| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: more intimate than there are words to express in
the language. Apart from that, every scene and
episode would be a mere passing show. The very
gang of yellow coolies busy about the main hatch
was less substantial than the stuff dreams are made
of. For who on earth would dream of Chinamen? . . .
I went aft, ascended the poop, where, under the
awning, gleamed the brasses of the yacht-like
fittings, the polished surfaces of the rails, the glass
of the skylights. Right aft two seamen, busy
cleaning the steering gear, with the reflected ripples
The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: larger sum than he expected, with which he erected the capacious
and very elegant meeting-house that stands in Arch-street.
Our city, tho' laid out with a beautiful regularity, the streets large,
strait, and crossing each other at right angles, had the disgrace
of suffering those streets to remain long unpav'd, and in wet
weather the wheels of heavy carriages plough'd them into a quagmire,
so that it was difficult to cross them; and in dry weather the dust
was offensive. I had liv'd near what was call'd the Jersey Market,
and saw with pain the inhabitants wading in mud while purchasing
their provisions. A strip of ground down the middle of that
market was at length pav'd with brick, so that, being once
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: to the title; his stepfather wronged him cruelly."
No one had ever said such a thing. It was preposterous to
imagine any mystery connected with Old Grannis. Miss Baker
had chosen to invent the little fiction, had created the
title and the unjust stepfather from some dim memories of
the novels of her girlhood.
She took her place in the operating chair. McTeague
began the filling. There was a long silence. It was
impossible for McTeague to work and talk at the same time.
He was just burnishing the last "mat" in Miss Baker's tooth,
when the door of the "Parlors" opened, jangling the bell
McTeague |
