Page 84 - LEVEL 2_Neat

C. Sequencing. Read how terrible Martin’s vacation was. What went wrong? Number each event
based on the chronology Martin told.

SEQUENCING
To understand a text better, you should be able to identify the components of a
story, such as the beginning, middle, and end, and also able to retell the events
within a given text in the order in which they occurred.

The ordering of events in a story, along with connecting words is usually indicated by the
following examples of textual features:
once upon a time, then, later, afterwards, and in the end, before, after, previously, etc.

Example:
“He left the house at 10 o'clock in the morning before catching a taxi to the airport.”

From the sentence, you can tell that the event “left the house” happened earlier(1) and the
event “catching a bus” happened later(2) by the use of time sequence ‘before’

1 Adapted from: https://www.teachervision.com/reading-comprehension/sequencing-lesson
2
4 Martin had a terrible day yesterday. It was the day of his vacation to Spain but it was a
5 nightmare. He left the house at 10 o'clock in the morning before catching a taxi to the airport.
6 After arriving at the airport, Martin went to the check-in with his luggage. When the man who
7 worked for the airline asked for his passport, Martin became very upset. Where was his passport?
Soon after, he realized that he didn't have his passport with him. Right before he made sure all
8 windows were locked, he put the passport at the bed-side table. What a disaster!
9 He excused himself from the counter right away. Not long after that, he jumped back
10 into the taxi and told the driver to take him home. The driver drove quickly and Martin arrived
11 back at his house in twenty minutes. He ran into the house and instantly went into his bedroom.
12 He found his passport on the bedside table and left the house again. But where was the taxi? It
13 wasn't there although he previously asked the driver to wait for him. Martin jumped up and
14 down angrily. "I don't believe it. The taxi left!" he shouted. After a while, he ran down the street
15 and looked for another taxi.
16 Shortly, Martin found another taxi and told the driver to take him to the airport as
17 quickly as possible. The traffic on the roads was very bad and, unfortunately, Martin's taxi
arrived at the airport late. His plane left for Spain at 11.30 before he came, he missed it. He was
18 very sad and went to speak to the airline. They promised to get him a seat on an evening flight
19 and finally Martin went home on another taxi to wait.

Adapted from: http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/reading/1r18-elementary-martins-
vacation-question-answer-match.php

Pay attention on the time sequence printed bold. Which event happened earlier (1) and which
event happened later (2)?

“He left the house at 10 o'clock in the morning before catching a taxi to the airport.” (Par. 1,
line 2)
1 left the house at 10 o'clock
2 caught a taxi to the airport

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