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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

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

Idea: Abe Stein's wife was not pretty

10. "A nice lady?"

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

Idea: the speaker was not sure of the positive answer

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