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Un articolo di approfondimento sulla scomparsa del silenzio

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Scrivi un articolo di approfondimento per una rivista con un'apertura che introduce la scena, una voce citata, un linguaggio figurato e un'immagine finale.

Listening for the last quiet places

At six o'clock on a Tuesday morning, the botanist Imre Valk stands at the edge of a drained reservoir and does nothing at all. For eleven minutes he listens. A distant tractor, a wren, the faint tick of cooling stones: that, he says, is as good as it gets.

Valk has spent the best part of a decade mapping what he calls acoustic refuges, places where no human-made sound intrudes for a quarter of an hour at a stretch. When he began, he expected to find them in the remoter reaches of the country. Instead he found that they were vanishing everywhere, shrinking like ice at the edge of a warming sea. Of the three hundred sites he surveyed, fewer than forty still qualify.

The causes are unglamorous: ring roads, delivery drones, the ceaseless hum of ventilation plants. But Valk is more interested in the consequences, which are subtler than mere irritation. Studies he cites suggest that sustained noise nudges up stress hormones even in people who claim to have grown accustomed to it. Habituation, he argues, is not the same as immunity; we simply stop reporting a cost that we continue to pay.

Not everyone is persuaded. Critics point out that cities have always been noisy, and that the clatter of a nineteenth-century street would make a modern commuter wince. Valk concedes the point with a shrug. "Noise is not new," he says. "What is new is that there is no longer anywhere to retreat to."

That, perhaps, is the heart of the matter. Silence has become a scarce resource and, like most scarce resources, it is beginning to be sold. Hotels advertise rooms free of electronic hum; some retreats charge a small fortune for the privilege of being told to say nothing. It is a curious irony that something once available to anyone with a field and a free afternoon should now come with a price tag.

Valk has little patience for such enterprises. His own modest campaign aims to have a handful of the surviving refuges protected, much as ancient woodland is. Whether it succeeds is hard to say. As the light strengthens over the reservoir, a car door slams somewhere beyond the trees, and his eleven minutes are over. He writes the time in his notebook and, with the air of a man making a modest entry in a ledger, closes it.

Tono, immagini ed effetto

Scegli l'opzione migliore.

Which opening is best suited to a magazine feature?
- a) This article discusses the problem of noise in cities.
- b) Noise is a problem for many people nowadays.
- c) At six o'clock on a Tuesday morning, a botanist stands at the edge of a reservoir and does nothing at all.
"Shrinking like ice at the edge of a warming sea" is an example of which device?
- a) metaphor
- b) personification
- c) litotes
- d) simile
"Habituation is not the same as immunity." What does the writer imply?
- a) People who stop noticing noise are still affected by it.
- b) Noise protects people from stress.
- c) People never get used to noise.
- d) Noise has no effect on health.
"Valk concedes the point with a shrug." What does the shrug suggest?
- a) He is angry with his critics.
- b) He accepts the point without feeling threatened by it.
- c) He has no interest in his own research.
- d) He is unable to answer the criticism.
Silence has become a ___ resource.
- a) sparse
- b) scarce
- c) meagre
- d) slender
Which ending is most effective for a feature article?
- a) In conclusion, noise is a serious problem.
- b) Therefore, more research is needed.
- c) He writes the time in his notebook and closes it, like a man making an entry in a ledger.
Which phrase attributes a claim most cautiously?
- a) Everyone knows that
- b) Studies he cites suggest that
- c) It has been proved beyond doubt that
- d) There can be no question that

Completa le frasi

Scrivi una parola, oppure la forma indicata tra parentesi, per completare ogni frase.

Valk has spent the best part ___ a decade mapping acoustic refuges.
Valk has little patience ___ such enterprises.
Of the three hundred sites he surveyed, fewer ___ forty still qualify.
It is a curious irony that something once available ___ anyone with a free afternoon should now cost money.
Critics point ___ that cities have always been noisy.
He wants a few refuges protected, much ___ ancient woodland is.
The refuges were vanishing everywhere, ___ like ice at the edge of a warming sea. (shrink)

Compito di scrittura

Scrivi per una rivista un articolo di approfondimento su un mestiere, un luogo o una tradizione che sta lentamente scomparendo. Comincia con una scena, includi almeno una citazione di una persona che inventi, usa almeno una similitudine o una metafora, riconosci un punto di vista scettico e concludi con un'immagine.

