| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: She clapped her hands and murmured, `Blue sky, blue eyes,'
as if it amused her. While we snuggled down there out of the wind,
she learned a score of words. She was alive, and very eager.
We were so deep in the grass that we could see nothing but the blue sky
over us and the gold tree in front of us. It was wonderfully pleasant.
After Antonia had said the new words over and over, she wanted to give
me a little chased silver ring she wore on her middle finger.
When she coaxed and insisted, I repulsed her quite sternly.
I didn't want her ring, and I felt there was something reckless
and extravagant about her wishing to give it away to a boy she had
never seen before. No wonder Krajiek got the better of these people,
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: A real machine; well, I don't mind serving a machine."
Chapter III
IN WHICH A CONVERSATION TAKES PLACE WHICH SEEMS LIKELY TO COST
PHILEAS FOGG DEAR
Phileas Fogg, having shut the door of his house at half-past eleven, and
having put his right foot before his left five hundred and seventy-five times, and his left foot
before his right five hundred and seventy-six times, reached the Reform Club,
an imposing edifice in Pall Mall, which could not have cost less than
three millions. He repaired at once to the dining-room, the nine windows
of which open upon a tasteful garden, where the trees were already gilded
with an autumn colouring; and took his place at the habitual table,
Around the World in 80 Days |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: a month their father might be sharing their comforts, and end his days
in peace among his family.
"Oh, I would gladly give my three thousand six hundred francs a year
to see the Baron here!" cried Lisbeth. "But, my dear Adeline, do not
dream beforehand of such happiness, I entreat you!"
"Lisbeth is right," said Celestine. "My dear mother, wait till the
end."
The Baroness, all feeling and all hope, related her visit to Josepha,
expressed her sense of the misery of such women in the midst of good
fortune, and mentioned Chardin the mattress-picker, the father of the
Oran storekeeper, thus showing that her hopes were not groundless.
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