NARATIVE TEXT (example)

A Miraculous Tree
Once upon a time, there was a hawker who sold mangoes. Every morning, he sold them along the roadside near the big market. His mangoes were big, juicy, sweet and fragrant. Although he sold them at a high price, a lot of people bought from him. Eventually, he grew very haughty and conceited as his sales picked up.
One Sunday morning, an old dirty beggar wearing scruffy and smelly clothing stood in front of the mango stall. He begged the hawker for one mango. The beggar said politely, “Sir, I have not eaten a mango since I was ten. Can you please spare me just one fruit?” the proud hawker didn’t even give him a wink but continued to shout, “Mangoes! Mangoes!” As the beggar stood right in front of his stall, other people had to move (further) away from the stall to avoid the beggar, and that affected the hawker’s business.
Finally, the hawker got very angry and pushed the beggar away. In doing so, the old bagger tripped and slipped on a puddle of dirty water. A housewife who saw the incident felt sorry for the bagger and gave him a mango. The bagger was very touched and kept on saying, “Thank you” over and over again. He told the crowd that he was going to share the mango with them. He borrowed a knife from the butcher a few stalls away, cut the mango into smaller pieces and shared them with the people there.
As for the big mango seed, the beggar dug a hole in the ground and buried the seed. Then, he asked the young butcher to give him some water to water the seed. After that, the beggar uttered some words. To everyone’s surprise, a small sprout shot up and rapidly grew into a mature mango tree bearing big, sweet, juicy and fragrant mangoes all over the tree. The beggar than plucked the fruit and gave them away to the people. The arrogant hawker left his own stall and joined the crowed to watch the beggar performing this miracle.
After all the mangoes were given away to the people, the beggar walked into the crowed and disappeared. The proud hawker walked back to his stall and screamed, “Who stole all my mangoes?” Finally, he realized that all the mangoes growing on that tree actually belonged to him. The beggar who was actually a high priest, had wanted to teach him a lesson. From that day onwards, this once haughty and conceited hawker became a humble and charitable person.

A Strange Beginning to a Courtship
Ben finally found a maintenance job at a prestigious hotel. A few days later, he was instructed to check out a problem in the ladies’ toilet. At first, he thought it might be a choked basin. Having inspected it, he found the basins were I perfect working condition.
Suddenly, he heard a woman screaming, “I can’t get out. I’m stuck, please help!”
Ben took out a screwdriver and twisted the locking mechanism to the open position from outside. The door swung open inward, and he saw the hotel receptionist stuck in the toilet cubical. She was very embarrassed, and both left the ladies’ toilet quietly.
A few days later, they happened to walk along the same corridor and accidentally bumped into each other – still very embarrassed of what happened at the toilet on that fateful day.
Six months after the incident they finally overcame their embarrassment and ultimately got married. The first thing they did before they moved into their new house was to replace the bathroom door with one without a lock or latch.

Age Is No Barrier
James Peterson grew up three houses away from Lucy Teddy in Ham Rock Street, Texas. He often did chores for her; he washed her car and ran errands for her.
They often spent time together, and they eventually fell in love. Months later, the couple decided to get married, which caused many objections from Lucy’s children and her grandchildren!
In fact, James was younger than Lucy’s grandchildren. He was 21 when they got married. His bride was 81.

Publicity Stunt? Think Again
One day, our school organized a nature walk to Barely forest. We were very excited with this outing as this our first time participating in a nature walk with our seniors. It was a bright and sunny day, and we enjoyed the tranquility of nature. It was a contrast from the hustle and bustle of city life.
Suddenly, James, a brave boy who always loved to perform daring stunts in class, caught up with us. He whispered that he had found something exciting to show us. Naturally, we were curious, so we followed James.
James showed us a pit, and next to it we found a rope and a flashlight. James, who was rather mischievous, thought of an idea. He suggested that he would go down in the pit to see what was in there. We were very excited and agreed to help him.
We tied the rope around his waist and started to lower him into the pit bit by bit. Just before James reached bottom, he shouted out, “Stop! Let me see if there is anything below me.”
“All right, all clear!” shouted James as he lands safely. Then, without any warning, the flashlight suddenly went out. James was standing gingerly at the bottom of the deep pit, plunged in total darkness with no light. Suddenly, he heard a hissing sound next to him. He was rooted to the spot, frozen in fear. James cried for help and followed by a loud painful scream. We could not see James, but we were horrified by his scream. We quickly pulled the rope up.
Once James got out from the pit, trembling with fear, he shouted, “Help! I have been bitten by a snake!” We burst into laughter when we saw that the snake was nothing more than a plastic bag coiled tightly around James’ ankle. James was embarrassed.

