| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: gallop, or bringing things down with his gun!
He had one bad quality; he was terribly greedy
for money. Once, for the fun of the thing,
Grigori Aleksandrovich promised to give him a
ducat if he would steal the best he-goat from his
father's herd for him; and, what do you think?
The very next night he came lugging it in by the
horns! At times we used to take it into our heads
to tease him, and then his eyes would become
bloodshot and his hand would fly to his dagger
immediately.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: port they have out there, for, as far as I could see,
the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom-house officers.
I watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship
is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you--
smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage,
and always mute with an air of whispering, `Come and find out.'
This one was almost featureless, as if still in the making,
with an aspect of monotonous grimness. The edge of a colossal jungle,
so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf,
ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along
a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist.
 Heart of Darkness |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: to his neighbors' situation, as he saw all about him the signs of
ill-disguised poverty. The simplest question would have been an
indiscretion, and could only be ventured on by old friendship.
The painter was nevertheless absorbed in the thought of this
concealed penury, it pained his generous soul; but knowing how
offensive every kind of pity may be, even the friendliest, the
disparity between his thoughts and his words made him feel
uncomfortable.
The two ladies at first talked of painting, for women easily
guess the secret embarrassment of a first call; they themselves
feel it perhaps, and the nature of their mind supplies them with
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