glow

　　giant

　　slate

　　choke

　　pierce

　　shaky

　　scrawl

　　long to do

　　break loose from

　　be covered with

　　whisper in one‘s ear

　　As much as if…

　　1.I was fascinated by it as much as if it had been a stick of gold

　　2.I held it tightly between my toes， and， acting on an impulse， made a wild sort of scribble with it on the slate

　　3.I had done it！ It had started —the thing that was to give my mind its chance of expressing itself

　　4.Then the stick of the chalk broke and I was left with a stump