Summary Writing The steps below will help you write an effective one paragraph summary: 1.Read the article once to determine the author’s main point 2.Reread the article and take notes on the main ideas 3.Write the summary. Make sure you do not include any minor points made by the author and any of your own opinions. Include: A topic sentence that states the name of the article (including author, if available) and the main point Supporting sentences that explain, in your own words, the main ideas presented in the article. An effective way to do this is by answering questions what, where, when and why A final statement that summarizes any conclusions the author made in the article 1

Summary Writing What Will Our Towns Look Like? (If We Take Care of Our Planet) Fantastic inventions made daily life easier in the past century but often at the expense of our natural resources. Gas-powered cars got us everywhere in a flash, but they polluted our air. Electric heat and light made our homes warm and welcoming but also burned up limited coal and oil. Factories revolutionized the way we worked, but industrial waste trashed rivers, streams, and oceans. Lifestyle changes on the horizon for the next 100 years may actually improve our planet’s health. We can use cleaner energy and fewer chemicals while working, playing, and bringing up families in the towns of tomorrow. This is not an impossible dream. Most of the innovations listed below already exist or are being developed. If we put our minds to it, our towns can preserve the Earth’s natural riches and still be lovely places to call home. Here’s how things might be-if we make the environment a top concern. New inventions will help us build clean, green places to live. WORK / TRANSPORTATION More adults will work in their homes and keep in touch with co-workers through computers. Others will make a short trip to a nearby office park. A few will ride swift electric trains to the nearest city. Cars and trucks will run on clean, hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Most entertainment and stores will be close by, so we’ll often travel on old-fashioned, Earth-friendly bicycles. 2

Summary Writing What Will Our Towns Look Like? (If We Take Care of Our Planet) FOOD We’ll grow fruits, grains, and vegetables close to home, whether in our gardens or on nearby organic farms. Since the farms will use natural forms of pest control, such as predatory insects, there will be far fewer chemicals in the food supply. SHOPPING Even if online stores are here to stay, there will still be a mall. But it will be small, with sidewalks and bike racks instead of a giant parking lot. An airy place in which a flood of natural light will cut down on energy use, the mall will be one big recycling operation; when you’re through using any product you buy there, the store will be required to take it back for recycling. ENERGY Our power will come from sources cleaner than coal, oil, and gas. Some energy will flow from windmills, but much of it will be generated in our own homes. Rooftop solar panels will supply electricity to our appliances and to a basement fuel cell, which will produce hydrogen. When the sun is not shining, the cell will use the hydrogen to make electricity. WASTE Plumbing lines will empty into enclosed marshes, where special plants, fish, snails, and bacteria will naturally purify wastewater. Clean water will flow back into streams and reservoirs. 3

Summary Writing What Will Our Towns Look Like? (If We Take Care of Our Planet) Summary 1 In “What Will Our Towns Look Like? (If We Take Care of Our Planet),” the author discusses new inventions that will help us build cleaner, more environmentally-friendly places to live. The author describes several lifestyle changes that might accomplish this goal within the next 100 years and predicts how things might be in the future if we are committed to protecting the environment. Specifically, the article mentions five areas that could be affected: Work / transportation, food, shopping, energy, and waste. The predictions in each area show how it will be possible to build and live in comfortable towns that still maintain Earth’s natural riches. Summary 2 This article talks about the ways we will live in the future. According to the article, gas-powered cars and trucks have added to the high level of pollution in the air we breathe. The author thinks that in the future cars and trucks will run on clean, hydrogen- powered fuel cells and our houses will be powered by windmills and solar energy. There will be rooftop solar panels on our houses to supply electricity to our appliances and to a basement fuel cell that produces hydrogen. We will eat safer food with no chemicals, drink cleaner water, and shop at stores that will be required to take products back for recycling. I think this articles had a lot of good ideas about how to make the environment a top concern. 4