PENGUIN ACTIVE READING Level 4 The Dream and other stories.pdf
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STORY
1
The Dream
Frank Tilsley
Even if dreams can show us the future, this dream did not make sense.
Must
I
never pass a lorry on a clear road?
an a dream show us the future and give us the opportunity of changing it? It
is hard to believe. If we can see the future in a dream, then surely the future
already exists. If it does, then we are not free to act in the ways we wish to; we are
Hot responsible for our own lives.
Before I tell you the dream, I must explain a little about the context. It was
the summer of four years ago, and I was driving my family back from Italy
through the south of France. My son had not yet learned to drive, my daughter
was too young, and my wife doesn't drive at all. I had been at the wheel for the
best part of three weeks. Perhaps I was tired; perhaps I could think of nothing
except cars. We spent the night of the dream in a town called Tain l'Hermitage.
1
C
The Dream and Other Stories
Story 1 - The Dream
Now I'll tell you the dream. I was sitting in a big, powerful, cream-coloured
car, and I was driving at high speed through the country. I was coming to a bend
in the road, and in front of me there was a very large lorry.
My foot reached out towards the brake, but it could not find it. I looked
down: there was no brake! Worse: my hands held empty air. There was no wheel
for them to hold. There were no controls of any kind. Already we were almost
into the back of the lorry.
I shouted in fear. Then I heard a calm voice coming from my left, and I
turned my head. A stranger was sitting there. He was a cheerful man of about
forty. He was wearing an expensive shirt, and on his head he had a red hat. I
couldn't understand what he said; he spoke very quickly in French, and my own
French is not very good. I didn't, in fact, care what he said. My eyes were on his
clean, fat hands, which were holding the wheel. This car had its wheel on the left.
He, not I, was in control.
We drove safely round the bend. He turned the wheel slightly to place the
car in the middle of the road. He was going to pass the lorry. The road stretched
straight ahead. It was bright in the sunlight and it was quite empty. Only one
other person was in sight; a woman was sitting outside a small house with white
walls, and this house was almost exactly ahead of us. She was sitting by a table
putting some flowers in pots. She wanted to sell us some, and waved them at us.
This sight, for some reason, filled me with a terrible fear. The flowers made
me think of death and our final resting place.
At this moment we were level with the lorry and ready to pass it, but then the
lorry began to turn away from the side of the road, towards our car. It appeared
that the driver was doing this on purpose. The stranger by my side shouted
loudly and tried to move out of the way. There was a terrible noise from the back
of the car, and then an explosion. The earth seemed to turn over, and the noise of
flames burned in my ears. At that point I woke up in fear.
I was very worried by this dream, and could not sleep again. It seemed to have
a message, and I wanted to explain it.
Even if dreams can show us the future, this dream did not make sense. Must I
never pass a lorry on a clear road? The road to Paris is always filled with very large
lorries. Most of them come up from Marseilles, and I always have to pass them
when the road is clear; I can't drive slowly behind them for ever. No, this was not
the meaning of the dream. At its heart was some kind of fear. I had to recognize
my fear, and then I could forget all about it.
I thought about my driving during the last three weeks. I tried to remember
all the lorries and all the small white houses. I thought of all the cars which were
painted cream. I remembered nothing of any great interest. I had imagined that
the road in the dream must be in France; it was long, empty and straight. But
then
I remembered that we had passed the lorry on the right. So the dream was
about a road in England; in England all cars keep to the left. Immediately, I
remembered something.
I wo years before this, I was travelling in the north of England. An American
and
I were making some radio programmes. He had brought his car from
America, and of course the driver sat on the left side. The brakes and other
. Dntrols were also on the left, but the colour of his car was not cream.
The American was a careless driver, and often passed other cars against my
advice. Remember that I was in a better position to see: I was sitting on the right.
Once, just after Nottingham, he played chicken'.
You
probably know about 'chicken'; it is a game that is played on the roads. It
is becoming more and more popular in America, because long journeys are often
very dull. You just move your car into the middle of the road and stay there.
When
another car appears, it comes towards you in the middle of the road. The
di iver who turns away is the chicken. Quite often neither driver turns away.
I expressed my displeasure at this game in language that the American could
not
fail to understand. We did not play it again, but it had probably left its mark
on my mind. So then, when I was asleep, I experienced it all again in a dream. I
also
remembered something else while I was having breakfast. When we played
'chicken', it was an uncommonly windy day. We stopped at Chesterfield, and the
American bought a hat. It was a black hat, not a red one, but in dreams details
are
not always exact. After this I forgot about the dream until the afternoon.
The big French lorries often play their own game. They stay in the middle
of the road, and you can't pass them. You have to stay behind them. Sometimes
you have to follow them for endless kilometres, although the roads are almost
completely empty.
