Unit 3 • Narrative
3B Biographicalnarratives
- 1.0 The storyofa life
Six phraseshave beenremovedfromthis text.Match thegaps (1- 6)wit h the
phrases(A- H)given below.!-wo of thesuggestedphrasesdonot fit at 'III.
OBITUARY:
FrancisJames
1 H ad there bee n Olympics to selecta
c hamp ionecc e ntric, the gold would have
beenwon for Austr aliabythejournal ist
a ndformerfighte r pilo t Fra ncis James ,
5 whohas diedin Sydneyat theage of 74.
We were at the sa me New So uth
Wale s co un try sc hool in the la te
twentie s.H isbri lliance sho ne (1)__.
T he n, without the know ledge of t he staff,
10 he foundeda sc hool newspa perwith help
fromlocal adverti ser s, butthat ad mirable
initiative was marredby the factthathis
ed itor ialsac c usedthestaffofpract ica lly
every cr iminal act. He kne w it was
15 untruebut felt that society nee ded a n
extern al s tim ulus. H is exp uls io n was
d ramatic.His father , (2)_ _ , cameto
the schoo l to thrash Franci s in public.
T he family movedtoCa nbe rr a toa
20 new lifeand ane wschoo l.There he
explo de danot herla bora toryina failed
expe riment a ndd ar edG ou ghWhit lam ,(3)_ _ , to climbahightre e withthe
help ofaladder.F rancis removed the
25 ladde r andleftGough in thestrato sp he re
forthe bestpartofa day before a searc h
party fo undhim.
Francis bec ame(4)_ _ .He thought
office rs should fraterni zew iththe lower
30 ran ks and e m phas ized the poin t by flying
ourmostpowerfulfighteraircra ftalong
the main stree tsof Melbournealmost
belowroofle vel.Expe lledagain ,he took
ship to England a ndjoinedthe RAF as an
35 aircraf tsman in1939.
By 1942 he hadbecome a Spitfire pilot
andIwas at the BBC in London.I asked
him howhe had managedtogetint o the
firing line. 'Easy,dearboy. Forgedmy
40 logbooks to prove I had bee n flyin g
fighte rs inChina.' Weeks .later he was
shotdo wnover Franceandbadl y burned.
Take n prison e r, he was asked his na me
a nd rank and repli ed' G ro up Captai n
45 Turtledove'. H e triedtoescape from a
Stalag fi ve ti mes , once in a hot air
balloonhe had made. It c rashed backinto
the co mpound, sett ingit alight.In 1944 I had,(5)__,a telephone
50 callfromFranc is. ' Dear boy ,I a min
Lond on .I sha ll be withyouinhal f an
hour.' He was.Inthe biggest sta ffca r I
had ever see n. How,Jas ked.' Easy, dea r
boy.Iwas at RAFHQ, ju strepatriated
55 fromGermanyas wo unded,a nd Isai dto
the desk" A car p leasefor Air Vice
Mar shal Jam es o f Aus tralia " , andasyou
seeit came.'
He was give na scholarshi p to Balliol.
60 Oxford .I usedtovisitbutonce found
him abse nt. Theporter expla ined, ' M r
J ames has left. Afellow student had not
paidhis gam blingde bt s a ndM r Ja mes
took him to the river to exp la in thathe
65 mustdo so. but unfort unat ely took a
loa dedpistol to explain .'
M any yearslat e r he bec ame the o w ne r
/ edi torofSyd ney ' sAnglicanTimes ,had
a profoundeffect on C hurchleade r s w ith
70 bliste r ing editoria ls , and j oi ned
Austra lia'sSydneyMornin gHeraldas
Reli gious Editor, writi ng man y ofh is
pieceson a type writ er (6)__par ked
inSydney'smain stree ts.Ato my asto nishment
B a fe llowstudent and futu re prime minister
C in the h ackofa193(iRolls Royc e
D hut he was a ve ry goodrughy pla yer
E theyounge s t cadet inthe Aust ralianAirForce
F although he once wreckeda l aboratoryin an explosion
G a six-foot-two amate u r boxerandAnglicanpries t
H whileridinga police horse1.1 Narrativetechnique
Theobituaryof FrancisJamesman ages to tell his life story clearly yet retaina
senseof drama. T hew riter is able togive somuch informationwithout his w riting
becomingheavy andslow byusingshortsentencesand participleclauses.
A Short sentences
Look back to see howthesetwo ideas were actuallywritten inthe text.
1 And indeed he didarrivejust half an hourlater. Whatis more,he ca me in the
bigge st sta ff carI hadever seen. I asked himhowhe hadobta ine dsucha ca r.
(lin e,52-3)
2 Fromtime to timeI usedto visit himther e, hut on one occasionwhen Iwent to
seehimI foun dthath e wasn 't th e r e. (line(iO- 1)62 • Typesof writing