and spelling errors. The conclusion is clear: for a written message to be understandable, it must be free of errors. First-graders who are looking for an answer to the question: “What does it mean to write correctly?” are brought to the same conclusion? - included in the title of the topic of an entire block of lessons.
First, it turns out that “correct writing is writing without typos.” The topic of the corresponding lesson is also formulated. On it, schoolchildren will learn what typos and typos are. I think it’s understandable why these two concepts ended up side by side: both typos and clerical errors are errors caused by inattention. In addition, they appear in the same way: omissions, substitutions, rearrangements of letters.
The motivation for both terms is transparent, so children can deduce the meaning of each of them on their own. The reasoning begins with an excerpt from the childhood memoirs of V. Inber, who found an error in the book: “...In the line “Cockerel, cockerel, golden comb” “comb” was printed.” Errors made when printing books, newspapers, magazines are given the name typo, and information is also provided about special workers who look for and correct typos - proofreaders. (This information is not intended to be memorized.)
First-graders know from their own experience that mistakes are possible in notebooks and handwritten text. The term is derived based on an analogy: typing - typos; write - ... .
When the guys tried themselves as proofreaders and eliminated the “breakdowns” in the words from the exercises, each of them is asked to make an important decision for themselves. The “through” hero Anton has already expressed his opinion: “And I like to write like this because it’s funny. Isn’t it fun to write with typos?” First-graders will be helped to make their personal decisions by making advance notes on the board:
I want to make everyone laugh. May they understand me well.
The choice of each student will be indicated by the sentence he copied.
However, correct writing is writing not only without typos, but also without errors. What is an error? “Every violation of a rule is a mistake.” The guys come to understand the concept by working
melting with a “cunning” proposal invented by Anton: the ball growled. Having corrected all the mistakes and listed the writing rules that Anton violated, first-graders are ready to answer the question: what does it mean to write correctly? The children's answers are checked with the answers of the textbook authors:
Writing correctly means avoiding typos (omissions, substitutions, rearrangements of letters) and errors (violations of writing rules).
To write without typos, you need to be careful. And to write without mistakes, you need to know the rules.
A constant return to the idea that mistakes and clerical errors interfere with understanding what is written will form a more responsible attitude in children towards writing. And this allows us to hope that the desire for competent writing will become conscious, and self-control will become purposeful and motivated. A student who wants to be understood will check his notes in such a way that they are free from both errors and typos.
Although the textbook “To the Secrets of Our Language” does not provide for mandatory memorization of information about proofreaders and is not intended to teach children a strict distinction between slips and errors, the importance of this information and the corresponding skills cannot be underestimated. And that's why. When developing self-control, operations to detect typos and errors are separated: after all, their appearance is provoked by different reasons. This is reflected in special points in the memos that guide students’ actions in various writing situations.
Let us remind you that in the textbook “To the Secrets of Our Language” there are several reminders that accompany schoolchildren from 1st to 4th grade.
This refers, first of all, to memo 4 “How to write without errors?”, which is transformed and supplemented as children master spelling, grammar, etc.
But one thing remains unchanged: the function performed by the memo is to be a guide to spelling action.
There are two important points in this memo.
The first is associated with permission to leave a window in place of the found spelling; it is a signal of an unresolved (but conscious!) task
chi and self-control carried out during writing. (After all, before the window appeared, the student needed to track his own actions step by step: evaluate each sound in the word; decide whether he can be trusted; determine which rule to act by; finally, set the boundaries of his own knowledge about how to solve the problem and the possibilities of applying them .)
The second key point of the memo is the point “Check” (“Work as a proofreader”), which orients children towards the implementation of final self-control. According to the memo, what operations does the action of checking what has been written fall into?
w Read syllable by syllable to see if there are any typos. w Find all the spellings again.
w Where you can, explain the choice of letters and decide if there are any mistakes. w Yes - correct it; If in doubt, put “?” above the letter.
The part of the memo dedicated to self-test takes on this form by the end of the first quarter of 2nd grade.
At earlier stages, the same actions are performed based on reminders 2 and 3. (The first of them works until the technique of writing with windows is introduced, the second - at the intermediate stage, when students are required to write by skipping all spellings, including and those in whose place they know the letter or can determine it using a rule or dictionary.)
The point directing the action of the final self-control prescribes the implementation of verification operations:
w read syllable by syllable and listen to yourself - whether all sounds are correctly designated;
w mark dangerous places.
As you can see, each option involves first finding typos. They are revealed when a mandatory condition is met: read what is written in a low voice, in a whisper (in the early stages of learning), then silently, but always syllable by syllable. The syllable-by-syllable method of reading involves slowing down the reading process and fixing the child’s attention on whether each sound is indicated by its own letter. Students are also allowed to help themselves by highlighting syllables with a pencil.
The next step of self-test is to look for spelling errors. There is only one way to find them - once again analyze the words for the presence/absence of spellings in them. This is possible if the student firmly knows their identifying features.
This is followed by determining whether the selected letter is correct or incorrect. How to do it? Again, determine the type of spelling, that is, find out what its rule is, and then apply this rule - solve the spelling problem. And from these positions, evaluate the letter chosen when writing, or, if the letter has not yet been selected and a window is left in its place, close it.
As we see, the writer repeatedly goes through all the stages of solving a spelling problem: from its formulation to the choice of a letter in accordance with the rule. At the same time, he, as it were, rises to a new turn of the spiral: he analyzes the result from the height of a spelling action performed twice (and possibly more). As a result, the student either finds an error, crosses out the incorrect spelling and corrects it, or continues to be in doubt (not sure that he correctly determined which morpheme the spelling is in, does not know how to act, etc.) and expresses them , placing “?” above the letter.
Almost the same actions are provided for when copying based on memo 1 (with the only difference that the child still needs to check the dangerous places in the notes on the board or in the book and with himself).
Let us pay attention to such an essential detail: no matter what instruction the schoolchildren work on, they must conduct a self-test, as they say, with a pencil in their hands. Why? The formation of any mental action must “begin with the use of various means of materialization.” That is why methods of recording test results are required: syllabic arcs (at the initial stages of training); a dot under the letter (.) to indicate all spellings; a question mark above the letter (?) to highlight doubtful letters (if they are already written).
Does the teacher have any reason to expect that such a labor-intensive self-control procedure will be effective? Certainly. The educational effect is achieved due to the fact that the speech motor, auditory, and visual analyzers are simultaneously included in the work. Together they provide flexible synthesis between
components of spelling action, and therefore contribute to the successful development of spelling skills as a whole.
