| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: than trouble them for my convenience. Their indecorous manner of
doing their lessons was quite as remarkable as the caprice
displayed in their choice of time and place. While receiving my
instructions, or repeating what they had learned, they would lounge
upon the sofa, lie on the rug, stretch, yawn, talk to each other,
or look out of the window; whereas, I could not so much as stir the
fire, or pick up the handkerchief I had dropped, without being
rebuked for inattention by one of my pupils, or told that 'mamma
would not like me to be so careless.'
The servants, seeing in what little estimation the governess was
held by both parents and children, regulated their behaviour by the
Agnes Grey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: the ague would return again the next day, and now was my time to
get something to refresh and support myself when I should be ill;
and the first thing I did, I filled a large square case-bottle with
water, and set it upon my table, in reach of my bed; and to take
off the chill or aguish disposition of the water, I put about a
quarter of a pint of rum into it, and mixed them together. Then I
got me a piece of the goat's flesh and broiled it on the coals, but
could eat very little. I walked about, but was very weak, and
withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of my miserable
condition, dreading, the return of my distemper the next day. At
night I made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs, which I
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: himself."
"What made him kill himself such a silly way?"
The simplicity of the boy's question set Nils laughing. He
clapped little Eric on the shoulder. "What made him such a silly
as to kill himself at all, I should say!"
"Oh, well! But his hogs had the cholera, and all up and died
on him, didn't they?"
"Sure they did; but he didn't have cholera; and there were
plenty of bogs left in the world, weren't there?"
"Well, but, if they weren't his, how could they do him any
good?" Eric asked, in astonishment.
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
