| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: appearance, at the age of twenty, as one of the masters of modern
literature; and met with no less success in the society into which he
was launched by the father who at first could afford to bear the
expense of the young man's extravagance. Perhaps Emile's precocious
celebrity and the good figure that he made strengthened the bonds of
his friendship with the Countess. Perhaps Mme. de Montcornet, with the
Russian blood in her veins (her mother was the daughter of the
Princess Scherbelloff), might have cast off the friend of her
childhood if he had been a poor man struggling with all his might
among the difficulties which beset a man of letters in Paris; but by
the time that the real strain of Emile's adventurous life began, their
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: leagues further up the Missouri, were near at hand, awaiting the
approach of the party, with the avowed intention of opposing
their progress.
The Sioux Tetons were at that time a sort of pirates of the
Missouri, who considered the well freighted bark of the American
trader fair game. They had their own traffic with the British
merchants of the Northwest, who brought them regular supplies of
merchandise by way of the river St. Peter. Being thus independent
of the Missouri traders for their supplies, they kept no terms
with them, but plundered them whenever they had an opportunity.
It has been insinuated that they were prompted to these outrages
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: breath plunged again into the smoke-filled room slamming the door
behind her. For an eternity she reeled and coughed, beating the
rug against the lines of fire that shot swiftly beyond her. Twice
her long skirt took fire and she slapped it out with her hands.
She could smell the sickening smell of her hair scorching, as it
came loose from its pins and swept about her shoulders. The flames
raced ever beyond her, toward the walls of the covered runway,
fiery snakes that writhed and leaped and, exhaustion sweeping her,
she knew that it was hopeless.
Then the door swung open and the sucking draft flung the flames
higher. It closed with a bang and, in the swirling smoke,
Gone With the Wind |
