Introduction
HG Wells’s The Time Machine (1895) opens with ‘the Time Traveller’ holding forth over the dinner table on the subject of Time as the fourth dimension, and the possibility of time travel. His guests are reluctant to follow where he leads, so he runs to his workshop and returns with a tiny, intricate mechanism in brass and ivory.
“THIS little affair,” said the Time Traveller, resting his elbows upon the table and pressing his hands together above the apparatus, “is only a model. It is my plan for a machine to travel through time. You will notice that it looks singularly askew, and that there is an odd twinkling appearance about this bar, as though it was in some way unreal.” He pointed to the part with his finger. “Also, here is one little white lever, and here is another.”
The Medical Man got up out of his chair and peered into the thing. “It’s beautifully made,” he said.
“It took two years to make,” retorted the Time Traveller. Then, when we had all imitated the action of the Medical Man, he said: “Now I want you clearly to understand that this lever, being pressed over, sends the machine gliding into the future, and this other reverses the motion. This saddle represents the seat of a time traveller. Presently I am going to press the lever, and off the machine will go. It will vanish, pass into future Time, and disappear.
Précis
In H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine, the man referred to only as ‘The Time Traveller’ presents his dinner guests with a tiny model of what he claims is a time machine. It leans oddly, yet is finely crafted; two years it was in the making, he tells the wondering company with pride, as he highlights various features. (58 / 60 words)
In H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine, the man referred to only as ‘The Time Traveller’ presents his dinner guests with a tiny model of what he claims is a time machine. It leans oddly, yet is finely crafted; two years it was in the making, he tells the wondering company with pride, as he highlights various features.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: despite, must, not, or, otherwise, ought, until, whether.
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