This part makes a detailed account of how Hurricane Camille rampaged and how the Koshaks fought against it.

Paras. 7-13

These paragraphs give a detailed description of the logical movement of the happenings.

7.It grew dark before seven o’clock. Wind and rain now whipped the house. John sent his oldest son and daughter upstairs to bring down mattresses and pillows for the younger children. He wanted to keep the group together on one floor. “Stay away from the windows,” he warned, concerned about glass flying from storm-shattered panes. As the wind mounted to a roar, the house began leaking, the rain seemingly driven right through the walls. With mops, towel, pots and buckets the Koshaks began a struggle against the rapidly spreading water. At 8:30, power failed, and Pop Koshak turned on the generator.

8.The roar of the hurricane now was overwhelming. The house shook, and the ceiling in the living room was failing piece by piece. The French doors in an upstairs room blew in with an explosive sound, and the group heard gun-like reports as other upstairs windows disintegrated. Water rose above their ankles.

9.Then the front door started to break away from its frame. John and Charlie put their shoulders against it, but a blast of water hit the house, flinging open the door and shoving them down the hall. The generator was doused, and the lights went out. Charlie licked his lips and shouted to John. “I think we’re in real trouble. That water tasted salty.” The sea had reached the house, and the water was rising by the minute!

10.“Everybody out the back door to the cars!” John yelled. “We’ll pass the children along between us. Count them! Nine!”

11.The children went from adult to adult like buckets in a fire brigade. But the cars wouldn’t start; the electrical systems had been killed by water. The wind was too strong and the water too deep to flee on foot. “Back to the house!” John yelled. “Count the children! Count nine!”

12.As they scrambled back, John ordered, “Everybody on the stairs!” frightened, breathless and wet, the group settled on the stairs, which were protected by two interior walls. The children put the cat, Spooky, and a box with her four kittens on the landing. She peered nervously at her litter. The neighbour’s dog curled up and went to sleep.

13.The wind sounded like the roar of a train passing a few yards away. The house shuddered and shifted on its foundations. Water inched its way up the steps as first-floor outside walls collapsed. No one spoke. Everyone knew there was no escape; they would live or die in the house.

Q1: Can you find some verbal phrases from paragraphs 7-13 to illustrate the proceeding of the event.

A1: The whipping of house by wind and rain (Para 7)→the shaking of the house, the falling of the ceiling and the disintegration of upstairs windows (Para 8) →the breaking-away of the front door from frame→the shuddering of the house and shifting of its foundations (Para 13)→the lifting of the entire roof of the house and the disintegration of the bottom steps of the staircase (Para 18)→the collapse of the living-room fireplace and chimney and the disintegration of the two walls of the bedroom sanctuary (Para 22)→ the toppling of the two walls in the TV room (Para 24).

Q2: How do you paraphrase the following knowledge points?

1.Wind and rain now whipped the house. (para 7)

This is a metaphor. Strong wind and rain was lashing the house as if with a whip.

2.As the wind mounted to a roar, the house began leaking, the rain seemingly driven right through the walls. (para 7)

mount to a roar: the sound of the wind gets louder as the force of the wind increases.

seemingly: apparently; as if

3.With mops, towel, pots and buckets the Koshaks began a struggle against the rapidly spreading water. (para 7)

The house was leaking very badly. The koshaks had to use all the utensils they could lay their hands on like mops, towels, pots, and buckets to hold the leaking water.

4.At 8:30, power failed, and Pop Koshak turned on the generator. (para 7)

power failed: electricity was cut off.

pop: (slang) father; also a familiar term of address to any elderly man.

turned on the generator: started their generator to produce their own electric power.

5.The French doors in an upstairs room blew in with an explosive sound, and the group heard gun-like reports as other upstairs windows disintegrated. (para 8)

blew in: burst open by the storm, the two adjoining doors flew inwards.

gun-like reports: loud explosive noises like guns being fired.

report: a loud, resounding noise, especially one made by an explosion.

windows disintegrated: windows broke into pieces.

6.The generator was doused, and the lights went out. (para 9)

Water got into the generator and stopped it. It stopped producing electricity so the lights also went out.

7.…and the water was rising by the minute! (para 9)

Water was rising every minute./Water was rising minute by minute.

8.The children went from adult to adult like buckets in a fire brigade. (para 11)

This is a figure of speech, addressed as simile, comparing the passing of children to the passing of buckets of water in a fire brigade when fighting a fire.

9.…and the water too deep to flee on foot. (para 11)

The deep water made it impossible for them to escape by walking or running.

10.Everybody on the stairs! (para 12)

This sentence is elliptical. The full sentence could be “Everybody go and sit on the stairs.”

11.The wind sounded like the roar of a train passing a few yards away. (para 13)

This is simile comparing the sound of the wind to the roar of a passing train.

12.The house shuddered and shifted on its foundations. (para 13)

The house shook and was loosened from its foundations.

Shudder: to shake or tremble suddenly and violently as in horror or extreme disgust. Here the word is used to personify the house.

13.Water inched its way up the steps…(para 13)

Water rose on the steps of the staircase inch by inch.

Paras. 14-17

14.Charlie Hill had more or less taken responsibility for the neighbor and her two children. The mother was on the verge of panic. She clutched his arm and kept repeating, “I can’t swim, I can’t swim.”

15.“You won’t have to, “ he told her, with outward calm. “It’s bound to end soon.”

