Чтение и письмо: повествование с предысторией (Past Perfect Continuous, as though)
Слова урока · 4
- narrative /ˈnærətɪv/повествование
- back-story /ˈbæk stɔːri/предыстория
- foreshadow /fɔːˈʃædəʊ/предвещать
- resolution /ˌrezəˈluːʃn/развязка
Фразы урока · 2
- A narrative needs one spine and a few ribs — keep the back-story to one paragraph.Повествованию нужен один хребет и несколько рёбер — держите предысторию в одном абзаце.
- The early scene foreshadows the ending, and the resolution answers the opening question.Ранняя сцена предвещает финал, а развязка отвечает на вопрос начала.
Текст: «Рассказ: «Ключ»»
The key was on the kitchen table when I came down, which was the first strange thing, because I had left it in the door.
To go back a step: I had been house-sitting for my aunt for three weeks — watering plants, feeding a cat that did not like me — and up to that point nothing in the house had moved unless I moved it. My aunt was in Portugal. Her neighbour, Mrs Kaur, had a spare key, but she had been away since Tuesday; I had watched her taxi leave. So at seven that morning I stood in the kitchen with a cup going cold and, for whatever reason, did not touch the key. It seemed as if touching it would make it real.
Meanwhile — I found this out only later — my cousin Dan had landed at Manchester at five, having flown back early from a job that had ended badly. He had not told anyone. He still had the key my aunt had given him ten years ago, when he was seventeen and forever losing his own. Unbeknown to me, he had let himself in at six, taken one look at the stranger's coat on the hook — mine — and left again, putting the key on the table so as not to be accused of having it.
At the time, of course, I knew none of this. What I knew was that a key had moved four metres in the night, and the likeliest explanation, in all likelihood, involved a person. I checked the windows. I checked the cat, as though a cat could carry a key. I rang my aunt, who did not answer, and then — and here the two strands meet — I rang Dan, because he was the only family member awake at seven, and because, I suppose, some part of me had noticed the coat had been moved on its hook.
He answered from a café two streets away. There was a pause that, with hindsight, I understand as him deciding whether to lie. Then he said: «Was that your coat?»
It may be no coincidence that we have been closer since. That morning, though, we sat in my aunt's kitchen for an hour while he told me about the job, and I told him about the cat, and neither of us mentioned the key, which lay between us on the table like a question that had already been answered.
Задание
Напишите рассказ (narrative, 250–290 слов) о случае, когда вы поняли что-то позже, чем оно произошло (можно вымышленный): главная линия и одно объявленное отступление (to go back a step; meanwhile; which brings us back to); предыстория с точным выбором времён (had been -ing for …; had already; by then; was still … when); два плана знания (at the time; what I didn't know was; unbeknown to; only later did I realise; it was only when … that; with hindsight); впечатление и действительность (as if / as though с нужным временем; to all appearances; in reality; turned out to be); причина без ложной определённости (whether … or; I suspect; it may be no coincidence that; I can't rule out); однозначные отсылки (that same evening; the latter) и развязка, отвечающая на вопрос начала.
Образец ответа
The empty seat
The seat next to mine on the 7.40 was empty for the first time in two years, which, at the time, I took as luck.
To go back a step: for those two years a woman in a green coat had sat there every weekday, and we had never spoken beyond «morning». I had been reading the same paper she read; she had been finishing the crossword I could not finish. Up to that point, I would have said I knew nothing about her. That Monday the seat was empty, and it was still empty on Tuesday, and by Thursday I had stopped looking.
Meanwhile — I found this out only later — she had been in the hospital at the end of the line since the Sunday, having collapsed on the platform where I had never once seen her arrive, because she boarded two stops before me. Unbeknown to me, the guard had asked the regulars in my carriage whether anyone knew her name. Nobody did. I had been on the earlier train that day.
What I didn't know, sitting with the whole seat to myself, was that the crossword was in my bag. She had left it, half done, the Friday before, and I had picked it up as if it were mine. It looked, to all appearances, like a puzzle. In reality it had her name on the back, in pencil, and a phone number I still cannot explain — whether she had written it for someone else or, conceivably, for me, I never found out.
Which brings us back to Thursday. It was only when I turned the page to finish her last clue that I saw the name. That same evening I rang the number; her sister answered.
With hindsight, the empty seat was never luck. It may be no coincidence that I have talked to every stranger on that train since.
lightbulbРассказ с планами: main thread → to go back a step (had been -ing, by then) → meanwhile, unbeknown to (вторая линия) → what I didn't know was, as if / to all appearances … in reality → which brings us back to, it was only when … that, that same evening → with hindsight, it may be no coincidence.
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