In addition, if the test is carried out using the described technology (indicating all spelling patterns, repeated oral tests and question marks if doubts arise), the teacher will receive complete information about the degree of development of all spelling skills in students.
We talked above about the fact that students need to not only be taught, but also taught to carry out self-examination. And then it will be possible to count that the habit of consciously monitoring the correctness of writing will provide the ability not only to find and correct incorrect spellings, but also to prevent their occurrence. What should you do if the error did appear, but was not noticed by the student during the check? This question is equally acute for both the student and the teacher, since everyone must respond to an error: the teacher with correction, and the child with what we traditionally call working on mistakes. The actions of one and the other, although they pursue a common goal (to detect incorrect spelling), have different content.
The authors of the textbook “To the Secrets of Our Language” believe that correcting errors in children’s work should be educational: “... this is not a simple statement of the fact “knows / does not know, knows how / cannot”, but one of the elements of teaching that should help every student to improve his knowledge and skills.” How to achieve this? First of all, the teacher needs to think about ways to correct mistakes. The generally accepted method - crossing out incorrect spellings and correcting them - does not contribute to instilling in children a critical attitude towards what is written. After all, in essence, the teacher found the student’s spelling pattern, determined its type, chose and wrote the correct letter in accordance with the rules.
What editing methods should be chosen so that they work on the development of all spelling skills, including the ability to consciously control the correctness of writing? It is clear that with this approach, the method of correction should transform into a different quality - become a way of showing the error. We will limit ourselves to listing the techniques suggested by the authors of the textbook “To the Secrets of Our Language”:
w underline the letter, place in the word or the entire word where the violation was made;
w underline the word, highlight the misspelled morpheme in it;
w underline the word in which there is an error, and in the margins indicate with a symbol the morpheme containing the incorrect spelling;
w write the correct word in the margin; w write the correct letter in the margin;
w put an error sign in the margin, and next to it - an indication of the morpheme or part of speech.
w mark only the line where you need to look for the error;
w indicate the page number on which the rule is formulated and the recommendation is given.
To choose a method of correction and hints, it is necessary to take into account a number of factors: the student’s capabilities, the nature of the mistake made, the moment of learning, etc. With this approach, the teacher’s help becomes targeted, since it takes into account the level of preparation of each child and ensures that he gradually develops the necessary skills.
This determines the organization of the work on errors in the classroom. It is advisable that, having received the notebook, the student, based on the notes made, corrects the mistakes (those that the teacher suggested to him and did not correct).
To ensure that students have a clear idea of what to do to work through each mistake, it is advisable to provide a reminder that will provide guidance for their actions. One possible option could be:
"1. Find the error (if it is not shown).
2. Determine in which part of the word the mistake was made; If this part is not highlighted, label it.
3. Write down the word with a box in place of the letter that was chosen incorrectly.
4. Decide which rule to apply.
5. Complete the required steps and insert the letter.
6. Go back to the text where there was an error and correct it."
In grades 3 and 4, paragraph 3 of the memo will change: “If there is a mistake in the ending, write down the word along with the one on which it depends; If
in another part of the word, write down this one word. Leave a window in place of the incorrect letter.”
As you can see, the instructions in the memo strictly correspond to the structure of the spelling action, due to which the memo acquires a universal character: it is suitable for working on errors for any rule. Therefore, there is no need, as is traditionally customary, to include a list of operations prescribed by each rule, especially since this material is on the pages of the textbook.
How to organize work in the classroom in order to maximize the learning potential of working on mistakes?
You will receive a possible answer if you get acquainted with the technology for its implementation, developed by S.M. Blues taking into account the specifics of the textbook “To the Secrets of Our Language”.
So, let's summarize.
1. For self-control to be effective and conscious, it is necessary to ensure its motivation: if you want your entry to be understandable, you need to write without errors and clerical errors.
2. Younger schoolchildren must be taught to control not only the result of the spelling action (the written word), but
è the progress of its implementation. The results of self-control as you write are reported by windows in place of missed spellings.
3. The actions that make up the process of final spelling self-control (checking) include: a) identifying all spelling patterns of the recorded text; b) identification of varieties of spelling patterns; c) distinguishing spellings whose accuracy is certain from those that raise doubts; d) application of rules to questionable spellings; e) if necessary, correction.
4. Schoolchildren need not only to be taught, but also to be accustomed to carry out these actions. Special reminders serve to achieve this goal. By following their instructions, schoolchildren every lesson gain experience in performing the necessary operations, as a result of which they develop the ability to consciously control the correctness of what is written.
5. To increase the learning effect of working on errors, it is necessary to specifically choose a way to show them, not limiting yourself to simple correction.
Taking these provisions into account, we hope, will help to successfully develop the ability to check what is written, without which there cannot be full-fledged spelling skills.
III. Correction of specially made errors as a necessary spelling exercise, conditions for the success of its use
What spelling is, I think, is not necessary to explain. What is it
How are these words and the phenomena behind them (spelling and incorrect spelling) related to our topic - the formation of the ability to consciously control the correctness of writing? Let's try to figure it out.
It is well known that the skill of competent writing is not developed immediately. On the long path of its formation, children inevitably make mistakes.
Scientists have long thought about the question: can a mistake be made useful in teaching competent writing and, if so, how can this be achieved?
Teaching practice and research by methodologists give a positive answer to the first part of the question: the possibility of using “negative material” (the expression of L.V. Shcherba) and its positive impact on the development of spelling skills have been proven today.
However, in methodological science there are discrepancies regarding the conditions that must be observed so that incorrect spelling presented to students for one purpose or another does not harm the developing spelling skill.
The technique, which involves the student finding and correcting errors, is quite widely represented on the pages of a number of modern manuals and textbooks of the Russian language, but is presented in various methodological versions. The specificity of each of them is determined by the authors’ ideas about the role of cacography in the formation of spelling literacy, and their attitude towards the use of erroneous notes as didactic material.
Thus, in the “Reference Manual” O.V. Uzorova, E.A. Nefedova tasks like “correct mistakes” are actively used. Let's give an example from the manual for 3rd grade (task 227):
The earth blew cold. Sa tore leaves from foxes and oak forests and scattered them along the roads. The Birds began to gather in flocks. They scrambled for greaks and fell bodies and over the high Mountains beyond the blue mars to warm countries.
