| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: then departs from the river a little, and, descending south-eastward
by Burdivan and the French town of Chandernagor, has its terminus at Calcutta.
The passengers of the Mongolia went ashore at half-past four p.m.;
at exactly eight the train would start for Calcutta.
Mr. Fogg, after bidding good-bye to his whist partners, left the steamer,
gave his servant several errands to do, urged it upon him to be at the station
promptly at eight, and, with his regular step, which beat to the second,
like a astronomical clock, directed his steps to the passport office.
As for the wonders of Bombay its famous city hall, its splendid library,
its forts and docks, its bazaars, mosques, synagogues, its Armenian churches,
and the noble pagoda on Malabar Hill, with its two polygonal towers--
Around the World in 80 Days |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Thuillier [interrupting]. "The answers might be sold separately."
Poiret. "Is that a pun?"
Thuillier. "No; a riddle."
Phellion. "I am sorry I interrupted you" [he dives into his office
desk]. "But" [to himself] "at any rate, I have stopped their talking
about Monsieur Rabourdin."
At this moment a scene was taking place between the minister and des
Lupeaulx which decided Rabourdin's fate. The general-secretary had
gone to see the minister in his private study before the breakfast-
hour, to make sure that La Briere was not within hearing.
"Your Excellency is not treating me frankly--"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: ever since then, Madam How has been scooping them out again by her
water-chisel into deep glens, mighty cliffs, sharp peaks, such as
you see aloft, and making the old hills beautiful once more. Why,
even the Alps in Switzerland have been carved out by frost and
rain, out of some great flat. The very peak of the Matterhorn, of
which you have so often seen a picture, is but one single point
left of some enormous bun of rock. All the rest has been carved
away by rain and frost; and some day the Matterhorn itself will be
carved away, and its last stone topple into the glacier at its
foot. See, as we have been talking, we have got into the woods.
Oh, what beautiful woods, just like our own.
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