| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: because Imogen had the feeling of being energetically and
futilely explored, she knew not for what. She felt herself under
the globe of an air pump, expected to yield up something. When
she confined the conversation to matters of general interest
Flavia conveyed to her with some pique that her one endeavor in
life had been to fit herself to converse with her friends upon
those things which vitally interested them. "One has no right to
accept their best from people unless one gives, isn't it so? I
want to be able to give--!" she declared vaguely. Yet whenever
Imogen strove to pay her tithes and plunged bravely into her
plans for study next winter, Flavia grew absent-minded and
 The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: prisoners; the general has obtained their pardon."
General Montcornet was then speaking to the mayor; after a few
moments' conversation in a low tone, the latter, addressing the
delinquents, who expected to sleep in prison and were a good deal
surprised to find themselves free, said to them:--
"My friends, thank Monsieur le comte. You owe your release to him. He
went to Paris and obtained your pardon in honor of the anniversary of
the king's restoration. I hope that in future you will conduct
yourself properly to a man who has behaved so well to you, and that
you will in future respect his property. Long live the King!"
The peasants shouted "Long live the King!" with enthusiasm, to avoid
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: it. There were times of such discouragement that he thought of
different ways of killing himself.
A curious adventure befell him during this period. He was
walking one day in the park, when he saw approaching a girl whose
face struck him as familiar. At first he could not recollect
where he had seen her. It was only when she was nearly opposite
him that he realized--it was the girl who had been the cause of
all his misery!
He tried to look away, but he was too late. Her eyes had caught
his, and she nodded and then stopped, exclaiming, "Why, how do
you do?"
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