For now, we will refrain from commenting on the methodological literacy of the presentation of “negative material”, we will limit ourselves to stating the facts: in this text there are 33 words, which account for 27 errors, mainly related to the spelling of unstressed vowels, the writing of prefixes and prepositions, as well as the use of a soft separator. And although they are evenly spaced (they are present in almost every word), the perception of the text is extremely difficult due to the fact that the appearance of a number of words has been changed beyond recognition. In addition, some punctuation marks are missing in the text, which also complicates the writer’s task.
The recommendations of a number of methodologists (I.V. Borisenko, M.P. Tselikova, etc.) can be described as cautious. For tasks on finding and correcting errors, it is proposed to use homophones, that is, words that sound the same, but differ in spelling and, naturally, in meaning.
So that children can identify errors, it is recommended to include words in sentences where their different lexical meanings will appear clearly: Mother tried on fighters. The shoes you buy need to be reconciled. Children, write it off to the movies. Children, hurry up with this offer, etc. . If the words of each couple are taken out of context, they will appear before the children in an “unspoiled” form.
Thus, the distorted orthographic appearance of words is excluded from imprinting in the students’ memory. The purpose of using this kind of tasks, methodologists believe, is to promote the development of spelling vigilance.
However, the role of cacographic (in other terminology - proofreading) exercises in teaching literate writing is much broader. “Firstly, it helps students develop a communicative motive that defines spelling as a tool of speech activity: you need to write in such a way that those around you understand you.”
ùèå. Secondly, it helps to convince students of the need to study the rules: without following the rules, it is impossible to correctly formulate your thoughts in writing. Thirdly, it makes it possible, in joint activities with students, to develop the composition and sequence of operations of self-control aimed at preventing violations of spelling norms...”
No less, but rather more important, is the question of what conditions must be met in order to fully realize the learning potential of tasks aimed at finding and correcting specially presented errors, and not violating the principle of “do no harm.” Such conditions were identified and formulated by T.V. Koreshkova. Being limited by the scope of the article, we will name the most important ones:
1. Performing proofreading exercises should be an integral part of the overall system of work on developing conscious spelling actions in primary schoolchildren. Their place is before getting acquainted with the rules of writing to motivate their study and mainly after a solid assimilation of these rules to teach self-control.
2. Correction exercises should be performed in the system: a) begin with correcting graphic errors and extend to spelling errors; b) start with collective work and transfer to independent work only when students learn the general method of checking.
3. The formulation of a task for independent work should guide the correct actions of students: indicate the sequence of operations and their content.
4. It is necessary to ensure that all errors presented are corrected, and in a way that draws attention specifically to the correction (for example, with chalk or a paste of a different color).
5. A staged approach must be followed in presenting erroneous material: first writings that violate one rule, and then several; first words, and then sentences and texts.
6. The material presented must not exceed 8–12 individual words or a text of 25–30 words, which should account for no more than 4–6 errors, and they should not be concentrated at the end of the text.
7. Proofreading exercises themselves should be supplemented with tasks to find and eliminate errors in the sequence and content of operations performed when checking what is written, which is necessary for the development of a conscious action of self-control.
Of course, the question arises: is there any experience in meeting these conditions when developing tasks that involve finding and correcting specially made errors? Yes, I have such experience. As you may have guessed, these conditions were taken into account by the authors of the textbook “To the Secrets of Our Language.” It presents numerous examples of children’s mistakes, since “learning graphic and spelling self-control begins with correcting not one’s own, but other people’s mistakes—it’s easier to find someone else’s than one’s own.”
It’s not difficult to find tasks to detect other people’s mistakes in the textbook: their presence on the page is indicated by a special sign: “!” in the fields, which sharpens children's attention and increases their vigilance. It means: “Warning: there are errors!”
To illustrate the observance of methodological gradualism when using “negative material”, we will show one of the actual proofreading exercises in the textbook for 1st grade:
As we can see, in these recordings the norms of graphics are violated, in particular the rules for indicating the softness of consonants. Individual words are suggested for correction; their number does not exceed the norm (8–12 words). Note: the task is formulated in such a way that the attention of first-graders is first focused on correct spellings and only then directed to finding errors. In addition, a material recording of the test results is provided: a + is placed over correctly written words, and errors are corrected until -
in a special way. And in order for undistorted images of each word to be deposited in orthographic memory, students are asked to write them down correctly, following instruction 2 “How to write down your thoughts and words?”, the last point of which specifically involves checking what has been written.
An error is a multifunctional phenomenon. It is interesting to us as an indicator of the student’s incorrect actions at one or another stage of solving a spelling problem.
Therefore, along with the ability to control the result (writing a word), it is necessary to develop the ability to monitor the process of achieving it, in other words, to exercise operational control. And then you can count on the fact that the developed ability to consciously check what is written will provide the opportunity not only to find and correct mistakes that have already been made, but also to prevent their occurrence.
As is probably clear from all that has been said, it is no coincidence that the lecture devoted to the formation of spelling self-control in younger schoolchildren appears to be the last - it, like the ability to exercise self-control itself (during the writing process and after its completion), is of a generalizing nature. To paraphrase one of the theses of the textbook “To the Secrets of Our Language,” we can say: full-fledged meaningful teaching of spelling means full-fledged spelling self-control.
Self-test questions
1. Look through all the lectures you have worked on and discover the meaning of the thesis: full-fledged conscious teaching of spelling.
2. Remember Seryozha Tsarapkin, who thought about how to write an unbearable adverb. Determine: is he checking the result or the process of achieving it?
3. Prove that the technique of writing with windows (see lecture 2) is a way to teach children self-control during writing.
4. Explain the educational meaning of the methods mentioned in the lecture for correcting and showing errors in students’ notebooks. Illustrate how differentiated treatment can be achieved
ê students.
5. What information about the causes of errors, as well as in general about the level of spelling preparation of schoolchildren, can a teacher receive if, when writing a text, they marked all spellings with dots and question marks - doubtful ones?
6. Return to task 227 from the “Reference Guide” by O.V. Uzorova, E.A. Nefedova. Taking into account the conditions that ensure the positive influence of “negative material” on the development of spelling skills, evaluate the methodological literacy of the presentation of material in this task.
1. Aleshkovsky Yuz. Black and brown fox. – M.: Children's literature, 1967.
S. 4.
2. Blues S.M. Work on mistakes. Textbook M.S. Soloveichik, N.S. Kuzmenko “To the secrets of our language” // Primary school. 2004. No. 8. P. 40–45.
3. Borisenko I.V. Teaching spelling to younger schoolchildren on a communicative basis // Elementary school. 1998. No. 3. P. 40–41.
4. Koreshkova T.V. Cacography technique: possibilities and conditions of application // Primary school. 2000. No. 6. P. 38–43.
