Reading Exercise

My Adventure at Leang-Leang Cave

On Sunday, my parents, my best fruend Novi, and I visited a cave at Maros called Leang-leang . It was my first time to visit the cave, better yet, my best friend came to visit it with me!

The cave was famous for its primitive cave wall paintings which were some hand prints and wild boar paintings. The cave and its surroundings was turned into a national park, so it was taken care of. My parents took a rest in a small hut for visitors of the park, while Novi and I adventured around the cave with a guide. We had to climb some metal stairs to get to the cave, because the cave was embedded into a small mountain. Next stop was a place where some seashells littered the ground and some were actually piled into a big mound! The guide said that these piles of seashells are called kjokkenmoddinger, or kitchen trash. The humans who lived here ate the shells and dumped the left overs in their 'kitchen'. The last place was a small museum where they have skeletons of the humans who lived in the caves. The skeletons along with some roughly made jewelry and weapons were placed inside glass cases for display. The walls of the museum were adorned with photographs taken when they did an excavation there.

After a quick lunch with Novi and my parents, we decided it was time to go back home. We really had the time of our lives!

My Rush Time as a Journalist

I usually woke up at eight o'clock a.m. and went to the Press Center to check the daily schedule of briefings and press conferences. It was usually held by the United Nation officials or disaster mitigation team.

It was challenging to visit different refugee camps to find soft stories, human interest stories. After that I went back to the Press Center to cover the press conferences of the day.

It was heart breaking when I saw these survivors fight for food and secondhand clothing. Unfortunately as they said, the food and clothing were limited and inadequate. Emerging to glaring, fool noon, it was time to go back to Press Center to write stories and race against time. I was always fearing that the internet would come crushing down.

After everything was done, only then I remembered to eat. Most times, I only ate once a day because I always had to rush and again it was difficult to find food. I had to travel quite far. I needed to spend a 30 to 45 minutes by car just to find fresh food.

Visisting Bali

There were so many places to see in Bali that my friend decided to join the tours to see as much as possible. My friend stayed in Kuta on arrival. He spent the first three days swimming and surfing on Kuta beach. He visited some tour agents and selected two tours. The first one was to Singaraja, the second was to Ubud.
On the day of the tour, he was ready. My friend and his group drove on through mountains. Singaraja is a city of about 90 thousands people. It is a busy but quiet town. The street are lined with trees and there are many old Dutch houses. Then they returned very late in the evening to Kuta.
The second tour to Ubud was a very different tour. It was not to see the scenery but to see the art and the craft of the island. The first stop was at Batubulan, a center of stone sculpture. There my friend watched young boys were carving away at big blocks of stone. The next stop was Celuk, a center for silversmiths and goldensmiths. After that he stopped a little while for lunch at Sukawati and on to mass. Mass is a tourist center
My friend ten-day-stay ended very quickly beside his two tour, all his day was spent on the beach. He went sailing or surfboarding every day. He was quiet satisfied.

Recount merupakan jenis teks yang melaporkan peristiwa, kejadian, atau kegiatan yang menimpa seseorang, atau berupa pengalaman seseorang. Contohnya bisa berupa diari ataupun biografi seseorang. Tujuan dari recount dalah untuk menceritakan apa yang terjadi pada masa lampau  sesuai dengan urutan waktu. Struktur teks recount, yaitu:

1)      Orientation: berisi tokoh/pelaku, tempat, dan waktu.

2)      Events: menceritakan apa yang terjadi di masa lampau sesuai rangkaian kejadian/peristiwa.

Struktur di atas merupakan struktur dasar dari teks recount yang umumnya di pakai. Sedangkan untuk bentuk atau struktur teks recopunt yang berupa pengalaman pribadi diri sendiri bisa berbentuk:

1)      Orientation

2)      Events

3)      Evaluation: komentar dari si penulis/pembicara mengenai pengalaman yang dia rasakan.

4)      Re-orientaton: kesimpulan dari pengalaman yang dirasakan.

Note: Teks recount menggunakan PAST TENSE.

Contoh:

On Saturday night, we went to the Town Hall. It was the last day of the year and a large crowed of people had gathered under the Town Hall clock. It would strike twelve in twenty minutes time. Fifteen minutes passed and the, at five to twelve, the clock stopped. The big minute hand did not move. We waited and waited, but nothing happened. Suddenly someone shouted, "It's two minutes past twelve! The clock has stopped!"

I looked at my watch. It was true. The big clock refused to welcome the New Year. At that moment, everybody began to laugh and sing.

1.       Which idea can you find in the first paragraph?

A.        Everybody's laughing and singing.

B.        People're moving near the Town Hall.

C.        The writer's going to Town Hall one day.

D.        Someone's shouting at the owner of the Town Hall.

2.       When did the clock stop?

A.        At 5.12

B.        At 11.55

C.        At 12.00

D.        At 12.02

3.       Why did the people gather under the Town Hall clock?

A.        To welcome the New Year.

B.        To see the newly bought clock.

C.        To strike the laughing people.

D.        To stop people who shouted.

4.       What does the first sentence tell you?

A.        The opening of the story

B.        The problem that the writer met.

C.        The funny thing in the story.

D.        .An introduction of the characters.

I had a terrible day yesterday. First, I woke up an hour late because my alarm clock didn't go off. Then, I was in such a hurry that I burned my hand when I was making breakfast. After breakfast, I got dressed so quickly that I forgot to wear socks.

Next, I ran out of the house trying to get the 9:30 bus, but of course I missed it. I wanted to take a taxi, but I didn't have enough money.

Finally, I walked the three miles to my school only to discover that it was Sunday! I hope I never have a day as the one I had yesterday.

1. What happened to the writer yesterday?

a. He has a terrible day.
b. He gets a terrible day.
c. He had a terrible day.
d. He got a terrible day.

2. Why did he wake up an hour late?

a. Because he didn't set alarm clock.

b. Because his alarm clock didn't go off.

c. Because he didn't see alarm clock.

d. Because his alarm clock didn't work.

3. What did he do after having breakfast?

a. He got dressed so quickly that he forgot to wear socks.

b. He wear socks so quickly that he forgot to get dressed.

c. He ran out of the house trying to get the 9:30 bus.

d. He burned his hand when he was making breakfast.

4. How far did the writer walk?

a. He walked for two miles.

b. He walked for three miles.

c. He walked for four miles.

d. He walked for five miles.

5. What does the writer hope?

a. The writer hopes to discover that it was Sunday.

b. The writer hopes to take a taxi.

c. The writer hopes he never had a day like yesterday.

d. The writer hopes that yesterday will be better.

Kunci Jawaban:

1. c
   Jawabannya di kalimat pertama paragraf pertama.
2. b
   I woke up an hour late because my alarm clock didn't go off.
3. a
   After breakfast, I got dressed so quickly that I forgot to wear socks.
4. b
    I walked the three miles to my school .
5. c
   I hope I never have a day as the one I had yesterday.