| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: clamor of seabirds settling to rest, and struggling for
a footing at the end of the day. No one noticed it
especially on board; it was the voice of their ship's un-
erring landfall, ending the steady stretch of a hundred
miles. She had made good her course, she had run her
distance till the punctual islets began to emerge one by
one, the points of rocks, the hummocks of earth . . .
and the cloud of birds hovered--the restless cloud emit-
ting a strident and cruel uproar, the sound of the fa-
miliar scene, the living part of the broken land beneath,
of the outspread sea, and of the high sky without a
End of the Tether |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: But it was a rigidity that had no illiberal meaning.
Mr. Wentworth's manner was pregnant, on the contrary,
with a sense of grand responsibility, of the solemnity
of the occasion, of its being difficult to show sufficient
deference to a lady at once so distinguished and so unhappy.
Felix had observed on the day before his characteristic pallor;
and now he perceived that there was something almost
cadaverous in his uncle's high-featured white face.
But so clever were this young man's quick sympathies
and perceptions that he already learned that in these
semi-mortuary manifestations there was no cause for alarm.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: And then the family skeleton is always reading family prayers. My
stay in England really depends on you, Sir Robert. [Sits down on the
sofa.]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Taking a seat beside her.] Seriously?
MRS. CHEVELEY. Quite seriously. I want to talk to you about a great
political and financial scheme, about this Argentine Canal Company,
in fact.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What a tedious, practical subject for you to
talk about, Mrs. Cheveley!
MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, I like tedious, practical subjects. What I don't
like are tedious, practical people. There is a wide difference.
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