, hold it in her hands. She could not help any of it, he knew, and he did not stop
her, and day by day he got used to her being that way. But still he felt sorry for her.

III

The blinds on the west window had been lowered and he knew it was getting late. He
shook himself from his thoughts and worked faster because he wanted to finish the last
batch of receipts for the day. It would hardly make any difference because he would be
back the next day anyhow and there would always be more receipts, but there were
things one should do and finishing the day‘s work was one of them. He took everything
as it came and he found it possible to lose himself in his work. He wished he could do
even more and he felt he owed that much to his wife.

It was almost five-twenty when Mr. Libre got up, locked his papers under his desk and
shuffled out of the office. Almost everyone had gone by then except some of the typists
and a secretary doing overtime. He did not look at them as he went out. He left quietly
and alone.

Out in the street he hoped the crowd would not hold him up for long. Heavy traffic
snarled the afternoon rush and cars and buses and people on the sidewalks hardly

Grade 7 English Learning Package 69

moved at all. On the pedestrian lanes as he waited for the go signal, it became stickily
hot; no wind stirred the inert air, thick with gasoline exhaust fumes. But Mr. Libre did not
mind the heat. As he crossed the street he clenched and unclenched his fists and he
tried to walk as fast as the crowd would let him. He was getting impatient. He wished he
were home that very minute.

He pushed the old narrow door of their room open and sat down on the first chair he
saw. He felt very tired btu the chair was hard and rigid and it did not help him any; it
arched his back. His shoulders felt heavy and he was breathing hard but did not rest
long. His wife was in the other room. He stood up and stretched behind the cardboard
wall.

His wife sat on a cat staring at the baby in the bottle. She sat in half darkness a few feet
away from the table where the bottle was. From where he stood he could see sharply
the hollows of her eyes and thin bloodless lips. Her face was totally without expression.
Hew hands were on her lap and she sat unmoving but when he came in and she saw
him, she turned slowly to him and her face broke out in a clumsy uncertain smile. It was
a slow half-silly smile that twisted the corners of her mouth upwards and nothing else;
her eyes remained sad and empty. He has never seen her that way before. He was
afraid she did not recognize him.

He could not look at her directly. For a moment he felt it was cruel to watch her. Instead
he turned to the baby in the bottle. The tiny half-black thing was drifting and circling as
always in the green alcohol. But now he saw that the bottle and the alcohol and the
long years had gnawed it and little by little the baby was shredding and peeling off its
flesh. The bottle and the alcohol and the long years had choked and shrunk it and now
were eating it up. All the time, through the years, as the baby bobbed up and down in its
own cramped world, it was slowly being destroyed. And no one could do anything about
it.

Mr. Libre felt helplessly hollow inside; he turned his head and shut his eyes tightly. He
forced a smile until his jaw hurt because although he felt no pain in his eyes now, he
wanted to make sure he could hold back the tears.

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. Creating Symbols

Form groups. Determine what the baby and the bottle symbolize in the text.
Illustrate a semantic map for your output. Use appropriate drawings to enhance the
meaning of your work.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 70

Task 2. Explaining Divisions

Form groups. Reread the story and determine the bases for the division of the story into
three parts. What does each part present? Why is the sequence of the parts done in this
way. Brainstorm on these questions and present your answers creatively to the class.

Task 3. Giving Assumptions and Predictions (Part 1)

Clarify the meaning of the words, prediction and assumption. Reread the text. What
assumptions and predictions can be made about the couple? Give at least three of
each. What lines in the text help in making the assumptions and predictions you have?
Present your answers in a table similar to the one below. Copy this table on a sheet of
paper. Be ready to present your output to the class.

Assumptions Supporting Lines Predictions Supporting

Lines
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

Task 4. Analyzing Emotions

Form groups. Answer the questions below. Then, copy the table below on a sheet of
paper. Put your answers to the questions to the corresponding table columns. Think of
appropriate headings for the columns. Review your table entries, then present a
generalization about the smiles and cries of Mr. and Mrs. Libre. Present this
generalization on the topmost row of the table.

1. What are the instances when Mr. Libre or Mrs. Libre smiled? (Column 1)
2. What are the instances when Mr. Libre or Mrs. Libre cried? (Column 2)
3. What are the reasons behind the smiling or crying of the couple? (Column 3)

Generalization:
Reasons Reasons
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

Task 5. Reading Emotions

Form a group. Identify all the emotions that Mr. and Mrs. Libre felt during the significant
events of the story. For each of them, create a diagram that shows the progression of

Grade 7 English Learning Package 71

their emotions as the story unfolds. Present different levels or degrees of an emotion
when necessary (e.g. unhappy, miserable, heartbroken, etc.). You may consult a
dictionary or thesaurus. Be creative in your output.

