Making a Living

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Unit 7 Making a Living
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The Author Tom Hallman, Jr., 45, has worked at
The Oregonian for 19 years. He was born and
raised in Portland. He graduated with a degree in
journalism from Drake University in Des Moines,
Iowa. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in beat
reporting in 1995 and feature writing in 1999.
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He won the 1996 ASNE Distinguished Writing Award
for non-deadline writing, and the 1996 feature
writing award from the National Society of
Professional Journalists, and the Livingston
Award for Young Journalists.
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He won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Feature
Writing for his series of articles in The
Oregonian on Sam Lightner. A reporter for more
than twenty-five years, Hallman has been at The
Oregonian since 1980, and is currently a senior
reporter specializing in features and narratives.
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The Boy behind the Mask

• Tom Hallman's Pulitzer prize-winning series
  Sam The Boy Behind the Mask tells the true,
  heart-wrenching story of Sam Lightner. Born with
  a rare disfiguring growth that covers and
  distorts the left side of his face, skull, and
  neck--Sam is determined to live a normal life.

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For fourteen years, doctors refuse to
operate on Sam, until an elite team of surgeons
at Boston Children's Hospital undertake a risky
thirteen-hour operation to remove the
malformation. Sam nearly dies on the operating
table, but survives, and returns home to begin
his freshman year of high school. However, when
doctors discover excess fluid around his brain,
Sam slips into a coma, and is not
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expected to live. As the family and doctors begin
to give up, one doctor--pediatric neurosurgeon
Monica Wehby--keeps believing, even as all hope
seems lost. The only female in the boy's club of
neurosurgery, Dr. Wehby is scorned for refusing
to accept facts and for allowing her emotions--as
a woman--to cloud her medical judgment. But she
perseveres, staying by Sam's side, until he moves
first a finger, then a foot, and finally, begins
to interact with those around him.
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Thinking about

• Do you have any experiences of being a
  salesperson? Have you ever sold things to others
  or been persuaded to buy something?
• What are the qualities of being a good salesman?

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What is the text about?
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Text Structure

• Please scan the text to see if there is any
  natural division of parts in the text.
• Asterisks divide the text into 4 parts.
• Please read the first paragraph of each part,
  locate the time words or references to time.
• They are 545, 745, This is the moment hes
  been preparing for since 545 a.m., after 7 p.m..

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• Part 1
• Paras 1-7 early morning
• Preparation for the days work
• Part 2
• Paras 8-25 mid-morning
• On his way to work

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• Part 3
• Paras 26-62 day
• Door-to-door selling
• Part 4
• Paras 63-84 evening
• Paper work

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Language Study

• Linger (L1) spend a long time doing sth., esp.
  because one done not want to leave ??????
• She had a sandwich before heading off to work and
  had no time to linger for a glimpse of the citys
  scenery.
• ?????????????,??????
• There is no time for you to linger over your meal
  the school bus is coming.
• ?????????????????
• The fond impression will linger in my memory
  forever.
• syn tarry, dally

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Language Study

• tarry to delay or be late in going, coming, or
  doing to wait to remain or stay temporarily, as
  in a place
• tarry on the way
• tarry (for) sbs reply
• tarry at an inn
• dally to waste time
• dally over ones work

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Language Study

• twist (L5) ????
• ???????????
• His face was twisted with pain.
• ?????????????????
• Some Japanese try to twist their dirty history.
• twist and turn ??
• The road twisted and turned across the hills.
• twists and turns ?????????
• The twists and turns of his arguments made his
  speech very difficult to understand.

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Language Study

• gain on sb/sth (L14) chase to get in front of or
  near to sb/sth, esp. a rival or sth. unpursued
  ??,??
• The police are gaining on us!
• The Democratic candidate was gaining on his
  Republican rival in the election, but only
  defeated him at the last moment.

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Language Study

• kick up (L19) cause to rise????
• The wind kicked up a cloud of dust.
• Stop kicking up a fuss. he is miserable enough.
• tilt (L21) move into a sloping position
• She sat listening, with her head tilted slightly
  to one side.
• ????????????
• Popular opinion has tilted in favor of the
  Socialist.

