| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: ceiling was a perfect network of brown stains made by rain-water. A
relic, saved no doubt from the wreck of the Abbaye de Chelles, stood
like an ornament on the chimney-piece. Three chairs, two boxes, and a
rickety chest of drawers completed the list of the furniture, but a
door beside the fireplace suggested an inner room beyond.
The brief inventory was soon made by the personage introduced into
their midst under such terrible auspices. It was with a compassionate
expression that he turned to the two women; he looked benevolently at
them, and seemed, at least, as much embarrassed as they. But the
strange silence did not last long, for presently the stranger began to
understand. He saw how inexperienced, how helpless (mentally
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: language. But thank heaven I haven't!" he reflected.
These considerations, which had been with him every yard of
the way from London, reached a climax of irony as he was
drawn into the crowd on the pier. It did not soften his
feelings to remember that, but for her lack of forethought,
he might, at this harsh end of the stormy May day, have been
sitting before his club fire in London instead of shivering
in the damp human herd on the pier. Admitting the sex's
traditional right to change, she might at least have advised
him of hers by telegraphing directly to his rooms. But in
spite of their exchange of letters she had apparently failed
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: "Why don't you say so? You needn't be afraid. I'm not afraid!"
And she gave a little laugh.
Winterbourne fancied there was a tremor in her voice; he was touched, shocked,
mortified by it. "My dear young lady," he protested, "she knows no one.
It's her wretched health."
The young girl walked on a few steps, laughing still.
"You needn't be afraid," she repeated. "Why should she want
to know me?" Then she paused again; she was close to the parapet
of the garden, and in front of her was the starlit lake.
There was a vague sheen upon its surface, and in the distance
were dimly seen mountain forms. Daisy Miller looked out upon
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