It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Section B: Writing

You have interpreted the task as imaginative fiction.

Using the following examples decide, in your groups, which sentence opening creates the most interesting effect for a reader.

1. Each step drew the darkness closer and closer.
2. Closer and closer, the darkness drew in.
3. The darkness got closer and closer.
4. The darkness was really close.

1. A rising sense of panic crept from his bowels to his throat.  He held back the scream that tore at the dry thickets of his throat.  His tongue seized up.  Eyes swam in their sockets.  He passed out.
2. Panic crept from his bowels, rising up towards his throat, but he held back the scream tearing at the dry thickets of his throat.  His tongue seized up.  Eyes swam in their sockets.  He passed out.
3. The scream was caught at his throat; a scream caught in dry thickets of tension.  Panic.  Frozen.  Tied down and held back.  His eyes danced manically.  Falling like a dropped hammer, he passed out.
4. Frozen.  Locked.  Panic.  Eyes moving crazily.  A scream held back, trapped by the dry tension in his throat.  Knees buckled.  He passed out.

1. The clouds raced overhead, each one a giant's dismembered torso scattered across the skies.  The warmth of the wind's breath was chokingly warm and a hot haze lifted from the ground, swirling in shifting patterns.  The skies cleared.  The gigantic bodies swimming away towards the horizon.  Stars, like pin heads, taking their place in the clear sky.
2. Stars shone out in the clear night.  The clouds had gone; clouds as large as magnificent giants.  Gone.  Fled away to the horizon.  The wind was warm, an overpowering warmth, summoning up mists from the ground and swirling them around and around.
3. The wind was warm.  Too warm.  Mist rose from the ground and swirled about.  Overhead the great distorted shapes of giants in cloud form raced from east to west.  Stars replaced the clouds in the clear sky.