【內容提示】
假定你是一個青年人，名叫 Laura Moss，你的中國朋友請你到中國來過春節。春節前6天，當地有一個兒童篝火節，你和你的朋友要去參加。請你用倒敘法制造出一些懸念來，敘述你們參加篝火節的經過。
Life in Spring Festival
It was the Eve of the Spring Festival.
Dusk was just falling as I slurped① up the last bit of rice and laid down my chopsticks.
“They're starting!” cried my friend excitedly. “Quick! Quick!”
Outside, children were running everywhere. Their happy voices and faces made me warm inside, despite the cold wind that greeted me. My friend thrust a bundle of straw in my hands. “Come!” he cried. I giggled as I ran to catch up to him; the children's excitement was a fever that spread to even the big kids like us.
I soon joined a rowdy bunch② of children and teenagers who were building a bonfire③ in the middle of a path that ran through the wheat fields. “Here,”said my friend, handing me a long bamboo pole. “Put some of your straw in the fire. Then tie the rest onto your pole like this.” He demonstrated with his own materials, and I followed his example. Then he thrust both our torches into the fire and handed me mine. “Now run!”
And run I did----we all did. For miles and miles around, as far as I could see, there were small orange specks scattered about, and I could hear the distant screaming and laughing of other children running up and down the rice field path. For several hours into the night I helped build fires and keep an eye on the younger children. Occasionally I, too, lit a torch and ran around like a mad man, screaming and waving a flaming④ bamboo pole.
This festival, which occurred six days before Chinese New Year, was just one of the experiences during the visit to my friends over the Spring Festival. As it was explained to me, the purpose behind this festival was to allow the children to have fun burning up all the straw leftover ⑤ after the harvest. Later, the ash is used for fertilizer.
【詞語解釋】
①slurp[sl :p]v. 咂咂地吃
②rowdy bunch['raudi b)ntM] 愛吵鬧的一夥
③ bonfire ['b&n?fai ] n. 大篝火;營火
④flaming ['fleimiR] a. 燃燒的;火紅的
⑤leftover ['left? uv ] n. 剩餘物
【寫法指要】
本文作者採用倒敘的方法，描寫了春節前參加小孩子們組織的篝火節的場面。但是，作者在整篇文章裡都沒有明說這是一個什麼節日，而是讓讀者從全文反映出來的意義自己去概括，給該節日命名。因此，我們說該作者巧用了英語中所講的反映意義(reflectional meaning) 來設定懸念。文章中懸念的另一種表現方法是沒有直接敘述作者與朋友去參加活動，而是寫“我”剛放下筷子朋友就催促我說“They're starting!”。這樣便會引起讀者看完全文的興趣。
