| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: stood there we looked at one another and never said a word.
When the dog had dug down only a few inches he grabbed
something and pulled it up, and it was an arm and a sleeve.
Tom kind of gasped out, and says:
"Come away, Huck--it's found."
I just felt awful. We struck for the road and fetched
the first men that come along. They got a spade at
the crib and dug out the body, and you never see such
an excitement. You couldn't make anything out of the face,
but you didn't need to. Everybody said:
"Poor Jubiter; it's his clothes, to the last rag!"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: men who had made a life-long study of the art of truculence.
At nine the next morning Calliope was fit. Inspired by his own
barbarous melodies and the contents of his jug, he was ready primed to
gather fresh laurels from the diffident brow of Quicksand. Encircled
and criss-crossed with cartridge belts, abundantly garnished with
revolvers, and copiously drunk, he poured forth into Quicksand's main
street. Too chivalrous to surprise and capture a town by silent
sortie, he paused at the nearest corner and emitted his slogan--that
fearful, brassy yell, so reminiscent of the steam piano, that had
gained for him the classic appellation that had superseded his own
baptismal name. Following close upon his vociferation came three shots
Heart of the West |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: to myself all the arguments against this political vocation which you
and my other friends have since addressed to me. Nevertheless
curiosity impelled me to go the Mongenods'; and finding there, sure
enough, in actual, living money, the two hundred and fifty thousand
francs announced to me, I was led to reason in another way.
I reflected that a will which began by making such an outlay must have
something serious in it. And inasmuch as this mysterious father knew
all and I nothing, it seemed to me that to enter on a struggle with
him was neither reasonable nor opportune. In fact, had I any real
repugnance to the career suggested to me? No. Political interests have
always roused me to a certain degree; and if my electoral attempt
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