| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: away, but this lady did not enjoy being defied, as she afterward told him.
"Should you prefer being thought a very reckless girl?" she demanded.
"Gracious!" exclaimed Daisy. She looked again at Mr. Giovanelli,
then she turned to Winterbourne. There was a little pink flush in
her cheek; she was tremendously pretty. "Does Mr. Winterbourne think,"
she asked slowly, smiling, throwing back her head, and glancing
at him from head to foot, "that, to save my reputation, I ought
to get into the carriage?"
Winterbourne colored; for an instant he hesitated greatly.
It seemed so strange to hear her speak that way of her "reputation."
But he himself, in fact, must speak in accordance with gallantry.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: "A cock!" said Nicholl.
"Why no, my friends," Michel answered quickly; "it was I who
wished to awake you by this rural sound." So saying, he gave
vent to a splendid cock-a-doodledoo, which would have done honor
to the proudest of poultry-yards.
The two Americans could not help laughing.
"Fine talent that," said Nicholl, looking suspiciously at his companion.
"Yes," said Michel; "a joke in my country. It is very Gallic;
they play the cock so in the best society."
Then turning the conversation:
"Barbicane, do you know what I have been thinking of all night?"
From the Earth to the Moon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: honest employment that offered itself. He would go into the
harvest-field and work there when other tasks were not pressing,
or use his clerkly hand to straighten up a neglected ledger; and
his lively humor, as well as his industry, made him a welcome
guest at any farm-house in the county. Whatever he might be
doing, he was never too busy to help a neighbor. His strong arm
was always at the service of the poor and needy.
Two years after his defeat for the legislature there was another
election. His friends and acquaintanceS in the county had
increased, and, since he had received such a flattering vote the
first time, it was but natural that he should wish to try again.
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