| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: at once why I had come.
`You'll stay the night with us, Jimmy? I'll talk to you
after supper. I can take more interest when my work is off my mind.
You've no prejudice against hot biscuit for supper?
Some have, these days.'
While I was putting my horse away, I heard a rooster squawking.
I looked at my watch and sighed; it was three o'clock, and I knew
that I must eat him at six.
After supper Mrs. Steavens and I went upstairs to the old sitting-room,
while her grave, silent brother remained in the basement to read his
farm papers. All the windows were open. The white summer moon was
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: have brought me more than a month's pay in the city office. But I
hoped the clerkship would lead to something better.
One incident that happened while I was city clerk I have
already related. The city attorney almost sent a man to jail
because he couldn't understand the lawyer's questions. I put the
lawyer's language into simpler words, and the man then understood
and quickly cleared himself of the charge against him. At another
time, the mill owners petitioned for the vacation of an alley
because they wanted to build a railroad switch there to give
access to a loading-out station of the mill.
"I suppose," their representative told me, "that since this
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: gone out of his mind, been sent into exile, or had cheated at
cards?"
The first-class passenger was so excited that he dropped his
cigar out of his mouth and got up.
"Yes," he went on fiercely, "and side by side with these people I
can quote you hundreds of all sorts of singers, acrobats,
buffoons, whose names are known to every baby. Yes!"
The door creaked, there was a draught, and an individual of
forbidding aspect, wearing an Inverness coat, a top-hat, and blue
spectacles, walked into the carriage. The individual looked round
at the seats, frowned, and went on further.
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