16.Grandmother Koshak reached an arm around her husband’s shoulder and put her mouth close to his ear. “Pop,” she said, “I love you.” He turned his head and answered, “I love you”－and his voice lacked its usual gruffness.

17.John watched the water lap at the steps, and felt a crushing guilt. He had underestimated the ferocity of Camille. He had assumed that what had never happened could not happen. He held his head between his hands, and silently prayed “Get us through this mess, will You?”

Q1: What do these paragraphs tell?

A1: They serve to reveal the emotional reactions of the characters when confronted with the hurricane.

Q2: How do you paraphrase the following knowledge points?

1.…he told her, with outward calm. (para 15)

When he said this, he appeared calm but was really worried in his mind.

2.…his voice lacked its usual gruffness. (para 16)

The lack of gruffness showed the old man’s sincerity and solemn feeling. In this critical situation the old couple tenderly expressed their mutual love.

3.John watched the water lap at the steps, and felt a crushing guilt. (para 17)

As John watched the water inch its way up the steps, he felt a strong sense of guilt because he blamed himself for endangering the whole family by his wrong decision not to flee inland.

lap: to move or strike gently with a light, splashing sound.

crushing: overwhelming

Paras. 18-25

18.A moment later, the hurricane, in one mighty swipe, lifted the entire roof off the house and skimmed it 40 feet through the air. The bottom steps of the staircase broke apart. One wall began crumbling on the marooned group.

19.Dr. Robert H. Simpson, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, fla., graded Hurricane Camille as “ the greatest recorded storm ever to hit a populated area in the Western Hemisphere.” In its concentrated breadth of some 70 miles it shot out winds of nearly 200 mph and raised tides as high as 30 feet. Along the Gulf Coast it devastated everything in its swath: 19,467 homes and 709 small businesses were demolished or severely damaged. It seized a 600,000-gallon Gulfport oil tank and dumped it 3.5 miles away. It tore three large cargo ships from their moorings and beached them. Telephone poles and 20-inch-thick pines cracked liked guns as the winds snapped them.

20.To the west of Gulfport, the town of Pass Christian was virtually wiped out. Several vacationers at the luxurious Richelieu Apartments there held a hurricane party to watch the storm from their spectacular vantage point. Richelieu Apartments were smashed apart as if by a gigantic fist, and 26 people perished.

21.Seconds after the roof blew off the Koshak house, John yelled, “ Up the stairs－into our bedroom! Count the kids.” The children huddled in the slashing rain within the circle of adults. Grandmother Koshak implored, “Children, let’s sing!” The children were too frightened to respond. She carried on alone for a few bars; then her voice trailed away.

22.Debris flew as the living-room fireplace and its chimney collapsed. With two walls in their bedroom sanctuary beginning to disintegrate, John ordered, “Into the television room!” this was the room farthest from the direction of the storm.

23.For an instant, John put his arm around his wife. Janis understood. Shivering from the wind and rain and fear, clutching two children to her, she thought, “Dear Lord, give me the strength to endure what I have to.” She felt anger against the hurricane. “We won’t let it win.”

24.Pop Koshak raged silently, frustrated at not being able to do anything to fight Camille. Without reason, he dragged a cedar chest and a double mattress from a bedroom into the TV room. At that moment, the wind tore out one wall and extinguished the lantern. A second wall moved, wavered, Charlie Hill tried to support it, but it toppled on him, injuring his back. The house, shuddering and rocking, had moved 25 feet from its foundations. The world seemed to be breaking apart.

25.“Let’s get that mattress up!” John shouted to his father. “Make it a lean-to against the wind. Get the kids under it. We can prop it up with our heads and shoulders!”

Q1: What do these paragraphs generally tell?

A1: They present a picture of the escalation of the onslaught of raging hurricane.

Q2: What can we know from paragraphs 19 and 20?

A2: These two paragraphs serve to highlight the hazardous effects of the hurricane through quotation and exemplification. They are indeed not part of the story about the Koshaks in the storm, but provide general and official information about Hurricane Camille to show ferocious this storm was. The writer inserts the two paragraphs perhaps to prepare for the coming of the climax of the story.

Q3: How do you paraphrase the following knowledge points?

1.A moment later, the hurricane, in one mighty swipe, lifted the entire roof off the house and skimmed it 40 feet through the air.

This is personification depicting the hurricane acting as a very strong person lifting something heavy and throw it through the air.

in one mighty swipe: in a big, hard, sweeping blow.

skim: to throw so as to cause to bounce swiftly and lightly.

2.…devastated everything in its swath…(para 19)

destroyed everything in its path

Swath: a broad strip or track of any kind

3.It tore three large cargo ships from their moorings and beached them. (para 19)

Three large cargo ships were torn free from the cables and anchors that held them and were grounded on the beach.

moorings: cables, anchors, buoys, etc. that hold a ship in place

beach: to ground a boat on a beach.

4.Several vacationers at the luxurious Richelieu Apartments there held a hurricane party to watch the storm from their spectacular vantage point.(para 20)

The people who were spending their vacation held a party to enjoy the unusual and impressive spectacle of the hurricane in the fancy apartments from where they believed they would be safe and be able to observe the process of the natural phenomenon closely with a clear and broad view.

a hurricane party: a party held especially for watching the hurricane

vantage point: a position that allows a clear and broad view.

5.She carried on alone for a few bars; then her voice trailed away. (para. 21)

Grandmother Koshak sang a few words alone and then her voice gradually grew dimmer and stopped.

6.…but it toppled on him… (para 24)

The wall disintegrated and brick and plasters fell on him.