| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: filched his cigar, remarking, as he smoked it with evident
satisfaction, "You haven't any contagious diseases, I hope."
Oscar in reply would fain have punched his head.
"How he does spend money!" he said, looking at Colonel Georges. "Eight
francs for Alicante and the cheese-cakes; forty sous for cigars; and
his breakfast will cost him--"
"Ten francs at least," replied Mistigris; "but that's how things are.
'Sharp stomachs make short purses.'"
"Come, Pere Leger, let us drink a bottle of Bordeaux together," said
Georges to the farmer.
"Twenty francs for his breakfast!" cried Oscar; "in all, more than
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: given day a certain number of exiles and convicts--men and
women--had to be sent off. The convoy officer could not be guilty
either, for his business was to receive a certain number of
persons in a certain place, and to deliver up the same number.
He conducted them in the usual manner, and could not foresee that
two such strong men as those Nekhludoff saw would not be able to
stand it and would die. No one is guilty, and yet the men have
been murdered by these people who are not guilty of their murder.
"All this comes," Nekhludoff thought, "from the fact that all
these people, governors, inspectors, police officers, and men,
consider that there are circumstances in which human relations
Resurrection |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: As I have told you, I had little money. My father was, and still
is, receveur general at C. He has a great reputation there for
loyalty, thanks to which he was able to find the security which
he needed in order to attain this position.
It is worth forty thousand francs a year, and during the ten
years that he has had it, he has paid off the security and put
aside a dowry for my sister. My father is the most honourable man
in the world. When my mother died, she left six thousand francs a
year, which he divided between my sister and myself on the very
day when he received his appointment; then, when I was
twenty-one, he added to this little income an annual allowance of
Camille |
