| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: To such questions no answer can be given. But knowing the bold
ingenuity of the Anglo-Saxon race, no one would be astonished if
the Americans seek to make some use of President Barbicane's attempt.
Thus, some time after the return of the travelers, the public
received with marked favor the announcement of a company,
limited, with a capital of a hundred million of dollars, divided
into a hundred thousand shares of a thousand dollars each, under
the name of the "National Company of Interstellary Communication."
President, Barbicane; vice-president, Captain Nicholl; secretary,
J. T. Maston; director of movements, Michel Ardan.
And as it is part of the American temperament to foresee
From the Earth to the Moon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: in a cafe, where he at once wrote his letter. I took my station
close by Manon's house. I saw de T----'s messenger arrive, and
G---- M---- come out the next moment, followed by a servant.
Allowing him barely time to get out of the street, I advanced to
my deceiver's door, and notwithstanding the anger I felt, I
knocked with as much respect as at the portal of a church.
Fortunately it was Marcel who opened for me. Although I had
nothing to apprehend from the other servants, I asked him in a
low voice if he could conduct me unseen into the room in which
Manon was. He said that was easily done, by merely ascending the
great staircase. `Come then at once,' said I to him, `and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: to form and advance. But the tramp gave them no observance.
He simply said:
"My request is, that upon me be conferred the monopoly
of the manufacture and sale of spectacles in Germany."
The emperor sprang aside and exclaimed:
"This transcends all the impudence I ever heard! A
modest demand, by my halidome! Why didn't you ask
for the imperial revenues at once, and be done with it?"
But the monarch had given his word, and he kept it.
To everybody's surprise, the unselfish monopolist immediately
reduced the price of spectacles to such a degree that a
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