| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: tutors, without extreme difficulty, teach him to demonstrate the
most easy proposition in the mathematics. He was pleased to show
me many marks of favour, often did me the honour of a visit,
desired to be informed in the affairs of Europe, the laws and
customs, the manners and learning of the several countries where
I had travelled. He listened to me with great attention, and
made very wise observations on all I spoke. He had two flappers
attending him for state, but never made use of them, except at
court and in visits of ceremony, and would always command them to
withdraw, when we were alone together.
I entreated this illustrious person, to intercede in my behalf
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: tossed it up in such a way as to have it light bottom side up
on her "lillies,"[1] in which position she kept it whirling.
Tossing it once more it came down on the side, and again
tossing it she caught it right side up on her small feet,
keeping it whirling all the time.
[1] Small feet of the Chinese woman.
My surprise was so great that I gave the old woman ten
cents for performing this single trick.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: not without a slight feeling of terror.
He stood considering for some time, with folded arms,
and longing to be able to pierce the impenetrable darkness.
Then it occurred to him that if he could not get down,
neither could the inhabitants of the mine get up. There was now no
communication between the depths of the pit and the upper regions.
If the removal of the lower ladders of the Yarrow shaft had been
effected since his last visit to the cottage, what had become
of Simon Ford, his wife, his son, and the engineer?
The prolonged absence of James Starr proved that he had not
left the pit since the day Ryan met with him in the shaft.
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