Lesson 8 Polaroid ①
1、Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can’t—and, in fact, you’re not supposed to—know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing. First you just point at what has your attention and take the picture. In the last chapter, for instance, what had my attention were the contents of my lunch bag. But as the picture developed, I found I had a really clear image of the boy against the fence. Or maybe your Polaroid was supposed to be a picture of that boy against the fence, and you didn’t notice until the last minute that a family was standing a few feet away from him. Now, maybe it’s his family, or the family of one of the kids in his class, but at any rate these people are going to be in the photograph, too.Then the film emerges ② from the camera with a grayish green murkiness ③ that gradually becomes clearer and clearer, and finally you see the husband and wife holding their baby with two children standing beside them. And at first it all seems very sweet,but then the shadows begin to appear, and then you start to see the animal tragedy, the baboons ④ showing their teeth. And then you see a flash of bright red flowers in the bottom left quadrant ⑤ that you didn’t even know were in the picture when you took it,and these flowers evoke a time or a memory that moves you mysteriously. And finally,as the portrait comes into focus, you begin to notice all the props ⑥ surrounding these people, and you begin to understand how props define us and comfort us, and show us what we value and what we need, and who we think we are.
2、You couldn’t have had any way of knowing what this piece of work would look like when you first started. You just knew that there was something about these people that compelled ⑦ you, and you stayed with that something long enough for it to show you what it was about.
3、Watch this Polaroid develop:
4、Six or seven years ago I was asked to write an article on the Special Olympics. I had been going to the local event for years, partly because a couple of friends of mine compete. Also, I love sports, and I love to watch athletes, special or otherwise. So I showed up this time with a great deal of interest but no real sense of what the finished article might look like.
5、Things tend to go very, very slowly at the Special Olympics. It is not like trying to cover the Preakness. Still, it has its own exhilaration, and I cheered and took notes all morning.
6、The last track-and-field event before lunch was a twenty-five-yard race run by some unusually handicapped ⑧ runners and walkers, many of whom seemed completely confused. They lumped ⑨ and careened ⑩ along, one man making a snail-slow break for the stands, one heading out toward the steps where the winners receive their medals;both of them were shepherded back. The race took just about forever. And here it was nearly noon and we were all so hungry. Finally, though, everyone crossed over the line,and those of us in the stands got up to go—when we noticed that way down the track,four or five yards from the starting line, was another runner.
7、She was a girl of about sixteen with a normal-looking face above a damaged and emaciated, body. She was on metal crutches-, and she was just dragging along, one tiny step after another, moving one crutch forward two or three inches, then moving a leg, then moving the other crutch two or three inches, then moving the other leg. It was just excruciating.. Plus, I was starving to death. Inside I was going, Come on, come on,come on, wiping my forehead with anxiety, while she kept taking these two- or threeinch steps forward. What felt like four hours later, she crossed the finish line, and you could see that she was absolutely stoked/, in a shy, girlish way.
8、A tall African American man with no front teeth fell into step with me as I left the bleachers0 to go look for some lunch. He pulled on the sleeve of my sweater, and I looked up at him, and he handed me a Polaroid someone had taken of him and his friends that day. “Look at us,” he said. His speech was difficult to understand, thick and slow as a distorted1 record. His two friends in the picture had Down’s syndrome2.All three of them looked extremely pleased with themselves. I admired the picture and then handed it back to him. He stopped, so I stopped, too. He pointed to his own image.“That,” he said, “is one cool man.”
9、And this was the image from which an article began forming, although I could not have told you exactly what the piece would end up being about. I just knew that something had started to emerge.
10、After lunch I wandered over to the auditorium3, where it turned out a men’s basketball game was in progress. The African American man with no front teeth was the star of the game. You could tell that he was because even though no one had made a basket yet, his teammates almost always passed him the ball. Even the people on the other team passed him the ball a lot. In lieu of any scoring, the men stampeded4 in slow motion up and down the court, dribbling5 the ball thunderously. I had never heard such a loud game. It was all sort of crazily beautiful. I imagined describing the game for my article and then for my students: the loudness, the joy. I kept replaying the scene of the girl on crutches making her way up the track to the finish line—and all of a sudden my article began to appear out of the grayish green murk. And I could see that it was about tragedy transformed over the years into joy. It was about the beauty of sheer6 effort.I could see it almost as clearly as I could the photograph of that one cool man and his two friends.
11、The auditorium bleachers were packed. Then a few minutes later, still with no score on the board, the tall black man dribbled slowly from one end of the court to the other, and threw the ball up into the air, and it dropped into the basket. The crowd roared7, and all the men on both teams looked up wide-eyed at the hoop, as if it had just burst into flames.
12、You would have loved it, I tell my students. You would have felt like you could write all day.
(1,149 words)
Exercises
Ⅰ. How well did you read?
1. [Guess the background] What might be the occupation of the author?
A. An athlete. B. A writing teacher.
C. A reporter. D. A parent of a disabled child.
2. [Find the similarity] How is developing a Polaroid similar to the writing process?
A. They both involve the transformation from vagueness to clarity.
B. They both take time to reveal the whole picture.
C. They both surprise the author or the developer.
D. They both work towards a specific goal.
3. [Understand the main idea] What is the main point the author is trying to convey?
A. Competitors in the Special Olympics live a sad life.
B. She is content with her life because she is healthy.
C. Through the beauty of sheer effort, tragedy could transform into joy.
D. The author equally loves to write and develop Polaroid’s.
4. [Determine the purpose] What is the purpose of Para. 1 in the detailed description of a Polaroid?
A. To say that props show us what we value and what we need, and who we think we are.
B. To demonstrate that different people view the same picture from various perspectives.
C. To brag about how well she could write a narrative.
D. To emphasize that people need to wait long enough to discover what compels you.
Ⅱ. Read for words and expressions:
1. Choose one best paraphrase for the underlined words.
(1) …and these flowers evoke a time or a memory that moves you mysteriously.(Para. 1, line 16)
A. arouse B. involve C. diminish
(2) Still, it has its own exhilaration, and I cheered and took notes all morning.(Para. 5,line 2)
A. dimension B. happiness C. depression
2. Choose one best paraphrase for the underlined expression.
(1) Now, maybe it’s his family, or the family of one of the kids in his class, but at any rate these people are going to be in the photograph, too. (Para. 1, line 9)
A. in any case B. at no expense C. soon enough
(2) …one heading out toward the steps where the winners receive their medals. (Para. 6,line 4)
A. facing out B. going to C. turning into
(3) In lieu of any scoring, the men stampeded in slow motion up and down the court,dribbling the ball thunderously. (Para. 10, line 5)
A. In regards to B. In spite of C. Instead of