Introduction
The narrative text short story is telling of a story or an account of a sequence of events. One of the four traditional forms of composition (along with description, exposition, and persuasion). Narration differs from exposition, which can also relate a sequence of events, in that narration need not be factual and may be written from the perspective of a character in the text.
The generic sctucture of a narrative text:
1. Orientation: Sets the scene and introduces the participants.
2. Complication: A crisis arises
3. Resolution: The crisis is resolved, for the better or for worse.
4. Re-orientation: Optinal
5. Evaluation: A stepping back to evaluate the plight
Task
Text 1
Snow White
Once upon a time, there lived a little girl named Snow White. She lived with her aunt and uncle because her parents were dead.
One day, she heard her uncle and aunt talking about leaving Snow White in the castle because they both wanted to go to America and they didn’t have enough money to take Snow White.
Snow White did not want her uncle and aunt to do this, so she decided it would be best if she ran away. The next morning, she ran away from home when her aunt and uncle were having breakfast. She ran away into the woods.
She was very tired and hungry. Then, she saw this little cottage. She knocked, but no one answered, so she went inside and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, the seven dwarfs were coming home from work. They went inside. There they found Snow White sleeping. Then Snow White woke up. She saw the dwarfs. The dwarfs said, ”What’s your name?” Snow White answered, “My name is Snow White.”
The other dwarfs asked, “If you wish, you may live here with us.” Snow White said, “Oh, could I? Thank you!” Then Snow White told the dwarfs the whole story, and the seven dwarfs lived happily ever after.
1. What kind of text is it?
a. Narrative c. News item e. Report
b. Analytical Exposition d. Hortatory Exposition
2. What is the communicative purpose of the story?
a. To entertain the readers
b. To describe the way things
c. To retell an event with humorous twist
d. To persuade by presenting arguments or to analyze or explain
e. To persuade the readers or the listeners that something should or should not be the case
3. What is the generic structure of the story?
a. Orientation – Complication – Resolution
b. Orientation – Events – Twist
c. Identification – Description
d. Identification – Events – Reorientation
e. Thesis – Arguments – Reiteration
4. What kind of tenses is used in the story?
a. Present Simple c. Present Continuous e. Present Perfect
b. Past Simple d. Past Continuous
5. …….because her parents were dead. (p.2)
The synonym of the underlined word is……
a. Lived b. Loved c. Passed away d. Ran away e. kind
Text 2
Cinderella
Long, long time ago, there lived a beautiful girl named Cinderella. Her parents passed away, she lived with her step mother and step sisters. Cinderella was very sad everyday because she had to do the housework alone.
One day, the king wanted to find the wife if his son. He invited all the beautiful girls to come. Cinderella was very sad because her step sister did not let her go. Her sisters went to the palace without Cinderella.
Luckily, The Angel cam and helped Cinderella to go to the palace. In the palace, Cinderella danced with the Prince. He fell in love with her; then he married her. They lived happily ever after.
6. What kind of text is it?
a. Descriptive b. News item c. Spoof d. Narrative e. Recount
7. What is the communicative purpose of the story?
a. To entertain the readers
b. To describe the way things
c. To retell an event with humorous twist
d. To describe particular person, place or things
e. To persuade the readers or the listeners that something should or should not be the case
8. What is the generic structure of the story?
a. Orientation – Complication – Resolution
b. Orientation – Events – Twist
c. Identification – Description
d. Identification – Events – Reorientation
e. Thesis – Arguments – Reiteration To report something
9. Her parents passed away. (p.1)
The synonym of the underlined word is………
a. Ran away b. dead c. went away d. go away e. far away
10. Which statement is not true?
a. Cinderella was young. d. The King married Cinderella
b. The Angel helped Cinderella. e. The Prince married Cinderella
c. The King had a son.
Text 3
Once upon a time, The King Prabu ruled a Kingdom in West Java. King Prabu and his wife were wise and kind so that their people were prosperous.
The problem came because The King didn’t have children. They tried many ways to have children, but they always failed.
One day, Prabu prayed to God, and he was very happy because God accepted his prayer. Soon, they had a child that was beautiful but spoiled and had the bad behavior.
For her seventeenth birthday party, the princess got the gold necklace from her parents. Unfortunately, when she saw it, she didn’t like it and threw it away into the floor. Everybody was shocked because from the ground emerged a lot of water. All of the kingdom suddenly became a big lake.
People call it Telaga Warna and believed that the colours came from the Princess’ necklace.
11. The Kingdom was located in……..
a. Sumatera b. Sulawesi c. Java d. Papua e. Bali
12. People……….the King Prabu.
a. hated b. liked c. disliked d. connected with e. ruled
13. Which statement is Not Correct?
a. The queen had one daughter.
b. The lake swallowed the Kingdom.
c. The King adopted a girl as his child.
d. The princess had the bad behavior.
e. The Prabu and his wife were wise.
