Part 3. A life-changing event.

Keywords

college, a bolt out of the blue, stumbled, top of my class, editorial writer, chance, big part.

Vocabulary

a bolt out of the blue, hangout, intercede, constitution.

A. The following sentences are from Terry Gross's interview with Brent Staples. Fill in the blanks with the words or phrases you hear. Discuss the meaning of each sentence.

I went to college almost as a bolt out of the blue.
It was my senior year in high school. I hadn't been doing much of anything. I hadn't taken the college boards.
I was a middling student. I could write well and loved Shakespeare, but I wasn't interested in anything else.
And of my, it was the beginning of a spring, my senior year, and I was thinking, well, I'll go and work in the shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania, the shipyard which is now closed, by the way, and I was hanging out in a local place in Chester, Pennsylvania.
And the only black professor from the nearby college was in town doing a survey or something, and he came into our hangout. And he talked with us, just local kids about politics and whatever else we were doing.
He zeroed in one me, and he said, "Are you going to go to college? "And I said, "No."
And he said,"Why not?" I said, "I'm one of nine children, I have to get a job and go to work."
And he said, "You can be better than that. " And I said, "Well, how can I do this? I haven't taken the college boards.