Task 5. Weighing Consequences

Form a group. Argue on whether the couple should have kept or left the baby in the
bottle. Consider common practices related to this as you decide on a stand (e.g.
keeping urn of cremated ashes in houses, keeping mementoes like lock of hair or a
piece of clothing, keeping petrified remains of pets or other animals, etc.). Explore the
consequences of your stand. Present this to the class and present the points that
support your stand.

Task 6. Predicting Population Trends (Homework)

Study the handout of search protocols that your teacher will give you. Be guided
by this as you research on the following: population rate and fertility rate of the
Philippines and three other Asian countries in the last five years. Review your data and
derive implications from them. Be ready to share your data and list of implications with
the class.

Task 7. Analyzing Situations

The featured reading text presents several situations that could represent the concepts
below. Study the provided descriptions and participate in a discussion led by the
teacher.

A paradox is basically a sentence that presents a situation that defies logic or the
usual way things are expected to be. Despite this, the idea presented remains true. An
example is : One has to die in order to live.

An irony is said to be present when the presented meaning of a message is

different from the one that is truly intended (verbal irony). This is also associated with
sarcasm or mockery (e.g. Saying ―I‘m so happy‖ when one is truly sad.). Irony is also
observed in the theatre (dramatic or literary irony) when ―the audience knows more
about the situation than the characters‖ 1 and this ignorance causes several conflicts.
Situational irony is manifested when one does something for a specific reason but is met
with a result that contradicts his intention (e.g. Exercising strenuously to be healthy but
ending up ill because of exhaustion.)

1 Differencebetween.net

Grade 7 English Learning Package 72

 An oxymoron is a phrase or a two-word description where the two words contrast
with each other (e.g. deafening silence, sweet sorrow, etc.). An oxymoron can be
considered as a paradox reduced to two words.

Review the story and your output for Task 6 (Predicting Population Trends) and give 1-2
instances that present a paradox and 1-2 cases of irony. Then, create or cite an
oxymoron that can describe any of the instances you gave. Write your answers on a
sheet of paper.

Task 8. Giving Assumptions and Predictions (Part 2)

Recall what you did for Task 3. You will do the same for this activity using a different
text. Listen carefully as the teacher reads a text twice. List down assumptions and
predictions for the first listening segment. Pay attention to supporting details for your
assumptions and predictions during the second listening segment. Present your
answers using the table on the next page. Copy this on a sheet of paper.

Assumptions Supporting Lines Predictions Supporting

Lines
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

Task 9. Identifying Kernels

Get a dictionary and look up the meaning of the word, kernel. Listen as your
teacher discuss the nature of kernel sentences. Keep in mind the definition below.

A kernel sentence is a simple sentence that presents only one piece of

information. This means that a kernel does not have any unnecessary information. It is
positive or affirmative, that is, it does not contain any negation marker such as the words
no or not. Kernel sentences or kernels are also in the active form. This means that the
subject of such sentences is the doer of the presented action.

Exercise 9.1

Read the text below. Identify whether the numbered sentences are kernels by writing K
(kernel) and NK (not kernel) for every item. Transform those you have marked
‗NK‘ into kernel sentences. Write your answers on a sheet of paper.

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 Supporting Someone Who Is Grieving2

(1) Grief is a natural process that affects people when they experience a loss—of
a relative or friend; human or animal. (2) Grieving people most often need others. (3) If
you are trying to be supportive to someone who is grieving, remember the depth of his
emotions. (4) Grieving people cannot be rushed. (5) You can nevertheless ease another
person‘s pain.

Exercise 9.2

Read the given text. Some sentences here are kernels and some are not. Identify
any five sentences that could be rewritten as kernels. Copy these five sentences on a
sheet of paper and give their corresponding kernel transformations. You could use
context clues in giving kernel equivalents.

Tips for Helping Someone Who Is Grieving3

Mention the person who has died, and acknowledge your awareness of the loss.
Continue to do this as time goes on, not just right after the death. Many people avoid
mentioning the person who has died, fearing it will remind the grieving person of his or
her pain. Often, people avoid the topic because they feel uncomfortable or helpless, but
behaving as if you don‘t remember or are unaware of your loved one‘s pain often leaves
him or her feeling very alone.

Listen to your loved one. A grieving person may need to tell his or her story again
and again as part of the grieving process. The most important thing you can offer
someone who is grieving is your ability to listen without judgment.

Remember that grieving is a long process. The person you care about may be
grieving for a long time. Several months or more after the death, he or she may actually
be feeling the loss more acutely, and much of his or her support system will have
backed off. This is when your loved one may need your support the most. Birthdays,
holidays, and other events may also evoke strong feelings for your grieving loved one.