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Language Study

• lean(L24)
• (1) v. bend be in a sloping position
• Galileo dropped a small stone and a big stone
  from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to falsify
  Aristotles theory.
• (2) a. thin and healthy small in amount or
  quality
• He has a lean athletic body.
• The shop is just making lean profits.

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Language Study

• guarantee (L58)
• (1) promise sth. with certainty ??
• ????????????????
• We cannot guarantee the punctual arrival of the
  train in foggy weather.
• ????????????
• College students are no longer guaranteed jobs
  upon graduation.

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Language Study

• (2) undertake to pay the cost of repairs
  resulting from a fault ??
• The company guaranteed its clocks for six months.
• Compare warrant ???????????
• This material is warranted to be pure silk.
• ?????????????????
• Americas interference with our internal affairs
  is certainly not warranted.

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Language Study

• sell (on) sth (L58) ltinfmlgt persuade
• eg. Will they be able to sell their ideas to
  voters?
• Im completely sold on the idea I think
  its a brilliant plan.
• In the end shes really sold on the idea
  of buying some soap.
• Can you sell your boss your scheme?

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Language Study

• tail (L106)
• 1) vt. follow secretly
• eg. The car has been tailing me for the whole
  morning.
• 2) n. ltinfmlgt the person who follows
• eg. They put a tail on the spy as he left the
  airport.

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Language Study

• solitary(L131) done or existing alone without
  companion
• He felt himself more solitary than he had ever
  done in his life.
• Compare alone, lonesome, lonely, desolate
• She lives on tea and cake when she is ______.
• Come over and see me, Im feeling a bit
  ________________________.
• The death of his wife left him completely
  _________.

alone
lonesome/lonely/solitary
desolate
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Language Study

• straight (L136)
• 1) consecutive a straight-A student a two-hour
  straight live concert
• 2) simple, with nothing-added
• eg. The workers were given a straight choice
  between a pay cut and losing their jobs.

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Language Study

• be laid up (with) (L139) confined (as by
  illness) to bed be bedridden
• eg. The football player was laid up in bed
  with a twisted knee.
• He was laid up with acute flu for weeks.

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Language Study

• in time (L157) Within an indefinite time
  eventually
• eg. In time they came to accept the harsh
  facts.
• You will in time recover your health and
  strength.

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Language Study

• unreadable (L150)
• 1) (of handwriting) not easily deciphered
  indecipherable
• syn indecipherable, illegible, unclear,
  undecipherable
• 2) unsuitable for or not worth reading dull
• unreadable prose wholly unreadable statistics.

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• The text is a description of a typical day in the
  life of Bill Porter and also a portrayal of his
  whole life. To do so, the author skillfully
  inserts flashbacks of past events and experiences
  in at least two places. Could you find them?

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• Flashback 1
• Paras 11-20
• his disability, his schooling, and his hard
  struggle to make a living for himself
• Flashback 2
• Paras 71
• his back surgery and the selling of his house

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Text Analysis
This article first appeared in a newspaper
therefore it carries many characteristics of
journalistic writing. First of all, a
journalist tries to be objective in reporting.
As a result, third-person narrative is usually
preferred over first-person narrative. Moreover,
the journalist would not make any comments to
reveal his/her feelings, but simply give the
facts.
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Text Analysis-2
Secondly, an eye-catching beginning helps
lure readers to linger more on the story out of
an overwhelming number of stories offered by the
days newspaper. For example, at the beginning
of this story, we learn that it takes our
physically deformed hero great efforts to get up
so as to do something important, yet what is this
something? We are kept in suspense until the
fourth paragraph.
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Text Analysis-3

• Thirdly, the vocabulary is simple, the
  sentences and paragraphs short, sometimes
  elliptical. When needs arise, a paragraph is as
  short as one sentence.
• Lastly, conversations can be
  transcribed word for word if they illustrate the
  theme, like the one in the text between Bill
  Porter and his indecisive female customer.

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Assignment

• The text depicts a physically deformed
  salesperson who sustained himself on mere tough
  work. What are your reflections on this feature
  story? Write a journal entitled Purpose in Life.