| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: as though he had never seen such a sight before.
And probably he had not. As far as I could make
out, he had been hustled together with many others
on board an emigrant-ship lying at the mouth of
the Elbe, too bewildered to take note of his sur-
roundings, too weary to see anything, too anxious
to care. They were driven below into the 'tween-
deck and battened down from the very start. It
was a low timber dwelling--he would say--with
wooden beams overhead, like the houses in his coun-
try, but you went into it down a ladder. It was
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: He had no great faculty for apprehending generalizations.
There were some three or four indeed which, in the play
of his own intelligence, he had originated, and which had
seemed convenient at the moment; but at the present time
he could hardly have been said to follow Mrs. Westgate
as she darted gracefully about in the sea of speculation.
Fortunately she asked for no especial rejoinder,
for she looked about at the rest of the company as well,
and smiled at Percy Beaumont, on the other side of her,
as if he too much understand her and agree with her.
He was rather more successful than his companion;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: in front of them at a distance. The elder lady began immediately
to talk to him of Gordon Wright.
"He 's not coming back for another week, you know," she said.
"I am sorry he stays away so long."
"Ah yes," Bernard answered, "it seems very long indeed."
And it had, in fact, seemed to him very long.
"I suppose he is always likely to have business," said Mrs. Vivian.
"You may be very sure it is not for his pleasure that he stays away."
"I know he is faithful to old friends," said Mrs. Vivian.
"I am sure he has not forgotten us."
"I certainly count upon that," Bernard exclaimed--"remembering him as we do!"
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