| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: but when they were called ethics it was different. The club,
when fresh from the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," the "Reader's
Handbook" or Smith's "Classical Dictionary," could deal
confidently with any subject; but when taken unawares it had been
known to define agnosticism as a heresy of the Early Church and
Professor Froude as a distinguished histologist; and such minor
members as Mrs. Leveret still secretly regarded ethics as
something vaguely pagan.
Even to Mrs. Ballinger, Osric Dane's question was unsettling, and
there was a general sense of gratitude when Laura Glyde leaned
forward to say, with her most sympathetic accent: "You must
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: their cries; others crowded the rock, looking at us as we passed
by without fear, and pressing familiarly close by our feet.
There were penguins, so agile in the water, heavy and awkward
as they are on the ground; they were uttering harsh cries,
a large assembly, sober in gesture, but extravagant in clamour.
Albatrosses passed in the air, the expanse of their wings being
at least four yards and a half, and justly called the vultures
of the ocean; some gigantic petrels, and some damiers, a kind
of small duck, the underpart of whose body is black and white;
then there were a whole series of petrels, some whitish, with
brown-bordered wings, others blue, peculiar to the Antarctic seas,
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: But this was 1855. Only the barkentine brought to Padre Ignacio the signs
from the world that he once had known and loved so dearly. As for the new
world making a rude noise to the northward, he trusted that it might keep
away from Santa Ysabel, and he waited for the vessel that was overdue
with its package containing his single worldly luxury.
As the little, ancient bronze bell continued swinging in the tower, its
plaintive call reached something in the Padre's memory. Softly, absently,
he began to sing. He took up the slow strain not quite correctly, and
dropped it, and took it up again, always in cadence with the bell.
[musical score appears here]
At length he heard himself, and, glancing at the belfry, smiled a little.
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