Step Two: Double-underline the complete verb phrases and underline the subjects in the following passage. Circle the time markers. Remember a time marker can be implied by the context of the passage. Fill in the chart below. In the fourth column, label the time frame of the verbs: past or present/future. Alas, I am also aware that even as mainstream Americans are beginning to wonder if our way of life has a direct consequence on the weather, everyone else wants to become us. From China to Bombay, from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro—everyone wants a piece of the good life in the American style. Our collective desires are putting more pressure on ecosystems already on the brink.

A while back, walking home here in San Francisco, I saw two old Chinese ladies looking for aluminum cans and plastic bottles in a garbage bin behind a restaurant near my home. One of the workers came out and yelled at the old ladies to stop.

As I watched the two elders scurrying away into the shadows, I thought of my own humble past. But I fear that, with the way things go, with global warming threatening to undermine our civilization, those two old scavengers may well represent our own retro-future.