| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: "Good morning," he said briskly and cheerfully. "From the
Hampstead Borough Council. The new Voting Register. Mrs. Edgar
Keith lives here, does she not?"
"Yaas," said the servant.
"Christian name?" asked Tommy, his pencil poised.
"Missus's? Eleanor Jane."
"Eleanor," spelt Tommy. "Any sons or daughters over twenty-one?"
"Naow."
"Thank you." Tommy closed the notebook with a brisk snap. "Good
morning."
The servant volunteered her first remark:
Secret Adversary |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: yields you no return, but sooner or later commerce will come here in
search of its fine woods--those treasures amassed by time; the only
ones the production of which cannot be hastened or improved upon by
man. The State may some day provide a way of transport from this
forest, for many of the trees would make fine masts for the navy; but
it will wait until the increasing population of Montegnac makes a
demand upon its protection; for the State is like fortune, it comes
only to the rich. This estate, well managed, will become, in the
course of time, one of the finest in France; it will be the pride of
your grandson, who may then find the chateau paltry, comparing it with
its revenues."
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed
to write about art. The harm they do by their foolish and random
writing it would be impossible to overestimate - not to the artist
but to the public, blinding them to all, but harming the artist not
at all. Without them we would judge a man simply by his work; but
at present the newspapers are trying hard to induce the public to
judge a sculptor, for instance, never by his statues but by the way
he treats his wife; a painter by the amount of his income and a
poet by the colour of his neck-tie. I said there should be a law,
but there is really no necessity for a new law: nothing could be
easier than to bring the ordinary critic under the head of the
|
