| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: breast of it. I imagine that his youth stood in good stead to Mr.
Powell. Oh, yes. Youth is a power. Even Captain Anthony had to
take some notice of it, as if it refreshed him to see something
untouched, unscarred, unhardened by suffering. Or perhaps the very
novelty of that face, on board a ship where he had seen the same
faces for years, attracted his attention.
Whether one day he dropped a word to his new second officer or only
looked at him I don't know; but Mr. Powell seized the opportunity
whatever it was. The captain who had started and stopped in his
everlasting rapid walk smoothed his brow very soon, heard him to the
end and then laughed a little.
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: gazed stupidly at the shining mass of hair she
bared when she took off her veil; two thick
braids, pinned about her head in the German
way, with a fringe of reddish-yellow curls blow-
ing out from under her cap. He took his cigar
out of his mouth and held the wet end between
the fingers of his woolen glove. "My God, girl,
what a head of hair!" he exclaimed, quite
innocently and foolishly. She stabbed him with
a glance of Amazonian fierceness and drew in
her lower lip--most unnecessary severity. It
O Pioneers! |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: celebrated men was free?--that was the question.
Modeste began by securing the co-operation of Francoise Cochet, a maid
taken from Havre and brought back again by poor Bettina, whom Madame
Mignon and Madame Dumay now employed by the day, and who lived in
Havre. Modeste took her to her own room and assured her that she would
never cause her parents any grief, never pass the bounds of a young
girl's propriety, and that as to Francoise herself she would be well
provided for after the return of Monsieur Mignon, on condition that
she would do a certain service and keep it an inviolable secret. What
was it? Why, a nothing--perfectly innocent. All that Modeste wanted of
her accomplice was to put certain letters into the post at Havre and
Modeste Mignon |