This afternoon we were following a large vehicle which was making terrible
noises. When I blew my horn, the driver moved to the side of the road, but it
was the
wrong side. He was driving along on the left, instead of keeping to the
right. There was enough space on the right for me to pass him. But to do that
would be wrong. So I just followed him for a few kilometres and I told myself
not to pass him.
I considered the situation from every point of view. I could certainly turn
my car more quickly than he could turn his lorry. It was a very big, heavy lorry.
Could
I, perhaps, pass him quickly on the right before he could do anything? If
he turn
ed to the right, though, he could easily kill us all. He probably wanted a
brake
/breik/
(n) the part of a vehicle that makes it go more slowly or stop
horn /ho:n/ (n) the part of a car that you push to make a warning sound
3
2
The Dream and Other Stories
bit of fun, but he might want an accident. If he killed us, nobody would say it
was his fault; the law would be on his side.
The road ahead was quite empty, and went on for many kilometres. I drove
more slowly until some distance separated us. Then I increased my speed as
much as I could. I drove towards that empty space beside the lorry. My car was
moving at about
110
kilometres an hour.
The front of my car was almost level with the back of the lorry. Then I saw
something that knocked the breath out of my body. On the grass beside the road
a woman was sitting outside a small white house with a table of flowers!
For the first time in my life I changed my mind while I was preparing to pass
another vehicle. My foot went down hard on the brake. The car rocked from side
to side. From behind me I heard the sound of a horn. Another car was following
us at a high speed. I knew its colour before I saw it; it was cream.
I pressed hard on the brake and turned the wheel slightly. I was just able to
move in behind the lorry without touching it. The other car passed us and the
driver blew his horn wildly. It reached the lorry - and then the lorry turned
towards it.
For a moment I thought that the car was going to pass the lorry safely; it was
moving very fast. Then the front of the lorry just touched the back of the car. It
was only a light touch, but it knocked the car towards the side of the road and
the woman at the table.
The driver of that car knew exactly what to do. With the greatest skill he
turned it back into the middle of the road. His control was wonderful, much
better than mine. He waved angrily at the lorry driver and drove quickly away in
a cloud of dust. He was soon out of sight.
We stayed that night in Fontainebleau. A big car was standing outside the
hotel, and the back showed signs of damage to the paintwork. It was a cream car,
and so I looked for the driver. He was not wearing a red hat or an expensive shirt.
He was a young man from Paris - not like the driver in my dream. He spoke
good English, so I asked him if he would like the number of that lorry. I had
noticed it, and I was happy to give it to him. But he only laughed; the law wont
help you if you pass on the wrong side of the road. To him the whole thing had
been a game.
'It tests your skill,' he said. 'If the car is powerful enough, you can do it. But
you couldn't do it, not in your car.'
I didn't tell him about my dream, my reason for not passing the lorry. There
was no time; he was in a hurry and wanted to reach Paris quickly. It made me
think, though. I don't really believe in dreams, of course; but something saved us
all from a terrible death.
4
Activities 2
The Dream and Other Stories
Were you right?
l .inguage in use
Look at the sentence on the right and the
rx
.imple below.Then complete the other
ttntences with verb forms.
1 Look back at your answers to 1.2 on page iv. Then complete these
sentences.
| This
sight,
for some reason, filled
me with a terrible fear.
In the dream, the driver is in
1
............................... where people drive on the
2
-
, The story-teller is the
3
......
and a
1
This
sight
filled me with fear.
What did you
?
crashes into his car. But, in reality, there is
4
What do they
?
Put your hands on the
controls.
-
crash.
5
Her
death
was unexpected.
When did she
................................ ?
2 Which of these are true of the dream (D) and in reality (R)? Tick ( ) them.
4
l here was an
explosion.
What
?
5
I had a terrible
dream.
What did you
................................ ?
D
R
6 We've got an
invitation.
When were you
?
1
The driver of the cream car is a cheerful man of about forty.
2
A woman sits outside a white house with a table of flowers.
/ It is his second
marriage.
Who has he
?
3
The lorry turns towards the story-teller's car.
8
His business has been a great
success.
How did he
?
4
There is another car behind the story-teller.
5
The lorry turns towards the cream car.
What's next?
The next story is by D. H. Lawrence, one of Britain's
most famous writers. He wrote about human
relationships and emotions. This story takes place
after World War 1 (1914-18).
Look at the pictures on pages 8-19. How happy do you
think the blind man and his wife are, alone on their
fcrm? What are their worries, for themselves and for
each other? What effect will the other man, a visitor,
have on their lives? Make notes below.
6
The driver of the cream car is a young man from Paris.
7
Nobody is hurt.
What more did you learn?
Who might say these words in the real events of the story?
Are we going to be
in this car much
longer?
Can't you pass this
lorry?
It's
making
terrible
The flower seller!
We're going to die!
noises.
Pass
me!
You can't
do it, can you?!
Dad, you
nearly
killed us all.
6
7
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