280–340 parole

Controlla il tuo testo

La mia apertura è una scena concreta, non un'enunciazione dell'argomento.
Ho incluso una breve citazione dal suono naturale con un verbo introduttivo.
Ho usato almeno una similitudine o una metafora ben scelta senza spiegarla troppo.
Ho riconosciuto con correttezza un punto di vista scettico o opposto.
Ho variato la lunghezza delle frasi ed evitato espressioni riassuntive come in conclusion.
Ho concluso con un'immagine o un gesto che richiama l'apertura.

Soluzioni

Tono, immagini ed effetto

c) At six o'clock on a Tuesday morning, a botanist stands at the edge of a reservoir and does nothing at all.Una scena concreta con un dettaglio sorprendente cattura il lettore. Le altre aperture si limitano ad annunciare o a enunciare l'argomento.
d) simileLa parola like fa un paragone diretto, quindi è una similitudine (simile). Una metafora direbbe che i rifugi erano ghiaccio.
a) People who stop noticing noise are still affected by it.Il punto è che abituarsi a qualcosa non ne elimina il danno.
b) He accepts the point without feeling threatened by it.Qui un'alzata di spalle mostra un'accettazione rilassata: il punto è vero ma non danneggia la sua tesi.
b) scarceScarce resource è la collocazione fissa per qualcosa che è diventato raro. Sparse descrive cose distribuite in modo rado, mentre meagre e slender descrivono una piccola quantità posseduta da qualcuno (meagre resources), non qualcosa che è diventato difficile da trovare.
c) He writes the time in his notebook and closes it, like a man making an entry in a ledger.Gli articoli di approfondimento spesso si chiudono con un'immagine o un gesto. Le altre chiusure riassumono o enunciano una conclusione in modo meccanico.
b) Studies he cites suggest thatSuggest mantiene l'affermazione proporzionata e la attribuisce a una fonte. Le altre espressioni esagerano la certezza.

Completa le frasi

ofThe best part of significa «la maggior parte di».
for / withPatience for o with something sono entrambi corretti.
thanFewer than è il comparativo con un numero.
toAvailable to someone è la struttura abituale.
outTo point out significa attirare l'attenzione su un fatto.
asMuch as significa «nello stesso modo in cui».
shrinkingIl participio shrinking descrive il modo in cui i rifugi stavano scomparendo.

Risposta modello

On the second floor of a building with no lift, above a shop that sells only buttons, Dalia Reyes bends over a torn map of the Aldermoor hills and begins, very gently, to mend it.

Reyes is one of perhaps a dozen people in the country who repair paper maps by hand. She learned the trade from a retired surveyor, who paid her in tea and sharp criticism. Her tools are few: a bone folder, a jar of wheat paste, tissue so thin that it clings to the air. "You are not fixing the map," she says. "You are persuading it to forget it was ever damaged."

The work is slow. A single fold, worn through after decades in a coat pocket, may take an afternoon. Customers are mostly walkers and the families of the recently deceased, who arrive carrying an atlas annotated in a hand that nobody else will recognise. Reyes treats such pencil notes as sacred, working around them as a gardener works around a seedling.

The difficulty, of course, is that nobody needs her any more. A phone can show the same hills, in real time, and with a blue dot to say where you are standing. Reyes does not disagree. "A screen tells you where you are," she admits. "A map tells you where you might go, and who went there before you." It is a fine line, and one that few of her customers could articulate, but they feel it in the hands.

Her business survives, narrowly, thanks to a small number of loyal clients and a waiting list that she suspects is mostly sentimental. She has taken on one apprentice, a nervous student who, for the first month, was not allowed to touch the paste.

By late afternoon the Aldermoor map lies flat and almost whole, a faint seam running across its highest ridge. Reyes holds it to the window, and the light passes through the hills like a thought.