| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: There have also been two mobilizations of railway workers,
and these, I think, may be partly responsible for the
undoubted improvement noticeable during the year,
although this is partly at least due to other things beside
conscription. In the first place Trotsky carried with him into
the Commissariat of Transport the same ferocious energy
that he has shown in the Commissariat of War, together
with the prestige that he had gained there. Further, he
was well able in the councils of the Republic to defend the
needs of his particular Commissariat against those of all
others. He was, for example able to persuade the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: When their poor mother saw them, she could not utter a word, and tears
stood in her eyes.
"Now, my lads, all is ready; no delay!" said Bulba at last. "But we
must first all sit down together, in accordance with Christian custom
before a journey."
All sat down, not excepting the servants, who had been standing
respectfully at the door.
"Now, mother, bless your children," said Bulba. "Pray God that they
may fight bravely, always defend their warlike honour, always defend
the faith of Christ; and, if not, that they may die, so that their
breath may not be longer in the world."
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: fresh plump beauty which distinguishes the daughters of Lower
Normandy, but a fragile and, so to speak, aristocratic beauty. Her
features were delicate and refined, her figure supple and easy. When
she spoke, her pale face lighted and seemed to acquire fresh life. Her
large dark eyes were full of affability and kindness, and yet their
calm, religious expression seemed to say that the springs of her
existence were no longer in her.
Married in the flower of her age to an old and jealous soldier, the
falseness of her position in the midst of a court noted for its
gallantry contributed much, no doubt, to draw a veil of melancholy
over a face where the charms and the vivacity of love must have shone
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