| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: where they could distinctly see her outline against the light;
but no characteristic that enabled them to estimate her general aspect
and air. Yet something seemed to denote that she was not quite so
comfortably circumstanced, nor so bouncingly attired, as she had been
during Cartlett's lifetime.
The three attempted an awkward conversation about the tragedy,
of which Jude had felt it to be his duty to inform her immediately,
though she had never replied to his letter.
"I have just come from the cemetery," she said. "I inquired
and found the child's grave. I couldn't come to the funeral--
thank you for inviting me all the same. I read all about it
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: strong and nervous frame and his sanguine air: and twenty years
earlier the sight might have damped me. But no thought of the
kind entered my head now, and though I felt with each moment
greater reluctance to engage, doubt of the issue had no place in
my calculations.
I made ready slowly, and would gladly, to gain time, have found
some fault with the place. But the sun was sufficiently high to
give no advantage to either. The ground was good, the spot well
chosen. I could find no excuse to put off the man, and I was
about to salute him and fall to work when a thought crossed my
mind.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Dutocq. "Make it, and you shall be under-head-clerk with a famous fee.
The fact is, my dear fellow, there's dissension among the powers that
be. The minister is pledged to Rabourdin, but if he doesn't appoint
Baudoyer he offends the priests and their party. You see, the King,
the Dauphin and the Dauphine, the clergy, and lastly the court, all
want Baudoyer; the minister wants Rabourdin."
Bixiou. "Good!"
Dutocq. "To ease the matter off, the minister, who sees he must give
way, wants to strangle the difficulty. We must find some good reason
for getting rid of Rabourdin. Now somebody has lately unearthed a
paper of his, exposing the present system of administration and
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