| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: boughs of the enormous ceiba-tree, and there sat inspecting his own
handiwork, looking out far and wide over the forest-covered plains
and the blue sea beyond, and thinking, in his simple
straightforward way, of what was to be done next.
To stay there long was impossible; to avenge himself upon La Guayra
was impossible; to go until he had found out whether Frank was
alive or dead seemed at first equally impossible. But were
Brimblecombe, Cary, and those eighty men to be sacrificed a second
time to his private interest? Amyas wept with rage, and then wept
again with earnest, honest prayer, before he could make up his
mind. But he made it up. There were a hundred chances to one that
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: his checkered career. Life was evidently ebbing slowly and his extremities
were already cold.
Once or twice more he spoke to the colonists who stood around him, and
smiled on them with that last smile which continues after death.
At length, shortly after midnight, Captain Nemo by a supreme effort
succeeded in folding his arms across his breast, as if wishing in that
attitude to compose himself for death.
By one o'clock his glance alone showed signs of life. A dying light
gleamed in those eyes once so brilliant. Then, murmuring the words, "God
and my country!" he quietly expired.
Cyrus Harding, bending low closed the eyes of him who had once been the
The Mysterious Island |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: running water and its deep, quiet pools for a playfellow; berries
to be hunted for in summer and nuts in autumn; while all the year
round birds and small animals pattered across his path to people
the solitude in place of human companions. The boy had few
comrades. He wandered about playing his lonesome little games,
and when these were finished returned to the small and cheerless
cabin. Once, when asked what he remembered about the War of 1812
with Great Britain, he replied: "Only this: I had been fishing
one day and had caught a little fish, which I was taking home. I
met a soldier in the road, and having always been told at home
that we must be good to soldiers, I gave him my fish." It is only
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