Exercise 9.3

Form a group. Review the materials you have about coping with loss. Come up
with a 5-7-item list that addresses one of the topics below. Keep your tips clear and
simple by using kernels. Give a 2-3-sentence explanation for every tip. Keep these
simple too.

Teener‘s Guide to :
Coping with heartbreaks

2 A LifeCare® Guide to Helping Others Cope With Grief

3 A LifeCare® Guide to Helping Others Cope With Grief

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 Coping with the death of a loved one
Coping with depression

Task 10. Letter Writing

Based on the discussion for this lesson, write a letter inspired by any of the situations
below. Your letter can be based on the outputs you have produced for the past tasks.
Write your letter on a sheet of paper.

 Describe the current population of the world or the Philippines to someone in the
future or the past. Focus on one point only.

 Write to a friend or relative whose family size is very different from yours. Ask all
your questions about the dynamics they have at home.

 Write a letter to Mr. Libre or Mrs. Libre. What would you want to tell him or her?

Task 11. How to Deal

What have you learned from the topics presented in this lesson? Copy the statement
below in your notebooks. Complete this statement in relation to what you have learned
about 1) the experience of Mr. and Mrs. Libre, 2) dealing with a loss, and 3) controlling
populations. Give at least one completed statement for each topic.

I realized that ___________ because ______________, so I will _____________ the

next time ___________.

YOUR FINAL TASK

Ways of Dealing

Prepare for a choral reading of your output in Exercise 10.3. Choose appropriate
background music to blend with the reading. Add appropriate introduction and
conclusion to your presentation.

Rubrics:

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 30 - content
20 - use of kernel sentences
20 – appropriate use of language
20 - references or application of info taken from texts discussed (use of symbols,
use of Figures of speech, etc)
10 - creative delivery of reading
100

Lesson 7

Recognizing Beauty

YOUR GOALS

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 Our land and culture is beautiful and we are the first ones who should
recognize this. The Philippines has been known to mesmerize foreigners with the
enthralling beauty of places that some of us do not even notice. This acquaints you with
another aspect that adds to the beauty of our land and culture. For this lesson, you must
aim to:

1. Use predictive and anticipatory devices/tasks to activate prior knowledge about

the topic of reading/viewing selection.
2. Use information presented in a creation story to infer, to evaluate, and to express
critical ideas.
3. Identify figures of speech that show emphasis (hyperbole and litotes).
4. Formulate meaningful embedded sentences.
5. Infer appropriate responses to listening guide questions.
6. Distinguish between credible and incredible electronic information sources.
7. Present points of view and opinions concerning the message of a selection in
creative oral means.
8. Compose and upload a blog entry based on a particular personal topic of
interest.

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1. Defining ‘Beauty’

Reflect on what makes something or someone beautiful. What makes a place

beautiful? Complete the statements below to clarify your beliefs about this idea. Write
your answer on a sheet of paper.

For me, beauty is ______________________________________. It is present

when __________________________________. It is not
______________________________________. It‘s always
__________________________. Examples of beauty are
______________________.

Task 2. Meet Your Match

Collocates are words that go together. The items of the pair are bound to each
their because of association of ideas. A classic example of a pair is black and white.
Supply the missing item to complete the collocate pairs below. Write your answers on a
sheet of paper.

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 __________ and butter
rhythm and
__________ beauty and
__________

Task 3. Look it up!

Search for the meaning of the following words in a dictionary. Write the definitions and
construct sentences that use these words. Let your sentences be about beauty. You
may use ideas you have generated from previous activities. Write your answers in your
notebooks.

1. serene 6. pave
2. ethereal 7. behest
3. effulgent 8. din
4. crestling 9. Olympia
5. lambent 10. presage

YOUR TEXT Moonlight on Manila Bay

by Fernando M. Maramag (1912)

1 A light, serene, ethereal glory rests

2 Its beams effulgent on each crestling wave;
3 The silver touches of the moonlight wave
4 The deep bare bosom that the breeze molests;
5 While lingering whispers deepen as the wavy crests
6 Roll with weird rhythm, now gay, now gently grave; 7
And floods of lambent light appear the sea to
pave-
8 All cast a spell that heeds not time‘s behests.
9 Not always such the scene; the din of fight
10 Has swelled the murmur of the peaceful air;
11 Here East and West have oft displayed their might;
12 Dark battle clouds have dimmed this scene so fair; 13
Here bold Olympia, one historic night,
14 Presaging freedom, claimed a people‘s care.

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

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Task 1. Promote Manila Bay

Study the lines below. Identify what makes them interesting.

Visit the land of a thousand smiles!

Witness a moonlight memory for a lifetime.
This is NOT your usual walk in the bay.
Manila Bay is not the typical moonlight experience.

