Notice what diminishes and what passes
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
After the first week of a neighborhood storytelling project, excitement began to ebb as volunteers encountered the slower work of editing recordings. Their initial worries about using the equipment also started to recede once they had practiced together. A transitory problem with the shared room interrupted one session but was resolved before the next meeting. The coordinator treated these changes separately: enthusiasm and worry were diminishing, while the room difficulty had lasted only a short time.
To keep enthusiasm from continuing to ebb, the coordinator played a short finished piece that showed how the editing contributed to the whole project. Worries could recede without disappearing completely, so she left time for questions about the equipment. The transitory room problem no longer needed attention after the booking had been corrected. This helped volunteers focus on the work still ahead instead of treating every change in feeling or every brief interruption as a permanent feature of the project.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.