1. Pre-reading questions
2. Structure of the text
3. Detailed study of the text
Paraphrase the following sentences
1. The fundamentalists adhered to a literal interpretation of the Old Testament.
2. A clash had been building up between the fundamentalists and the modernists.
Key:
1. The fundamentalists believe in a word-for-word acceptance of what is said in the Bible.
2. The conflict between the fundamentalists and the modernists had become more and more intense
Try to find out the key elements of narration in the passage
It happened that a fox was ambling along a country lane when he spied a bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine high above his head. Hungry as he was, the fox determined to have those grapes for his dinner. He stood tall on his hind legs, but could not reach the grapes. He leapt high in the air, but missed the grapes and fell painfully onto his back. He was too sore to make a further attempt at the grapes, so he sighed and turned away down the road. “Well,” he said to himself. “The grapes were probably sour anyway.”
Key: In the short story, almost all the elements listed above can be found. The setting lies in the first sentence: It happened that a fox was ambling along a country lane… The initiating event is when he spied a bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine high above his head. The reaction is Hungry as he was, the fox determined to have these grapes for his dinner. Then the fox began to make attempts: He stood tall on his hind legs… He leapt high in the air. The outcome, or the results of his attempt is He was too sore to make a further attempt at the grapes, so he signed and turned away down the road. The story ends with the fox’s self-deceit out of his helplessness: The grapes were probably sour anyway. Apparently, with the help of all the key elements, organized around time order, the short story is coherent and easy for the reader to follow.
