The Legend of Rawa Pening

Once upon a time, there was a little poor boy came into a village. He was very hungry
and weak. He knocked at every door and asked for some food, but nobody helped him.
Finally, a generous gave him a meal. When the boy wanted to leave, she gave him a
“lesung”, a big wooden mortar for pounding rice. She reminded him, “Please remember if there
is a flood you must save yourself. Use this “lesung” as a boat”. The poor boy was thanked to the
old woman.
While the little boy was passing through the village, he saw many people gathering on the
field. People challenged each other to pull out a stick that stuck on the ground, but nobody
succeeded. “Can I try?” asked the little boy. The crowd laughed mockingly. He stepped forward
and pulled out the stick easily. Everybody was surprised.
Suddenly from the hole left by stick, water spouted out. It did not stop until it flooded the
village. And no one was saved from the water except the little boy and the generous old woman
who gave him a meal. As she told him, he used the “lesung” asboat and picked up the old
woman. The whole village became a huge lake. It is now known as Rawa Pening Lake in
Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia.
(Adapted from http://bel-ing.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-legend-of-rawa-pening.html)

1. Determining the Main Idea

Here is an example question about the main idea can be: what is the determining the main idea of

the second paragraph?

Here is the second paragraph of The Legend of Rawa Peningin determining the main idea.

Finally, a generous gave him a meal. When the boy wanted to leave, she gave him a
“lesung”, a big wooden mortar for pounding rice. She reminded him, “Please remember if there
is a flood you must save yourself. Use this “lesung” as a boat”. The poor boy has thanked the
old woman.
Thereby, the answer of the question is “a generous woman helped him” because that paragraph is

mostly about the generous woman that give “lesung” to the poor boy. The determining main idea

is found at the beginning of a paragraph or deductive paragraph. In brief, the main idea directs

the reader to detect the main information of the passage or the paragraph.

2. Findingthe Specific Informationor Supporting Detail

Here is an example question about finding specific information can be: why was everybody in the

village surprised?

Here is the example paragraph to find the specific information.

 While the little boy was passing through the village, he saw many people gathering on the
field. People challenged each other to pull out a stick that stuck on the ground, but nobody
succeeded. “Can I try?” asked the little boy. The crowd laughed mockingly. He stepped forward
and pulled out the stick easily. Everybody was surprised.
As a result, the answer of the question is “the poor boy succeeded to pull out the stick”because,

in the third paragraph, the poor boy stepped forward and pull out the stick easily everybody was

surprised. In this case, it gives the detail informationabout the reason (cause and effect).

3. FindingReference

Here is an example question about finding reference can be: “he was very hungry and weak.” the

word “he” refers to...”

Here is the example paragraph for finding the reference.

Once upon a time, there was a little poor boy came into a village. He was very hungry
and weak. He knocked at every door and asked for some food, but nobody helped him.

Therefore, the answer of the question is a little poor boy. The word “he” is called reference

because he is pronoun to refer “a little poor boy”.

4. MakingInference

Here is an example question about finding inference can be: which statement is not true based on

the text?

Here is the example paragraph to make making an inference.

While the little boy was passing through the village, he saw many people gathering on the
field. People challenged each other to pull out a stick that stuck on the ground, but nobody
succeeded. “Can I try?” asked the little boy. The crowd laughed mockingly. He stepped forward
and pulled out the stick easily. Everybody was surprised.
Thus, the answer of the question is “the boy could pull out the stick effortlessly”because based

on the text, the true statement is “the boy pulled out the stick easily”. That statement is in the

third paragraph.

5. Understanding Vocabulary
Here is an example question about understanding vocabulary can be: 1) “... the whole village

became a huge lake. The antonym of the word “huge” is.....”. 2) “...... the generous old woman

who gave him a meal.” The synonym of the word “generous” is.....”. The question will

brainstorm students’ understanding of vocabulary skill in answering the antonym and synonym

of the word.

Regarding Chung and Pannebaker (2007:345), there are two types of vocabulary such as (1)

content word, and (2) function word. Consider the analysis of parts of speech. This study mainly

focuses on content word analysis. As the explanation above, in general, the paragraph below

consists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The reader will find certain parts of speech

analyzed like the following.

1) Content words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. A noun tells about the

objects, a verb tellsabout the action happening, an adjective gives detail about objects and

people, and an adverb tells about how, when or where something is done. More

specifically, each of the content words is further described as follows.

a. Nouns. According to Loos (2003) in Khaula (2013:10), a noun is a word that refers to

a person, a place, or a thing. Thus, the word is a noun. It can be divided into:

a) A collectivenoun is the name of a number (or collection) of persons or things

taken together and spoken of as one whole. For example, family and committee. In

fact, there is no collective noun used in the text.

b) An abstractnoun is usually the name of a quality, action, or state considered apart

from the object to which it belongs.For example, “He was very hungry and

weak” the bold words in this sentence are abstract nouns.

