Чтение и письмо: колонка и текст выступления (инверсия и параллелизм)
Слова урока · 4
- column /ˈkɒləm/авторская колонка
- script /skrɪpt/текст выступления
- for the ear /fə ði ˈɪə/для восприятия на слух
- opening line /ˌəʊpənɪŋ ˈlaɪn/первая фраза
Фразы урока · 2
- The column runs every Friday; write the script for the ear, not the eye.Колонка выходит каждую пятницу; пишите текст для уха, а не для глаза.
- Short sentences work for the ear — the opening line must earn the next minute.Короткие фразы работают на слух — первая фраза должна заработать следующую минуту.
Текст: «Авторская колонка: «Не в этом году»»
Every council in the country has a phrase for saying no without saying it, and ours is «not this year». It is a kind phrase. It concedes the goal, praises the effort and postpones the money, and it has been said to the campaign for a lift at Northfield station for eleven consecutive years. Rarely has a single sentence cost so many people so many stairs.
Let me be precise about what the campaign is asking for, because precision is what «not this year» relies on us not having. Northfield has forty-two steps between the ticket hall and the northbound platform. There is no lift. Wheelchair users, parents with pushchairs and roughly a third of the town's pensioners cannot use the northbound side without help, which means they cannot use the station at all unless they are travelling south. The lift would cost £1.4 million. The council's transport budget is £38 million a year.
Not once in eleven years has the council said the lift is unnecessary. Not once has it said the cost is unreasonable. What it has said, every year, is that other things came first — and every year, something did. A roundabout. A car park. A cycle lane, which I supported, and which cost £1.9 million. Only when you put the eleven «other things» in a list do you see the pattern: each was a project that people in cars could use.
I do not think this is malice. I think it is arithmetic. A roundabout serves 20,000 drivers a day; a lift serves perhaps 300 people who cannot climb. Divide the cost by the users and the lift loses every time. But that is precisely the arithmetic a council exists to override. The 20,000 have alternatives. The 300 have a wall of stairs and a phrase.
So here is a modest proposal, proportionate to a modest sum: put the lift at the top of next year's list, not the bottom, and let the roundabout wait. Not only would it cost less than 4 % of one year's budget, but it would end the only «not this year» that has lasted long enough to have a birthday. And if the council cannot find £1.4 million in £38 million, it should say so — plainly, in those words — rather than in the kind phrase that has served it so well for so long.
Задание
Напишите текст краткого выступления (script, 240–280 слов, на две минуты) на собрании жителей или родителей по вашему выбору (например: лифт на станции, сад вместо парковки, вечерний автобус): зацепка — число, случай или контраст (opening line); позиция и цель (I'm not here to …; I'm here to argue that …; what I'm asking for and what I'm not); две инверсии (Rarely have …; Not once …; Not until … will …; Only when … can …); параллельные конструкции (not only … but also; either … or; the more … the more) и правило трёх; соразмерная рекомендация (a modest proposal; proportionate; I urge you to); финал, возвращающийся к началу (come full circle; leave you with). Пишите для уха: короткие фразы, разметьте паузы вертикальной чертой |.
Образец ответа
Forty-two steps
Forty-two. | That's how many steps there are between the ticket hall and the northbound platform at our station. | I counted them last week, | carrying my mother's wheelchair, | because there is no lift.
I'm not here to complain about the council. | I'm here to ask for one thing, | and to explain why it should come first.
Not once in eleven years has anyone said the lift is unnecessary. | Not once has anyone said it costs too much. | What they have said, every year, is «not this year» — | and every year something else came first: | a roundabout, | a car park, | a cycle lane. | Only when you put those eleven things side by side | do you see what they have in common. | Every one of them was for people in cars.
So here is what I'm asking for, | and here is what I'm not. | I'm asking for one lift, | at the top of next year's list, | not the bottom. | I'm not asking for a new station, | and I'm not asking for money from anyone but the budget that built the roundabout. | One lift. | One list. | One year.
Not only would it cost less than four per cent of a single year's transport budget, | but it would open the station to the three hundred people who cannot use it now — | pensioners, | wheelchair users, | parents with pushchairs. | Either we put them at the top this year, | or we put them at the bottom again — | and the longer we wait, | the more of them will simply stop coming into town.
I began with forty-two steps. | I'd like to end with none. | I urge you to vote for the lift on Tuesday — | and to say, plainly, if the answer is no. | Thank you.
lightbulbТекст выступления для уха: число-зацепка → I'm not here to … I'm here to … → инверсии (Not once has, Only when … do) → what I'm asking for and what I'm not, rule of three → not only … but also, either … or, the more … the more → full circle, I urge you to. Паузы размечены |.
Закрепите урок: упражнения со словами, фразами и грамматикой с проверкой и повторением.