Introduction

You must pay attention to the past tenses, which are mainly found at the beginning: is it a narrative or a personal account of events which are still linked to the present? Are the events cut off from the present, or not? Are the events directly linked to the locutor/narrator? In the second part of the first sentence 'I read these books'. When I read, will you use the same tense as in the beginning? What is the tense normally used to describe an event in the past, which provides the backdrop to an event?

For more information about the author, see this Note on Doris Lessing.

Some Instructions