Clickable dictation at various speeds is available at the bottom of this page. The transcript of the dictation appears here as well.
Happy new year! This month, the piece is a bit short for testing at 100 and above so be careful! I promise, we'll make up for it next month.
Speed Building Simplified, One-Year Course, The Gregg Publishing Company, 1951, 243-244 and 267.
Yesterday—Today—Tomorrow
There are two days in every week about which we should not worry—two days that should be kept free from any fear or apprehension. One of these days is Yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its aches and pains, its faults and blunders. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back Yessterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said; we cannot rectify one single mistake. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. Let it go.
The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow. Tomorrow is also beyond our control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mass of clouds—but it will rise; and until it does, we have no stake in Tommorow because it is as yet unborn.
That leaves us one day—Today! And man can fight the battles of just one day.
The Fifth Freedom
We talk about our free enterprise system, but just what is it? The best word picture I have ever read defines free enterprise in these terms:
The freedom to earn and save and to invest one’s savings.
The freedom to plan and build and to profit from one’s contribution to the growth and progress of one’s community.
The freedom to create and to enjoy the fruit of one’s creativeness.
The freedom to venture and to reap the rewards of one’s initiative and daring.
The freedom to try and fail and to try again.
These six birthrights of every American add up to a Fifth Freedom—the freedom of enterprise. It is this freedom that has motivated American life from the beginning. Without it, the freedoms of the Bill of Rights would have little vitality.
Instructions for Self-Dictation Practice:
Copy and paste the above article into a word-processing document, using double or triple spacing and 12- or 14-pitch type.
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Dictation Practice:
Note that the material was counted and recorded for dictation at 100; all other speeds were copied from the 100 take and electronically adjusted and may therefore sound unusual.
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