Lesson 6 The Landscape of Stories
Harrison Bergeron
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and ____ was finally equal.
They weren't only equal ____ the law―they were equal in every other way.
Nobody was smarter, better looking, stronger, or ____ than anybody else.
The new constitution of the United States and the agents of the Handicapper ____ guaranteed all this wonderful equality.
Some things about life still weren't quite ____, however.
Some months were colder or hotter ____ others.
And it was in the warm month of April that the HG men took George and Hazel ____ nineteen-year-old son Harrison away.
It was tragic,
It was ____, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard.
Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in ____ bursts.
And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little handicap radio in his ear that made it difficult for ____ 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 ____ television.
There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment why she was ____.
Ballerinas danced across a ____ screen. "BUZZ!" went the transmitter in George's ear.
Gone were his thoughts. "That was a real pretty dance they ____ 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 ____ as good a job.
They had big ____ holding them down, so they couldn't jump high.
They had masks on their faces so that no ____ might see the beauty inside.
George was toying with the vague ____ that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped.
But he didn't ____ very far before another noise scattered his thoughts.
"BUZZ! BUZZ!" ____ the transmitter in his ear.
Hazel ____ the sound from across the room.
"I'd like to hear those ____," she said, a little enviously because she had no radio in her ear.
"If I were Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, you know what I'd do?" she ____.
"I'd put ____ chimes in people's ears. People would be happier that way. I'd make a good HG, I think."
"Well, as good as anybody ____, 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 ____."
____ held his ears and started trembling.
"Ow!" It was so loud that tears formed under his ____.
"You look tired," said ____. "Why don't you put your head down on the couch?
You can rest your ____ bag as well."
In ____ handicap bag were placed several lead balls.
These ____ him from running too fast. "What?"
____ been so tired lately, honey," said Hazel.
"If only we ____ cut a few holes in the bag and take out a few balls."
"I don't think about it anymore. It's just a ____ of me.
And anyway, if I did it, then other people ____ do the same thing.
Pretty soon, ____ be back 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!" ____ the buzzer in George's ear.
"Huh? ____ are you talking about?" "Never mind," said Hazel.
The television ____ was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin.
It wasn't clear at first what the bulletin was ____.
The announcer, like ____ announcers, had a serious speech impediment.
"____ and g-g-g-gentlemen."
The announcer gave up, handing his sheet of ____ to a ballerina.
He asked her if she could ____ it for him.
She must have been extraordinarily beautiful since she ____ a hideous mask.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said the ____, reading the bulletin.
It was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the ____.
She carried enormous handicap bags.
She had to apologize for her beautiful, warm, and ____ voice.
She cleared her ____ and continued, making her voice completely average.
"Harrison Bergeron, age ____, has just escaped from jail.
He was jailed for trying to ____ over the government.
He is a ____ and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous."
A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen upside down, then ____, upside down again, then right side up.
He was handsome and tall―200 centimeters ____, in fact.
In another ____, he was shown wearing his handicaps.
He wore a huge pair of earphones that slowed down any ____ and big, heavy glasses that made him nearly blind.
Pieces of metal hung all over ____, pressing him into his seat.
Metal dangled ____ his shirt pockets and across his shoulders.
On Harrison's ____ body, he carried no less than 180 kilograms.
To hide his good looks, Harrison was required to wear a big, red clown's nose, and his ____ were all shaved.
"If ____ see this boy, don't approach 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, ____ his heavy metal and wearing his ridiculous clown's nose.
"My God! That's our ____!" "BUZZ! BUZZ!"
The cameras ____ on Harrison.
He stood there―a giant amongst ____ at the center of the stage.
Ballerinas, engineers, and ____ trembled before him, expecting to die.
"I am the ____!" cried Harrison.
"Do you hear? I am the ____!
____ must do what I say at once!
Even though I ____ here handicapped and weakened, I am greater than any man who ever lived!
Now ____ me become even greater!"
Harrison tore off his chains with ease and dropped ____ on the floor.
He then smashed his earphones against the wall, threw ____ 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 ____ him.
"Let the first woman to rise join me as my ____."
A ballerina slowly rose, ____ on her feet like a gentle rose in the breeze.
"Why should ____ be made to carry these handicaps? Why should anyone?" Harrison asked.
He pulled the buzzer ____ her ear, snapped off her heavy bags, and removed her mask.
She was blindingly beautiful. "Now," ____ Harrison, taking her hand.
"Shall we show the people the ____ of the word 'dance'? Music!" he commanded.
The music began cautiously at ____.
Harrison stripped the musicians of their handicaps and said, "____ it now."
Soon, the most ____ music sounded out throughout the music hall.
Harrison ____ his Empress by the hand.
They danced gracefully across the stage, and then in an explosion of joy, ____ the air they jumped!
They whirled, and Harrison dipped his Empress nearly to the ____.
There were tears in the eyes of all those watching.
____ never known that such beauty could be possible.
The dancers ____ up into the high ceiling.
When the ____ came to an end, they embraced passionately and cried tears of joy.
It was ____ that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, entered the stage.
Diana Moon Glampers said, "Listen up, everybody! I'll give you one minute to put your ____ back on. Or you will all die."
Right at the moment, the Bergerons' television ____ went black.
"Huh! That was weird," ____ Hazel. But George had gone into the kitchen to grab a beer.
George opened his can of beer. ____ been crying. What's up with that?" he asked Hazel.
"Um, you know, I just can't remember. I think there was something sad on ____."
"What?" "I don't know." "____ forget such things. That's my girl," George said.
The buzzing in his ____ was tremendous.
"It just feels so weird," ____ Hazel.
"Why do we have to feel things? ____ in this day and age do we need to feel sad things?"