В квітні під час онлайн навчання читали із моїми десятикласниками оповідання Роальда Дала “Задоволення Парсона” (Parson’s Pleasure). Читали неспішно, обговорюючи деталі. Потім дивилися і обговорювали відео на TedEd “Як писати прозу, що оживає“. І в якості творчого завдання учні мали написати нарешті не листа, не есе, не огляд, а невеличке оповідання-замітку про відпустку, що мало починатися зі слів “The adventure began one Saturday morning.”
Крім того, в тексті мала бути згадана подорож автобусом і дика тварина. Користуватися можна було усім, адже слідкувати за тим, щоб хтось чогось не гуглив або не ліз у словник було просто неможливо в умовах онлайн навчання. Якщо гулянку не можна попередити, її слід очолити, як то кажуть)
І результат вийшов чудовий, як на мене: і вдало використані narrative tenses, і є опис із залученням різних органів чуття з метою занурення читача в оповідання, і непересічні метафори, і є цікава сюжетна лінія подекуди з неочікуваним фіналом (сподіваюся, це вплив Роальда Дала), і навіть трохи складного вокабуляру із книги й відео.
Гортайте карусель фото і читайте історії десятикласників. Деяким позаздрив би Стівен Кінг.
P.S. : Публікую з дозволу авторів).
The adventure began one Saturday in August. The weather in the Carpathians was warm and fresh, the sun was reflecting on the top of the yellow trip bus, and music was playing loudly accompanying the birds’ singing. My family and I were sitting on the soft seats, discussing nature and an upcoming picnic in the forest. The bus slowly stopped and we stepped in the refreshing coolness of the Carpathians.
After we found an amazing sunny meadow, made a BBQ, and even slept for a couple of hours, we decided to go to the forest and take some photos. There was a hill near the meadow, so we wanted to take photos of the sunset and maybe to get lucky and find some berries to eat. When we reached our destination, we were pleased with a bounty of blackberries and blueberries hiding in the grass and bushes from us. We were taking the last photo of the sun diving in the forest when all of a sudden we heard a rustle right next to us. My heart lost a beat as I was picturing a huge furious bear or a boar with enormous tusks, but my little sister yelled “Look!” and pointed somewhere in front of us. When I finally noticed a graceful deer, I froze totally captivated by it. My mum took a few photos.
That trip was definitely my best one so far. The photo of the deer in the sunshine is hanging on the wall in my room, and I’ll always remember that feeling when I realized I was standing in front of a real wild deer.
Written by Diana
The adventure began one Saturday in August. Me and my family were heading to the nearest forest to a camp – we were travelling by bus that day because our car was under repair and I wasn’t really fond of this idea.
Don’t think I hate camping, it just was our third camping weekend in a row, so I was a little bit bored. When we arrived we didn’t go deep into the forest, just located our camp near a tiny village, but also under trees, so we could hide from the boiling sun. Everything was pretty normal, my parents were setting the table, my sisters – playing badminton, me – sitting on the grass near a branchy tree. And then I saw it: an enormous tar-black creature, a beast with the piercing gaze. I was trying to move, but I froze. It walked slowly toward my parents, who spotted that thing too, but were unable to do anything but helplessly stare at it. Just half a meter from my dad the creature stopped, smelled something and then… took our chicken which we prepared for dinner and ran away! Then, in the distance, we heard a voice: “Jackie, what have you done? Bad girl!”
Actually, that horrible being turned out to be a farmer’s dog. It was a lot of fun to play with her, and the farmer, whose name was Joe. He was also pretty nice: he gave us another chicken instead of ours. I was no longer bored – that was an amazing holiday.
Written by Volia
The adventure began one Saturday morning. It was a surprisingly cold and gloomy day, quite uncommon for late spring. The wheels on the bus made a rustling, calming noise, the road was smooth and it was so easy to fall asleep while riding that bus.
That was exactly what happened to me. The sound of wheels and engine lulled me to sleep, and I was peacefully napping, leaning against the glass. Suddenly, the bus stopped. I jerked and woke up.
“Huh, are we there yet?”
“Dear passengers, I’m afraid we have a breakage.”
“Argh” I groaned. “What the hell” I stood up and stretched. “Well, I guess I’ll have to wait”.
“Hey, how much time is it going to take?” I yelled to the bus driver.
“It could take up to several hours”.
“Well” I murmured, “Guess granny will have to wait too”.
I went out along with other irritated passengers and was planning to stay nearby the bus and wait for it to start. The stop was made in the middle of the coniferous forest, which was quite dark, thanks to the tall trees and the clouds. I began to wind circles around the bus, until I noticed something red.
“What’s that?” I gasped. “A fox?” And there it was – a red, beautiful fox.
We stared at each other, the fox’s gaze was so strange, so beckoning, it was almost like pulling me. Closer and closer.
“All fixed, get on board!”
“Huh” I turned to the bus. “Wait for me!” I cried, while sprinting to the bus.
Just a moment later I was already in my seat. I leaned against the window and prepared to fall asleep once again. But just as we started to move, I glanced in the direction of the fox. It smiled and winked at me. And then disappeared.
“Guess I have a story to tell my grandma once I arrive. If I arrive”.
