English Treasure Class 6 Macmillan Education
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Singing Grasses and Tarzan Vines
Adventure
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the learner will be able to:
- summarise and recall details from an extract to infer answers
- organise words and expressions to introduce themselves
- Identify the /tʃ/ sound in words
- Infer meanings of words from context and compare them to dictionary meanings
- identify different parts of speech
- apply correct punctuation marks to sentences
- elaborate on given pointers and compose a paragraph
- identify major events of an excerpt and develop a picture story
Starter – communication, collaboration and critical thinking
In groups of four, discuss what a fantasy-adventure story would have.
Look at these pictures. Tick the ones that you think would appear only in a fantasy-adventure story.
- [ ] centaur
- [ ] elephant
- [ ] bookshop
- [ ] train
- [ ] griffin
- [ ] unicorn
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Reading
Read this excerpt from Asha Nehemiah’s story The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula.
Find out what happens when two thieves try to steal the secret hair oil formula from its inventor.
The story so far …
More than a year ago, Malu Paati¹ discovered a secret formula for making hair oil that could make hair grow even on bald heads. She made some changes to the formula and came up with ‘a most wonderful and amazing hair oil’, which Paati named ‘Wondergro Supersonic Hair Tonic’. Now, she is invited to present her formula at the World Herbologists Conference, being held at the Mouna Baba Herbal Research Laboratory in Mounashrampur. However, undertaking a trip to this place is not easy. One has to travel to the Kashmakash River, cross its dark churning waters, travel past the dangerous Vankozhimozhi² Forest on a wild pony before reaching Mounashrampur. What worries Paati is that three people insist on joining her on the trip: Paati’s twelve-year-old granddaughter, Laila; her ten-year-old grandson and Laila’s brother, Vikram or Viks; and her eighteen-year-old, pink-haired assistant, Damodaran or Damu.
Meanwhile, Dr Nandini Kumar, who works at the Mouna Baba Herbal Research Laboratory, employs the thief Khabardar to steal the formula before Paati can present it at the Conference. Khabardar passes off as a ferryman and tries to drown Paati and the children in the middle of the Kashmakash River. He leaves them to fate and runs away in a motorboat with his friend.
This excerpt focuses on the wild adventures Paati, Laila, Viks and Damu have in the Vankozhimozhi Forest. Note that the title ‘Singing Grasses and Tarzan Vines’ refers to the Singing Grasses in the forest which can make a person dizzy with their songs, and the Tarzan Vines which can wrap themselves round one’s waist and swing the person around.
The Vankozhimozhi Forest was full of the most amazing sights. Once Paati and the children had mastered the art of staying on the wild ponies, they were able to admire the colourful mushrooms as large as garden umbrellas, the flowers which looked like translucent balloons and the bushes doubling over with the weight of juicy berries in shades of purple, blue and red.
Staying on the ponies, with their entire luggage strapped on to their backs, was not an easy job. Without reins and saddles, Paati and the children seemed in danger of sliding off with every bumpy step.
‘You are a genius, Paati. Your idea of making a concentrated version of Wondergro Supersonic Hair Tonic to apply to the ponies’ manes was absolutely brilliant!’ Damu wished he had thought of the idea himself. ‘Now that the manes are well oiled, they won’t break at the slightest tug. That would be disastrous, wouldn’t it?’
Vocabulary:
translucent: clear enough to let light pass through, but not transparent
doubling over: bending forwards
concentrated: been made more potent by removing water
Footnotes:
¹ ‘Paati’ means ‘grandmother’ in Tamil.
² pronounced as Vankollimolli
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‘Yes, if you loosen your grip on their manes, just because chunks of it break off in your hands, you could end up flat on your nose in a bed of poison ivy or get thrown up on a tree right next to a hive of Behemoth Bees that could sting you to death. This forest is a dangerous place,’ Paati warned them. ‘I made a concentrated version of Wondergro so that I could carry it in one tiny bottle small enough to be tucked into the purse at my waist. It’s extremely concentrated. That’s why it looks like dark chocolate. I had to use just a few drops on each pony. Look, the bottle is still almost full.’
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‘If you ask me, this concentrated version makes hair grow at a real supersonic speed,’ Viks insisted. ‘I think my pony’s mane is longer already. When we started off, I could barely cling on and now, look—aargh!’ He broke off as his pony suddenly bucked, pawed the air with its front legs, kicked up its hind legs like a donkey and settled down with a thump that made Viks’ teeth rattle.
