English Worksheet
Nature and Environment Reading and Comprehension Name: ______________________________________________
My First Photographic Journey In a dark spruce forest – two lakes and a portage from my brush camp – I have discovered a place of mystery and wonder. In those quiet woods I sense the primeval, as if no one has stood there before. So it seemed natural to go there on the first day. I had set myself a challenge that for 90 days between the autumnal equinox and winter
Solstice I would make only one photograph a day. There would be no second exposure, no second chance. My work would be stripped to the bone and rely on whatever photographic and woods skills I have. I arose before dawn that first morning. A cool mist licked my face as I paddled the two lakes. The forest was calm as I stalked through somber bogs. While the day smelled of dawn, I reached my secret spot, a spruce forest the likes of which can still be found stretching unbroken to far off Hudson Bay. Perhaps because this forest is not so overtly beautiful – no vistas, no magnificent, towering trees, no coursing waterways – it remains untrammelled. And perhaps that is why I have always felt that something spiritual lives there, something slightly dark and old. I felt I had to break out of the pattern my photography was stuck in, felt compelled to let go of her life´s clutter and a work lit by computer screens instead of the sun. I wanted to wonder the forest again, to see what was over the next rise, to follow animal tracks in the snow as I had done so happily as a boy. Each photograph would be a true original, like a painting – not the best selected from rolls and rolls of similar frames. I sensed there would be lessons learned. There were, and they were not always those I had imagined. Some were merely lessons O Cantinho do Conhecimento® (http://explicananet.blogspot.com)
Remembered, recapturing things I had forgotten, such as remaining open to a chance and recognising that in nature not all beauty is giant in scale. Like my animal neighbours, I struggled with the pace of those ever quickening days. More often than not I ended up capturing the day´s image under it´s waning light. The last two photographs happened at winter solstice – the sun hovering at low noon on the year´s shortest day and the moonlight forest just after midnight during the longest night. They mark the end of my project and of an ancient measure of time, a period when this wild forest grows darker and life in the north grows tenuous, melancholy and sometimes brutal. In the end this project changed me. I feel aftershocks of memory now when I revisit the scenes were these photographs were made, and the emotions experienced at the instant of the shutter´s click well up a new inside me. Today I replay those moments while once more being chased by the light of a swift hungry day. Source: National Geographic Magazine , November 1997.
1. Choose the best ways to finish the sentences: 1.1. The author felt as if.... a) The place was already familiar to him. b) No human being had ever stood in those woods before. c) The place was inviting people to go there more often. 1.2. His experiment consisted in taking...
a) A snapshot first thing every morning. b) Some photos at the same place at different moments of the day. c) Only one memorable photograph on each day. 1.3. The first morning the author... a) Walked along the shores of the lake for hours. b) Found a hidden place to settle down in the forest. c) Chose the spots he wanted to take pictures of. 1.4. Inside the forest he... a) Felt the existence of a supernatural being.
O Cantinho do Conhecimento® (http://explicananet.blogspot.com)
b) Was so lonely he felt like crying. c) Only wished he could photograph everything he saw. 1.5. He expected his experiment would make him understand... a) The motives for these artistic choices. b) The beauty of the fauna and flora there. c) The reasons for human existence. 1.6. In his opinion computer screens have replaced... a) Contact with life itself. b) The light of the sun. c) Nature and wildlife. 1.7. This time each of his photographs would... a) Be taken at random. b) Reflect a bit of the landscape he was contemplating. c) Be like a real masterpiece. 1.8. At the end the author... a) Felt different. b) Was rather disappointed with the results. c) Started everything all over again.
2. Explain the meaning of the following expressions: 2.1.I sense the primeval, as if no one has stood there. 2.2.My work would be stripped to the bone. 2.3.It remains untrammelled. 2.4.In nature not all beauty is giant in scale.
O Cantinho do Conhecimento速 (http://explicananet.blogspot.com)
3. Answer the following questions: 3.1. Why did the photographer decide to try the experiment he describes in his article? 3.2.Had he been in those woods before? Support your answer. 3.3.What did he realise at the end?
4. Find in the text words that mean the same as: a) Feel b) Trip c) Opportunity d) Dark, gloomy e) Walked
Good work
O Cantinho do Conhecimento速 (http://explicananet.blogspot.com)