Narration: Telling a Story from Pictures
Examine the following pictures and make up a story.
You can put these pictures in any order you like as long as the story is
logical.
Examples:
After school today, I took a walk
in the park in the neighborhood. Thinking about what had happened lately, I felt
down and depressed. I had made considerable effort to win the national painting
competition, but I only finished in fourth position. With a cold breeze blowing
hard, I sat alone on the bench, getting really frustrated. Just when I couldn’t
hold back my tears and started to cry, a boy who was on his headphones walked
by, humming along to his music. He noticed that I was very upset and came to
me. He didn’t talk to me much; instead, he let me use his headphones and played
for me the piece that he was listening to—the Pastoral Symphony. I was impressed by the thunderstorm and could
even hear the crashes of thunder in the music. As the part of the symphony
ended with the sound of birds singing after the storm, I was overwhelmed. He
then told me that Beethoven wrote this piece as his hearing grew worse. He
continued on by saying that Beethoven’s devotion to art taught him that if we
put all our efforts into what we loved, we could create great things no matter
what obstacles were in front of us. He then wished me good luck and hoped that
I would stick to my dream. After hearing what he had said, I was no longer in
tears. I was truly thankful to his help and encouragement.
Tips à本寫作單元主要讓學生模擬學科能力測驗的看圖寫作。此類題目一般來說多是「敘述文」(narration)加上一些「描寫文」(description)的寫作技巧。由於敘述文著重對事件、故事或經驗的描述，在正式下筆前，教師可請學生注意以下要點：
1 先仔細看每一張圖，將圖片連貫成合理的故事後，在每張圖旁大略寫下與該圖相關的字詞或想法，甚至是對話。如果學生覺得將圖片轉變成文字有困難，可鼓勵他們利用who、when、where、what、why、how等wh-問句自問自答，讓自己對圖片的敘述更有靈感和概念。
2 一般看圖寫作的圖片都是依時間順序安排，所以除非有特殊理由，否則敘述圖片時仍應以直敘法為主，按事件發生先後順序、用過去式搭配適當的轉折語編寫。如果選擇使用倒敘法，則需用表示時間先後次序的轉折語或時間副詞，將時間順序交代清楚，以免使得讀者感到困惑。
3 構思大綱時，情節的發展必須去蕪存菁，力求精簡。與故事發展無關的細節可捨去，以免因枝節太多而失焦。
4 敘述圖片時，如果講述的是個人經驗可用第一人稱「I」，如果是以他人的經驗或虛構的角度切入，則人稱可用「he」或「she」。但不管人稱為何，全文都必須維持一致。
5 如果其中一張圖或最後一張圖是「？」，則表示可在故事發展或結局增添一些想像和巧思。畢竟，要在看圖寫作中得高分，除了敘述合乎邏輯外，故事內容新穎、有趣絕對是一大優勢。
以本課看圖寫作練習題為例，編寫大綱時可依圖片時間順序，搭配wh-問句和轉折語，使事件發生的過程明確清楚，例：
Picture 1
who: the boy
when: one cold winter morning
where: on a bench near my house
what: the boy looked depressed
|
Picture 2
what: I noticed the
boy wearing a thin T-shirt and weeping.
|
Picture 3
what: I helped the boy put on the headphones
why: to cheer him up
how: played some soft music to him
|
Picture 4
what: the boy
appreciated the music and thanked me for my help
why: the music soothed his anguish away
|
此外，在撰寫敘述文時，清楚交代事件發生的先後順序固然重要，如何生動的描繪故事情節，有時也需要針對圖片做一些細節的描述，使讀者能身歷其境、感同身受。如上述的情節，作者就可加入一些對圖片深入的觀察。
由於本課寫作圖片最後一張圖是一個問號，教師可請學生利用本課課文中所討論的內容加以發揮。到底心情不好的男孩聽了音樂後有什麼反應或感覺？除了一般的敘述方式外，教師也可鼓勵學生設計出一段對話，增加文章的活潑性和變化性。但不管寫法為何，仍要寫出結論句，為文章劃上句點。
Exercise:
Now,
write a paragraph of 120-150 words according to the above instructions.
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參考解答
One cold
winter morning, I went for a stroll in the park near my house. I noticed a boy
sitting on a bench alone and looking depressed. To my surprise, he was wearing
only a thin T-shirt on such a cold day. Seeing that his lips were blue from the
cold, I sat down beside him and put my jacket over his shoulders. After a few
moments of silence, I started to ask what had happened to him. The boy
whispered some words and then started weeping. When I saw his tears, a feeling
of sympathy swept over me. I had no idea how to comfort the boy with words.
Therefore, I decided to do something to make him feel better: I played some
soft music in order to cheer him up. After a while, the boy took off the
headphones. He smiled and said that listening to this piece of music had helped
him soothe the anguish he had been feeling. He told me that he really
appreciated the great “gift” of music that I had given to him.