Questão de Língua Inglesa

01. So here I am, upside down in a woman. Arms 02. patiently crossed, waiting, waiting and 03. wondering who I'm in, what I’m in for. My 04. eyes close nostalgically when I remember 05. how I once drifted in my translucent body 06. bag, floated dreamily in the bubble of my 07. thoughts through my private ocean in slow- 08. motion somersaults, colliding gently against 09. the transparent bounds of my confinement, 10. the confiding membrane that vibrated with, 11. even as it muffled, the voices of conspirators 12. in a vile enterprise. That was in my careless 13. youth. Now, fully inverted, not an inch of 14. space to myself, knees crammed against 15. belly, my thoughts as well as my head are 16. fully engaged. I’ve no choice, my ear is 17. pressed all day and night against the bloody 18. walls. I listen, make mental notes, and I’m 19. troubled. I’m hearing pillow talk of deadly 20. intent and I’m terrified by what awaits me, by 21. what might draw me in. 22. I’m immersed in abstractions, and only the 23. proliferating relations between them create 24. the illusion of a known world. When I hear 25. "blue," which I’ve never seen, I imagine some 26. kind of mental event that's fairly close to 27. "green"—which I’ve never seen. I count 28. myself an innocent, unburdened by 29. allegiances and obligations, a free spirit, 30. despite my meagre living room. No one to 31. contradict or reprimand me, no name or 32. previous address, no religion, no debts, no 33. enemies. My appointment diary, if it existed, 34. notes only my forthcoming birthday. I am, or 35. I was, despite what the geneticists are now 36. saying, a blank slate. But a slippery, porous 37. slate no school-room or cottage roof could 38. find use for, a slate that writes upon itself as 39. it grows by the day and becomes less blank. I 40. count myself an innocent, but it seems I'm 41. party to a plot. My mother, bless her 42. unceasing, loudly squelching heart, seems to 43. be involved. In: McEWAN, Ian. N utshell: a novel. New York: Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, 2016. p. 1-2. UFRGS – CV 2018 – ING

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