新編大學英語第三冊unit3 Text D: Wow, Would I Love to Do That
UNIT 3 AFTER-CLASS READING 3; New College English (III)
Wow, Would I Love to Do That
1 I was 16 years old when I became interested in juggling. I saw a television commercial in which two guys began tossing cans of frozen orange juice back and forth in a juggling pattern.
2 Wow, would I love to do that! I imagined myself performing before a clapping audience.
3 Fat chance. Even if I knew how to juggle, I was scared to death of standing in front of an audience. But then a strange coincidence occurred, the kind of thing that makes you think it's an answer to prayer, even when you haven't actually prayed. A few days later, my older brother, Jeff, and I were visiting some friends when a boy of my age said, "Hey, you should see what my brother learned to do." He took me to his brother's room, where the older boy was showing Jeff how to juggle golf balls.
4 "I want to learn too," I said.
5 In no time I was hooked. Even though I dropped a lot of balls at first, I was amazed how easily I caught on. First, I just tossed a single ball up in the air from one hand to the other. Then I tried two balls, one from each hand, letting them pass in the air.
6 Finally I was ready for three balls. The pattern was simple: I held two golf balls in my right hand and one in the left. Tossing one of the balls from my right hand into the air, I waited till it reached the top of its arc. Then I tossed up the ball from my left hand, so that the two balls passed each other. And before that one came down, I sent up the ball that had remained in my right hand. I caught and tossed the balls, back and forth, back and forth. When I dropped one, I started over. By the end of the evening I could make 10 tosses before dropping a ball.
7 It was a challenge; I had to perfect this skill. The next day I got three tennis balls and practiced in the garage until I could make 20 tosses before dropping a ball. I practiced with a vengeance. I wanted to be as good as those guys on TV.
8 As I got better, I began to add tricks, tossing the balls so that one went over the top of the others, or under the others, or I bounced one off my head or elbow and still kept the pattern going.
9 Funny thing is, I thought I was making up all those tricks. But one day at the library I discovered a book on juggling, and there were all the tricks I was doing! The basic three-ball pattern was a cascade, juggling the balls in a circle was a shower, and throwing one ball over the top was a half-shower.
10 I bought a set of juggling clubs, and my parents bought me a set of juggling rings. I performed for my family and a few friends, but I never thought of myself as an entertainer. Entertaining meant getting up in front of an audience. Impossible! I couldn't do that.
11 Then five years later, when I was 21, my mother called me aside one day during the Christmas season and said, "Dan, how would you like to juggle for the Salvation Army dinner this year?" For the past two years Mom and her boss had helped at the annual dinner.
12 "There will be other entertainment," she hastened to add. "All you need to do is stand at one side of the auditorium and juggle during dinner."
13 Two days before Christmas, as people streamed into the auditorium, there I was, juggling on a small stage at one side of the hall. I was nervous, but somehow the tension gave me courage. I began doing my tricks, including one I'd recently mastered: juggling behind my back. Then I juggled the clubs, and finally a bowling ball and two small balls. Kids crowded around the stage, laughing. People applauded.
14 Suddenly I felt an elation I had never experienced before. I was performing for an audience, and they loved it!
15 At home I kept practicing. I began juggling cigar boxes, knives and torches. And when an uncle gave me his unicycle, I learned to ride it and juggle at the same time.
16 I began to think about becoming a professional. I knew I'd have to do more than just tricks; I'd have to speak, make jokes and so on. That's what the books said. So I prayed about it. When I next juggled in front of my family, I added some jokes. I hoped that trying them out on my family would help me feel more comfortable doing the same thing in public.
17 My chance soon came. I was asked to juggle torches at a fashion show with a Polynesian theme. I went barefoot and bare-chested, dressed in silly-looking shorts, with black stripes across my face. As I was about to go on, I was handed a list of announcements. 'Please read these when you finish your act," the mistress of ceremonies said. It was too late to back out.
18 Was I ever nervous! I dropped the torches-three times! But not wanting the audience to know how nervous I was, I tried to make my mistakes look like part of the act. I danced over the torches crazily, making jungle sounds, until I could pick them up and resume my juggling. The people applauded. They liked my act. And somehow I got through reading the announcements.
19 The following month I received a phone call from the principal of a local elementary school. An old performer had asked for a sick leave. Could I fill in? And include a message? "Sure," I said.
20 Three weeks later I was standing before a couple of hundred eager children. Using my juggling practice as an example, I began my message. When I started to juggle, I let the balls drop. I picked them up, started, and dropped them again.
21 "That's what it's like when you start," I said. But then, as the program progressed, I began to do more and more tricks, juggling while riding a unicycle and while lying on my back, getting back up to my feet without dropping a ball.
22 Forty-five minutes later I ended the performance with my final word of advice to the children: "If you want to succeed, at juggling or anything else, you have to keep trying. You can do it. Just never give up."
