| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: Mr. Shimerda, Antonia came up to me and held out her hand coaxingly.
In a moment we were running up the steep drawside together,
Yulka trotting after us.
When we reached the level and could see the gold tree-tops, I
pointed toward them, and Antonia laughed and squeezed my hand
as if to tell me how glad she was I had come. We raced off toward
Squaw Creek and did not stop until the ground itself stopped--
fell away before us so abruptly that the next step would have been
out into the tree-tops. We stood panting on the edge of the ravine,
looking down at the trees and bushes that grew below us.
The wind was so strong that I had to hold my hat on, and the girls'
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: eight, two larger herds connected by a smaller, and were headed
to the southward, moving slowly, grazing on the wheat stubble as
they proceeded. But the number seemed incalculable. Hundreds
upon hundreds upon hundreds of grey, rounded backs, all exactly
alike, huddled, close-packed, alive, hid the earth from sight.
It was no longer an aggregate of individuals. It was a mass--a
compact, solid, slowly moving mass, huge, without form, like a
thick-pressed growth of mushrooms, spreading out in all
directions over the earth. From it there arose a vague murmur,
confused, inarticulate, like the sound of very distant surf,
while all the air in the vicinity was heavy with the warm,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: to add to the extent and the wealth and the power
of his empire! Does that sound vainglorious, and
do you resent it? You must not, I tell you, you
must not!"
Concha had never seen him in such a mood. Al-
though he held her so closely that the horses were
angrily biting each other, she felt that for once there
was nothing personal in his ardor. His eyes were
blazing, but they stared as if a great and prophetic
panorama had risen in this silent wood, where the
long faded moss hung as motionless as if by those
Rezanov |
