| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: fastened with a string to my head while I was rowing, and had
stuck on all the time I was swimming, fell off after I came to
land; the string, as I conjecture, breaking by some accident,
which I never observed, but thought my hat had been lost at sea.
I entreated his imperial majesty to give orders it might be
brought to me as soon as possible, describing to him the use and
the nature of it: and the next day the waggoners arrived with
it, but not in a very good condition; they had bored two holes in
the brim, within an inch and half of the edge, and fastened two
hooks in the holes; these hooks were tied by a long cord to the
harness, and thus my hat was dragged along for above half an
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: fact?"
"Why, here you are taking away my reason, and want me to reason!"
"Well, then, Bianchon, I am mad; bring me to my senses. I have
two sisters as beautiful and innocent as angels, and I want them
to be happy. How am I to find two hundred thousand francs apiece
for them in the next five years? Now and then in life, you see,
you must play for heavy stakes, and it is no use wasting your
luck on low play."
"But you are only stating the problem that lies before every one
at the outset of his life, and you want to cut the Gordian knot
with a sword. If that is the way of it, dear boy, you must be an
Father Goriot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: had strategically massed his forces, drawn up his propositions, manned
the drawbridge of discussion, and prepared the point at which the
opposing party, thinking the affair a failure, could suddenly be led
into a compromise which would end in the triumph of his client.
The white dress with its rose-colored ribbons, the Sevigne curls,
Natalie's tiny foot, her winning glance, her pretty fingers constantly
employed in adjusting curls that needed no adjustment, these girlish
manoeuvres like those of a peacock spreading his tail, had brought
Paul to the point at which his future mother-in-law desired to see
him. He was intoxicated with love, and his eyes, the sure thermometer
of the soul, indicated the degree of passion at which a man commits a
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