5. Koreshkova T.V. Using incorrect spellings when teaching self-test // Primary School. 2003. No. 6. P. 82–86.
6. Soloveychik M.S., Kuzmenko N.S. To the secrets of our language. 1 class: Textbook-notebook on the Russian language for four-year elementary school – 3rd ed., revised. – Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2005.
7. Soloveychik M.S., Kuzmenko N.S. To the secrets of our language: Methodological recommendations for textbook-notebook on the Russian language for 1st grade of a four-year primary school: A manual for teachers - 3rd ed., revised. – Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2004.
8. Soloveychik M.S., Kuzmenko N.S. To the secrets of our language: Methodological recommendations for the textbook and workbooks in the Russian language for the 2nd grade of a four-year primary school: A manual for teachers - 3rd ed., revised. – Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2004.
9. Talyzina N.F. Formation of cognitive activity of younger schoolchildren. – M.: Education, 1988.
10. Uzorova O.V., Nefedova E.A. Reference book on the Russian language: 3rd grade(1–4). – M. ACT: Astrel, 2005.
11. Tselikova M.L. Cacographic writings in the Russian language lesson // Primary school. 2003. No. 6. P. 86–88.
Final work
Dear students of advanced training courses!
Based on the developed series of lectures, prepare and conduct a lesson in the formation or consolidation of one or more spelling skills:
a) detect spellings; b) determine what rule governs writing; c) apply this rule;
d) carry out spelling self-control.
The textbook, class and specific spelling topic (spelling of unstressed vowels, paired voiceless-voiced consonants, unpronounceable consonants, separating marks, gender, case, personal endings, etc.) are chosen by you taking into account the working conditions.
The following requirements must be met in the summary: w not only the topic of the lesson, but also the tasks with the designation are clearly indicated
formed spelling skills from those listed above;
w spelling exercises aimed at developing these skills were used;
The method of action that children master is clearly presented, including with the help of reminders, algorithms (it is possible to use materials given in lectures).
The lesson recording form is free.
Please complete the final work and send it to the address: 121165, Moscow, st. Kyiv, 24. Pedagogical University “First of September”.
The completed work must be accompanied by a certificate (Act of Implementation, the form of which will be sent to each student personally), certified by your educational institution.
All materials must be printed or written in legible handwriting.
We teach you to solve spelling problems in the root of a word | |
at the endings of nouns................................................................. .......... | |
Training in solving spelling problems | |
in personal endings of verbs............................................................. ................... | |
Formation of spelling self-control | |
as a complex spelling skill................................................... | |
Final work................................................... ........................................... |
Current page: 6 (book has 21 pages total) [available reading passage: 14 pages]
Simple things
Vera Inber
Vladimir Mayakovsky called Vera Inber a “porcelain cup.”
Alexander Blok wrote that in some of Inber’s poems he felt “the bitterness of wormwood, sometimes real.”
Eduard Bagritsky saw in her lyrics a “childish, enlightened mood.”
These fragile definitions correspond to the touchingness, tenderness, and subtlety that young Vera Inber brought to Russian poetry. Her first books - “Sad Wine” (Paris, 1914), “Bitter Delight” (St. Petersburg, 1917), “Fleeting Words” (Odessa, 1922) - can be called, using her own metaphor, “flowers on the gray asphalt of the city.”
Vera Mikhailovna Inber was born in Odessa in 1890 and passed away in Moscow in 1972.
Those who wrote about her noted the striking dissimilarity between her poetic youth (in which the words “talent” and “love” dominated) and her entire subsequent life (in which the word “fear” reigned). A close relative of Leon Trotsky, expelled from the USSR in 1928 and then killed, she was forced, fearing for her fate and the fate of her family, to turn almost into a literary official, passionately caring for the cause of Lenin-Stalin and offering mediocre praise to the party and regime .
Poetry does not forgive this. At the beginning of 1935, she wrote in her diary: “In art, as in nature, the main thing is selection. The best selected survive" 53
Inber V. Sorting through the pages of days... (From diaries and notebooks) M., 1967. P. 26.
She was taken away, she survived, became an order bearer and laureate of the Stalin Prize, her poems about the war were included in Soviet anthologies. But Inber remained in the history of literature not for this, but for her early stories and poems (among which many people of the older generation will probably remember popular songs that have almost become urban folklore - about a girl from Nagasaki, about Willy-groom or about little Johnny, who has " hot palms and teeth like almonds").
There was another poetic outlet, which can be called a small success of her literary destiny - poems for children. There are not many of them, although she addressed them in the tens, twenties, and forties, then they began to be published in separate collections, sometimes with the addition of “adult” poems about the war, and some (including those that became widely known "Centipedes", “My Girl”, “Late at night by the pillow...”, “Setter Jack”, “About a boy with freckles”, “Lullaby”) are heard by many.
True, back in the twenties, three thin brochures with poems about “ordinary” professions and “simple” things were published - since then, it seems, these poems have not been republished, except that E. Putilova included some of them in her anthology “Russian Poets for Children” " Meanwhile, these poems by Inber (and perhaps, above all, these very poems of hers) present us with an extraordinary children’s poet, with her own unique intonation, rhythm, and vocabulary. I think that even a reader who does not go into details will determine in what era the poems were written - there are so many sometimes elusive, but clear signs and details of the time in them:
The teapot is diligent at work,
And he is not tall.
The teapot has a round belly
And there are absolutely no legs.
It's not too pretty
And the teapot has a strange look,
But it's quite fair
Since he always sits.
The kettle has a round lid
And a very beautiful nose,
But when he's short of breath,
He breathes like a locomotive.
He is often completely inappropriate
Wrapped in steam.
He has one friend
Yes, and that samovar.
And thin as a hair,
They sometimes sing together:
The samovar has the first voice,
And the kettle has a second one.
And about the kettle every night
A question arises in the kitchen.
And they scold him there for the fact that
He turns up his nose.
They judge him strictly
Everything, and even the jug.
But the kettle is silent: there are many of them
And he is completely alone.
Vera Inber wrote for children in the spirit of the Marshak school: this school introduced into wide use a short story or story in verse - a plot story written more according to the laws of prose than lyric verse, but with all the attributes inherent in a poetic work. But in the memory of the reader - first as a child, and then as an adult - Inber remains a master of poetic aphorism:
The night moves on soft paws,
Breathes like a bear.
A boy was made to cry
Mom - to sing.
Poems are remembered - by warmth, liveliness, accuracy of sound, kindness. What else does a children's poet need?
