What a Sequence Is Doing · 一段序列在做什么
Sequence directs attention
- Plot and the exposition that accompanies it focus readers' attention on the parts of the narrative that matter most to its development.
- Focus is the key word: what a sequence includes, it makes important.
- What it passes over quickly, it makes minor — whatever actually happened.
A writer who spends three pages describing a key probably did not misplace it by accident.
序列引导注意力
- 情节及伴随它的铺叙,把读者的注意力聚焦在对叙事发展最要紧的部分上。
- "聚焦"是关键词:一段序列纳入什么,就使什么变得重要。
- 它一带而过的东西,就被它变成次要的——无论实际发生了什么。
作者花三页描写一把钥匙，大概不是不小心把它写丢了。
Explaining the function of a sequence means saying... · 解释一段序列的功能,意味着说出……
Naming it as a flashback identifies it; the function is what the reader now knows. · 把它指认为倒叙只是命名;功能是读者此刻知道了什么。
What the focus falls on
- The CED lists four targets: characters, their relationships, their roles in the narrative, and setting and the relationship between characters and setting.
- So when a sequence slows down, ask which of the four it is holding still to show you.
- The answer is usually the point of the sequence.
焦点落在什么上
- CED 列出了四个对象:人物、他们的关系、他们在叙事中的角色,以及背景与人物同背景之间的关系。
- 因此当一段序列慢下来时,要问它是把四者中的哪一个定住给你看。
- 答案通常就是这段序列的要点。
A change of pace in a narrative is evidence of where to look. · 叙事中节奏的变化,是关于该看哪里的证据。
Three years in a sentence beside an afternoon over four pages is a choice. · 一句话写三年、四页写一个下午,这是一个选择。
Pace is evidence
- Three years in a sentence, one afternoon over four pages — that ratio is a choice.
- The slow part is where the text is asking you to look.
- You do not need to guess why: name what is in focus there, and the why follows.
节奏就是证据
- 一句话写完三年,四页纸写完一个下午——这一比例是一个选择。
- 慢下来的那部分,正是文本要求你去看的地方。
- 你不必去猜原因:说出那里被聚焦的是什么,原因自会随之而来。
Read a sequence for what it does to a reader · 从读者的角度读一段情节顺序
A sequence question is about what a reader knows and when, not about the order of events. · 顺序类题目问的是读者知道什么、何时知道,而不是事件的先后。
Select all · 所有 the things the CED says plot and exposition focus attention on. · 选出 CED 所说情节与铺叙所聚焦的所有对象。
Other works are outside the text. · 其他作品在文本之外。
"Function" asks what a sequence does, not what it is. Saying a sequence is a flashback identifies it; explaining its function means saying what the reader now knows, and knows too early or too late, because it sits there.
"功能"问的是一段序列做了什么,而不是它是什么。说某段序列是倒叙,只是指认了它;解释它的功能,意味着说出读者此刻知道了什么、以及因为它出现在那里而知道得过早或过晚。
A useful shape: placing X before Y means the reader meets Y already ____ Z. · 一个好用的句式:把 X 放在 Y 之前,意味着读者遇到 Y 时已经 ____ Z。
That sentence is usually the whole answer to a function question. · 这句话通常就是一道功能题的全部答案。
"Function" means what it does here
- The objective says explain the function of a particular sequence.
- Function is not what the sequence is — it is what it does for the narrative at that point.
- A useful sentence shape: placing X before Y means the reader meets Y already knowing Z.
"功能"意思是它在这里做什么
- 目标说的是解释某一特定序列的功能。
- 功能不是这段序列是什么——而是它在那一处为叙事做了什么。
- 一个好用的句式:把 X 放在 Y 之前,意味着读者在遇到 Y 时已经知道了 Z。
Put the sequence pass in order. · 把序列检查排序。
The last step is what turns an observation into a claim about function. · 最后一步,正是把一项观察变成关于功能之主张的那一步。
A sequence pass
- Mark where the pace changes. Name what is in focus there.
- Ask what the reader now knows that they would not know in a different order.
- That last sentence is usually the whole answer to a function question.
序列检查
- 标出节奏变化之处。说出那里被聚焦的是什么。
- 问读者此刻知道了什么,而在另一种顺序下他们本不会知道。
- 最后这句话,通常就是一道功能题的全部答案。
A story spends four pages on one afternoon in a kitchen and one sentence on the next three years. The focus is the relationship between characters and setting: the reader now knows that room in a way no summary could deliver, so when the house is sold in the closing line, the loss is already furnished.
一篇小说用四页写厨房里的一个下午,用一句话写接下来的三年。焦点落在人物与背景之间的关系上:读者此刻对那个房间的了解,是任何概述都给不了的,因此当结尾一句写到房子卖掉时,那份失去早已被布置停当。
Plot and exposition focus readers' attention on what matters most — characters, their relationships and roles, setting, and the relationship between characters and setting. Pace is evidence: the slow part is where to look. Function = what the sequence does for the narrative at that point.
情节与铺叙把读者的注意力聚焦在最要紧之处——人物、他们的关系与角色、背景,以及人物与背景之间的关系。节奏就是证据:慢下来的那部分正是该看的地方。功能=这段序列在那一处为叙事做了什么。