| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: paused, hoping to see some one to direct me, the train puffed out, leaving
me alone on the platform.
When I turned the corner I saw two dim lights, one far to the left, the
other to the right, and the black outline of buildings under what appeared
to be the shadow of a mountain. It was the quietest and darkest town I had
ever struck.
I decided to turn toward the right-hand light, for the conductor had said
"down the street." I set forth at a brisk pace, but the loneliness and
strangeness of the place were rather depressing.
Before I had gone many steps, however, the sound of running water halted
me, and just in the nick of time, for I was walking straight into a ditch.
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: holding them up to the light, disdainfully, Fenger had
watched her with a mingling of amusement and a sort of fond
pride, as one would a precocious child. As the months went
on the pride and amusement welded into something more than
admiration, such as one expert feels for a fellow-craftsman.
Long before the end of the first year he knew that here was
a woman such as he had dreamed of all his life and never
hoped to find. He often found himself sitting at his office
desk, or in his library at home, staring straight ahead for
a longer time than he dared admit, his papers or book
forgotten in his hand. His thoughts applied to her
Fanny Herself |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: not disappointed! I know not how he would bear it.'
Disappointed he was; and bitterly, too. It came like a thunder-
clap on us all, that the vessel which contained our fortune had
been wrecked, and gone to the bottom with all its stores, together
with several of the crew, and the unfortunate merchant himself. I
was grieved for him; I was grieved for the overthrow of all our
air-built castles: but, with the elasticity of youth, I soon
recovered the shook.
Though riches had charms, poverty had no terrors for an
inexperienced girl like me. Indeed, to say the truth, there was
something exhilarating in the idea of being driven to straits, and
Agnes Grey |
