| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: Her enjoyment was keen and her curiosity insatiable, and,
grateful in general for all her opportunities, she especially
prized the privilege of meeting certain celebrated persons--
authors and artists, philosophers and statesmen--of whose
renown she had been a humble and distant beholder, and who now,
as a part of the habitual furniture of London drawing rooms,
struck her as stars fallen from the firmament and become palpable--
revealing also sometimes, on contact, qualities not to
have been predicted of sidereal bodies. Bessie, who knew
so many of her contemporaries by reputation, had a good many
personal disappointments; but, on the other hand, she had
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: a strong smell of musk penetrated the atmosphere.
It was horrible!
For one instant, I thought the unhappy man, entangled with the poulp, would be
torn from its powerful suction. Seven of the eight arms had been cut off.
One only wriggled in the air, brandishing the victim like a feather. But just
as Captain Nemo and his lieutenant threw themselves on it, the animal ejected
a stream of black liquid. We were blinded with it. When the cloud dispersed,
the cuttlefish had disappeared, and my unfortunate countryman with it.
Ten or twelve poulps now invaded the platform and sides of the Nautilus.
We rolled pell-mell into the midst of this nest of serpents, that wriggled
on the platform in the waves of blood and ink. It seemed as though these
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: Suddenly she heard her husband repeating his question.
"I don't know that I can explain," she faltered.
He drew his arm-chair forward so that he faced her across the
hearth. The light of a reading-lamp fell on his finely drawn
face, which had a kind of surface-sensitiveness akin to the
surface-refinement of its setting.
"Is it that you no longer believe in our ideas?" he asked.
"In our ideas--?"
"The ideas I am trying to teach. The ideas you and I are
supposed to stand for." He paused a moment. "The ideas on which
our marriage was founded."
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