| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: cars, it's their affair. Why didn't you sleep in your clothes?
I do."
I took an angry step forward. Then somebody touched my arm, and I
unclenched my fist. I could understand the conductor's position,
and beside, in the law, I had been guilty myself of contributory
negligence.
"I'm not trying to make you responsible," I protested as amiably
as I could, "and I believe the clothes the thief left are as good
as my own. They are certainly newer. But my valise contained
valuable papers and it is to your interest as well as mine to find
the man who stole it."
The Man in Lower Ten |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: Du Croisier's first step was to rid himself of his most hated enemy,
the venerable Chesnel. The good old man lived in the Rue du Bercail,
in a house with a steep-pitched roof. There was a little paved
courtyard in front, where the rose-bushes grew and clambered up to the
windows of the upper story. Behind lay a little country garden, with
its box-edged borders, shut in by damp, gloomy-looking walls. The
prim, gray-painted street door, with its wicket opening and bell
attached, announced quite as plainly as the official scutcheon that "a
notary lives here."
It was half-past five o'clock in the afternoon, at which hour the old
man usually sat digesting his dinner. He had drawn his black leather-
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: correctness of his assertions. This ship, a hundred feet long, was
upheld in the air by a large number of horizontal screws and was
driven forward by vertical screws at its bow and stern. It was
managed by a crew of at least half a dozen men, who seemed absolutely
devoted to their leader, Robur.
After a voyage almost completely around the world, Mr. Prudent and
Mr. Evans managed to escape from the "Albatross" after a desperate
struggle. They even managed to cause an explosion on the airship,
destroying it, and involving the inventor and all his crew in a
terrific fall from the sky into the Pacific ocean.
Mr. Prudent and Mr. Evans then returned to Philadelphia. They had
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