Checking the Idea

Exercise 2.4. Each of the following passages is followed by a sentence that formulates its idea. If the stated idea is correct, go to the next passage. If it's not correct, write your variant of idea.

Example:

Charlie's mother was a bird-like woman. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

Idea: Carlie's mother resemled a bird.

Apparently the suggested idea is wrong. The author means that Charlie's mother was a very tiny woman.

1. There were voices in the hallway behind me. Someone yelled, "He's got a gun!" And then the voices disappeared into the background, growing fainter and fainter as my colleagues hit the back door. I could almost see them jumping out of the windows. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/

Idea: The narrator's colleagues got very frightened of the terrorist's gun and ran for safety.

2. "Are you changing jobs?"

"Thinking about it."

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know. It's too early. I haven't been looking for another position."

"Then how do you know the grass is greener if you haven't been looking?" /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/

Idea: The first speaker suggests that the grass is not yet greener in other places.

3. You are all bits of skin and bones, Clay thought. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

Idea: Clay's is large-boned

4. People that have the idea that when we entered the twentieth century we also entered an age of medical light and reason have no idea of how utterly crazy medicine could sometimes be. /Stephen King The Breathing Method/ (from Different Seasons by Stephen King)

Idea: Medicine can be very dangerous if misused.

5. Dave chose one, rolling it lovingly through his fingers. While he had long ago given up cigarettes, a good cigar was not to be resisted. /J.R. Gardner Vertical Run/

Idea: Because Dave had given up smoking, he simply enjoyed rolling a cigarette through his fingers.

5. One held the corpse of the shark by the gill slits while the other used the knife. She saw the butchery and turned away. /Jonathan Kellerman The Web/

Idea: The woman did not like sharks

5. The ocean was all-encompassing and the island seemed very small. /Jonathan Kellerman The Web/

Idea: The fragment reveals the striking contrast between the ocean and the island

5. She walked over to the girl in the chair and nudged her gently. The girl sat up like a startled rabbit. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

Idea: The girl looked like a rabbit at the moment

5. Abe Stein was among them, with a horse-faced wife. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

Idea: Abe Stein's wife was not pretty

5. "A nice lady?"

Split-second pause. "Yes." /Kellerman The Clinic/

Idea: the speaker was not sure of the positive answer

Formulating Ideas

Exercise 2.5. Read the following passages from The Clinic by J. Kellerman. Formulate the idea of each passage the way you see it, giving the suggestive phrases:

Example:

A laughing couple of students darted across the street, holding hands, wrapped up in each other. Milo had to brake hard. They kept going, unaware.

"Ah, love," I said.

"Or too many years on Walkmans and video games." /Kellerman The Clinic/

The idea conveyed in the passage is that the development of science and technology has made young people less concerned about their security, and, consequently, more exposed to danger.

One of the interlocutors explains the couple's carelessness while crossing the street by their spending "too many years on Walkmans and video games", which means that teenagers are used to listening to their Walkmans in the street and to being oblivious of what goes on around them; "video games" also contribute to danger neglecting, in the speaker's opinion, because they presuppose multiple life choice and several lives of the character, as well as energy and sometimes even life restoration during the game.

1. A microdress girl brought out two beers anyway and we drank them

2. "Professor Devane?" she said in a husky voice. "It sure took a long time." Her hands tightened around the handlebars of her bicycle.

3. I made coffee and toast and ate without tasting, thinking of the crowd at the women's clinic last night.

4. I used a pay phone in the lobby and called the number. Locking liquid voice said, "No one home. Speak or forget it." Hanging up I left the building. Then I used a library phone and gave Casey Locking's home another try. Same tape.

5. I made a call to the L.A. Medi-Cal office, was referred to an 800 number in Sacramento, put on hold for ten minutes, and cut off. Trying again, I endured another hold, got through, and was transferred to another 800 number, more holds, two shell-shocked sounding clerks, and finally someone coherent.

6. The office was big, walled in oak veneer and carpeted in beige shag. They were both positioned behind the canoe-shaped blond oak desk. A cigar smell filled the room but no ashtrays were in sight.

7. "I'm Mr. Storm's attorney of record. I handle all his business affairs." Bateman said. Junior rolled his eyes. His father tapped his sleeve with an index finger.

8. His father quickly turned to Milo: "Are you happy now, detective? Have you squeezed enough blood out of the rock? Why don't you just leave us alone and go out and catch some gang members?"

9. I was stretched on a sofa rereading the transcripts. Spike [his dog] had chosen to stay with me. Now his big head rested in my lap and he snored. Just as I put the transcripts down, the phone rang. Spike snapped upright, bounded off, and ran to the offending machine, baying.

10. The label was a work of art. I'd steamed off an old one for penicillin, whited out all the specifics but left the pharmacy's name and address and the RX, DATE, and PRESCRIBING PHYSICIAN blanks. Photocopied it, typed in the new information, put some glue on the back, stuck it back on the vial. Pretty good job, though I wasn't ready for 20-dollar bills.