The lines present examples of hyperbole and litotes. A hyperbole is an

exaggeration, while a litotes presents an understatement by using the negative marker
not. Litotes emphasize an idea through negation. Which among the examples above are
hyperboles and litotes? Do the tasks below. Present your output on a sheet of paper.

1. Research on the beauty of Manila Bay by looking at travel guides and other
sources. Identify 3-5 places in Manila which possess both beauty and history.
You may also use credible Internet sources. Take note of any suspicious,
incredible sites.
2. Formulate three catchy and interesting lines that promote the beauty of
Manila Bay. Each line should use a different hyperbole.
3. Formulate two lines of litotes that will encourage tourists to visit Manila Bay.

Task 2. Identifying Embedded Clauses

An embedded clause, as the term suggests, is a clause that is fixed within a larger
clause or sentence which is called the matrix clause . The embedded clause is usually
found in the beginning or at the end of sentences. Markers commonly accompany or
introduce embedded clauses. These markers may be that, when, who, where, etc.
However, there are instances when a marker does not precede an embedded clause.
Such is the case with gerunds (e.g. swimming, eating, etc.).

An embedded clause does not have its own meaning, so it has to be attached to
the matrix clause to present a complete meaning. Do you still remember the discussion
about kernels? Basically, an embedded clause presents a piece of information that is
beyond the idea that a kernel presents. Remember that a kernel presents one idea at a
time only.

Manila Bay presents a magnificent sunset experience that will last a lifetime.
The place is often crowded in the early morning and late afternoon when people
try to get a glimpse of its world-famous sunrise and sunset.
Photographers take pictures of people sitting or walking along the bay area.

I n the examples above, which is the matrix clause? The embedded clause?

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Where is the embedded clause found? Is it introduced by a marker?

Exercise 2.1

Identify the embedded clause in the following sentences. Write your answers on a half
sheet of paper.

1. Manila Bay is considered the finest harbor in the far east where the famous "Battle of
Manila Bay" was fought.
2. The Bay is also known as a stopover for the Galleon Trade which lasted for 244
years.
3. The first Filipinos were Indo-Malaya migrants who established their first settlements
along the bay and a nearby river (now the Pasig River).
4. They named the place ―Maynila‖ or ―may nila‖ which means ―there is nila here‖
5. Nila is a water plant that thrived in the area.

Exercise 2.2

Identify five embedded clauses in the text4 below. Write these on a sheet of paper.

The long stretch of national highway, from the US Embassy to a portion just
before the Coastal Road to Cavite, offers a panoramic view of Manila Bay. It is most
picturesque in the afternoon when the dying sun emits golden rays and lends golden
tones especially to the towering hotels and office buildings nearby. The renovated bay
wall is now a tourist-class promenade known as Bay Walk Area where stylish benches
are propped up for frolicking and where people roam around for fresh air or jog in early
mornings. Being now a popular sightseeing destination, it is among the top 5 tourist
spots in Manila-Philippines.

Exercise 2.3

4 Philippines Board

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 Read the text below and note some information about Manila Bay. Use these
pieces of information in formulating five sentences with embedded clauses. Write your
sentences on a sheet of paper.

Why Manila Bay is a Tourist Attraction5

It is considered one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia. With a total
coastline of 190 km, the bay extends from the province of Bataan to the north and the
province of Cavite to the south. Scattered along the shores of Bataan and Cavite are a
number of beaches, resorts, foliages and volcanoes.

The most popular segment of the bay is that part in Manila where Fort Santiago,
the old Spanish fort, still stands. Along the bay is a row of important and historic tourist
destinations and commercial areas, which include the walled-city of Intramuros, the
Cultural Center of the Philippines, Star City, Coconut Palace, the United States
Embassy, Manila Yacht Club, the Philippine Senate, and Manila Ocean Park.

Recently, a promenade was constructed along the bay beside Roxas Boulevard.
Every day, hundreds of tourists and metro Manila residents come here to jog, stroll
around, bike, skate, listen to music from live acoustic bands, sample the foods from a
row of restaurants and snack areas, or simply watch the breathtaking Manila Bay
sunset.

Along this 2-km walk are coconut trees, foliage, and park benches. Just a decade
ago, this part of the bay was unlighted, unpaved, and was a popular hangout spot for
thieves, substance-users and pimps. Today, it is well-lighted with a row of huge
kaleidoscopic lamp posts. At nights, it is never without sightseers and lovers taking a
romantic stroll. Another relatively new attraction along the bay is the SM Mall of Asia
(MOA). Further south of Roxas Boulevard and near the coastal road to Cavite stands
the third-largest mall in the world. On its Open Concert Grounds along the bay, MOA
had hosts a number of international events, which include international fireworks
competitions and concerts by Alicia Keys, David Archuleta and Justin Bieber.

