| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: At that moment five men, masked and gloved, who in height, manner, and
bearing strongly resembled the Simeuse and d'Hauteserre brothers and
Michu, rushed into the antechamber, seized and gagged the valet and
Violette, and fastened them to their chairs in a side room. In spite
of the rapidity with which this was done, Violette and the servant had
time to utter one cry. It was heard in the salon. The two ladies
thought it a cry of fear.
"Listen!" said Madame Grevin, "can there be robbers?"
"No, nonsense!" said Grevin, "only carnival cries; the masqueraders
must be coming to pay us a visit."
This discussion gave time for the four strangers to close the doors
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: Anne's mind was in a most favourable state for the entertainment
of the evening; it was just occupation enough: she had feelings for
the tender, spirits for the gay, attention for the scientific,
and patience for the wearisome; and had never liked a concert better,
at least during the first act. Towards the close of it,
in the interval succeeding an Italian song, she explained
the words of the song to Mr Elliot. They had a concert bill between them.
"This," said she, "is nearly the sense, or rather the meaning of the words,
for certainly the sense of an Italian love-song must not be talked of,
but it is as nearly the meaning as I can give; for I do not pretend
to understand the language. I am a very poor Italian scholar."
Persuasion |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: "My 'Bonadventure' exists no longer!" shouted Pencroft, bounding from his
seat.
"No," answered Ayrton. "The convicts discovered her in her little harbor
only eight days ago, they put to sea in her,
"And?" said Pencroft, his heart beating.
"And not having Bob Harvey to steer her, they ran on the rocks, and the
vessel went to pieces."
"Oh, the villains, the cutthroats, the infamous scoundrels!" exclaimed
Pencroft.
"Pencroft," said Herbert, taking the sailor's hand, "we will build
another 'Bonadventure'--a larger one. We have all the ironwork--all the
The Mysterious Island |
