1. Complete these sentences about the different stages of a recount.

Use the words in the

box.
happened reason time when events who
a) The orientation stage of a recount orients the reader to the events in the story. It
tells the reader the story is about, where it happened and when the event occurred.
b) In the record of events stage, the writer retells the events in a logical time se
quence so that the reader can follow them easily.
c) In the reorientation stage, the writer rounds off the story and brings the reader back
to the reason why the story is being told.

2. Read again the text entitled ‘Fishing’ above. How many events are there mentioned in
the text? List them from the first to the last events.
Events Fishing

Record (1) I woke up earlier in the morning, and then I went to the marketplace to buy
of some shrimps I would use for the fishing bait.
Events (2) After that, I went to the lake to start fishing.
(3) At the lake, I looked for the best point to fish. I went to the place under a
big tree at the bank of the lake. I threw my hook as far as I could, and
then I waited for the fish eating my bait.
(4) After about a thirty-minute waiting, I felt that a fish ate my bait, and it was
true. I got a big fish. It was the first big enough fish I got in fishing. I got ten
big fish and three small fish that day. I was very happy.
(5) I would cook those fish at home and then I would call my friends to come
to my house. We would have a small party.
(6) But I was not lucky enough because on the way home, I met a beggar. He
was an old poor beggar. I gave all of my fish to him and I wish he would be
happy getting those fish. Perhaps, he could sell them at the market and got
some money to buy some food.

3. Read again the text entitled ‘Ballooning’ above, and then answer these questions
which are related to it:
a. Who firstly made a balloon?
The Montgolfier brothers firstly did.
b. When did people fly freely by balloon for the first time? And where?
The first free balloon flight was in December, 1783. The balloon flew for 25 minutes
over Paris.
c. What does ‘it’ in paragraph 1 refer to? It refers to the first air transportation.
d. There are two words ‘they’ in paragraph 1? Do they refer to the same thing?
They refers to the same thing, that is Balloon.
e. How was the first balloon developed?
The first balloon was filled a very large paper bag with hot air. Hot air is lighter than
cold air, so it goes up.
f. What does ‘Flying a balloon is not like flying a plane’ mean in paragraph 4? It means
that the balloon has no engine and therefore no power of its own. The wind directs the
balloon. It goes where the wind blows although Balloon also needs pilot to control it.
But, flying plane is different. The plane has many complicated feature. The plane needs
run way to take off or to land but the plane is easier to control by people than balloon.
g. Why didn’t people gradually like anymore to fly by balloon? They didn’t like to fly by
balloon anymore because planes were much faster and easier to control.
 h. Why do some people still like to fly by balloon today? Because when they high up in
the balloon basket, they find quiet. They have a wonderful view of the world below.
i. Why didn’t people stop flying by balloon although it was dangerous at the early
days? Because ballooning was exciting while there was no the air transportation like jet
aircraft.
j. Summarize the text by making its outline.
 The first kind of air transportation was a balloon.
 The first real balloon flight was in France in 1783 made by two Frenchmen, the
Montgolfier brothers
 Ballon was built by a fire under the balloon to make the air hot.
 The first free balloon flight was in December, 1783.
 Balloonists tried longer flights of ballooning was the first long flight over water.
 During the nineteenth century, ballooning became a popular sport.

