PARSING ACTIVITY NO. 2

DIRECTIONS. In your one whole sheet of clean pad paper, copy and identify all nouns, pronouns, and verbs. After which, identify as to what kind of nouns, pronouns, or verbs are they. Right answers minus wrong answers.

Example:

Jobert=noun, proper noun, concrete noun, count noun


Almost Perfect
By Odessa Flor C Banaña

START HERE

I always thought that I have a perfect life – a life that everyone wants and wishes to have. I have a set of dependable friends, a stable and sec65ure financial stature, a home filled with love and warmth, and a family that always supports my endeavors. This was my life – a life without worries, a life without anything to be afraid of. Yet, everything started to collapse downhill, as fast as the blink of an eye.

It was a cold night in March 1996. The wind blew hard across our windows, making our curtains dance. I was very busy making my assignments then when my older sister approached me with a mournful look. She informed me that our father figured in a horrific helicopter crash during a thunderstorm in Samar. He was a full-colonel back then and a commanding officer of the 83rd Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. I cried all day, but at the back of my mind, I knew that I had to be strong.

After two days, which seemed an eternity, rescuers found my father’s remains, the sign of his death. I refused to believe and I thought that it was a joke. I knew that my father was not like that. I knew that he love us and he would never leave us in the middle of everything.

I was eight years-old then. I had a two-month-old brother and a one-year-old sister. My mother was unemployed, and there was no way we could survive except for my father’s meager monthly pension. The hard truth finally took its toll. There was no reason of hiding it anymore. It was a bitter reality in our lives. My mother told us that we must understand that the accident was just one of the many challenges that we had to face. She embraced us so tight. I was so daunted. My mother still had the courage to advise us to be strong though I felt that she was hurting inside. I knew that I was not the only one suffering. We lost a big part of ourselves, yet the warmth of my mother’s smile told me that she was keeping herself strong for us.

We lived within our means and moved to public schools. No more mallings on weekends. No more extra things not needed. No more worldly presumptuousness. I lost my interest in my studies and my grades went down. Everyday, I asked myself why we had to experience all of these.

However, I knew that my mother was right. We accepted that the accident was beyond our control. We realized that we must not keep ourselves miserable for the rest of our lives. We moved on and took the road less traveled.

Now, things are starting to shine. My mother moved to New York where she landed a good job. My two older sisters are already in college, striving hard to attain their mountain-high goals. I am about to finish high school, and I cannot wait to attend college already. My two younger siblings are honor pupils in their respective grade schools.

I do not consider our loss bleak and pitiful, but I consider it a reason for our family to become stronger. I realize that life will not always be the way we want it to be but despite that, it offers great lessons to all.

As we continue to live our lives without a father and without a mother near us, I am still thankful that the perfect life that we almost had before is slowly coming back.