Cambridge First Story Writing – “Even The Most Beautiful Places Can Be Irresistible, But Only From A Distance.”

Today thanks to Zuzana we travel to another place where things may not be as they seem. She is the first guest writer for 2012 on Get Into English, and I hope we’ll see other writers contributing their thoughts this year.

The original question came from an FCE coursebook, where you had to start with this sentence:

Although it was beautiful, I knew I didn’t want to stay much longer.
(nb. hmm, I wonder if I’ll be writing this one day when I’m teaching in Budapest or in Brazil 😉 )

Here is Zuzana’s answer:

Although it was beautiful, I knew I didn’t want to stay much longer. It was one of the most amazing places I had ever been to. It was a little hidden beach away from the city – white sand, warm and sunny weather, a lovely view of the blue sky and never ending horizon, and most of all, no tourists around.

When I looked closely at the sand I discovered tiny crabs almost the size of buttons on my shirt. They were everywhere, digging deep holes to escape from the rising tide or maybe to hide for the night. I didn’t know what the holes were for but I found it funny to watch them working hard and looking clumsy walking sideways.

However, when I went for a swim the feeling of being in paradise changed at once. “What is this?” I thought. I found myself swimming next to an old shoe, an infinite number of plastic bottles of all sizes, a reminder of someone’s lunch, and plastic bags filled with something I didn’t want to know about. But worst of all there was a layer of some kind of industrial oil. Only later on I found out it was a combination of oil and petrol, leaking from the boats of the local fishermen.

Suddenly I felt I was in a different place. With disgust I went out of the water and my mood changed for the rest of the day. As it is in real life, even the most beautiful places can be irresistible, but only from a distance.

Further reading

“She Smiled And Walked Away” – FCE Story Writing Tips on how to write a story for the FCE
Student Journeys: Gabriela’s story

Photo credits

Image: Per Ola Wiberg
Licence: CC by 2.0