“Our main joy was the sea. And although our sea is called “Black,” it turns black only in autumn and winter, on stormy, windy days. And in spring and summer the Black Sea is blue, blue, green, and sometimes, at sunset, golden.
The best place for a walk in our city was Primorsky Boulevard, where beautiful southern plane trees grew.
At the beginning of the boulevard there was a bronze monument to Pushkin. The leaves of the plane trees rustled just above his head. Swallows, flying, touched Alexander Sergeevich with their light wings, and sometimes landed on his shoulder. From there, from above, the sea and ships heading to our port could be seen far away.
The ships arrived tired from long voyages, smoky, weather-beaten. The wide pipe breathed hoarsely. The paint on the sides is peeling and faded. Shells and algae covered the outside of the ship's bottom.
Still would! After all, he had to deal with waves, storms, hurricanes.
In our port, the ships were put in order: they were cleaned, washed, repaired, and covered with fresh paint.
Going back to sea, the ships looked great. And the swallows, sitting on Pushkin’s shoulder, followed them with their eyes to the very horizon.”
With this Odessa horizon in your eyes, it would be good to read the poems of Vera Inber. Sometimes an amazing lyrical feeling arises in them, characteristic of the highest examples of Russian poetic classics:
Leaves become yellower. The days are shorter
(By six o'clock it's already dark)
And the damp nights are so fresh,
That you need to close the window.Schoolchildren have longer lessons,
The rains flow like an oblique wall,
Only sometimes in the sun
It’s still as cozy as spring.Housewives zealously prepare for future use
Mushrooms and cucumbers,
And the apples are freshly blush,
How sweet are your cheeks.
Let's pay attention to the last two lines: the banal “cheeks are rosy, like apples” is opposed to the inversion - “apples are rosy (and fresh!), like cheeks.” And the image immediately takes on newness and, indeed, freshness. I remember the expression of one of my young readers - he once said: “Dry leaves rustle like chips.” But according to all the “rules of life” he should have said: “The chips rustle like dry leaves.” But today for him the primary thing is secondary.
In Vera Inber’s poems everything is still “primary”. Perhaps it took almost a century to understand and appreciate this.
Fourth retreat
In August 1968, two events occurred that surprisingly coincided and forever united in my mind two distant concepts - poetics and politics
It was in Yalta, during the summer holidays, from which a plump typescript tore me out: Efim Grigorievich Etkind, who worked at the Yalta House of Writers' Creativity, showed me his newly written book “Conversation about Poems” and said: “Read it and tell me what you think.”
First impressions are memorable: it turned out that the most complex problems of poetry can be discussed not only in a fascinating way, but in such a way that this conversation becomes destiny. The word “fate” hung in the air then. There, in Yalta, on the twenty-first of August, we turned on the Speedola and through the howl of the jammers we discerned the familiar intonation of Anatoly Maksimovich Goldberg: the BBC reported on Soviet tanks in Czechoslovakia. “Well,” said Efim Grigorievich, “fate begins...”
Efim Grigoryevich Etkind (1918–1999) did not write poetry - he studied and propagated them. His “Conversation about Poems,” published in its first edition in 1970 by the publishing house “Children’s Literature,” determined the philological and literary destinies of many teenagers of that time, including those who began to write for children.
An enviable and inspired fate fell to his own lot. He was admired for his talents and intelligence, charm and masculinity, and extraordinary performance, which he retained until his last days. As far as I remember, not one of his many speeches, be it before a student, scientific or writer's audience, was held without a full house: people went “to see Etkind,” whose very name over the years has become synonymous with high human feelings and qualities - nobility, honesty and civic courage.
An outstanding literary historian, poetic critic, theorist and practitioner of literary translation, he earned love and respect throughout the world - this is evidenced by the huge bibliography of his scientific and literary works, published in many European languages, and the numerous honorary titles that he was awarded in many countries; The books and works he prepared continue to be published even after his death.
In 1908, Maximilian Voloshin, reviewing the just published book of translations by Fyodor Sologub from Verlaine, recalled the words of Théophile Gautier: “Everything dies with a person, but most of all his voice dies... Nothing can give an idea of him to those who have forgotten him.” Voloshin refutes Gautier: there is an area of art, he writes, that preserves “the most intimate, most precious shades of the voices of those people who no longer exist. This is rhythmic speech - verse" 54
Voloshin M. Paul Verlaine. Poems selected and translated by F. Sologub // Voloshin M. Faces of creativity. L., 1989. S. 438, 440.
Poetry was the main work of Efim Etkind's life. For more than half a century he studied Russian, French, and German poetry (he also translated the latter a lot and fruitfully), studied them as a text of poetry and a text of culture, often working in the narrow space between serious science and popularization, where his own voice, his own intonation. Numerous students, friends, and followers of Etkind remember exactly this - his unique voice, his amazing ability to read poetry and pause.
There were no such pauses in his life. Even at the breaking point of fate, in 1974, when a fifty-six-year-old professor at the Herzen Institute, suddenly deprived of all titles and degrees, was forced to emigrate to the West, the subsequent many-year separation from his homeland and native culture turned into phenomenal activity in terms of energy and achievements - scientific, organizational, journalistic. For a decade and a half, Etkind’s name was banned in the Soviet Union, his books were confiscated from libraries and mostly destroyed. Shortly before the sudden death of E. G. Etkind addressed an open letter to those who were guilty of this barbarity with a fair demand to pay for the republication of their destroyed books, many of which for many years were unique teaching aids for philologists - and have remained so to this day.
Of course, there was no answer, but, fortunately, Efim Grigorievich was charged with great optimism, which allowed him, in all difficult times, to find his own paths for creativity, adequate to high and noble goals. For the main thing for which he lived was here, in his homeland: Russian culture and circle of friends. He carried these two passions throughout his life - both when he studied at the Romano-Germanic department of Leningrad University, and when he volunteered for the war, and when he “broke through” the Soviet reality of the 40s - 60s, and when, after actual deportation, he found himself in Europe. Etkind managed to build his own, special bridge between European and Russian cultures. These are not only scientific articles, books, literary translations, speeches: Efim Grigorievich knew how to bring people together, to cultivate a sense of need in each other. His name stands not only among those whom he translated and whose work he studied, but also those whom he defended and established in our literature.
Every poetry lover poses questions to himself in his youth, which he then answers for almost his entire life. How do I read? Is this an easy job for me – or serious work? Am I doing this out of love or out of necessity? Do I always fully understand the lines over which my eyes sometimes so hastily run?