Honeymoon Squabbles
A newly wed couple went to Europe for honeymoon. While in France, the bridegroom phoned his mother-in-law.
“How’s your honeymoon, Pete?” asked the mother-in-law.
“Oh! It’s great, but something unexpected happened. I will tell you when we return,” said the bridegroom.
“What is so secret that you can’t tell me now?” the mother-in-law insisted.
The bridegroom couldn’t stand his mother-in-law’s continuous nagging, so he said “Mom, Lucy is terribly coarse in her language and started using horrible words the moment we landed in Italy. I cannot live like this, you know,” continued the bridegroom. “Please take Lucy back when we return from holiday,” pleaded the bridegroom.
The mother-in-law was lost and puzzled, and she asked, “Pete, what are the horrible words that Lucy said to you?”
“They’re terrible! I don’t want to repeat them as it will surely upset you,” replied the bridegroom.
“But I want to know exactly what Lucy said that made you so upset,” said the mother-in-law.
“Oh Mom, she told me to cook, wash, sweep and iron,” said the son-in-law.
“I told your father-in-law the same words when we got married, and he was more upset than you are, but now he loves to cook, wash, sweep and iron,” the mother-in-law replied.

On Different Grounds
Two women were walking down the road which was separated by a football field on the right and rugby field on the left. As they approached the middle of these two fields, they saw two men shouting at each other across the road at the top of their voices.
The one on the football field shouted, “Hi Bob, Manchester United will win over Blackburn Rovers in tonight’s match.”
Apparently, the one on the rugby field was a Blackburn Rovers’ die-hard fan. He replied, “Rubbish! Don’t play smart if you are not an expert. Manchester United will lose to Blackburn.”
After watching them for a while, one of the women said confidently, “They will never agree.”
“What makes you say that?” asked the other woman.
“You see, how can they reach an agreement when they’re arguing on different grounds?” replied the first woman.

Mother’s Day
Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis were the best known pioneers who took up the cause of Mother’s Day in the United States. Julia Ward Howe’s “Mother’s Day” in 1872 was a call for disarmament by women. Anna Jarvis, in 1907, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it “Mother’s Work Day.” In 1914, US President, Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Declaration. He declared the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day, the day to honor motherhood. Today, however, some may think that the commercial community purposely created Mother’s Day to make some extra money.
Nowadays, this auspicious day has literally become a commercial affair. Many people spend their time buying material gifts for their mothers. In order to sell more products, many restaurants, gift shops, cake shops and florists usually give special offers on Mother’s Day. Consequently their cash registers keep ringing non-stop. Obviously, Mother’s Day has become a major profitmakes for businesses.
It is important to remember that the reason behind celebrating Mother’s Day is to say thanks to the most important person in our life – our mother. It is the day to tell her how much we love her and how special she is for us.
Therefore, instead of merely giving material gifts, giving our mother what she needs and really wants is more precious. Showing off our love by spending more time with her, for example, will certainly give us nothing but heartfelt thanks and real gratitude from our mother.

Becoming Famous Celebrities
Famous celebrities are usually treated with respect and courtesy. They are not only admired but also respected. People will do anything to please them, simply because they are celebrities. Celebrities also earn their living easily. They are paid exorbitantly just for appearing in ceremonies. Nevertheless, famous celebrities not only deal with glamorous things. Becoming a famous celebrity has several disadvantages.
The common disadvantage which usually happens to celebrities is their loss of privacy. Their personal lives are being watched and encroached by the public. The public wants to know every single detail about them, which sometimes makes their lives more miserable.
Once the celebrities become popular, they are desperate to stay there. In order to maintain their fame, some celebrities will do anything just to appear in the tabloids. Most of them enjoy the publicity. However, they complain about the paparazzi who like taking their photographs. They claim that the paparazzi have intimidated their personal life. By doing this, the celebrities attract public sympathy.
In spite of receiving public attention, celebrities are often unable to distinguish their genuine friends from the ones. Some people would like to befriend the celebrities merely because they also want to be in the limelight. However, when the celebrities are in trouble, these friends will leave them as fast as they wanted to befriend them.
Given this situation, I would say that living a normal life, as ordinary people do, is the best way of living. Ordinary people can go anywhere or do anything they want to, without being watched or scrutinized. Therefore, do not be sad if you are not a celebrity. You can still have a wonderful life.

The Proud Boy and the Wise Old Man
Once upon a time there was a twelve-year-old boy who lived on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. This boy often acted as if he were the smartest boy in town.
One day when he was hanging out with two of his friends at the market, he saw an elderly man reading an old newspaper upside down.