Task 3. Listen up

Listen as your teacher reads a historical background of Manila Bay. Take down
helpful notes to help you confirm the discussion of the following statements in the read
text.

Put a check mark () for an information that is presented by the text, and put a
cross mark () for an information that is not discussed. Review your answers after the
second reading of the text.

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5
2012 Manila Hotels
The different kinds of settlers in Manila
1. The origin of the name, Manila
2. The cause of the Battle of Manila Bay
3. The different kinds of merchants
4. Different products offered by the Galleon Trade
5. The reasons for establishing Intramuros
6. The reasons for choosing Manila as the seat of power
7. A description of Fort Santiago
8. The year when the Battle of Manila Bay took place
9. The armies involved in the Battle of Manila Bay

Note down information that will answer the following guide questions:
1. How did Manila get its name? What does it mean?
2. What was the role of Manila Bay in the Galleon Trade?
3. What is the history behind Manila Bay?

Task 4. Hurrah for Manila Bay!

You have been learning much about Manila Bay, and you have been writing
several creative descriptions about it too. Form a group and use the descriptions you
have in composing a ‗hurrah chant‘ that will promote Manila Bay. Play with repetitions,
rhymes, and spell-outs (e.g. Give me an M-A-N-I-L-A, go Manila!). Your chant must have
at least 2 stanzas with 4-7 lines each. Practice reciting this chant with the appropriate
energy and gestures. You can identify lines that could be chanted as a group or by
selected individuals in the group. Be ready to present your work to the class.

Task 5. Beauty + History

Recall insights you have gained in the past discussions. Create a venn diagram that will
present your ideas about the three topics. Consider carefully the overlap that between
or among the circles in your diagram. Write your insights about beauty, history, and
Manila Bay in the circles that represent them. (The model below is just an example.)
Participate in a discussion led by your teacher.

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 YOUR FINAL TASK

Blog for Manila

Bring out your research for the home work you did for Discovery Task #1. Choose
one from your list of places that possess both history and beauty. Write a 3paragraph
blog entry that features the following about the place that you have chosen:

- Vivid description of the place

- Clear instructions/descriptions of its location
- short historical background
- activities to do in the place
- Attractions in the place

Use embedded sentences and figures of speech in describing the place.

Underline them. Remember that your objective is to inform tourists about the beauty and
history of the place. Your composition should invite people to visit and enjoy the beauty
of the place. Finally, upload your blog entry. Follow the instructions to be given by your
teacher.

Rubrics:

30 Used informative and interesting content that addressed requirements

(use of embedded sentences)
30Displayed stylistic and persuasive writing (use of figure of hyperbole
and litotes)
20 Coherence and grammar
20 Creativity in use of photos, layout, etc.
100

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Lesson 8
Those I Love

YOUR GOALS

This lesson shows you that as you continue your journey toward discovering your
identity, it is inevitable that you will end up loving other people. To be a complete human
being, one has to experience love and its many mysteries. In this lesson, you must aim
to:

1. Enumerate the various meanings of love.

2. Use context clues in order to find the meaning of a word.
3. Differentiate between figurative and academic language.
4. Explain figurative lines in your own words.
5. Describe the many contradictions of love.
6. Predict the subsequent events in a narrative.
7. Write coherent and cohesive sentences and paragraphs.
8. Express your opinion on why there are too many definitions of love.
9. Assign symbols to the people whom you love.

YOUR INITIALTASKS

Task 1. What Love Is

On a one-half sheet of paper crosswise, write down five definitions of love. They may
be proverbs that you heard, or they may be your own words. Be prepared to share your
definitions with the rest of the class.

As you listen to your classmates sharing their own definitions of love, keep track of how
many of their definitions are similar to the ones that you have written down.

Task 2. The Types of Love

Listen to short selection to be provided by your teacher. Complete the grid below:

TYPE OF LOVE DEFINITION

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 1.

2.

3.

YOUR TEXT

Bonsai
by Edith Tiempo

All that I love

I fold over once
And once again
And keep in a box Or a slit in a hollow post
Or in my shoe.

All that I love?

Why, yes, but for the moment --- And for all
time, both.
Something that folds and keeps easy,
Son‘s note or Dad‘s one gaudy tie,
A roto picture of a young queen, A blue
Indian shawl, even A money bill.

It‘s utter sublimation

A feat, this heart‘s control
Moment to moment
To scale all love down
To a cupped hand‘s size,

Till seashells are broken pieces

From God‘s own bright teeth.
And life and love are real
Things you can run and
Breathless hand over To
the merest child.

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. Context Clues

Choose the option that best approximates the underlined word in each sentence.

