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mme_hardy) The site http://splasho.com/upgoer5/ asks you to explain a hard idea using only the 1000 most-used words in English. I found it very easy to describe my three main jobs, because they're fairly abstract. But as soon as I hit musical instruments, it got complicated. So I would say the challenge is not describing hard ideas, but describing taks that involve a lot of nouns. Based on my attempts below, I question the classic writing advice that what makes text exciting to read is strong verbs. Nouns! Nouns is it.
I wonder whether one could write a recipe it was possible to follow.
CAPTIONING:
I make words appear on TV - the same words people say, at about the same time they say them. This means that people who can't hear can watch the same TV shows as people who can hear. I help with shows that happen live, like news. To send the words to the TV in your house, I use computers and phones. Maybe you did not know you could read your favorite TV shows instead of hearing them. If you want to see the words, all you have to do is turn them on. They are already part of your TV.
EDITING:
I pick the stories and groups of words that other people read. I get to pick because other people trust me to know what is interesting. I like stories or groups of words that are funny, or pretty, or make me think. I like it best when they do all three. Sometimes, I ask the people who send me the words to change a thing or two. They don't always agree, and I try to see their point. But I also know that my job is to show the best things I can.
FILMMAKING:
I make movies. My biggest job is telling other people how to lie better, or at least in a way that is more interesting. "I don't believe you," I say. "Act different. And you - make the picture more beautiful." Later on, I tell another person to move pieces of the movie around until I think it tells the right story. We add music and sounds to make it cool. Then I try to get people to give me money.
SONGWRITING:
I write music and the words that go with it. I like to use my voice the most, together with other voices and sounds. Some of my favorite sounds come from a wood box with keys. When I push the keys, it makes a piece of wood hit a line. The line moves from side to side very fast, which makes a beautiful sound. (Actually, the piece of wood hits three lines at once.) I can hit the key hard to make a loud sound, or soft to make a quiet sound. I can even hit several keys at the same time, which is what I like to do; it's why the wood box with keys is my favorite thing to make music with, other than my voice. I can be a whole band even when I am alone.
The only problem with the wood box with keys is, it is big and heavy. I can't carry it with me. Sometimes it is hard even to fit it in my apartment. There are small boxes with keys that are not made of wood; they use a computer to make sounds. But I don't like the sounds as much and don't like how it feels to push the keys. The small boxes are bad at knowing whether I want a sound to be loud or soft, or something in between, and the computer sounds don't move the air around in a way that is as fun and beautiful as the lines and wood box.
Sometimes other places have a wood box with keys for me to play, so I don't have to bring my own, but the keys stick or make the wrong sound. (It's easy for the little pieces of wood that hit the lines to get broken, or for the lines to get broken. You can guess why.) Which is a lot of why I like my voice better - I don't have to carry it or remember to bring it, and it's always the same voice (sort of. But it doesn't always work either.)
But my voice is not always enough, so I learned to play another type of wood box that is smaller than the box with keys. It looks like a woman with no head, arms, or legs, and has its lines on the outside. I press the lines with one hand and brush them with my other hand. Even though the lines are small, they can make pretty loud sounds if they move fast enough. (The box that looks like a woman helps push their noise out, so you can hear it from far away.)
mme_hardy) The site http://splasho.com/upgoer5/ asks you to explain a hard idea using only the 1000 most-used words in English. I found it very easy to describe my three main jobs, because they're fairly abstract. But as soon as I hit musical instruments, it got complicated. So I would say the challenge is not describing hard ideas, but describing taks that involve a lot of nouns. Based on my attempts below, I question the classic writing advice that what makes text exciting to read is strong verbs. Nouns! Nouns is it.I wonder whether one could write a recipe it was possible to follow.
CAPTIONING:
I make words appear on TV - the same words people say, at about the same time they say them. This means that people who can't hear can watch the same TV shows as people who can hear. I help with shows that happen live, like news. To send the words to the TV in your house, I use computers and phones. Maybe you did not know you could read your favorite TV shows instead of hearing them. If you want to see the words, all you have to do is turn them on. They are already part of your TV.
EDITING:
I pick the stories and groups of words that other people read. I get to pick because other people trust me to know what is interesting. I like stories or groups of words that are funny, or pretty, or make me think. I like it best when they do all three. Sometimes, I ask the people who send me the words to change a thing or two. They don't always agree, and I try to see their point. But I also know that my job is to show the best things I can.
FILMMAKING:
I make movies. My biggest job is telling other people how to lie better, or at least in a way that is more interesting. "I don't believe you," I say. "Act different. And you - make the picture more beautiful." Later on, I tell another person to move pieces of the movie around until I think it tells the right story. We add music and sounds to make it cool. Then I try to get people to give me money.
SONGWRITING:
I write music and the words that go with it. I like to use my voice the most, together with other voices and sounds. Some of my favorite sounds come from a wood box with keys. When I push the keys, it makes a piece of wood hit a line. The line moves from side to side very fast, which makes a beautiful sound. (Actually, the piece of wood hits three lines at once.) I can hit the key hard to make a loud sound, or soft to make a quiet sound. I can even hit several keys at the same time, which is what I like to do; it's why the wood box with keys is my favorite thing to make music with, other than my voice. I can be a whole band even when I am alone.
The only problem with the wood box with keys is, it is big and heavy. I can't carry it with me. Sometimes it is hard even to fit it in my apartment. There are small boxes with keys that are not made of wood; they use a computer to make sounds. But I don't like the sounds as much and don't like how it feels to push the keys. The small boxes are bad at knowing whether I want a sound to be loud or soft, or something in between, and the computer sounds don't move the air around in a way that is as fun and beautiful as the lines and wood box.
Sometimes other places have a wood box with keys for me to play, so I don't have to bring my own, but the keys stick or make the wrong sound. (It's easy for the little pieces of wood that hit the lines to get broken, or for the lines to get broken. You can guess why.) Which is a lot of why I like my voice better - I don't have to carry it or remember to bring it, and it's always the same voice (sort of. But it doesn't always work either.)
But my voice is not always enough, so I learned to play another type of wood box that is smaller than the box with keys. It looks like a woman with no head, arms, or legs, and has its lines on the outside. I press the lines with one hand and brush them with my other hand. Even though the lines are small, they can make pretty loud sounds if they move fast enough. (The box that looks like a woman helps push their noise out, so you can hear it from far away.)
