| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: afternoon as he refreshed himself in an inn near Nutfield,
whither his motor-bicycle had brought him. There smoked and
meditated a person in khaki, an engineer, who presently took an
interest in Bert's machine. It was a sturdy piece of apparatus,
and it had acquired a kind of documentary value in these
quick-changing times; it was now nearly eight years old. Its
points discussed, the soldier broke into a new topic with, "My
next's going to be an aeroplane, so far as I can see. I've had
enough of roads and ways."
"They TORK," said Bert.
"They talk--and they do," said the soldier.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: way managing a summer bunch of the gum and syntax-chewers that play
the Idlewild Parks in the Western hamlets. Of course, we went to
pieces when the soubrette ran away with a prominent barber of
Beeville. I don't know what became of the rest of the company. I
believe there were some salaries due; and the last I saw of the troupe
was when I told them that forty-three cents was all the treasury
contained. I say I never saw any of them after that; but I heard them
for about twenty minutes. I didn't have time to look back. But after
dark I came out of the woods and struck the S.A. & A.P. agent for
means of transportation. He at once extended to me the courtesies of
the entire railroad, kindly warning me, however, not to get aboard any
Heart of the West |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: not without taking part in "Madame's" perils; the latter, however,
sent him home the moment she saw that her cause was lost. Perhaps, had
he remained, the eager vigilance of the young man might have foiled
that treachery. However great the faults of the Duchesse de
Maufrigneuse may have seemed in the eyes of the bourgeoisie, the
behavior of her son on this occasion certainly effaced them in the
eyes of the aristocracy. There was great nobility and grandeur in thus
risking her only son, and the heir of an historic name. Some persons
are said to intentionally cover the faults of their private life by
public services, and vice versa; but the Princesse de Cadignan made no
such calculation. Possibly those who apparently so conduct themselves
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