Reading poetry is a special art. At the Pushkin Lyceum they specially taught poetry. But for many of us, poetry lessons are extremely important.
“Reading and understanding poetry has always been difficult, but in different eras the difficulties are different. In the last century, the reader certainly had to know the Bible, Greek mythology, and Homer - otherwise, would he have understood anything in such Pushkin poems as “The waves of Phlegethon are splashing, the vaults of Tartarus are trembling, the horses of pale Pluto from Hades are rushing the god ...” . The reader of modern poetry can do without mythology, but he must master the difficult language of poetic associations, the most sophisticated system of metaphorical thinking, and understand the internal form of the word, which develops into a plastic and musical image. Often the reader does not even realize how many obstacles he needs to overcome in order to receive true poetic joy from a poem.” 55
Etkind E. About the art of being a reader (Poetry). L., 1964. P. 50.
This is how Efim Etkind finished his book “On the Art of Being a Reader” half a century ago. From this small brochure grew many of the author’s remarkable studies on Russian and foreign poetry, including “Conversation about Poetry,” which became a bibliographic rarity immediately after its publication; nevertheless, it became the focus of attention for a whole generation, and not one. First of all, because the book was intended for young readers at a time when poetry played a huge educational role and filled many ethical gaps in the social life of that time. Reading and thinking are the seductive elements of a poetry lover. E. Etkind leaves us alone with this element.
“Talk about Poems” is a book about love. By the way, to poetry, to native speech and to those selected poets who made the glory of Russian poetry. Sometimes this love is emphatically open, sometimes it is secret: love that reveals subtext, which Russian poetry of the Soviet era was especially rich in. The reader of A Conversation about Poems must clearly understand the presence of such subtext in the book itself. In those years when it was written, its author could not say everything and not everything out loud; he hoped that he would focus on the main thing - the ability to read text; he believed that the reader - his co-conspirator, co-sorrower, co-sufferer - would later be able to figure it out for himself, independently analyze and understand everything already related to the subtext.
There are many surprising discoveries in Conversation about Poems. One of them is the concept of a “ladder”: a ladder of contexts, a ladder of rhythms, etc. To equip yourself with the “Etkind method”, the reader can also create a semblance of such a ladder, placing on it the works of Efim Grigorievich himself, say, about his favorite poet what Nikolai Zabolotsky was like. In "Conversation about Poems" the beginning of this topic was laid; then it was developed by the analysis of the poem “Farewell to Friends” (1973), and continued in the West in a number of publications, primarily such fundamental ones as “In Search of Man. The path of Nikolai Zabolotsky from neo-futurism to “poetry of the soul” (1983) and “Zabolotsky and Khlebnikov” (1986).
In the archives of E. G. Etkind there is preserved an article “Nikolai Zabolotsky in 1937: “The Night Garden”” that did not reach the printing press during his lifetime, completing the ascent up this research ladder and, at the same time, referring to the pages about Zabolotsky in “Conversation about Poems” " After reading these pages, we will be convinced that the author consistently and persistently tells us about the tragic in the poet’s work (“evenly solemn mournful intonation”, “Zabolotsky’s world is tragic”, “how much painful tragedy is in the initial words”, etc.) , however, every time the background of the tragic is revealed mainly at the formal level, be it an analysis of the rhythm or the metaphorical structure of the verse. The article about “The Night Garden” examines what could not have been published at the time: Zabolotsky’s tragedy is shown as the poet’s reaction to the realities of Soviet life at that time.
Let's remember this poem - as it was published in 1937:
Oh, garden of the night, mysterious organ,
A forest of long pipes, a haven of cellos!
Oh, garden of the night, sad caravan
Night oaks and motionless firs!He tossed and made noise all day.
The oak was a battle, and the poplar was a shock.
A hundred thousand leaves are like a hundred thousand bodies,
Intertwined in the autumn air.Iron August in long boots
He stood in the distance with a large plate of game.
And shots thundered in the meadows,
And bird bodies flashed in the air.And the garden fell silent, and the moon suddenly came out.
Dozens of long shadows lay below,Oh, the garden of the night, oh, the poor garden of the night,
Oh, creatures who have fallen asleep for a long time!
Oh, you, who appeared above your head
The mysterious Volga of misty stars!
“For Zabolotsky, the Garden,” writes E. G. Etkind, “is a victim and witness of human atrocities... The Garden, the focus of music and life (stanza I) watches what is happening with anguish, with despair (II). What is happening is described in stanza III - a hunt, during which living beings die. At night, the garden no longer just observes, but protests - votes “against crimes.” Let's take a closer look at the central stanza: is it about hunting, or is it only about hunting?
“Iron August” - well, of course, it’s about August, the month when hunting is allowed. However... However, Augustus is also the Emperor of Rome, the autocratic and deified dictator. The epithet “iron” evokes in our memory the combination “iron Felix” - this is how the party officially called Dzerzhinsky, the creator and chairman of the Cheka; however, “iron” is a synonym for the word “steel.” “Iron August” – Stalin; With this understanding of the word “August,” the poem is read differently, it becomes transparent, completely understandable. Stanza IV takes on a deep and distinct meaning, where the night garden, in other words, all of nature, all living things in the world, protests against Stalin’s terror:
And the souls of the linden trees raised their hands,
Everyone is voting against crime.
It’s not for nothing that Zabolotsky had to redo these very lines for the 1957 edition, 20 years later:
And the crowds of linden trees raised their hands,
Hiding birds under clumps of plants.
Better? Worse? This is not the point, but the fact that lines clearly related to Soviet reality (lindens vote against crimes by raising their hands - like workers at all trade union or party meetings!) gave way to lines that were stylistically neutral - devoid of modern associations. And the last two verses, indicating that the action takes place in Soviet Russia (“...Volga”), gave way to neutral lines that transferred the action to the Universe:
Oh, flashing above your head
Instant Star Shard Flame!
The line with the Volga was more accurate and better; and not only because the rhyme was richer (“for a long time - the Volga”)... Stanza III, which stood in the center of the “Night Garden”, not only painted the image of the leader “in long boots”, but also gave a terrifying metaphorical picture of the “total terror” of 1937 of the year". These poems, Etkind concludes his analysis, “represent Zabolotsky’s literary feat, the act of a desperate brave man.”
I hope this lengthy quotation will help the reader of A Conversation about Poems to sense that “research perspective” that almost every page of the book calls for. And to revive that love for poetry, which grows from attentive, sensitive reading. This is what I want to learn: the work of detailed reading, including (and for us, above all) poetry for children.
