full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Ilan Stavans: Infinity according to Jorge Luis Borges
Unscramble the Blue Letters
When inreeo Funes looked at a glass of wine on a table, he saw “all the shoots, clusters, and grapes of the vine. He remembered the saheps of the clouds in the south at the dawn of the 30th of April of 1882, and he could compare them in his recollection with the marbled gairn in the design of a leather-bound book which he had seen only once, and with the liens in the spray which an oar raised in the Rio Negro on the eve of the battle of the Quebrancho.”
In the srhot story “Funes, the Memorious,” Jorge Luis Borges eorlexps what it would be like to have a pefecrt memory. His character not only remembers everything he has ever seen, but every time he has seen it in perfect detail. These details are so overwhelming fnues has to spend his days in a dark room, and can only seelp by imagining a part of town he has never visited. According to Borges, Funes’s memories even rendered him incapable of real thought, because “To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to artascbt. In the overly replete world of Funes there were nothing but details.”
Open Cloze
When ______ Funes looked at a glass of wine on a table, he saw “all the shoots, clusters, and grapes of the vine. He remembered the ______ of the clouds in the south at the dawn of the 30th of April of 1882, and he could compare them in his recollection with the marbled _____ in the design of a leather-bound book which he had seen only once, and with the _____ in the spray which an oar raised in the Rio Negro on the eve of the battle of the Quebrancho.”
In the _____ story “Funes, the Memorious,” Jorge Luis Borges ________ what it would be like to have a _______ memory. His character not only remembers everything he has ever seen, but every time he has seen it in perfect detail. These details are so overwhelming _____ has to spend his days in a dark room, and can only _____ by imagining a part of town he has never visited. According to Borges, Funes’s memories even rendered him incapable of real thought, because “To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to ________. In the overly replete world of Funes there were nothing but details.”
Solution
- lines
- sleep
- funes
- explores
- short
- grain
- perfect
- abstract
- ireneo
- shapes
Original Text
When Ireneo Funes looked at a glass of wine on a table, he saw “all the shoots, clusters, and grapes of the vine. He remembered the shapes of the clouds in the south at the dawn of the 30th of April of 1882, and he could compare them in his recollection with the marbled grain in the design of a leather-bound book which he had seen only once, and with the lines in the spray which an oar raised in the Rio Negro on the eve of the battle of the Quebrancho.”
In the short story “Funes, the Memorious,” Jorge Luis Borges explores what it would be like to have a perfect memory. His character not only remembers everything he has ever seen, but every time he has seen it in perfect detail. These details are so overwhelming Funes has to spend his days in a dark room, and can only sleep by imagining a part of town he has never visited. According to Borges, Funes’s memories even rendered him incapable of real thought, because “To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract. In the overly replete world of Funes there were nothing but details.”
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
Important Words
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