14. What kind of text is it?
a. Descriptive b. Report c. Narrative d. Recount e. Procedure
15. The communicative purpose of the story is…..
a. to describe the King c. to entertain the readers e. to persuade the readers
b. to describe the Kingdom d. to retell the past experience
16. The first paragraph is called…..
a. Complication b. Orientation c. Resolution d. Reorientation e.Coda
Text 4
A farmer came across a bird with a broken wing. He picked it up, took it home and looked after it lovingly, even though his wife complained bitterly about his wasting too much time on the creature.
After some time, the wing mended and, because the bird did not want the farmer to have kept on arguing with his wife all the time, it decided to go back to its nest.
When the farmer discovered that the bird was gone, he was so upset that he went out to look for it. Eventually, he found it again, and was greeted happily by the whole family of the bird. As a sign of their thanks for his care and attention, the birds gave him a little box, and told him not to open it until he got home.
To his surprise, the farmer found the box full of precious stones. When his wife saw them, she decided that she too deserved a reward, and she went to see the birds. The birds gave her a little casket; but this one was full of devils. The devils jumped on her as soon as she opened the casket and chased her away.
Left alone, the farmer went to live near his friend, the bird. There he built a hut of perfumed wood; and the birds decorated it with flowers of every kind.
17. Which of the following statements do you agree with ?
a.The farmer chased his wife away.
b.The farmer lived happily with his wife.
c.The farmer’s wife took care of the bird.
d.The bird was very thankful to the farmer.
e.The farmer’s wife was a very kind woman.
18. The farmer’s new hut was….
a. Well furnished
b. Built by the birds
c. a gift from the birds
d. decorated luxuriously
e. built of perfumed wood
19. What do we learn from the text?
a. A gift shows kindness.
b. Sufferings bring happiness.
c. Arguing makes you distressed.
d. A good deed deserves a reward.
e. Having no heart makes you isolated.
20..What is the main information discussed in the third paragraph?
a.The bird left the farmer.
b.The birds welcomed the farmer
c.The farmer got a little casket from the birds.
d.The farmer was so angry and went out to find the bird.
e.The farmer was happy having got a box of precious stones.
21. The word “discovered” (p3) means….
a. proved b. found out c. saw
d. invented e. believed
Text 2.
Once upon a time, there lived a group mice under a tree in peace. However, a group of elephants crossing the jungle unknowingly destroyed the homes of all the rats. Many of them were crushed to death.
Then the king of rats decided to approach the elephant’s chief and request him to guide his herd through another route. On hearing the sad story, the elephant’s king apologized and agreed to take another route. And so the lives the rats were saved.
One day elephant hunters came to the jungle and tripped a group of elephants in huge nets. Then the elephant king suddenly remembered the king of rats. He summoned one of the elephant of his herd which had not been trapped, to go seek help from the king and told him about the trapped elephants.
The rat’s king immediately took his entire group of rats and they cut the nets which had trapped the elephant’s herd. The elephant’s herd was totally set free. They danced with joy and thanked the rats.
22. What destroyed the homes of all rats?
a. Group of mice did.
b. The hunters did.
c. Elephant hunters did.
d. A group of elephants did
e. Elephant’s herd did.
23. What helped the elephant’s herd free?
a. The elephant’s herd did.
b. The hunter did.
c. A trapped elephant did.
d. A group of kings did.
e. Entire group of rats did.
24. When did the story occur?
a. Deep in the writer’s mind
b. In the jungle
c. In the black forest
d. In the home of mice group
e. In the nests which had trapped the elephant’s herd
25. At the end of the story, how was the elephants’ herd?
a. angry b. sad c. happy
d. dead e. disappointed
Process
The storyteller takes what he tells from experience – his own or that reported by others. And he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening to his tale. (Benjamin, 1969: 87) Within the recent research and theoretical literature in psychotherapy, use has increasingly been made of a distinction between process and outcome .
Evaluation
narrative evaluation is a form of performance measurement and feedback which can be used as an alternative or supplement to grading. Narrative evaluations generally consist of several paragraphs of written text about a student's individual performance and course work. The style and form of narrative evaluations vary significantly among the educational institutions using them, and they are sometimes combined with other performance metrics, including letter and number grades and pass/fail designations.
Conclusion
Narrative can also be found in oral storytelling processes, as seen in many Indigenous American communities. Narrative storytelling is used to guide children on proper behavior, cultural history, formation of a communal identity, and values. Narratives also act as living entities through cultural stories, as they are passed on from generation to generation. Because the narrative storytelling is often left without explicit meanings, children act as participants in the storytelling process by delving deeper into the open-ended story and making their own interpretations.