Setting a City Street

Name: ______Class: ______Date: ______

Setting – A City Street... Directions: Find and label the descriptive language in these paragraphs...

A. Late November. The centre of the city lies still as a tomb, grey in the cold

earth. Silent buildings are gravestones to the living cemetery beneath. A chill wind

blows the hair across my face. Dust and dirt swirl from the gutter and a tin can rattles

down the pavement, its half consumed contents dribbling stickily behind. A

cheeseburger carton limps unwillingly along before lodging beneath a bench. The

smell of stale onions lingers from an abandoned hot dog stand. And beside me, in

the wide shop door, a sign of life. A cardboard box shifts in the gloom and a dark

shape shuffles. A cupped grey hand extends, yet I move away ashamed.

In the distance, the cars on the bypass busily hum.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ see back side for second setting description...

B. A busy New York City street in July. Why would anyone want to be there?

The taxis, buses, cars all competing to poison you with their noxious fumes; the

people jostling irritably for space, pushing and shoving each other as they fight their

way to the religion of consumerism. It’s like an endless battle.

This must be many people’s vision of hell. The oppressive heat with all the non-stop

traffic, the sun beating down relentlessly on your now moist head as you struggle from

shop to shop. You have no personal space in a place like this; all the normal laws Name: ______Class: ______Date: ______

about how you politely allow people to go first, or step out of the way for old ladies or

over burdened mothers with baby carriages go out of the window so much quicker

with the stifling heat. You can find yourself rubbing against the sweaty shoulders,

hands, and legs of people you have never met before or will again and you think

nothing of it. Who would know if something went missing from a pocket?