Grade 7 English Learning Package 85

 1. After being chased by the cat, the mouse finally escaped through a slit in the
wall.
A. large gap B. narrow opening C. wide space
2. When the wind became chilly, the woman pulled the shawl tightly against her
shoulders.
A. garment B. hat C. dress
3. Art‘s depressing short stories were a form of sublimation for his many
frustrations.
A. outrage B. activity C. redirection
4. The woman was told by the doctor to scale down her fat intake as she was
nearing obesity.
A. increase B. decrease C. maintain
5. When the police was sent in to disperse the protesters, what followed was
utter chaos.
A. total B. mutter C. partial

Task 2. Locate, Reflect, Evaluate!

Each number under the first column is a line from the poem. Paraphrase each number
so that it is better understood. The first one has been done for you.

LINES PARAPHRASE
1. All that I love I The persona attempts to reduce the people she
fold over once loves into terms, words, or objects which she can
And once again understand.

2. All that I love? Why,

yes, but for the
moment
And for all time, both.

3. It‘s utter sublimation

A feat, this heart‘s control

4. Moment to moment To
scale all love down
To a cupped hand‘s size

5. Till seashells are broken

pieces
From God‘s own bright
teeth.

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6. And life and love are real
Things you can run and
Breathless hand over To
the merest child.

Task 4. Watch Out!

A. Study each paragraph. Write down the transition words and phrases that will
create cohesive paragraphs. Be careful. Each transition word or phrase must
only appear once.

Paragraph 1:

Afterwards Already Immediately Meanwhile Then

When she was ready When they saw her

On the morning of Gina‘s birthday, she woke up very early. ________, she took a
bath and brushed her teeth. _______, she opened her closet and wore her best
dress. ________, she went down to the kitchen to see if her family was having
breakfast. Her mother was _______ cooking their breakfast. __________, her
father was drinking coffee. Her two brothers were drinking warm milk.
__________, they all looked at her and greeted her ―Happy Birthday.‖ Gina
smiled and hugged them one by one. _________, she went to the presents on
the table and she began opening them.

Paragraph 2:

A few moments later Consequently Immediately

In fact subsequently

When Rebecca reached school, the gate was locked. Due to her rumbling
stomach, she ________ began shouting for the guards to let her in. ________, a
guard showed up at the gate and told her to go home. Rebecca had, ________,
forgotten that today was a Saturday. _________, the canteen was closed and
even going inside the campus would not do her any good. ________, Rebecca
began walking away from the school, her hunger unabated.

B. Circle the letter of the transition word that will best complete each sentence.

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 1. A survey reveals that the new president enjoys massive public support in his
decision to stop the former president from leaving the country. _________,
there are those who are still discomfited by the manner by which the former
president was treated.
A. However B. Still C. For instance D. And

2. The weather patterns in the country have been so far unpredictable.

PAGASA, ______, predicts that December will be a dry Christmas for
everyone.
A. yet B. in addition C. subsequently D. though

3. The two northernmost island groups, ______ Batanes and Babuyan, already
receive Taiwanese radio signals.
A. in particular B. namely C. for example D.
consequently

4. The hospital owner announced that the hospital‘s nurses would now have to
work twelve hours for six days every week. _______, many nurses resigned
in protest.
A. So that B. Yet C. Likewise D. As a result

5. The sales of wooden slippers have dropped to nearly zero in the past two
years. ______, the sales of rubber slippers have reached more than half a
million.
A. Above all B. Additionally C. Correspondingly D. In contrast

6. The Campus Director explained that in light of the new K Plus 12 curriculum,
it would be necessary to retain all incoming freshmen for six years. ______,
the current freshmen will be the last batch to graduate under the old
curriculum.
A. Similarly B. Consequently C. Nevertheless D. In other
words

7. Pundits say that the situation in Maguindanao will improve very slowly.
_______, the problems the rest of Mindanao is experiencing, the outlook is
not that optimistic at all.
A. Furthermore B. With reference to C. In contrast D. In
comparison

8. The government has announced that all cars older than five years will now
be declared road hazards starting 2012. ______, car owners who refuse to
change their cars will be saddled with new car taxes.
A. In addition B. In the same way C. As well as D.
Now

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 9. Individual projects must be handed in by the deadline, ______ they will
receive substantial deductions.
A. obviously B. otherwise C. as a result D. on the other hand

10. ________ people from all around the world revile Justin, he still manages to
rake in a lot of money whenever he holds a concert tour.
A. Nevertheless B. Even though C. Because D. Also

YOUR FINAL TASK

The Persons I Love

Very much like the poem, list three people whom you love. Once you have your list, find
an appropriate object or symbol that best approximates your feelings for that person.
Explain why you chose that symbol. You may go to the library and search out for the
numerous symbols that humans have used to represent those that they love. As much
as possible avoid using the heart as it is a universal symbol.

