Examples 2 Historical Recount M2 LA 2

Instructions

Topic	Ballooning
Orientation	The first kind of air transportation was not a plane. It was a balloon. People traveled  by balloon 100  years before there were planes or jet  aircraft. Those  early  days  of  ballooning  were  exciting,  but  they  were  also dangerous. Sometimes the balloons fell suddenly. Sometimes they burned. However, the danger did not stop the balloonists.
Record of Events	(1) The first real balloon flight was in France in 1783. Two Frenchmen, the Montgolfier brothers, made a balloon. They filled a very large paper bag with hot air. Hot air is lighter than cold air, so it goes up. The Montgolfier’s hot air balloon went up 1,000 feet in the sky. (2) Later that same year, two other Frenchmen ascended  in the basket under a balloon. They built a fire under the balloon to make the air hot. This made the balloon stay up in the air for a few hours. But their balloon was tied to the ground. So it could not go anywhere. (3) The first free balloon flight was in December, 1783. The balloon flew for 25 minutes over Paris. It traveled about 5 ½ miles. Flying a balloon is not like flying a plane. The balloon has no engine and therefore no power of its own. The wind directs the balloon. It goes where the wind blows. The pilot can control only the altitude of the balloon. He or she can raise and lower the balloon to find the right wind direction. That is how a good pilot controls where the balloon goes. (4) Soon balloonists tried longer flights. A major event in the history of ballooning was the first long flight over water. In 1785, an American and a Frenchman flew over the English Channel. They left England on a cold, clear January day. After  about an hour, their balloon began to descend toward the water. They threw out some equipment and food to make the balloon lighter. The balloon continued to fall, so they threw out  almost  everything  in  the  basket—even  some  of  their  clothes. Finally, after about three hours, they landed in France, cold but safe.
Reorientation	During the nineteenth century, ballooning became a popular sport. There were balloon races in Europe. Balloons were also used by scientists to study the air and by armies in wartime. After the airplane was invented, people lost interest in balloons. Planes were much faster and easier to control. But some people today still like to go up in balloons. High up in the balloon basket, they find quiet. They have a wonderful view of the world below.

From the recount text entitled ‘Ballooning’, we can make some explanations as follows (Look at some words in bold, italics, or underlined as examples) :

·       The text focuses on a specific thing, namely ‘balloon’ (in bold).

·      There are a number of action verbs used in the text such  as ‘traveled’, ‘fell’, ‘burned’, ‘stop’, ‘made’, ‘filled’, ‘goes’, and ‘went’ (in italics).

·      There are some adverbs of time, place, and manner in the text such as ‘by balloon’, ‘sometimes’, ‘in France’, ‘in 1783’, ‘in the sky’, ‘later that same year’, ‘in the basket’, and ‘under a balloon’ (underlined).

·      The  sentences  are  mostly  formed  in  past  tense  like  ‘was’,  ‘traveled’,  ‘were’,  ‘fell’, ‘burned’, ‘did not stop’, ‘made’, ‘filled’, ‘went’, and ‘ascended’, ‘built’, ‘was tied’, and ‘could not go’ (in italics).

·      The text involves temporal sequences such as ‘first’, ‘before’, ‘later’, ‘soon’, ‘after’,‘finally’, and ‘during’ (underlined). 

I have learned this example 2 of Historical Recount .

Thank you.