| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: ish gale had been to make a lunatic of that poor devil of
a mulatto. It eased before morning, and next day the
sky cleared, and as the sea went down the leak took up.
When it came to bending a fresh set of sails the crew
demanded to put back--and really there was nothing else
to do. Boats gone, decks swept clean, cabin gutted, men
without a stitch but what they stood in, stores spoiled,
ship strained. We put her head for home, and--would
you believe it? The wind came east right in our teeth.
It blew fresh, it blew continuously. We had to beat up
every inch of the way, but she did not leak so badly,
Youth |
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: The scene was a bit of policy arranged between the general, the
prefect, and the attorney-general; for they were all anxious, while
showing enough firmness to keep the local authorities up to their duty
and awe the country-people, to be as gentle as possible, fully
realizing as they did the difficulties of the question. In fact, if
resistance had occurred, the government would have been in a tight
place. As Laroche truly said, they could not guillotine or even
convict a whole community.
The general invited the mayor of Conches, the lieutenant, and the
sergeant to breakfast. The conspirators of the Grand-I-Vert adjourned
to the tavern of Conches, where the delinquents spent in drink the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: afraid, horribly afraid, of the beautiful woman with the cruel
eyes.
In the midst of a final desultory polishing of her silver,
Tuppence was disturbed by the ringing of the front door bell, and
went to answer it. This time the visitor was neither Whittington
nor Boris, but a man of striking appearance.
Just a shade over average height, he nevertheless conveyed the
impression of a big man. His face, clean-shaven and exquisitely
mobile, was stamped with an expression of power and force far
beyond the ordinary. Magnetism seemed to radiate from him.
Tuppence was undecided for the moment whether to put him down as
Secret Adversary |
