| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: minutes accompanied by an embarrassed, slightly worn young man, with
shell-rimmed glasses and scanty blond hair. He was now decently clothed
in a "sport shirt," open at the neck, sneakers, and duck trousers of a
nebulous hue.
"Did we interrupt your exercises?" inquired Daisy politely.
"I was asleep," cried Mr. Klipspringer, in a spasm of embarrassment.
"That is, I'd BEEN asleep. Then I got up. . . ."
"Klipspringer plays the piano," said Gatsby, cutting him off. "Don't you,
Ewing, old sport?"
"I don't play well. I don't--I hardly play at all. I'm all out of
prac----"
The Great Gatsby |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: and his wife, drawn two ways by pity and self-interest, began by
lulling their consciences with words.
"You seem very poorly, citoyenne----"
"Perhaps madame might like to take something," the wife broke in.
"We have some very nice broth," added the pastry-cook.
"And it is so cold," continued his wife; "perhaps you have caught a
chill, madame, on your way here. But you can rest and warm yourself a
bit."
"We are not so black as the devil!" cried the man.
The kindly intention in the words and tones of the charitable couple
won the old lady's confidence. She said that a strange man had been
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: before he had finished with it.
As to the actual manner of his betrayer's death, the outraged
husband found it difficult to make up his mind. It was not to be
prompt, nor was unnecessary suffering to be avoided. At first he
favoured a pair of "infernal" opera-glasses that concealed a
couple of steel points which, by means of a spring, would dart
out into the eyes of anyone using them and destroy their sight.
This rather elaborate and uncertain machine was abandoned later
in favour of a trap for catching wolves. This was to be placed
under the table, and seize in its huge iron teeth the legs of the
victim. In the end simplicity, in the shape of a hammer and
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