Zabolotsky’s poems turned out to be the last poems that I heard from the lips of E. G. Etkind: it so happened that on the last evening we spent together, we read Zabolotsky. This was at the very end of September 1999. Then we parted, Efim Grigorievich flew to Germany, and in November he passed away. And now, re-reading “A Conversation about Poems,” I always remember the embankment in Yalta, the folder with the typescript and the words that I want to pass on “in a circle”: “Read it and say what you think.”
Reading holiday
Valentin Berestov
Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov (1928–1998) is a favorite poet of more than one generation of children in our country. And those adults who fell in love with his poems in childhood or adolescence retain this love for the rest of their lives. I hope that for all of us, his readers today, every interaction with his poems, with his new books, is a real reading holiday. Valentin Berestov was born on April 1, 1928 in Kaluga. Perhaps his birth on such a cheerful day determined his fate and his character: despite the many adversities and difficulties that befell his generation, all his life he remained an amazingly cheerful person and did not lose heart under any circumstances.
I met him in the early 70s, when my first poems for children began to be published. And I immediately realized (I just felt it on my skin!) what an invaluable gift of friendly complicity Valentin Dmitrievich was endowed with. He surprisingly easily removed all possible obstacles that could arise during communication. He listened brilliantly to poems and tactfully and wittily criticized them, if they deserved it, right there, along the way, improvising and “pulling out” lines that didn’t work out. And how he knew how to rejoice if he liked the poems! He started calling editorial offices and publishing houses, he wrote reviews, he took you into his life... These qualities of his were especially pronounced when his protection was really needed - as, say, in the story with Oleg Grigoriev. Berestov's participation in the fate of Grigoriev is one of the brightest and highest pages of Soviet literary life in our recent past.
The poet Andrei Chernov, one of Berestov’s students and younger friends, wrote in the afterword to the teacher’s book of selected poems (2003): “Berestov is neither an adult nor a child. He is a poet of the “general kind”, whose lyrics (in the usual sense) are difficult to separate from instant photographs, poetic memory, which become poetry either thanks to kindness and humor, or despite the natural intelligence and professional skill of the author. He offers his poems to the reader as a gift of his friendship.”
In relation to Berestov, the “gift of friendship” is the main principle of the world order. He took it from his elders, from his family, from his teachers in literature and transferred it not only to his loved ones and to his many friends and students: everything that comes into view is subject to friendship (and friendly compassion), and what does not obey becomes marginal and not worthy of attention. I remember with what demanding, but precisely friendly complicity Berestov treated the changes of the 90s, which is why such lines, for example, were born:
Let's forgive our country for its history.
It won't happen anymore, gentlemen!
And we’ll forgive her the climate and the territory,
And off-road. It's no problem!
Let's not give her fatherly instructions,
Who to follow and where to go.
She decided to live like a human being.
Let's forgive her for this, gentlemen!
These poems, written by Berestov in 1995 and then remembered by ear, give a better idea than many others of the author’s delicacy, insight and talent. Later, these lines got a name - “Russian Idea”, which gave the poetic aura depth and at the same time irony. From such shades of feelings and meanings the image of the soul is sculpted.
Berestov began writing poetry early, and already in his adolescence they were recognized - and I dare say: they were loved! – Samuil Marshak, Korney Chukovsky, Anna Akhmatova. V. Berestov not only talked about his literary teachers and wrote about them in an unusually interesting way, but also “showed” them: his gift of transformation, his oral memoirs brought moments of true poetic happiness to all the poet’s interlocutors.
Valentin Dmitrievich devoted a considerable part of his life to archeology. Maybe that’s why in many of his poems, both for children and for adults, history—distant and very recent—comes to life. History for him is a single and living space in which not so long ago the war years and, say, the life of A.S. Pushkin take place simultaneously, and the destinies of our contemporaries unfold. And all this is tied into one knot with childhood. But it’s better to listen to Berestov himself:
“I also love classical poetry because it is close and understandable to children, sometimes even very young ones. Well, for example, “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” by Pushkin, “Three Palms” by Lermontov (I read them at the Lermontov competition, went through several rounds, probably would have passed the All-Union one, but the war began), “The Cup” by Schiller in Zhukovsky’s translation ( when I was six years old, this was my favorite poem), “On Valor, About Deeds, About Glory” by Blok - the delight of my adolescence... It would seem that the classics wrote about everything before they entered the school curriculum and became reading for children and teenagers. But that's not true. There was a lot they couldn’t write about, didn’t have time to write about, or forgot. I even have a cycle of “adult” poems, which I have been writing all my life and secretly, for myself, calling it:
“What the classics forgot to write.”
And here's another:
“Children's poetry, created by Chukovsky and Marshak, survived the era and the social system under which it was created. After all, our classics of children's poetry understood that for young children, poetry is the most necessary spiritual food, their daily bread. Take this food away from your baby, and, as Chukovsky put it, he will cause you aching pity, as if he were lame or hunchbacked.
All my poems for little ones are a game with children. And they are powerful thinkers, dreamers and lovers of paradoxes. They rediscover and master the world... And these poems also express my love for little children and my deep gratitude to them for those wonderful hours that I had the honor and happiness of spending in their company.”
Valentin Berestov should be read slowly and carefully. Luckily for us, he really wrote a lot - adult lyrics, children's poems and fairy tales, fantasy stories, stories about archaeologists and popular science stories; he retold the biblical legends that were included in the famous book “The Tower of Babel”; he translated, first of all, his favorite poet, the Belgian Maurice Karême, and Berestov’s translations made Karême a constant source of reading for our kids. Berestov left books of memoirs and literary studies, works about Pushkin. Berestov formulated—let me say: brilliantly formulated—Pushkin’s “ladder of feelings” and deduced this formula in a work of the same name, to which he devoted two decades of his life: “The national originality of Russian folk lyrics is expressed in the fact that in a traditional non-ritual song, only feelings gradually , as if on a ladder, are reduced to others, opposite ones" 56
Berestov V. Ladder of feelings // Berestov V. Selected works. In 2 volumes. T. 2. M., 1998. P. 582.
The song occupied a significant place in Berestov’s original work - he himself came up with “folk”, as he said, motives for his song texts and sang with such dedication and inspiration that it seemed - here, before your eyes, the birth of folklore is taking place...
Just shortly before his sudden death in April 1998, Valentin Dmitrievich signed one of his last books to our mutual friend Andrei Chernov; With Andrey's permission, I would like to quote these two lines, since they contain all of Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov:
But it’s still good for that poet, Who is being transported on a child’s ticket!
