| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: other hand, the greatest writers of Greece, Thucydides, Plato, Aeschylus,
Sophocles, Pindar, Demosthenes, are generally those which are found to be
most difficult and to diverge most widely from the English idiom. The
translator will often have to convert the more abstract Greek into the more
concrete English, or vice versa, and he ought not to force upon one
language the character of another. In some cases, where the order is
confused, the expression feeble, the emphasis misplaced, or the sense
somewhat faulty, he will not strive in his rendering to reproduce these
characteristics, but will re-write the passage as his author would have
written it at first, had he not been 'nodding'; and he will not hesitate to
supply anything which, owing to the genius of the language or some accident
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: face had strangely increased since the arrival of these two visitors. It
shone resplendent behind the silver and the white cloth, and her
movement, as she gave the cup to Mrs. Gregory St. Michael, was one of
complete grace and admirable propriety. But once she looked away from
them in the direction of the path. Her two visitors rose and left her,
Mrs. Gregory setting her tea-cup down with a gesture that said she would
take no more, and, after their bows of farewell, Hortense sat alone again
pulling about the tea things.
I saw that by the table lay a card-case on the ground, evidently dropped
by Mrs. Gregory; but Hortense could not see it where she sat. Her quick
look along the path heralded more company and the General with more
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: money. Georges plays a fine game at ecarte; bet on him."
Oscar, frightened by his position, accepted the offer of the mistress
of the house.
"Ah!" he thought, "it is only women of rank who are capable of such
kindness. Beautiful, noble, rich! how lucky Georges is!"
He received the thousand francs from Florentine and returned to bet on
his hoaxer. Georges had just passed for the fourth time when Oscar sat
down beside him. The other players saw with satisfaction the arrival
of a new better; for all, with the instinct of gamblers, took the side
of Giroudeau, the old officer of the Empire.
"Messieurs," said Georges, "you'll be punished for deserting me; I
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