arrangements.

6. You and some friends are planning a hiking tour, but you want to do something unusual.

7. You are going on a hiking tour and have discovered that you have no rucksack. You remember your friend Jane

has an old rucksack that she probably isn't using. You telephone her.

8. Your friend Bob has agreed to come with you and two other friends on a hiking tour. Suddenly he changes his

mind and says he wants to go to the seaside. You try to persuade him to stay with you.

9. You and your sister are on a walking tour. Your sister has decided that you need to slim and has placed two raw

eggs in a glass in front of you as your dinner.

10. Give two descriptions of hiking tours. In one of them describe the tour from the point of view of an

ardent hiker, in the other describe the tour from the point of view of a tour-hater.

11. Imagine that you are a newly employed teacher and you are anxious to impress on your Headmistress the importance of

hiking tours.

6. Telling a Story.

We often want to tell people stories in the form of long narratives. It may be the story of a film, or a book, or a true story of events

that have happened to us — or even a joke or a funny story.

To keep the narrative going you need various "narrative techniques" to give variety and interest to the story.

So instead of saying: "He fell into the sea," you can say: "What happened to him was that he fell into the sea," and instead of say -

ing: "He opened the letter," you can say: "What he did was open the letter," or even: "What happened was that he opened the letter."

Another narrative technique is to involve the listener in the story by asking him or her to guess what happened next, or how

someone in the story felt:

You can guess how he felt.

What do you think he did?

And then do you know what he did?

Imagine my surprise when he ...

You'll never guess what happened next.

Narrative techniques like these will help make a story more dramatic.

7.Read the text and retell it. Use the narrative techniques of Ex. 6.

Picnic

My elderly cousin came to stay with us just before our youngest daughter's birthday. We were a little apprehensive whether we

ought to arrange the usual picnic celebration because my cousin loathes meals in the open air. However she was determined not to

spoil our plans and said she did not mind being left at home. On the day itself, seized by some sudden impulse, she elected to come

with us, much to our surprise. It was certainly a day to tempt anyone out, even the most inveterate anti-picnicker: a clear blue sky,

glorious sunshine and a gentle breeze.

We duly arrived at our favourite picnic site, a field beside a river, and everybody, except my cousin, had a lovely and most re-

freshing bathe before we settled ourselves for our meal under the willow trees. While we were eating, a herd of cows from the ad-

joining field began to amble through the open gateway, unnoticed by my cousin. We like cows but guessed that they would be as

little to her fancy as picnics and so hoped that they would go quietly back, satisfied that we were harmless. But one by one they

gradually advanced nearer and nearer. When my cousin chanced to look up, their eyes confronted hers. With one shriek of horror she

leapt into the air and ran, not to the car, where she might have taken refuge, but towards a gap in the hedge, so small that she could

not possibly have crawled through it. The cows, full of curiosity, gave chase. We were convulsed with laughter but my husband

managed to pull himself together, rounded up the cows, drove them back through the gateway and shut the gate. We thought that

disaster had been averted but our shaken guest, walking unsteadily back to us through a marshy bit of the field that the cows had

trampled into mud, lost her balance and fell on her face. A hot cup of coffee did nothing to restore her composure, so we had no

alternative but to pack up and go home. Never again, my cousin vowed bitterly, would she be so foolish as to go out on a picnic.

8. a) Tell the story of "Picnic" as the cousin might have told to her boy-friend, b) Work in pairs. You will tell each other the story in your own

words. Keep interrupting with questions, c) Imagine that you are an elderly cousin. Describe in your own words what happened to you on the day

after the picnic, d) Suppose you had been present at this event. Describe what you would have seen when the cows came into sight. Use your own

words as far as possible and do not include anything that is not in the passage, e) Imagine that you are the cousin. Describe what you saw and did.

9. In a narrative you can choose whether to report exactly what was said or report the main points of what was said.

Here are some ways of reporting the main points of what was said:

He wanted to know ...

He wondered ...

He tried to find out...

He mentioned something about...

He hinted that...

I found out that...

10. Read the following dialogue. Report the main points of what was said. Use the opening phrases of Ex. 9.

Newsagent's shop. Sunday morning. A young married couple, Anne and Jim, meet Ronald Marcer, a middle-aged librarian, while buying the Sunday

newspapers.

Ronald: "Sunday Telegraph", please. Thank you.

J i m : We would like all the Sunday papers. Why ... hullo, Mr. Marcer.

R o n a l d : Hullo.

J i m: You know my wife, Anne, don't you?

R o n a l d : Yes. We've met once or ... How are you?

A n n e : Yes, of course. How are you, Mr. Marcer?

R o n a l d : Buying up the whole of the paper shop this morning?

J i m: Well... We want to plan our summer holiday you see. And it's about this time of year especially that... that all the holiday ad -

verts appear in the ...

A n n e : So we thought we'd have a good look at about everything that's going.

R o n a l d : I see ... Yes ... You have to book up early these days. Are you thinking of going somewhere ?

J i m: Yes ... we are. The trouble is ... the money.

R o n a 1 d: Ah yes. Now there's the rub. Now why don't you try the same holiday as my wife and I had last year? Does a package

holiday attract you?

J i m: Well that sounds OK. What do you think, Anne"?

A n n e : A package holiday ... But ... well you know these organized holidays ... you know what they are like. Everybody doing

everything together, ... all at the same time. You sometimes need to lose the others for a bit.

R o n a l d : That does surprise me. You wanting to escape from the madding crowd. As I remember, you were always the life and

soul o f . . .

J i m : If that's how you'd care to put it. But getting away from the others at times ... you know ... never harmed anyone.

R o n a l d : Look ... How about a walking tour?

A n n e : But how do we go about arranging it?

R o n a l d : Let's walk, shall we? We're going the same way I think. Let's cross here, shall we?

A n n e : Watch out. You will get run over.

J i m : Whew. Narrow escape. We nearly didn't have any holiday .

11. Decide how you can make your narrative of the story "Picnic" as interesting as possible. Add detail and dialogue. Imagine what happened

before the first scene and after the last scene.

12. Dramatize the story "Picnic". Bring necessary accessories.

13.Work in pairs. Put the story "Picnic" into a dialogue form.

14.Controlling a narrative.