Locating Key Elements for the Idea

One can see the idea of a passage through the so-called key elements, i.e. suggestive words or phrases.

Example:

"No. Not as frightening. Maybe worse."

"Think positive," he said. He reached out and took her hand. It was cold and moist. /Dean Koontz The Key to Midnight /

Here the key element is the phrase “cold and moist”. It describes the way the woman's hand felt when touched, which suggests the idea that the woman is nervous, or frightened.

Exercise 2.1. Read the following passages and point out the key elements to suit the given idea.

Example:

She flung the lamp – already battered – furiously across the room. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones /

Idea: she threw the lamp more than once.

Here you should point out the insertion "already battered", because it proves that the lamp has undergone similar flights.

1. He called me “ma’am” with respectful courtesy, and I thanked him warmly. In brusque northern cities one forgot how pleasant consideration and courtesy could be. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones /

Idea: in northern cities people are less courteous.

2. “I don't have a lot of years left," he admitted. I suspected Arthur would attend my funeral. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer /

Idea: Arthur looked healthy enough to live much longer than he claimed.

3. Mordecai had launched into a detailed account of the last hours of Lontae and her children. It was a spellbinding performance, given off the cuff with the skill of a gifted storyteller. As the lone juror, I would have handed him a blank check. /John Grisham / The Street Lawyer /

Idea: his speech was so convincing that the narrator was ready to hand him any sum of money.

4. He put the strand over her head. Sunlight through glass touched a warm glow into the heart of each bead and Jilly touched the strand as if she drew courage and strength through her fingers. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones /

Idea: probably Jilly believed that the gems of the strand had magic power.

5. He settled into one of the two sturdy folding chairs I'd bought at a flea market for six bucks. They were quite ugly, but at least I had stopped worrying about my clients and visitors collapsing in mid-sentence. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer /

Idea: probably there were cases when his clients dropped from the broken chair he used to have.

6. That was something else that she and Julian had promised each other - never to be imprisoned by hideous maturity, never to stop finding life amazing and ridiculous, never to become solemn and incurious. /Charlotte Bingham The Blue Note /

Idea: The two people wanted to remain children as long as possible.

7. I left without a hug, a kiss, a touching of any kind. I simply said good night and walked through the door. That was precisely what she wanted. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer /

Idea: The couple had already no feelings nor any other common touch left for each other.

8. She was rich, powerful, and what was more she was Beatrice Harper, and if Bobbie did not believe her now then she would live to regret it. /Charlotte Bingham The Blue Note /

Idea: Beatrice Harper intended to harm Bobbie for her doubts about the woman's influence and opportunities

9. Sophia knocked and pushed the door open while still tapping. No Hello. No Excuse me. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer /

Idea: Sophia had bad manners.

10. Trying to stay warm in my sleeping bag, I'd slept for three hours. I turned a few times but further sleep escaped me. There had been too many changes in my life to rest comfortably. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer /

Idea: he could not sleep well in his new surroundings.

Exercise 2.2. Read the following fragments, taken from the book The Street Lawyer by John Grisham, and formulate the idea using the key elements in bold type.

Example:

The bad blood between Luther Kersten and Stephen was well known, and the police believed there was fight between them up there at the site. /Phyllis Whitney The Singing Stones /

The idea that runs through the passage is that the two men were on very unfriendly terms.

1. Judge Kisner was at least seventy, with bushy gray hair and a scraggy gray beard, and brown eyes that burned holes as he talked.

2. How long would Arthur Jacobs allow his beloved firm to be dragged through the mud?

3. I had no sympathy for Braden Chance and Arthur Jacobs and Donald Rafter. They had chosen to go for jugular. Let them sweat.

4. “So the Drake &Sweeney bridge has been burned?” He asked as we ate.

5. The Burton tragedy was fast becoming a political and social hot potato in the District.

6. He studied the names with great intensity, but no bells went off.

7. “I think the cops might be waiting,” Mordecai announced solemnly. My first reaction was to duck under the desk, but, of course, I did not.

8. Seven years in the sweatshop of Drake & Sweeney had not been conductive to nurturing friendship, or a marriage either, for that matter.

9. Madam Devier, one of our very resilient receptionists, greeted me with her typical look of disdain.

10. She was on the phone, terrorizing someone in Spanish.

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