| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: her; the poor woman reclined where she had been left,
half-fainting upon an armchair. D'Artagnan examined her with a
rapid glance.
She was a charming woman of twenty-five or twenty-six years, with
dark hair, blue eyes, and a nose slightly turned up, admirable
teeth, and a complexion marbled with rose and opal. There,
however, ended the signs which might have confounded her with a
lady of rank. The hands were white, but without delicacy; the
feet did not bespeak the woman of quality. Happily, D'Artagnan
was not yet acquainted with such niceties.
While D'Artagnan was examining Mme. Bonacieux, and was, as we
 The Three Musketeers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: alone?
But here he was coming again, now coatless, his
snowy shirt-sleeves rolled high above his Jeffries-
onian elbows, a white yachting cap perched upon his
jetty curls.
"'Tonio! 'Tonio!" shouted many, and "The
spaghetti! The spaghetti!" shouted the rest.
Never at 'Tonio's did a waiter dare to serve a dish
of spaghetti until 'Tonio came to test it, to prove the
sauce and add the needful dash of seasoning that
gave it perfection.
 The Voice of the City |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: Mercy, the forest, again became practicable. This return of spring
delighted the tenants of Granite House, and they soon only passed it in the
hours necessary for eating and sleeping.
They hunted much in the second part of September, which led Pencroft to
again entreat for the firearms, which he asserted had been promised by
Cyrus Harding. The latter, knowing well that without special tools it would
be nearly impossible for him to manufacture a gun which would be of any
use, still drew back and put off the operation to some future time,
observing in his usual dry way, that Herbert and Spilett had become very
skilful archers, so that many sorts of excellent animals, agouties,
kangaroos, capybaras, pigeons, bustards, wild ducks, snipes, in short, game
 The Mysterious Island |