| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: eight and nine miles. The Tankadere still carried all sail,
and was accomplishing her greatest capacity of speed.
If the wind held as it was, the chances would be in her favour.
During the day she kept along the coast, where the currents were favourable;
the coast, irregular in profile, and visible sometimes across the clearings,
was at most five miles distant. The sea was less boisterous,
since the wind came off land--a fortunate circumstance for the boat,
which would suffer, owing to its small tonnage, by a heavy surge on the sea.
The breeze subsided a little towards noon, and set in from the south-west.
The pilot put up his poles, but took them down again within two hours,
as the wind freshened up anew.
Around the World in 80 Days |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: And they all spoke at once, so that none of them knew
One word that the others had said.
"You must know ---" said the Judge: but the Snark exclaimed "Fudge!"
That statute is obsolete quite!
Let me tell you, my friends, the whole question depends
On an ancient manorial right.
"In the matter of Treason the pig would appear
To have aided, but scarcely abetted:
While the charge of Insolvency fails, it is clear,
If you grant the plea 'never indebted.'
"The fact of Desertion I will not dispute;
The Hunting of the Snark |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: the wall were gazing down at the smoking ruins beneath them, and the
battle which was beginning again in the distance.
The slingers, who were distributed through the rear, were still
shooting. But the springs of the Acarnanian slings had broken from
use, and many were throwing stones with the hand like shepherds; the
rest hurled leaden bullets with the handle of a whip. Zarxas, his
shoulders covered with his long black hair, went about everywhere, and
led on the Barbarians. Two pouches hung at his hips; he thrust his
left hand into them continually, while his right arm whirled round
like a chariot-wheel.
Matho had at first refrained from fighting, the better to command the
Salammbo |
