| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: epaulets, his place at court, his sinecure, his two offices and their
advantages; in all, six salaries retained under fire of the law
against pluralists. Sometimes he threatened his minister as a mistress
threatens her lover; telling him he was about to marry a rich widow.
At such times the minister petted and cajoled des Lupeaulx. After one
of these reconciliations he received the formal promise of a place in
the Academy of Belles-lettres on the first vacancy. "It would pay," he
said, "the keep of a horse." His position, so far as it went, was a
good one, and Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx flourished in it like a
tree planted in good soil. He could satisfy his vices, his caprices,
his virtues and his defects.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Nobody's in," she said. "Mr. Wolfshiem's gone to Chicago."
The first part of this was obviously untrue, for someone had begun to
whistle "The Rosary," tunelessly, inside.
"Please say that Mr. Carraway wants to see him."
"I can't get him back from Chicago, can I?"
At this moment a voice, unmistakably Wolfshiem's, called "Stella!"
from the other side of the door.
"Leave your name on the desk," she said quickly. "I'll give it to him
when he gets back."
"But I know he's there."
She took a step toward me and began to slide her hands indignantly up
The Great Gatsby |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: hope that her presence would not disturb them. It did disturb
them. Agatha suspected that she had come there to watch them, and
Sir Charles knew it. Besides, Lady Brandon, even when her mind
was tranquil, was habitually restless. She could not speak
because of the music, and, though she held an open book in her
hand, she could not read and watch simultaneously. She gaped, and
leaned to one end of the sofa until, on the point of
overbalancing' she recovered herself with a prodigious bounce.
The floor vibrated at her every movement. At last she could keep
silence no longer.
"Oh, dear!" she said, yawning audibly. "It must be five o'clock
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