| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: resist one last comprehensive glance into the depths of the odious
shop, where she saw Maximilien standing with his arms folded, in the
attitude of a man superior to the disaster that has so suddenly fallen
on him. Their eyes met and flashed implacable looks. Each hoped to
inflict a cruel wound on the heart of a lover. In one instant they
were as far apart as if one had been in China and the other in
Greenland.
Does not the breath of vanity wither everything? Mademoiselle de
Fontaine, a prey to the most violent struggle that can torture the
heart of a young girl, reaped the richest harvest of anguish that
prejudice and narrow-mindedness ever sowed in a human soul. Her face,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: of the delegates was the most urgently debated of all political
subjects. Chicherin had replied immediately to Berne,
saying that "though they did not consider the Berne
Conference either socialist or in any degree representative of
the working-class they nevertheless would permit the
Commission's journey into Russia, and would give it every
opportunity of becoming acquainted from all sides with the
state of affairs, just as they would any bourgeois commission
directly or indirectly connected with any of the bourgeois
governments, even with those then attacking Russia."
It may well be imagined that a reply in this style infuriated
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: northwest and empties itself into the Obi, after a course of
four thousand miles.
At this time of year, when all the rivers of the Siberian
basin are much swollen, the waters of the Irtych were very
high. In consequence the current was changed to a regular
torrent, rendering the passage difficult enough. A swim-
mer could not have crossed, however powerful; and even in
a ferryboat there would be some danger.
But Michael and Nadia, determined to brave all perils
whatever they might be, did not dream of shrinking from
this one. Michael proposed to his young companion that
|