Vocabulary:
broke off: stopped speaking
bucked: (the pony) kicked its hind legs in the air
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‘Hang on tight, Viks. Don’t worry, children; it’s not much longer to Mounashrampur.’ Paati looked around her. This bit of the forest was familiar to her. ‘After we get through this clump of trees, we come to the most dangerous bit of our journey. We have the Singing Grasses to the right of us and the Porcupine Cacti to the left of us. The Singing Grasses are less dangerous because you can drown their humming by either speaking or singing loudly. I’ve always found it best to recite something that will keep you alert, like the multiplication tables. That way, we won’t … shhh … wait a minute.’ Paati stopped talking and listened. They could hear a low growling sound.
‘I’m quite sure there are no wild animals here. What could that sound be?’
‘Oh my gosh, Paati, look! It’s those two jelly-bellies. Those two tabla-tummies! Those wicked men who tried to sink us! That boatman called Khabardar and the man in the motorboat,’ Laila said.
Paati and the children were peering through the snake-shaped creepers that dropped down from the trees like a curtain across their path.
Yes, it was Khabardar and the man in the motorboat! They lay on the long grass, fast asleep, their mouths wide open as they snored! How had these wicked villains got here, Paati wondered, feeling her eyelids drooping. She yawned, beginning to feel rather drowsy.
Then, she shook herself awake sternly. This sleepiness was just the effect of the dreaded Singing Grasses of the Vankozhimozhi Forest. The two villains had probably made the mistake of riding through the grasses, felt sleepy, and been thrown off their ponies, right into the middle of the Singing Grasses. That’s why they were still fast asleep.
‘Seven ones are seven. Seven twos are fourteen,’ Damu shouted loudly when he realised that Paati was feeling sleepy. ‘Don’t let the Singing Grasses get to you, Paati. Come on, Viks and Laila,’ he urged, ‘start speaking or singing loudly.’
Vocabulary:
growling: making a low, harsh sound
drowsy: sleepy
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Viks, who could never remember his multiplication tables, burst into a horribly tuneless ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ with such unexpected loudness that his pony was startled into shooting off at a fast trot. This distracted Paati in the middle of her ‘eight eights are …’, so she didn’t hear a whooshing sound. She didn’t hear Laila and Damu yell, ‘Watch out, Paati! That looks like a Tarzan Vine.’
Suddenly, she felt herself being clasped around the waist, lifted right off her pony, whizzed through the air and finally released with a soft thud right on to something which felt as springy and spongy as a water bed!
When she scrambled up in a daze, she realised she had been carried by the Tarzan Vine and thrown right on to the sleeping Khabardar.
Khabardar was jolted awake.
‘Aaieeeeek!’ he shrieked, his face turning white in terror. ‘The old woman! I drowned her! She has returned as a ghost to haunt me! Heeelllp!! Gho-o-o-st!’
The man who had been driving the motorboat woke up and joined the yelling.
‘Nine twos are eighteen, nine threes are twenty-seven,’ Paati shouted. The humming was so much louder right in the middle of the grasses that she had to yell at the top of her voice!
‘Eeeek! Help. This ghostly witch is chanting mantras and spells at us. Where’s my bag? I have a gun!’
The word ‘gun’ stirred Paati to action. She fumbled in the silk purse at her waist for the only weapon she had with her. The bottle of concentrated Wondergro Supersonic Hair Tonic! She removed the little cork stopper and flung the thick liquid on to their faces.
‘Yaaargh! Oowooch! Kreeegah!’ The men screamed in surprise. Paati dashed off without stopping to look back at the two men trying to rub the chocolate-coloured liquid off their faces!
The children were waiting for her on the narrow path between the Porcupine Cacti and the Singing Grasses. Laila and Damu were tiredly chanting the multiplication tables as loudly as their parched throats would allow while Viks was still singing ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ in a dull, tuneless manner.
And waiting with the children was a whole new set of problems to be sorted out. There were no ponies in sight. The children had obviously been thrown off by the ponies which had then run away. They now sat crouched on the path, with different bits of clothing wrapped around their heads and arms as protection. Paati felt a scorpion-like sting on her arm as she reached the group.
‘Ouch!’ she winced in pain as she removed the thorn which the Porcupine Cacti had shot into her arm. She wondered
Vocabulary:
distracted: lost focus
clasped: held tightly
whizzed: moved very quickly
scrambled: moved quickly in an ungraceful manner
jolted: started with a sudden rough movement
fumbled: tried finding the bottle using hands, in an ungraceful manner
dashed off: left quickly
parched: dried due to thirst
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how they were going to get through this part of the forest without getting a thorn up their noses, or even worse, through their eyes. How were they going to get to Mounashrampur without the ponies?
Paati refused to walk through the Singing Grasses again.
