| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: During the bad season, the mother herself is extremely abstemious.
At long intervals, she accepts, in my jars, a belated Locust, whom
I have captured, for her benefit, in the sunnier nooks. In order
to keep herself in condition, as when she is dug up in the course
of my winter excavations, she must therefore sometimes break her
fast and come out in search of prey, without, of course, discarding
her live mantilla.
The expedition has its dangers. The youngsters may be brushed off
by a blade of grass. What becomes of them when they have a fall?
Does the mother give them a thought? Does she come to their
assistance and help them to regain their place on her back? Not at
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: hugely fantastic sight that met our gaze. With us it was a single,
vivid flash to the astonished brain. These are the details:
Before us was an immense cavern, circular in shape, with a
diameter of some half a mile. It seemed to me then much larger;
from where we stood it appeared to be at least two miles to the
opposite side. There was no roof to be seen; it merely ascended
into darkness, though the light carried a great distance.
All round the vast circumference, on terraced seats of rock,
squatted row after row of the most completely hideous beings within
possibility.
They were men; I suppose they must have the name. They were
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: "Adieu, my dear uncle," he said, rising as if to leave the house.
"Oh! don't go yet," cried the old man, who was comforted by Flore's
false tenderness. "Dine with us, Philippe."
"Yes, if you will come and take a walk with me."
"Monsieur is very feeble," interposed Mademoiselle Brazier; "just now
he was unwilling even to go out in the carriage," she added, turning
upon the old man the fixed look with which keepers quell a maniac.
Philippe took Flore by the arm, compelling her to look at him, and
looking at her in return as fixedly as she had just looked at her
victim.
"Tell me, mademoiselle," he said, "is it a fact that my uncle is not
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