| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: filled up the intervals. Robin rose from the steps, and looked
wistfully towards a point whither people seemed to be hastening.
"Surely some prodigious merry-making is going on," exclaimed he
"I have laughed very little since I left home, sir, and should be
sorry to lose an opportunity. Shall we step round the corner by
that darkish house and take our share of the fun?"
"Sit down again, sit down, good Robin," replied the gentleman,
laying his hand on the skirt of the gray coat. "You forget that
we must wait here for your kinsman; and there is reason to
believe that he will pass by, in the course of a very few
moments."
The Snow Image |
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: our boat was moored to the usual place. The Nautilus, like a
long rock, emerged from the waves two miles from the beach.
Ned Land, without waiting, occupied himself about the important
dinner business. He understood all about cooking well.
The "bari-outang," grilled on the coals, soon scented the air with
a delicious odour.
Indeed, the dinner was excellent. Two wood-pigeons
completed this extraordinary menu. The sago pasty,
the artocarpus bread, some mangoes, half a dozen pineapples,
and the liquor fermented from some coco-nuts, overjoyed us.
I even think that my worthy companions' ideas had not all
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: be built for fifteen francs, which kills our business; for in Paris no
one ever has fifteen francs in his pocket to spend on a hat. If a
beaver hat costs thirty, it is still the same thing-- When I say
beaver, I ought to state that there are not ten pounds of beaver skins
left in France. That article is worth three hundred and fifty francs a
pound, and it takes an ounce for a hat. Besides, a beaver hat isn't
really worth anything; the skin takes a wretched dye; gets rusty in
ten minutes under the sun, and heat puts it out of shape as well. What
we call 'beaver' in the trade is neither more nor less than hare's-
skin. The best qualities are made from the back of the animal, the
second from the sides, the third from the belly. I confide to you
|
