| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: touched the pocket of her dress, in which I knew the pistol lay hid. Of
the rest of them I took no notice.
The moment, that dreadful moment of trial, had come at last; and oh! the
suspense and the waiting were hard to bear. It seemed an age before the
first speck, that I knew to be a vulture, appeared thousands of feet
above me and began to descend in wide circles.
"Oh, baas," said poor Hans, "this is worse than shooting at the geese in
the Groote Kloof. Then you could only lose your horse, but now--"
"Be silent," I hissed, "and give me the rifle."
The vulture wheeled and sank, sank and wheeled. I glanced towards the
Boers, and saw that they were all of them on their knees. I glanced
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: crazy, Nils? We couldn't go away like that."
"That's the only way we ever will go. You can't sit on the
bank and think about it. You have to plunge. That's the way
I've always done, and it's the right way for people like you and
me. There's nothing so dangerous as sitting still. You've only
got one life, one youth, and you can let it slip through your
fingers if you want to; nothing easier. Most people do that.
You'd be better off tramping the roads with me than you are
here." Nils held back her head and looked into her eyes. "But
I'm not that kind of a tramp, Clara. You won't have to take in
sewing. I'm with a Norwegian shipping line; came over on
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: brief announcement from the Ministry of Plenty. In the preceding quarter,
it appeared, the Tenth Three-Year Plan's quota for bootlaces had been
overfulfilled by 98 per cent.
He examined the chess problem and set out the pieces. It was a tricky
ending, involving a couple of knights. 'White to play and mate in two
moves.' Winston looked up at the portrait of Big Brother. White always
mates, he thought with a sort of cloudy mysticism. Always, without
exception, it is so arranged. In no chess problem since the beginning of
the world has black ever won. Did it not symbolize the eternal, unvarying
triumph of Good over Evil? The huge face gazed back at him, full of calm
power. White always mates.
1984 |
