Test VI

1. “All you have to do is let him think that you’re interested in him,” Dee had soothed her. “All we need is for him to show himself in his true colours so that we can….” (P. Jordan)

2. “Oh, pleeeeeease. I’ve never had a career all my life and now I’m in the autumn of my days and I need something for myself,” she gabbled, as if reading from a cue card. (H. Fielding)

3. Most of those reports were a nightmare – grotesque, circumstantial, eager, and untrue. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

4. Pleasant reveries sauntered through her mind like lovers wandering in a green wood. (W.S. Maugham)

5. Just as we’d cleared away the plates the phone rang again.

“Leave it,” said Mark. “Please – in the name of God and all his cherubim, seraphim, saints, archangels, cloud attendants and beard trimmers – leave it.” (H. Fielding)

6. Am just off to work looking like Ivana bloody Trump wearing a suit and lip gloss. (H. Fielding)

7. Parties, parties, parties! Plus Matt from the office just rang asking if I’m going to the Christmas lunch on Tuesday. He can’t fancy me – I’m old enough to be his great-aunt – but then why did he ring me in the evening? And why did he ask me what I was wearing? (H. Fielding)

8. One of the things you learn about being married is that you don’t have to continue every fight to the death. You can take a little break.(C. Bushnell)

9. There is a witchy beauty about Muscrat farm, the Verger family’s mansion near the Susquehanna River in northern Maryland. (Th. Harris)

10. During the afternoon I had a long, lonely session with my thoughts.

(J.H. Chase)

7. “The Little Tavern? Isn’t that where Dolores Lane sings?”

“That’s the joint.” Slim picked up a cloth and began to polish the bar. “You ain’t missed a thing by not going there. She’s nothing to lose sleep over either.” (J.H. Chase)

7. Do me a favour, will you? Will you take your frustrations, your interests and your difficulties out if here? Will you remove your sex appeal, your little-girl attitude and your attractive body out of my sight and temptation? I’ll admit I fell for you when you were displaying yourself in your nice little nightie. I also fell for you when I found you waiting for me in my car. I fell again when you lay on the sand and seemed to be offering yourself to me, free, gratis and for nothing, but since those moments I have got wise to myself. I’m no longer interested. (J.H. Chase)

8. “Oh?” he said. “Thought she looked a little bit below par yesterday. Anythink I ought to know about?” (H.E. Bates)

9. Then we left our napkins and empty glasses and a little of the past on the table, and hand in hand went out into the moonlight itself. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

10. Mrs. Piper’s mouth forming the words was a vivid rose petal.

(F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

Test VII

1. I mover around her, giving her one of my boyish smiles, but for the impression it made on her, I might be offering a beggar the time of day. (J.H. Chase)

2. “I heard this Lane dish is worth catching.” (J.H. Chase)

3. After a while the waiter brought my chicken sandwich and my drink. The rye bread was a little dry and the chicken looked as if it had had a sharp attack of jaundice departing this earth. (J.H. Chase)

4. “The only thing in this world that means anything, that has any importance, is money. Don’t let anyone kid you otherwise. They say health and religion are good things to have: but I’ll settle for money. If you haven’t got it, you might as well buy a razor and slit your throat. Without money you’re nothing. You can’t get a decent job; you can’t go anywhere worth going to; you can’t live in a place worth living in; you can’t mix with the people who are worth mixing with. Without money, you’re just one of a crowd, and that’s the lowest form of life to my thinking – being one of a crowd.” (J.H. Chase)

5. However, the one thing in her favour is she does what I tell her to do, and so does her oaf of a brother, Ross. (J.H. Chase)

6. She dropped half mushrooms into the saucepan, where they at once started hissing at an intruding lump of butter as big as a tennis ball, cooking fragrantly.

“Mariette not down?” Pop said. “Kids off to school? Going to be a beautiful day. Perfick. Mushrooms smell good.” (H.E. Bates)

7. “Leave it to Charley,” Mariette said. “He’ll arrange everything. Not the clothes though. Ma, I’ll need masses. I’ll need a million new frocks.” (H.E. Bates)

8. Driven by ravenous hunger and thirst to the bar, Pop had found it furnished with a solitary stool, a yard of dusty counter, a dozing grey cat, and a vase of last year’s heather. (H.E. Bates)

9. “I will see that your things are moved. Please tell madame not to bother. And if there is something – ”

“Only the wevver,” Pop said. “The sun. That’s all we want.” (H.E. Bates)

10. “Get out!” she screamed, dark eyes blazing, little fists beating helplessly on his outstretched arm. “You did this! Get out of here – get out – get out! Get out!” (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

11. Mrs. Ahearn not ungracefully flounced the tobacco from her skirt to the floor, never once looking at it. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

12. He couldn’t decide whether she was an imitation of an English lady or an English lady was an imitation of her. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

13. “Oh, Nurse, Nurse, Light of my Life, where is another stud?”

(F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

14. Then it happened – Caroline saw deep into him, and Michael knew that she saw. She saw through to his profound woundedness, and something quivered inside her, died out along the curve of her mouth and in her eyes. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

15. “And Yale is November, crisp and energetic,” finished Monsignor.

(F. Sc. Fitzgerald)