Read through the following passage in which the author describes the scene in a small town in America. Fill the gaps with words and phrases to create atmosphere. When finished, compare your choices with the author’s. What effects do the different choices produce?

Carthage, South Dakota, population 274, is a of clapboard houses, tidy yards, and brick storefronts rising from the of the northern plains, set adrift in time. rows of cottonwoods shade a of streets seldom disturbed by moving vehicles. There’s one grocery in town, one bank, a gas station, a bar—the Cabaret, where Wayne Westerberg is a cocktail and chewing on a sweet cigar, remembering the odd young man he knew as Alex.

The Cabaret’s walls are hung with , , and mawkish paintings of . of cigarette smoke rise from of farmers in overalls and dusty feed caps, their tired faces as as coal miners’.

Carthage, South Dakota, population 274, is a sleepy little cluster of clapboard houses, tidy yards, and weathered brick storefronts rising humbly from the immensity of the northern plains, set adrift in time. Stately rows of cottonwoods shade a grid of streets seldom disturbed by moving vehicles. There’s one grocery in town, one bank, a single gas station, a lone bar—the Cabaret, where Wayne Westerberg is sipping a cocktail and chewing on a sweet cigar, remembering the odd young man he knew as Alex.

The Cabaret’s plywood-panelled walls are hung with deer antlers, Old Milwaukee beer promos, and mawkish paintings of game birds taking flight. Tendrils of cigarette smoke rise from clumps of farmers in overalls and dusty feed caps, their tired faces as grimy as coal miners’.