| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: empty, that the great political convulsion of the
last few days had reduced transactions to an
unprecedented minimum. In one huge place were long
avenues of roulette tables, each with an excited,
undignified crowd about it; in another a
yelping Babel of white-faced women and red-
necked leathery-lunged men bought and sold the
shares of an absolutely fictitious business
undertaking which, every five minutes, paid a dividend of
ten per cent and cancelled a certain proportion of its
shares by means of a lottery wheel.
When the Sleeper Wakes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: them water, no one to give them a drink, and nothing to eat but
frozen potatoes. What can Sobol (our Zemstvo doctor) and his lady
assistant do when more than medicine the peasants need bread
which they have not? The District Zemstvo refuses to assist them,
on the ground that their names have been taken off the register
of this district, and that they are now reckoned as inhabitants
of Tomsk; and, besides, the Zemstvo has no money.
"Laying these facts before you, and knowing your humanity, I beg
you not to refuse immediate help.
"Your well-wisher."
Obviously the letter was written by the doctor with the animal
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: dull repetitions, old news, and heavy jokes.
The ladies had not been long in the drawing-room, before the other ladies,
in their different divisions, arrived. Emma watched the entree of her
own particular little friend; and if she could not exult in her dignity
and grace, she could not only love the blooming sweetness and the
artless manner, but could most heartily rejoice in that light, cheerful,
unsentimental disposition which allowed her so many alleviations
of pleasure, in the midst of the pangs of disappointed affection.
There she sat--and who would have guessed how many tears she had
been lately shedding? To be in company, nicely dressed herself
and seeing others nicely dressed, to sit and smile and look pretty,
Emma |
