2.7: Model Paragraphs

Modal Passages: Present and Future

Driving during Rush Hour

To drive safely in a big city during rush hour, inexperienced drivers should follow my advice to always drive carefully and avoid accidents.  In rush hour traffic, they should be alert and watch out for cars traveling in front of them, behind them, and along side of them.  Rush hour driving can make many drivers nervous, but especially inexperienced drivers may have a difficult time when there are a lot of other cars around.  In big cities, some people might drive very fast on freeways during rush hour, and this can cause accidents.  Drivers are often in a hurry, so some of them will exceed the speed limit.  Some may even exceed it by quite a bit, which can frighten other drivers.  Also, sometimes drivers who are in a hurry will actually pass other drivers when they should not in fact do so.  These drivers can and do often cause accidents.  Therefore, inexperienced drivers should always drive in the right hand lane on freeways in order to avoid these unsafe drivers.  In addition, when driving on freeways, inexperienced drivers should always read and pay attention to the exit signs.  Some exits off freeways can be confusing, and if a driver is in the wrong lane, it could cause an accident if he tries to exit.  Finally, inexperienced drivers should slow down on curves because they can be very dangerous and if a driver takes a curve too quickly, that driver might lose control of his car and flip it over.  Thus, driving during rush hour can be a dangerous experience, but with my advice, inexperienced drivers should be able to drive safely in a big city. 

 

Advice on Planting a Garden in Seattle

Planting a new garden can be a big problem for an inexperienced gardener.  First of all, the gardener must decide what to plant.  In Seattle, he can plant very many different vegetables and flowers.  There are, however, many tropical plants which will not grow in Seattle.  For example, a gardener shouldn’t try to plant chili peppers outside because they won’t often grow well here because of the cool weather.  However, for the most part, plants grow very well in Seattle’s climate.  Therefore, the inexperienced gardener ought to consult both books and magazines about what grows well in Seattle, or he might want to ask other gardeners for advice.  The more knowledge that a gardener has before planting, the better off he will be when he actually puts the seeds in the ground.  Because of Seattle’s cool weather, plants which bear fruit like tomatoes and squash should be planted outside in May.  Leafy plants like lettuce and spinach, however, can be planted directly outside in March.  Also, Seattle gardeners may also plant leafy vegetables in mid to late summer for a fall crop.  Gardeners should plant beans some time in May as they have to have warm soil in order to germinate.  As far as fertilizers go, gardeners must fertilize their soil every year.  I think gardeners should use organic fertilizers and should not use chemicals on the soil.  Chemicals can be dangerous to health if they are not used properly.  Also, chemicals might get into the ground water, which can make them hazardous to humans.   So these are some suggestions I have for inexperienced gardeners in the Seattle area.

 

 “Should and Ought to” (Advice for Raising Children)

There are lots of things that children should do in life so that they can make good progress and be good kids.  For example, children should always obey their parents and grandparents.  These are people who always have the children’s best interests in mind and will always give the children the best possible advice.  Of course, the advice may not always be correct, but children should always at least consider it.  In addition, children ought to have good manners and be polite, especially with people who are older than they are.  They should always be respectful of adults and should never cause their parents to be ashamed.  On the contrary, children should always try to make their parents proud of them; therefore, they should act in a well-mannered fashion.  On the other hand, children shouldn’t be lazy.  They should work hard and try to help out around the home.  They should do chores and little jobs to make their parents’ life easier.  Furthermore, children should be hard working in school.  They should study hard and not fool around in class.  They should definitely do as their teachers tell them.  However, they should never talk back to their teachers.  This will, for sure, make teachers angry at students, and students should always be careful not to make their teachers angry.  Finally, it is the parents who should have the most control and influence over the children.  Parents should work hard to make sure that their children are respectful, not lazy, help around the house, and study hard.  Parents should do this, but sometimes parents don’t.  This can cause problems for their children, and parents shouldn’t cause their children to have problems.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Parents should raise their children to avoid problems if they can.  Thus, this is my advice about how parents and children should conduct themselves.

 

Growing Up

I used to live with my parents in Massachusetts when I was a boy.  Every day my brother, sister and I would get up and go to school.  Before we left the house, my mother would make breakfast for us so that we wouldn't be hungry during the morning.  Sometimes I ate bacon and eggs, but I would usually eat cereal and fruit.  After we got to school, we would study all day long, and then we would come home.  As soon as we got home, we could have a snack before we did our homework.  After we did our homework, we could either go out and play or stay in and watch TV.  Usually I would go out and play with my friends.  In summer, we would play summer sports like baseball and swimming.  In winter, we would play winter sports like ice skating and sledding.  Once when we were sledding, a friend of mine crashed into a car.  Luckily, he didn't get hurt.