Fragments about Berestov
I didn’t see Berestov sad -
I remembered Berestov verbally,
with a song and a story about
how Chukovsky argued with Marshak.What is given to a children's poet?
If you're lucky, remember this
a commandment more important than other sciences,
that in poetry the most precious thing is sound.That's why he wasn't sad,
this ringing voice of Uncle Valin:
tenor turning into laughter,
the sound held - for them, for us, for everyone!
This is an echo
On the twentieth of November 1981, a conference on children's literature was held in the Leningrad branch of Detgiz. The poetry seminar was conducted by Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov and Alexander Alekseevich Krestinsky.
Here are a few of Berestov’s aphorisms, which I wrote down along the way:
To write poetry about childhood, you need to live a large part of your life.
In modern adult poetry there is complete egocentrism. In youth poetry there is purity.
Objective egocentric: I remember a wonderful moment when I appeared before you. Subjective: I appeared before myself.
At my age it is impossible to live without a sense of humor.
The reader is an anonymous black hole.
Children's poems are a continuation of the words of children. Playing with children turns into poetry. There must be an accurate calculation of age. This is an echo.
Barto: Leave only the finds.
Berestov: Then many lines will not rhyme. Barto: Let them stand like that.
Berestov: I wanted to say this, this and that. Tatyana Ivanovna: That's what I would say!
I cannot, sinful man, write songs. As our expedition driver said: “Your voice can only shout: Busy!”
Marshak, when he felt that the poems were false, read them with a German accent.
Chukovsky had a basic requirement for a fairy tale: that you could draw a picture for each line.
Zakhoder repeats: everything is a plot. What poems can you write about an ashtray? There are cigarette butts in it and they say: “Everything is decay! Everything is dust!”
Marshak said: you need to keep several irons on the fire all the time.
The Irish say: when God created time, he made enough of it.
Found myself
– You have finally found yourself! - Chukovsky said when 36-year-old Berestov brought him his children's poems.
Life is a mystery
There was a wonderful boy in Leningrad, Vova Torchinsky, the author of very interesting and funny poems. One day Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov came from Moscow. Not only children's writers, but also children who write were invited to meet with him. Vova read our favorite poems:
Long live autumn! Long live the school! Long live time and verb form!
Berestov also really liked the poems.
-Who are you going to be? – he asked Vova.
“I don’t know,” he looked down.
- Right! – Berestov was delighted. - Life is a mystery.
From the doorstep
In October 1982, I once again came to Moscow and got to Berestovy. Uncle Valya was dumbfounded from the threshold:
After the rain
Another visit to Moscow - in April 1983. In the evening - visit to the Berestovs. Uncle Valya and I were walking from different places and both got caught in terrible rain. We sat down by the heater. Berestov is completely wet: “Let’s have some poetry!.. No, read it first!” I, also completely wet, began to read poems from the manuscript prepared for the Malysh publishing house. Tatyana Ivanovna came with tea. Berestov, not paying attention to his tea, began to read my manuscript and at the same time immediately gave out versions of those passages that he did not like. This is how we departed from the rain – with warmth and poetry.
News
A few months later, in the fall, Valentin Dmitrievich came to Leningrad for Detgiz’s fiftieth anniversary. Let's go for a walk around the city with him.
Me: “Valentin Dmitrievich, what news do you have?”
He: “Listen to what Andryusha Chernov wrote about Pushkin!”
Half an hour later, I find a loophole in his monologue and ask: “What’s new with you?”
He: “But this is what Olesya Nikolaeva wrote...” Etc.
People, how to answer the questions for the exercise?
1. Read brief information about the writer V.P. Nekrasov.
Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov (1911 -1987), the author of one of the best stories about the Patriotic War - “In the Trenches of Stalingrad”, for which he was awarded the title of State Prize laureate, was a direct participant in the events of those years; was wounded twice. He spent almost his entire life in Kyiv, loved this city very much and, not without reason, considered it one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
2. Read an excerpt from this writer’s memoirs.
Encounters with the past...
...The school where you studied. The house where you lived. The yard is an asphalt patch among high walls. Here they played detectives and robbers, exchanged brands, and broke noses. It was good. And, most importantly, it’s simple. Noses healed quickly...
But there are other meetings. Much less idyllic. Meetings with the years of war; with the roads along which you retreated, with the trenches in which you sat, with the ground where your friends lie... But even in these meetings, more sad than joyful, there are those that make you smile.
I wandered around Mamayev Kurgan for a long time. Many years have passed since we parted with Stalingrad. The trenches were overgrown with grass. Frogs croaked in the craters, and goats wandered peacefully in places where there were minefields, nibbling grass. In the trenches there were shell casings and cartridges black with rust...
Having walked around the entire mound, I went down the ravine to the Volga. And suddenly he stopped, not believing his eyes. There was a barrel in front of me. An ordinary iron gasoline barrel riddled with bullets.
In October-November 1942, the front line passed through this very ravine. On one side there were the Germans, on the other - us. Once I was tasked with setting up a minefield on the opposite slope of a ravine.
The field was set up, and since there were no landmarks around - no pillars, no destroyed buildings - nothing, I “tied” it to this very barrel on the report card, in other words, I wrote: “The left edge of the field is located at a distance of so many meters along such and such an azimuth from the iron barrel at the bottom of the ravine.” The division engineer scolded me for a long time afterwards: “Who is tying up minefields like that? Today the barrel is there, but tomorrow it’s gone... It’s a disgrace!..” I had nothing to answer.
And now the war has long passed, and there is no trace of Hitler or a minefield, and the goats are peacefully grazing on the former front line, and the barrel just lies and lies...
1. Explain the meaning of the word idyllic (meetings). What dictionary will help you clarify its meaning?
2. Re-read the part of the memoirs that talks about idyllic encounters with the past. What type of speech is this (description of a place, state of the environment, state of a person, or a combination of these typical fragments)?
3. What language means helped the author convey the special tone of this description? From these positions, evaluate the selection of syntactic constructions (types of simple sentences) and punctuation marks, in particular ellipses.
4. Compare with this description the 2nd fragment of memories (by no means idyllic) about the trenches of Stalingrad. What type of speech is this? What types of simple sentences are used here? Explain the word order in these sentences (predicate + subject). What is this - inversion or direct word order? What is the emotional content of the ellipsis in this fragment?
5. Re-read the rest of the text - about the meeting with the barrel. What type of speech is leading in this part of the text? What typical fragments are included in it? For what purpose?