| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: of Bab-el-mandeb, the name of which, in the Arab tongue,
means The Gate of Tears.
To twenty miles in breadth, it is only thirty-two in length.
And for the Nautilus, starting at full speed, the crossing was scarcely
the work of an hour. But I saw nothing, not even the Island of Perim,
with which the British Government has fortified the position of Aden.
There were too many English or French steamers of the line of Suez
to Bombay, Calcutta to Melbourne, and from Bourbon to the Mauritius,
furrowing this narrow passage, for the Nautilus to venture to show itself.
So it remained prudently below. At last about noon, we were in the waters of
the Red Sea.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: luck to escape--a white railway signal here, the end of a
greenhouse there, white and fresh amid the wreckage. Never
before in the history of warfare had destruction been so
indiscriminate and so universal. And shining with the growing
light of the east, three of the metallic giants stood about
the pit, their cowls rotating as though they were surveying
the desolation they had made.
It seemed to me that the pit had been enlarged, and ever
and again puffs of vivid green vapour streamed up and out of
it towards the brightening dawn--streamed up, whirled,
broke, and vanished.
War of the Worlds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: and green trees bowed their graceful heads as if to welcome him. Soon
the forest where Lily-Bell lay sleeping rose before him, and as he
passed along the cool, dim wood-paths, never had they seemed so fair.
But when he came where his little friend had slept, it was no longer
the dark, silent spot where he last saw her. Garlands hung from every
tree, and the fairest flowers filled the air with their sweet breath.
Bird's gay voices echoed far and wide, and the little brook went
singing by, beneath the arching ferns that bent above it; green
leaves rustled in the summer wind, and the air was full of music.
But the fairest sight was Lily-Bell, as she lay on the couch of
velvet moss that Fairy hands had spread. The golden flower lay
Flower Fables |