 

(Very Sad) Past Time Story # 2:  Used to, Would, Could

I used to have long wavy hair when I was younger.  I always knew that I wouldn't have hair for a long time because all of the men in my mother's family and all of the men in my father's family were bald.  Therefore, I knew that one day I would wake up bald, too.  However, when I had hair, I would wash it almost every evening.  In addition, I would comb it every morning.   At that time, I never wore a hat because my hair protected my head from the heat and cold.  In fact, I could walk around outside in any weather and not worry about my head burning or freezing.  Whenever I needed a haircut, I would go to my grandfather's barbershop, and he would take his time cutting my hair and making it look nice.  After that, he would give me a shave.  He would use one of his straight razors and shave my face perfectly.  After he gave me a haircut and shave, he would massage my head.  It felt very good when he did that.  When I was about 18 years old, I noticed that the hair on the sides of my forehead wasn't where it had been before; it was receding.  Right then, I knew I was doomed.  I knew I would have less and less hair as time went by.  I knew I would be bald, just like all of the other men in my family.

 

Football

              I used to play football when I was in junior high school and in high school.  Every afternoon right after school was finished, I would go down to the gym, take off my street clothes, and put on my pads and practice jersey.  As soon as I was dressed, I would go out to the practice field, do my running and other exercises, and get ready to practice.  The team would then run through football plays that we would use for the upcoming game on either Friday or Saturday.  First, we would go through the offensive plays and then we would run the defensive plays.  The coaches or the team captains would lead us while we were practicing.  We would practice for about two hours every afternoon.  After that, we would take off our jerseys and pads, take a shower, and go home.  When it was time for a game, we would either play at home, or we would have to take a bus to a different town.  When I was in junior high school, I always started, both on offense and on defense.  When I got to high school, however, I never started a game.  I was too skinny and too slow to play with the big boys.  Nevertheless, I played on my high school team all four years because I liked playing very much.  If I had been a bigger boy, I am sure I would have played a lot more.  However, I was too light and too slow, so I would only play when my team was way ahead in games or way behind in games.  My “position” during games would always be “bench warmer.”

 

An Exotic Trek

I used to go hiking all of the time.  (Of course, this was a long time ago.)  I would head off into mountains, jungles, forests, and even sometimes deserts.  Many times I would go to certain places just to go hiking.  For example, I have walked for over 1000 miles in the Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world.  The first time I went there was in 1976, when my friend Roger and I went overland from Iran to Nepal so that we could go hiking.  Everyday Roger and I would get up early so that we could get an early start.  We also got up early because we would often have to sleep with the chickens.  Needless to say, the roosters would signal the start of the day by “singing” their lovely song.  We could do nothing else but get up and get going.  Daily, the roosters would never allow “sleeping in,” so we would roll up our sleeping bags and other gear and start walking.  During the day, we would walk through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world.  We were not in a hurry, so we could stop any time we wanted to and just admire the beauty of nature.  In the background, there would always be very high, snow-capped mountains.  One night we spent the evening with a Nepali family in their beautifully carved house.  The family lived along the trail and Roger and I just happened upon the house at the time of day when we would normally stop for the day.  We were given a corner of the one-bed-roomed house to lay out our sleeping bags and get ready for dinner.  After dinner, from the porch of the house, when the sun had set into these mountains directly across a deep valley with five waterfalls glistening in the evening’s fading light, Roger and I sat with the family, all of us eyeing each other and realizing that we were both as different as we were similar to each other.  Soon after dinner, the man of the family took out some paraphernalia of some sort and began setting up for something.  Soon he started praying and chanting in the language of that region of Nepal, Helambu.  He burned incense, rang bells and chimes, and went through the evening prayer service of the Himalayan Lamists.  It was very fascinating and interesting for us.  It was one very lucky moment in our lives.  The next morning, we got up and continued our hike, as usual.  We would see and experience many more events on this hike, and could talk about them afterwards, but perhaps they are for another paragraph.

 

High School Friends

I used to hang out with and have a lot of fun with a lot of boys my age when I was in high school.  My friend Bruce would always pick me and a couple of other guys up before school and drive us to Attleboro High School in Attleboro, Massachusetts.  Bruce would arrive at my house at 7:30 AM, and I would run out to his car and jump in.  The radio would always be on, and there would be loud, rock and roll music playing.  Because I was the first one picked up, I would always sit in the front seat.  I would ride “shot gun.”  We would then go and pick up the other guys.  Instead of picking us up, Bruce could have stayed in bed a little longer and gotten more sleep, but I think he must have enjoyed us and the fun we had on our way to school.  We would usually stop on the way to get coffee and doughnuts.  Although many of us wanted to get a real breakfast, we couldn’t order one because it took too much time.  Once we got to school, we would join our other friends and hang around outside until the bell for classes rang.  When it rang, we would all go to our separate classes.  After school, most of us would go for sporting practice such as for football, basketball, or baseball.  We would also sometimes get together in the evening.  Of course, we should have stayed home and studied or read a book, but we would go out just the same.  We would drive around looking for trouble, getting into trouble, and then getting out of trouble.  We were all good boys, but we were a group of boys together.  We never got into any real trouble, however.  Once when it was snowing and the roads were icy, Bruce was driving too fast and skidded into another car.  He may not have seen the car stopped in front of us.  I don’t know.  But I do know that he shouldn’t have driven so fast in those weather conditions, but he did and the result was the accident.  None of us was hurt seriously, but the accident could have caused injuries because it was pretty bad.  Bruce had to have his car repaired and also had to pay a ticket for reckless driving.  He must not have been very happy after the accident.  When Bruce’s car was finally fixed, he would again come each morning to pick us all up and take us to school.  Those times and boys are fond memories of my youth.