THE PERSON I LOVE THE SYMBOL FOR THIS THE EXPLANATION FOR
PERSON THE USE OF THE
SYMBOL

Three things I learned while searching for love symbols are:

1. ________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________

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Lesson 9
When I Struggle

YOUR GOALS

You are a unique individual. But this uniqueness can sometimes be the
source of many conflicts. We often clash with other people because of our uniqueness.
This lesson allows you to examine the reasons why we fight. You must aim to:

1. Discover the reasons why our people participated in several upheavals.

2. Recall and explain the instances when you found yourself in a fight.
3. Decipher the meanings of words by looking for their antonyms.
4. Use word clines in order to show the differences between synonyms.
5. Paraphrase a long poem by turning each stanza into a meaningful sentence.
6. Rewrite paragraphs in order to make them more cohesive.
7. Explain how an individual can generate numerous internal conflicts.
8. List down the main conflicts that your are currently undergoing and mapping out
solutions on how to resolve them.

YOUR INITIAL TASKS

Task 1. The Wars We Have Fought

Grade 7 English Learning Package 90

 Fill in the chart below. Your teacher may give this to you as homework. If you use
any other library source, make sure you cite your sources.

Battle/Revolution/War Reasons for Filipino Result

Participation
1. The Battle of Mactan

2. The Revolution of 1896

3. The Filipino-
American War

4. World War II

5. The EDSA Revolution

Task 2. Why We Fight

Recall fights you have had with your parents, classmates, friends, or teachers.
Complete the spider map below by listing down the reasons for those fights. Be
prepared to share your answers with your classmates.

Reasons
Why You
Fought

Grade 7 English Learning Package 91

 YOUR TEXT

If You Want to Know What We Are

by Carlos Bulosan

I
1 If you want to know what we are who inhabit forest,
mountain, rivershore, who harness beast, living
steel, martial music (that classless language of the
heart), who celebrate labour, wisdom of the mind,
peace of the blood;

2 If you want to know what we are who become

animate at the rain‘s metallic ring, the stone‘s
accumulated strength, who tremble in the wind‘s
blossoming (that enervates earth‘s potentialities),
who stir just as flowers unfold to the sun;

3 If you want to know what we are who grow powerful

and deathless in countless counterparts, each part
pregnant with hope, each hope supreme, each
supremacy classless, each classlessness
nourished by unlimited splendor of comradeship;

4 We are multitudes the world over, millions

everywhere; in violent factories, sordid tenements,
crowded cities; in skies and seas and rivers, in
lands everywhere; our number increase as the
wide world revolves and increases arrogance,
hunger disease and death.

5 We are the men and women reading books,

searching
in the pages of history for the lost word, the key to the
mystery of living peace, imperishable joy; we are
factory hands field hands mill hand everywhere,
molding creating building structures, forging ahead,

6 Reaching for the future, nourished in the heart; we

are doctors scientists chemists discovering,
eliminating disease and hunger and antagonisms;
we are soldiers navy-men citizens guarding
the imperishable will of man to live in grandeur,

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7 We are the living dream of dead men everywhere,
the unquenchable truth that class-memories create
to stagger the infamous world with prophecies of
unlimited happiness - a deathless humanity; we are
the living and the dead men everywhere….

II
8 If you want to know what we are, observe the bloody
club smashing heads, the bayonet penetrating
hallowed breasts, giving no mercy; watch the bullet
crashing upon armorless citizens; look at the tear-gas
choking the weakened lung.

9 If you want to know what we are, see the lynch trees

blossoming, the hysterical mob rioting; remember the
prisoner beaten by detectives to confess a crime he
did not commit because he was honest,
and who stood alone before a rabid jury of ten men,

10 And who was sentenced to hang by a judge whose

bourgeois arrogance betrayed the office he claimed
his own; name the marked man, the violator of
secrets; observe the banker,
the gangster, the mobsters who kill and go free;

11 We are the sufferers who suffer for natural love of

man for man, who commemorate the humanities of
every man; we are the toilers who toil to make the
starved earth a place of abundance who transform
abundance into deathless fragrance.

12 We are the desires of anonymous men everywhere,

who impregnate the wide earth‘s lustrous wealth with
a gleaming fluorescence; we are the new thoughts
and the new foundations, the new verdure of the
mind; we are the new hope new joy life everywhere.

13 We are the vision and the star, the quietus of pain;

we are the terminals of inquisition, the hiatuses of a
new crusade; we are the subterranean subways
of suffering; we are the will of dignities; we are
the living testament of a flowering race.

If you want to know what we are –

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 WE ARE THE REVOLUTION!

YOUR DISCOVERY TASKS

Task 1. Opposites Attract

Encircle the letter of the option that is most opposite to the underlined word in the
sentence.