‘Those villains have a gun,’ she explained. ‘We can’t take the risk of going near them. We’ll just have to go through the Porcupine Cacti somehow.’
Damu’s shoulders were aching. He looked thin and wiry but was, in fact, extremely strong. When he trained at his father’s wrestling gym every morning, he used two fifty-kilo sacks of rice instead of dumbbells. So, he had been given the heaviest bundles to carry. He eased the bag off his shoulders, letting it drop to the ground with a clang that sent the pomegranate-seeder, the ginger-grater and the spinach-oil strainer spinning on to the soft grass.
Paati picked up the spinach-oil strainer. She held it over her face and her smile beamed right through the steel mesh at the children. ‘Who would have thought we’d be carrying masks and helmets with us!’ was her only comment as she started searching the bundle.
‘Hold that over your face like this as we go through the Cacti,’ she said, handing Viks the big strainer. ‘And here’s a strainer for you, Laila. You can use this grater, Damu. I’ll manage with the cane basket over my head.’
And so, swathed in layers of clothing, wearing the pots and baskets over their heads like helmets, holding the strainers over their faces like masks and looking like characters from some Bronze Age action thriller, Paati and the children got safely past the Porcupine Cacti.
—an extract from The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula by Asha Nehemiah
Vocabulary:
wiry: lean and strong
strainer: an object used in the kitchen for separating solids from liquids
swathed: covered in layers of clothing
About The Author
Asha Nehemiah is an author based in Bengaluru. Her books for children include Granny’s Sari, The Rajah’s Moustache, Zigzag and Other Stories, and Sir Lawley’s Ghost and Other Stories.
Reading Comprehension
A. Number these sentences in the correct sequence.
- [ 3 ] Paati was then carried by the Tarzan Vine and thrown right onto the sleeping Khabardar Khan.
- [ 2 ] She later heard a low growling sound and wondered what the sound could be.
- [ 1 ] Paati applied Wondergro Supersonic Hair Tonic to the manes of the ponies.
- [ 5 ] When she came back, the ponies had disappeared.
- [ 4 ] Paati quickly flung the concentrated hair tonic onto the faces of the two men.
B. Answer these questions.
What ‘amazing sights’ did Paati and the children see in the forest? Answer: Once they mastered staying on the ponies, they saw colourful mushrooms as large as garden umbrellas. They also saw flowers that looked like translucent balloons, and bushes bending over heavily with juicy purple, blue, and red berries.
What did Paati’s hair tonic look like? Answer: Paati’s concentrated hair tonic looked like dark chocolate.
How did Paati fight the two villains? Answer: Paati fumbled in her silk purse for her bottle of concentrated Wondergro Supersonic Hair Tonic, removed the stopper, and flung the thick, chocolate-coloured liquid directly onto the villains’ faces.
What did Damu and Laila chant to drown the humming of the Singing Grasses? What did Viks sing? Answer: Damu and Laila loudly chanted their multiplication tables to drown out the humming. Viks, unable to remember his tables, loudly sang a tuneless version of ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’.
Which path did Paati, Laila, Viks and Damu ultimately take? Why did they do so? Answer: They ultimately had to take the path through the Porcupine Cacti. They did this because Paati refused to walk through the Singing Grasses where the villains were, explaining that it was too much of a risk since the men had a gun.
How did they complete their journey safely? Answer: They completed the journey safely by wrapping themselves in layers of clothing and using their kitchen luggage as armor against the cacti thorns. They wore pots and cane baskets over their heads like helmets, and held strainers and graters over their faces like protective masks.
C. Think and discuss.
Note: These are subjective questions meant for classroom discussion, but here is a sample approach for the second question based on the text.
Work with a partner. Ask and answer a question about the story. Write your question and its answer below.
Question: Why were Khabardar and the motorboat driver fast asleep in the middle of the Singing Grasses? Answer: Paati deduced that the two villains had likely made the mistake of riding their ponies through the dreaded Singing Grasses, fell asleep due to the songs, and were thrown off right into the middle of the grass.
Dictionary Skills
Read the excerpt again. Use the context to guess the meanings of the words below. Then, refer to a dictionary to fill in the fourth column. (Below are the dictionary meanings for the requested words)
| Word | Dictionary Meaning |
|---|---|
| rein | A long, narrow strap attached at one end to a horse’s bit, used by a rider or driver to guide or check the animal. |
| disastrous | Causing great damage, distress, or failure; highly catastrophic. |
| creeper | A plant that grows along the ground, around another plant, or up a wall by extending stems or branches. |
| dreaded | Regarded with great fear, apprehension, or reluctance. |