| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: had taken part in all sorts of social occasions, and sat and
listened to a representative selection of political and literary and
social personages, he had been several times to the opera and to a
great number and variety of plays, he had been attentively
inconspicuous in several really good week-end parties. He had spent
a golden October in North Italy with his mother, and escaped from
the glowing lassitude of Venice for some days of climbing in the
Eastern Alps. In January, in an outbreak of enquiry, he had gone
with Lionel Maxim to St. Petersburg and had eaten zakuska,
brightened his eyes with vodka, talked with a number of charming
people of the war that was then imminent, listened to gipsy singers
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: she added moodily, "I used to take my goats there, a dozen or so of
them, for the day. From after my uncle had said his Mass till the
ringing of the evening bell."
I saw suddenly the lonely spot, sketched for me some time ago by a
few words from Mr. Blunt, populated by the agile, bearded beasts
with cynical heads, and a little misty figure dark in the sunlight
with a halo of dishevelled rust-coloured hair about its head.
The epithet of rust-coloured comes from her. It was really tawny.
Once or twice in my hearing she had referred to "my rust-coloured
hair" with laughing vexation. Even then it was unruly, abhorring
the restraints of civilization, and often in the heat of a dispute
The Arrow of Gold |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: her sandaled feet. Having left her chamber hurriedly, she wore no
jewels nor other ornaments. A thick tress of rippling black hair hung
over her shoulder and hid itself in her bosom; her nostrils, a little
too large for beauty, quivered with triumph, and her face was alight
with joy. She gently shook the tetrarch's shoulder, and exclaimed
exultantly:
"Caesar is our friend! Agrippa has been imprisoned!"
"Who told thee that?"
"I know it!" she replied, adding: "It was because he coveted the crown
of Caligula."
While living upon the charity of Antipas and Herodias, Agrippa had
Herodias |