1. The corrupt governor accumulated a lot of luxury cars during his stay in office.
A. collected B. dispersed C. coagulated

2. The constant air bombardment of the capital was the military‘s way of enervating
the opposition.
A. strengthening B. weakening C. coddling

3. The comradeship that develops between soldiers is one that extends beyond the
battlefield.
A. hostility B. romance C. amity

4. Leona‘s face showed her disgust as she entered the sordid sausage factory.
A. squalid B. pleasant C. depressing

5. Carlo went down on his knees and declared his imperishable love to Carlita.
A. sectional B. immortal C. temporal

6. The day after the fire, the police released Lee‘s picture to the public. Lee, who
was wanted for arson, was now considered infamous.
A. notorious B. famous C. unknown

7. The children descended into hysterical laughter when the clown began to
perform his tricks.
A. feverish B. composed C. unrelenting

8. Angela‘s lustrous hair was the reason for her newfound celebrity.
A. dull B. gleaming C. limp

Task 2. Using Clines

Arrange the following words based on the degrees of their meanings.

SET A: war, conflict, argument, battle, skirmish, hostilities

SET B: revolt, revolution, insurrection, mutiny, rebellion, uprising
SET C: heroism, martyrdom, patriotism, nationalism

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Task 3. Locate, Reflect, Evaluate!

This activity is a continuation of the paraphrasing lessons you had in the previous
lesson. This time, you must paraphrase a longer piece. Complete the table below by
paraphrasing each stanza of the poem. Use only a single sentence for each stanza.
Work with a partner for this task. The first stanza has been done for you.

STANZA PARAPHRASE
1 The persona seems to be telling the listener that to know what we are, one
must look at the men and women who come from the rural areas of the
country as they best represent our roots.
2

10

11

12

13

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Task 4. Watch Out!

Study the paragraphs below. On a one-half sheet of paper crosswise, rewrite

each paragraph in order to make it more cohesive.

A. Forty kilometers south of Peshawar, deep inside Pakistan‘s tribal belt, lies
the village of Darra Adam Khel. It‘s an area few foreigners will ever visit.
They are surreptitiously waging the U.S.-led war on terror or trying to
elude it. Anyone else who manages to pass through the roadblocks to
enter Darra, it‘s the perfect place to release pent-up stress. The village
has one industry of note: ordnance. Darra is the arms factory of the tribal
areas. It pumps out everything from pistols to anti-aircraft weaponry.
Wander into any of the mom-and-pop workshops. Choose your weapon.
Haggle over the price of bullets or shells. Troll out with your equipment into
the bush. Being rather nice to look at, the surrounding rocks and trees
make for excellent target practice. You‘ve finished debarking a tree with an
AK-47. You can head back to civilization a better, calmer person for this
cathartic experience. Think of it as a harmless outlet for the warrior that
lurks within you.
(Adapted from Discharging
FirearmsDarra Adam Khel, Pakistan by
Jaimie Miyazaki from Time Magazine:
The Best of Asia, July 4, 2005)

B. After five hours of uphill struggle on the second day of the classic
Himalayan trek from Paro, site of Bhutan‘s international airport, to
Thimphu, the country‘s capital, your muscles will burn. The blood will
pound in your ears. Your breathing will approximate that of someone with
advanced emphysema. When your guide urges you on, trust him. It is at
about this stage that you reach the 3,810-m-high ridge above Lake
Jimilangtso. The setting sun bathes the mountains in an unearthly rose,
and Venus is visible against a violet sky. The sheer beauty of it strikes you
dumb. On the other side of the pass, on the banks of the lake, a bonfire
flickers as porters set up your camp. Within the hour, you will be wrapping
your hands around a steaming mug of sweetened Bhutanese rum. You will
be savoring your chef‘s startlingly fine creations. Sauteed chanterelle
mushrooms with tender shoots of fiddlehead ferns gathered en route. Ema
datshi (the national dish of potatoes, chilies and cheese). All you have to
do as night falls is eat your fill. Crawl into your tent (which your porters
have already set up for you). Zip the door shut. The next day may hold
more trekking hell. As your head hits the pillow, there is no doubt in your
mind: to be under the canvas in Bhutan is to discover the meaning of an
exhausted, elated bliss.
(Adapted from Bhutan by Aryn Baker
from Time Magazine: The Best of Asia,

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 July 4, 2005)

YOUR FINAL TASK

The Things I Must Fight For

Just because we have the capability to fight, it doesn‘t mean that we should go around
looking for trouble. There are always things worth fighting for. They are called causes.
Try interviewing people, asking them which three things are worth the good fight. Once
you have enough, list down the top five causes. Provide an explanation for why you
need to fight for them.

CAUSES WHY I MUST FIGHT FOR THEM

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