| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: at the conclusions which were of the most paramount interest to them all.
Had he ascertained the true character of her orbit? had he established
any data from which it would be possible to reckon what time must elapse
before she would again approach the earth?
The only intelligible words which the astronomer had uttered
had been, "My comet!"
To what could the exclamation refer? Was it to be conjectured
that a fragment of the earth had been chipped off by the collision
of a comet? and if so, was it implied that the name of the comet
itself was Gallia, and were they mistaken in supposing that such was
the name given by the _savant_ to the little world that had been
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: Mrs. Beard (the captain's name was Beard) came from
Colchester to see the old man. She lived on board. The
crew of runners had left, and there remained only the
officers, one boy, and the steward, a mulatto who an-
swered to the name of Abraham. Mrs. Beard was an old
woman, with a race all wrinkled and ruddy like a winter
apple, and the figure of a young girl. She caught sight
of me once, sewing on a button, and insisted on having
my shirts to repair. This was something different from
the captains' wives I had known on board crack clippers.
When I brought her the shirts, she said: 'And the
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: "We have lost Koh-ring at last. For many days
now I don't think I have been two hours below al-
together. I remain on deck, of course, night and
day, and the nights and the days wheel over us in
succession, whether long or short, who can say?
All sense of time is lost in the monotony of ex-
pectation, of hope, and of desire--which is only
one: Get the ship to the southward! Get the ship
to the southward! The effect is curiously me-
chanical; the sun climbs and descends, the night
swings over our heads as if somebody below the
The Shadow Line |
