Lesson 6 The Landscape of Stories
Harrison Bergeron
THE YEAR WAS ____, and everybody was finally equal.
They weren't only equal before the law―they were ____ in every other way.
Nobody was smarter, better ____, stronger, or quicker than anybody else.
The new constitution of the United ____ and the agents of the Handicapper General(HG) guaranteed all this wonderful equality.
____ things about life still weren't quite equal, however.
____ months were colder or hotter than others.
And it was in the warm month of April that the HG men took George and Hazel Bergeron's nineteen-year-old ____ Harrison away.
It was tragic,
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it ____ hard.
Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short ____.
And George, ____ his intelligence was way above normal, had a little handicap radio in his ear that made it difficult for him to concentrate.
He was made by ____ to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter.
____ twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
George and Hazel were watching ____.
There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment ____ she was crying.
Ballerinas danced across a television screen. "BUZZ!" went the ____ in George's ear.
____ were his thoughts. "That was a real pretty dance they just did," said Hazel.
"Huh?" said George. "That dance―it was nice," said Hazel. "Yup," said ____.
He tried to think a little about the ballerinas.
They weren't really very ____.
Anybody could have done as ____ a job.
They had big weights holding them down, so they ____ jump high.
They had masks on their faces so that no ____ might see the beauty inside.
George was toying with the vague notion that maybe ____ shouldn't be handicapped.
But he didn't ____ very far before another noise scattered his thoughts.
"____! BUZZ!" went the transmitter in his ear.
____ heard the sound from across the room.
"I'd like to hear those noises," she said, a little enviously ____ she had no radio in her ear.
"If I were Diana Moon Glampers, the ____ General, you know what I'd do?" she continued.
"I'd put beautiful chimes in ____ ears. People would be happier that way. I'd make a good HG, I think."
"____, as good as anybody else, I guess," said George.
He began to think ____ of his abnormal son Harrison, who was now in jail maybe he'd make a good HG.
“BUZZ! BUZZ!” went the transmitter in his ear.
"Boy!" said Hazel, "I heard that from all the way across the ____."
George held his ears and started ____.
"Ow!" It was so loud that tears formed ____ his eyes.
"You look tired," said Hazel. "Why don't ____ put your head down on the couch?
You can rest your handicap bag as ____."
In George's handicap bag were placed ____ lead balls.
These prevented him ____ running too fast. "What?"
"You've been so tired lately, honey," said ____.
"If only we could cut a few ____ in the bag and take out a few balls."
"I don't think about it anymore. ____ just a part of me.
And anyway, if I did it, then other people ____ do the same thing.
Pretty soon, we'd be ____ in the dark ages again where everybody would be competing with everybody else.
Surely you don't ____ to live in that kind of world."
“Do you really think that’s possible?”
"BUZZ! BUZZ!" went the ____ in George's ear.
"Huh? What are ____ talking about?" "Never mind," said Hazel.
The television program was suddenly ____ for a news bulletin.
It wasn't ____ at first what the bulletin was about.
The announcer, ____ all announcers, had a serious speech impediment.
"____ and g-g-g-gentlemen."
The announcer ____ up, handing his sheet of paper to a ballerina.
He asked her if she could ____ it for him.
She ____ have been extraordinarily beautiful since she wore a hideous mask.
"Ladies and ____," said the ballerina, reading the bulletin.
It was ____ to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers.
She carried enormous handicap bags.
She had to apologize for her ____, warm, and musical voice.
She cleared her throat and continued, making her voice ____ average.
"Harrison Bergeron, age nineteen, has just escaped from ____.
He was jailed for trying to ____ over the government.
He is a genius and an ____, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous."
A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen upside down, then sideways, upside down ____, then right side up.
He was handsome and tall―200 ____ tall, in fact.
In another ____, he was shown wearing his handicaps.
He wore a huge pair of earphones that slowed down any thinking and big, heavy glasses that made him nearly ____.
Pieces of metal hung all over ____, pressing him into his seat.
Metal dangled from his shirt pockets and across his ____.
On Harrison's strong ____, he carried no less than 180 kilograms.
To hide his good looks, Harrison was required to wear a big, red ____ nose, and his eyebrows were all shaved.
"If you see this boy, don't ____ him.
He's ____," said the ballerina unnaturally.
Then, suddenly,
Then, suddenly, a door was pulled from ____ frame and thrown to the dance stage.
George Bergeron looked closely at the boy who emerged from beyond the door, carrying his heavy ____ and wearing his ridiculous clown's nose.
"My ____! That's our Harrison!" "BUZZ! BUZZ!"
The cameras focused on ____.
He stood there―a giant amongst men at the ____ of the stage.
Ballerinas, engineers, and announcers trembled before him, expecting to ____.
"I am the Emperor!" ____ Harrison.
"Do ____ hear? I am the Emperor!
Everybody must do what I ____ at once!
Even though I ____ here handicapped and weakened, I am greater than any man who ever lived!
____ watch me become even greater!"
Harrison tore off his chains with ease and dropped them on the ____.
He ____ smashed his earphones against the wall, threw away his clown's nose, and revealed a face that would have amazed Thor, the god of thunder.
“Now,” he said. “Who will be my Empress?”
The people knelt before ____.
"____ the first woman to rise join me as my partner."
A ballerina slowly rose, swaying on her feet like a gentle rose in the ____.
"Why should you be made to carry these handicaps? ____ should anyone?" Harrison asked.
He pulled the buzzer from her ear, snapped off her heavy ____, and removed her mask.
She was blindingly beautiful. "Now," said ____, taking her hand.
"Shall we show the people the meaning of the ____ 'dance'? Music!" he commanded.
The music began cautiously at ____.
Harrison stripped the musicians of their handicaps and said, "____ it now."
____, the most beautiful music sounded out throughout the music hall.
Harrison took his Empress by the ____.
They danced gracefully across the stage, and then in an explosion of ____, into the air they jumped!
They whirled, and ____ dipped his Empress nearly to the ground.
There were tears in the eyes of all those watching.
____ never known that such beauty could be possible.
The dancers leapt up into the high ____.
When the music came to an end, they ____ passionately and cried tears of joy.
It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, entered the ____.
Diana Moon Glampers said, "____ up, everybody! I'll give you one minute to put your handicaps back on. Or you will all die."
Right at the ____, the Bergerons' television screen went black.
"Huh! That was weird," ____ Hazel. But George had gone into the kitchen to grab a beer.
George opened his can of ____. "You've been crying. What's up with that?" he asked Hazel.
"Um, you ____, I just can't remember. I think there was something sad on television."
"What?" "I don't know." "Just ____ such things. That's my girl," George said.
The buzzing in his ____ was tremendous.
"It just ____ so weird," said Hazel.
"____ do we have to feel things? Why in this day and age do we need to feel sad things?"