4. Read each paragraph. Working in pairs, decide on the best topic. Be sure your topic is
not too general or too specific. Write the topic below the paragraph.
a. Galileo Galilei was one of the first modern scientists. He was born in Pisa, Italy, 1564. A
t first, he studied philosophy, but later he
studied mathematics and astronomy. He was interested in the way
the earth and other planets move around the sun. He found
out several important facts about our world. He also started a new way of working
in science. Before Galileo, scientists did not do experiments. They
just guessed about how something happened. Galileo was different. He did
not just make guesses. He did experiments and watched to see what happened.
Topic: Galileo’s interest in science.
b. Galileo is famous for his study of how things fall. He was the first person
to do experiments about this problem. Before, people thought that heavy
things always fell faster than light things. He found out that this was not true. He took a
heavy
ball and a light ball and he dropped them both from a high place. They fell at the same spe
ed. This meant that weight is not important. This is the law off falling bodies. It is an
important law for understanding our world.
Topic: The thing made Galileo famous
c. The life of a scientist was not always easy in the 1500s. For example,
Galileo got into trouble because of his scientific ideas. His ideas were not the
same as the religious ideas at the time. Many religious people did not agree with
him. During his whole life he had to worry about this. He even went to prison for a
while. But no one could stop him from thinking. He continued to look for
scientific answers to his questions about the world.
Topic: Galileo got into trouble because of his scientific ideas
5. Read this personal spoken recount by Tom Bass, a famous Australian sculptor. The
recount tells us about a particular incident when Tom discovered his talent for carving.
On the left, mark the stage of orientation, record of events, and reorientation.
Orientation When I was 16 – that’d be in 1932 – my family lived in St Peters and it
was a very slummy part of St Peters and it was right in the very heart of
the Depression and I’d realized I was an artist when I was 8 years old.
Record of event … one day my younger brother who was six or seven years younger than
s me who used to play on the rubbish tip of the local foundry just down at
the end of the street came home with two pieces of what looked like stone.

It turned out that … that what he’d brought home was core-sand … that’s
what they cast metal into and the way they used to do it in those days – I
don’t know if they do it now – but they used to mix the sand with linseed
oil and that would hold it together and then the heat of the metal would
fuse it all together … and it was dark and a beautiful color and you know
to all intents and purposes it looked like stone and I had an impulse to try
carving this because I’d been trying to do things of all kinds but mainly
drawing and things like that and we only had an old hammer with broken
handle and a funny old screwdriver and you know I started with these …
and I found myself having this amazing experience and actually
discovering I could carve.
reorientation It just happened in that way.

6. In this recount, Tom has added another stage of explanation to the basic pattern. Use a
highlighter pen to mark this stage.
Why do you think Tom added this stage to the basic pattern?
He added because the author intends to shorten the story or experience he will
convey .
7. Reread the orientation to Tom’s recount and write the words which tell you where and
When the incident happened.
a. When : one day
. b. Where : at the end of the street.
8. Number these events in Tom’s recount in the correct order:
a. I discovered that I could carve. 5
b. It was an amazing experience. 4
c. I started to carve with arnold hammer with a broken handle and a funny old
screwdriver : 3
d. My younger brother brought home some core sand: 2
 9. The arrangement of the text in chronological order

Thomas and the Gorillas

Orientaton : It was a hot summer day in Chicago. The Kemper family decided it
was a good day to go to the Brookfield Zoo. Janet and Kevin Kemper
had two children: Thomas, 3, and Sally, 6 months. Thomas loved going
to the zoo. He liked watching all the animals, but he especially loved
the gorillas.

Records of Events : The Kempers went straight to the gorilla exhibit. There were six adult
gorillas and a three-month-old baby gorilla. In the Brookfield Zoo, the
animals are not in cages. They are in large areas dug out of the ground.
These areas have fences around them so the animals cannot get out and
people cannot fall in.
But three-year-old boys are good climbers. While the Kempers were
watching the gorillas, little Sally started to cry. Kevin took her from
Janet, and Janet looked in her bag for a bottle of juice. In those few
seconds, Thomas climbed up the fence.
A woman saw him and shouted, “Stop him!” A tall man reached up to
get him, but it was too late. Thomas fell down the other side of the
fence. He fell 18 feet onto the hard concrete floor. He lay very still,
with blood on his head. Janet and Kevin shouted for help. People
crowded around the fence, and someone ran to get a zoo worker.
But before the zoo worker arrived, a gorilla went over to Thomas. It
was Binti Jua, an eight-year-old mother gorilla. She had her baby
gorilla on her back. With one “arm” she picked up the little boy. She
carried him carefully over to a door, walking on three legs. There she
put Thomas down so a zoo worker could get him.

Reorientation : Janet and Kevin ran to the door, too. Thomas was badly hurt and had to
go to the hospital, but after a few days he was better. The story was on
the evening news in Chicago. Some people cheered and others cried
when they heard it. But many of them thought about that mother gorilla
and asked themselves, “What is she doing in a zoo? What is the
difference between a gorilla and me?”

Why the order should be in that way because with this arrangement it will make the text
arranged in sequence or chronological order