The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: Charlie's eyes closed and opened a couple of times.
"No can tell," he answered feebly; "hurt plenty big"; then he
began to cough.
Wilbur drew a sigh of relief. "He's all right!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, I think he's all right," assented Moran.
"First thing to do now is to get him aboard the schooner," said
Wilbur. "We'll take him right across in the beach-combers' dory
here. By Jove!" he exclaimed on a sudden. "The ambergris--I'd
forgotten all about it." His heart sank. In the hideous confusion
of that morning's work, all thought of the loot had been
forgotten. Had the battle been for nothing, after all? The moment
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: mind that I was on the brink of falling in love. The dinner-bell
rang, both at her house and M. Pelet's; we were obliged to part;
I detained her a moment as she was moving away.
"I want something," said I.
"What?" asked Zoraide naively.
"Only a flower."
"Gather it then--or two, or twenty, if you like."
"No--one will do-but you must gather it, and give it to me."
"What a caprice!" she exclaimed, but she raised herself on her
tip-toes, and, plucking a beautiful branch of lilac, offered it
to me with grace. I took it, and went away, satisfied for the
The Professor |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: sealed and directed, was still in my pocket. There would be time
enough to send it before the messenger should go to the village.
Meanwhile there had been, on the part of my pupils, no more brilliant,
more exemplary morning. It was exactly as if they had both had at heart
to gloss over any recent little friction. They performed the dizziest feats
of arithmetic, soaring quite out of MY feeble range, and perpetrated,
in higher spirits than ever, geographical and historical jokes.
It was conspicuous of course in Miles in particular that he appeared
to wish to show how easily he could let me down. This child, to my memory,
really lives in a setting of beauty and misery that no words can translate;
there was a distinction all his own in every impulse he revealed;
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