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 and the event
occurred.

b. In the record of events stage, the writer retells the in a logical

sequence 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 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.

3. Read again the text entitled ‘Ballooning’ above, and then answer these questions
which are related to it:

a. Who firstly made a balloon?

b. When did people fly freely by balloon for the first time? And where?
c. What does ‘it’ in paragraph 1 refer to?
d. There are two words ‘they’ in paragraph 1? Do they refer to the same thing?
e. How was the first balloon developed?
f. What does ‘Flying a balloon is not like flying a plane’ mean in paragraph 4?
g. Why didn’t people gradually like anymore to fly by balloon?
h. Why do some people still like to fly by balloon today?
i. Why didn’t people stop flying by balloon although it was dangerous at the early
days?
j. Summarize the text by making its outline.
4. Read each paragraph. Working in pairs, decide on the best topic. Be sure your topic is
not too general or two specific. Write the topic below the paragraph.

a. Galileo Galilei was one of the first modern scientists. He was born in Pisa,
Italy, 1564. At 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: ……………………………………………………………………………

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 speed. This meant that weight is not important. This is the law off
falling bodies. It is an important law for understanding our world.

Topic: ……………………………………………………………………………

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: ……………………………………………………………………………

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.

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.

… one day my younger brother who was six or seven years younger than 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 a
 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.

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 .

7. Reread the orientation to Tom’s recount and write the words which tell you where and
when the incident happened.

a. When : .

b. Where : .

8. Number these events in Tom’s recount in the correct order:

a. I discovered that I could carve.

b. It was an amazing experience.

c. I started to carve with an old hammer with a broken handle and

a funny old screwdriver.

d. My younger brother brought home some core sand

9. The stages of this written recount are not in the correct order. Number the stages, and
discuss why the order should be in that way. Mark the orientation, record of events,
and reorientation of the recount text.

Thomas and the Gorillas

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.
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?”
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 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.
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.
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.