Page 78 - SpringBoard_ELD_Grade8_Flipbook

interpret the Text Using Close Reading
aCTiViTY 1.3
continued
64 The music began. It was normal at first—cheap, silly, false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs.
65 The music began again and was much improved.
66 Harrison and his Empress merely listened to the music for a while—listened
gravely, as though synchronizing their heartbeats with it.
67 They shifted their weights to their toes.
68 Harrison placed his big hands on the girl’s tiny waist, letting her sense the
weightlessness that would soon be hers.
69 And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang!
70 Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws
of motion as well.
71 They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.
72 They leaped like deer on the moon.
73 Thestudioceilingwasthirtyfeethigh,buteachleapbroughtthedancersnearertoit.
74 It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it.
75 And then, neutralizing gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in
air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long time.
76 It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.
77 Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.
78 It was then that the Bergerons’ television tube burned out.
79 Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out
into the kitchen for a can of beer.
80 George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. “You been crying” he said to Hazel.
81 “Yup,” she said.
82 “What about?” he said.
83 “I forget,” she said. “Something real sad on television.”
84 “What was it?” he said.
85 “It’s all kind of mixed up in my mind,” said Hazel.
86 “Forget sad things,” said George.
87 “I always do,” said Hazel.
88 “That’s my girl,” said George. He winced. There was the sound of a riveting gun in
his head.
89 “Gee—I could tell that one was a doozy,” said Hazel.
90 “You can say that again,” said George.
91 “Gee—” said Hazel, “I could tell that one was a doozy.”
My Notes
Unit 2 • The Challenge of Utopia • Part 1: Harrison Bergeron 55
gamboled: leapt; pranced
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