Written by MARK
The adventure began one Saturday in August. I was on a camping trip with a bunch of my friends in Australia. I had been impatiently looking forward to it since May, so I couldn’t take a brightful smile off my face that day.
We had arrived at the Canberra International Airport just the day before, spent the night in a quite ordinary but still comfortable hostel and in the morning set off on an excursion to The National Museum of Australia. No one from our group really heard about the place, so we were listening attentively to our guide, who seemed to know practically everything about Australia and all its sightseeing places.
I must say it was boiling hot in that bus. Every window was open but the air felt viscid and tough like a pancake dough. I started nodding off to the lulling voice of the guide and my semi-closed eyes focused on a tiny drip of sweat, whimsically running down Jaden’s neck, who was sitting just in front of me, when the bus stopped abruptly.
At first I didn’t realise what was going on as there rose humming in the interior and my head still felt sleepy because of a little nap I took. Anyway I poked my head through the closest window and then couldn’t believe my eyes! A kangaroo was standing in the middle of the road, staring at me with its dark pupils. I bet there was something human in that look! The creature stood still for a minute or two and then continued its way.
Back on our way to the museum we were told that although the government had built a huge fence to separate people and wild animals, such a thing was still quite common in Australia. “Maybe humanity should try to live in peace with nature and not run from it”, – I thought. Anyway, for the rest of the day my mind was occupied with assumptions about what on Earth the kangaroo could do in the heart of Canberra!
Written by Varya
The adventure began one Saturday in August. My classmates and I have decided to take a journey. We have chosen the place – the stunning Aktovsky canyon.
The next day we gathered at the bus station and took the bus to the canyon. On the bus we were not alone, but with the locals. It turned out they had a day off that day as they were celebrating their City Day. Nothing foretold troubles, but suddenly one of the passengers shouted: “Get it in!”. We had no idea what was going on. At the time, we were in the suburbs, somewhere in the woods. The driver went outside and after 5 minutes came back, but not alone. He was trying to get the pig into the bus. And he actually managed to. To say the least, we were shocked.
For the next two hours, we had been travelling with a live pig, drunken locals and the half-asleep driver. It was fascinating and scary at the same time.
When finally we arrived and asked everyone about the situation, we were told that the drunken locals and the half-asleep driver were the consequence of the City Day celebration while the pig was found down the road and given a lift by the driver.
It was the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me. I will never forget it. No matter how hard I try)
Written by Ellie
The adventure began one Saturday in August. The air was silkily smooth, it entwined around towering palm arches as it glided to the ground down to where I was sitting.
My rebellious younger brother emerged out of nowhere with an odd and quite childish suggestion to go diving and try to seek out for a fish. The offering was accepted straight away and so we raced to the seashore throwing our perfectly shapeless clothes off.
As soon as we approached a perl-grey beach nothing could have stopped us from flying into the water, and so we did. We splashed, we dashed, we squashed the water, not noticing an alien object circling around us. The creature was detected only when it began grabbing us by our limbs with its filthy tentacles trying to drag us out to the coast. Suddenly, we could not see anything except for a disgustingly clammy mist. The seawater ascended and started to absorb trying to take us to the underworld. Our attempts to get out became nugatory once the deranged mountainous billow swallowed us in.
The next thing we saw was thea ceiling of a small-town free clinic and worried faces of our parents. It appears, we got into whirlpool and nearly drowned but by bizarrely improbable happenstance we somehow ended up on the beach perfectly fine.
My family and I decided on taking a bus to go back home. As we were driving, no one had any clue how this could have happened because it was a true miracle. But deep down I knew who I should be thankful for saving my life.
Written by MARGO
The adventure began one Saturday morning in August. My friends and I decided to have a great end of the summer:). It didn’t take long for the adventure to start. Yet at home, I couldn’t find my suitcase! So I called my mum to help me, but it is not the most unbelievable thing that happened that day.
My group had to be at the bus stop at about half-past 8, but guess what? Margo and Nadya of course were late:/. After all the packing staff, we finally started our 8-hour bus journey. Seriously, that was great fun! We were singing our favorite songs, playing “Uno”, “Mafia” and of course eating food that we had taken with us.
After 6 hours of the trip, everyone was horribly tired. Certainly, in the beginning, we knew that it would be hard, but not that hard. And then something incredible happened. Our driver started to scream and everyone was scared. He stopped the bus and told everyone to walk out of it. We were frightened as we were following the driver into the forest along the road. I had a mixed bag of feelings. The forest was dark as a cave, it was ghost-quiet, only grass and leaves under our feet were rustling. The bus driver suddenly stopped and pointed in huge bushes. There was a standing unicorn! I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was very tall, white as snow, with great, long, blond hair and of course a horn, huge, acute, and a little bit eerie. My friends and I were shocked. At first, our group was just staring at it and could not understand what was happening. Then we started taking photos and videos for the evidence that we saw the real unicorn. Then we returned to the bus and continued our journey.
After that adventure in the dark forest, some other mysterious things happened to us, but maybe another time:) Thank you, for your attention, and of course thanks to the magazine for the opportunity to share this unbelievable story!
Written by Daria
Записала Виолетта Днепровская.
