| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: a flute, over the door.'
"'how do they work off this unearth increment?' I asks.
"'They don't,' says the man. 'It's a case of "Ill fares the land with
the great deal of velocity where wealth accumulates and there ain't
any reciprocity."'
"After this man and me got through our conversation, which left him
dry of information, I shook hands with him and told him I was sorry I
couldn't believe him. And a month afterward I landed on the coast of
this Gaudymala with $1,300 that I had been saving up for five years.
I thought I knew what Indians liked, and I fixed myself accordingly.
I loaded down four pack-mules with red woollen blankets, wrought-iron
Options |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: saves any man but accident--the accident of not having his malady
put to the supreme test.
One of the commonest forms of madness is the desire to be
noticed, the pleasure derived from being noticed. Perhaps it is
not merely common, but universal. In its mildest form it
doubtless is universal. Every child is pleased at being noticed;
many intolerable children put in their whole time in distressing
and idiotic effort to attract the attention of visitors; boys are
always "showing off"; apparently all men and women are glad and
grateful when they find that they have done a thing which has
lifted them for a moment out of obscurity and caused wondering
What is Man? |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: Crown.
At the second restoration the Count was one of those special envoys
who were sent throughout the departments charged with absolute
jurisdiction over the leaders of revolt; but he used his terrible
powers with moderation. As soon as the temporary commission was ended,
the High Provost found a seat in the Privy Council, became a deputy,
spoke little, listened much, and changed his opinions very
considerably. Certain circumstances, unknown to historians, brought
him into such intimate relations with the Sovereign, that one day, as
he came in, the shrewd monarch addressed him thus: "My friend
Fontaine, I shall take care never to appoint you to be director-
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