Text: "Nadia set the letter down. No one watching would have guessed that her hands were shaking." In a film version, the camera holds on her calm face in silence. What does only the printed text deliver?

Text: "'You can go,' Mr. Okafor said, and turned back to the window." Which choice must a film version make that the printed sentence leaves open?

Text: "The gym doors closed. For a moment no one made a sound." In the film version, low drums begin the instant the doors close. What does the viewer get that the reader does not?

Text: "Marisol had the kind of face people trusted right away." A film version casts an actor, so the audience sees that face at once. What must the reader do instead?

A class reads a chapter, and later the same chapter is heard as a recording that runs straight through. What does the printed version give a reader that the recording cannot?

Text: "Dev stood in the doorway with mud to his knees." An audio version has an actor read the line aloud. What does the listener get that the reader must imagine?

Text: "Across the harbor, a single gray boat pulled away." A stage version plays the moment with two actors staring offstage and no boat at all. What must the audience at the play do?

Text: "Behind him, the party went on without him." In the film version, the shot is tight on his shoulders while the room behind him is a blur of light and motion. What does the film add?

Text: "Ms. Halloway had taught at the school longer than anyone." A film version must cast a real person in the role. Which detail must the film settle that the sentence leaves open?

Text: "They walked home from the game without talking." A film version has to shoot that walk in some place, at some hour. Which detail does the text leave for the film to decide?

Text: "Jonah waited outside the office." A film version has to fill the frame with something. Which choice belongs to the film rather than to the printed sentence?

Text: "Amara said she was fine. She was not fine." The film version cuts the second sentence and keeps the camera on Amara as she speaks. How does the viewer learn what the reader was told outright?

A printed poem breaks its lines in odd places, and an actor records a reading of it. What does the recording give a listener that the page cannot?

An audio version opens with gulls, waves, and footsteps on wood, then a voice. The printed story opens with "Tomas reached the end of the pier." What does the audio version leave to the listener?

A class reads a scene from a play, then a company performs that same scene live, once. What can the reader do that the audience at the live performance cannot?

Text: "Ravi nodded along, counting the minutes until he could leave." Which part of that sentence would be hardest for a film version to show?

The printed story never mentions a kitchen table. The film version opens on that table, set for four, with one chair pushed back. What does the film do here that the text did not?

Text: "I told them I wasn't scared. I have never been a good liar." An audio version keeps both sentences as narration. What does the listener get that the reader does not?

Text: "Owen smiled and thought, I will never trust him again." A film version can show the smile but cannot print the thought. What must the film version do that the printed line does not?

Text: "Rosa spoke quietly." A stage version of this moment leaves Rosa's exact voice to the audience's imagination, just as the printed sentence does.