Another classification of nouns is whether they are countable oruncountable.

a) Countable noun refers to entities which can be counted, have singular and plural

forms and have a clear distinction between definite and indefinite forms. For
 example, “finally, a generous gave him a meal” the bold word in this sentences is

the countable noun.

b) Uncountable noun refers to entities which cannot be counted and usually do not

vary in the number. They usually do not take the indefinite article but allow a

contrast between an indefinite and a definite form. For example, “..... if there is a

flood you must save yourself” the bold word in this sentence is an uncountable

noun.

b. Verbs. Since this study uses narrative text which used past tense, the verbs are

focused on the regular verbs and irregular verbs. According to Jacobson (1980:50-

60), verbs can be divided into two parts below.

a) Regular verbs are those whose past tense and past participles are formed by

adding a -d or an -ed to the end of the verb. For example, “he knocked at every

door and asked for some food......” the words knock become knocked, and ask

become asked as in the sentenceare regular verbs.

b) Irregular verbs as the changed forms of these verbs are often un unrecognizably

different from the originals. For example, “.... she gave him a “lesung” the word

givebecome gaveas in the sentence is irregular verbs.

c. Adjectives. Pustet (1989:11) states that a word used with a noun to describe or point out,

the person, animal, place or thing which the noun names, or to tell the number or

quantity, is called an adjective. Adjectives may be divided into the following parts.

a) Adjective of a numeral shows how many persons or things are meant which is

referred by a number. For example, “… he saw many people gathering on the

field” the word manyas in the sentence is the adjective of the numeral.
 b) Adjective of quality shows the kind or quality of a person or thing. For example,

“..... there was a little poor boy came into a village” the word poor as in the

sentenceis the adjectives of quality.

c) Adjective of quantity shows how much of a thing is meant as. For example, “....

and asked for some food” the word some in the sentence is the adjectives of

quantity.

d. Adverbs. Referring to Himmelmann & Schultze-Berndt (2005:8), an adverb is a word

which modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs are

often classified according to their lexical semantics such as (1) adverb of degree, (2)

adverb of manner, (3) adverb of place, (4) adverb of time. More specifically, each of

the content words can be seen below.

a) Adverb of degree explains the level or intensity of a verb, adjective, or even another

adverb. For example, “he was very hungry and weak” the wordvery as in the sentence

is the adverb of degree.

b) Adverb of manner provides more information about how a verb is done. Adverb of

manner is probably the most common of all adverbs. They’re easy to spot too. Most

of them will end in –ly.For example, “he lived happilyever after…” the wordhappily

as in the sentence is the adverb of manner.

c) Adverb of place illustrates where the verb is happening. It is usually placed after the

main verb or object or at the end of the sentence.For example, “once upon a time,

there was little poor boy came into a village” the wordsinto a village as in the

sentence is the adverb of place.

d) Adverb of time provides more information about when a verb takes place. Adverb of

time is usually placed at the beginning or end of a sentence. When it is of particular

importance to express the moment something happened we will put it at the start of a
 sentence. For example, “once upon a time, there was a little poor boy…” the words

once upon a time as in the sentence is the adverb of time.

2) Function words. Nordquist (2018:1-3) state that function words include pronouns,

prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. More specifically, each of the content words is

further described as follows.

a. Pronouns. Richard (2018:2) defines that pronouns are words that stand in for nouns.Their

antecedent needs to be clear, or your reader will be confused. For example, “he was very

hungry and weak” the wordhe as in the sentence is a pronoun as a little poor boy.

b. Prepositions begin prepositional phrases, which contain nouns and other modifiers.

Prepositions function to give more information about nouns. For example, “once upon a

time, there was a little poor boy came into a village” the wordinto as in the sentence is

the preposition.

c. Articlesare actually adjective the nouns are actually adjectives because they describe the

nouns that they precede. There are only three articles such as the, a, and an. For example,

“finally, a generous gave him a meal” the wordan as in the sentence is the article.

d. Conjunctions. Regarding Nordquist (2018:2) define conjunctions as a connective part of a

sentence, such as items in a list, two separate sentences, or clauses and phrases to a

sentence. For example, “he was very hungry and weak” the word and as in this

sentenceis the conjunction.

Therefore, the researcher used those five reading aspects in the reading comprehension test in

terms of macro skills because they are very essential for the students to improve students’

reading comprehension ability.