英语背诵(名著片段,英语美文)

第一篇：英语背诵(名著片段,英语美文)

1、Pride and Prejudice VolumeⅠ

chapter1 It is a truth universally acknowledgedthat a single man inpossession of a good fortune,must be in want of a wife.However little known the feelings or views of such a manmay be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so wellfixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he isconsidered as the rightful property of some one or other of theirdaughters.‘My dear Mr.Bennet,’ said his lady to him one day, ‘have youheard that Netherfield Park is let at last?’

Mr.Bennet replied that he had not.‘But it is,’ returned she;‘for Mrs.Long has just been here, andshe told me all about it.’

Mr.Bennet made no answer.‘Do not you want to know who has taken it?’ cried his wifeimpatiently.‘You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.’ This was invitation enough.‘Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs.Long says that Netherfieldis taken by a young man of large fortune from the north ofEngland;that he came down on Monday to seethe place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed withMr.Morris immediatelyand some of his servants are to be in the house by theend of next week.”

2、Pride and Prejudice VolumeⅢ

chapter17 “My dear Lizzy, where can you have been walking to?”was a question which Elizabeth received from Janeas soon as she entered their room,and from all theothers when they sat down to table.She had only to say in reply,that they had wandered about, till she was beyond her ownknowledge.She colored as she spoke;but neither that, nor anything else, awakened a suspicion of the truth.The evening

passed

quietly，unmarked talked

by and

anything laughed, extraordinary.The acknowledged lovers theunacknowledged were silent.Darcy was not of a disposition inwhich happiness overflows in mirth;and Elizabeth, agitated andconfused, rather knew that she was happy, than felt herself to beso;for, besides the immediate embarrassment, there were otherevils before her.She anticipated what would be felt in the familywhen her situation became known;she was aware that no oneliked him but Jane;and even feared that with the others it was adislike which not all his fortune and consequence might do away.3、The little prince discovers a garden of roses “Good morning,” he said.He was standing beforea garden, all abloomwithroses.“Good morning,” said theroses.The little prince gazed atthem.They all looked like hisflower.“Who are you?” hedemanded, thunderstruck.“We are roses,” the roses said.And he was overcome with sadness.His flower had told him that she was the onlyone of her kind in all the universe.And here were five thousand of them, all alike, in onesingle garden!“She would be very much annoyed,” he said to himself, “if she should see that...shewould cough most dreadfully, and she would pretend that she was dying, to avoid beinglaughed at.And I should be obliged to pretend that I was nursing her back to lifeforif Idid not do that, to humble myself also, she would really allow herself to die...” Then he went on with hisreflections: “I thought that Iwas rich, with a flower thatwas unique in all the world;and all I had was a commonrose.A common rose, andthree volcanoes that come upto my kneesandone ofthem perhaps extinct forever...that doesn’t make me a verygreat prince...” And he lay down in the grass and cried.4、The little prince consoles the narrator “All men have the stars,” he answered, “but they are not the same things for differentpeople.For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides.For others they are no morethan little lights in the sky.For others, who are scholars, they are problems.For mybusinessman they were wealth.But all these stars are silent.You, youalone, willhavethe stars as no one else has them” “What are you trying to say?” “In one of the stars I shall be living.In one of them I shall be laughing.And so it willbe as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night...you, onlyyou, willhave stars that can laugh!” And he laughed again.“And when your sorrow is comforted(time soothes all sorrows), you will be contentthat you have known me.You will always be my friend.You will want to laugh with me.And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure...and your friends willbe properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky!Then you will sayto them, ‘Yes, the stars always make me laugh!’ And they will think you are crazy.It will bea very shabby trick that I shall have played on you...”

5、Three Days to See All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time tolive.Sometimes it was as long as a year;sometimes as short as twenty-four hours, but always wewere interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his lasthours.I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphereof activities is strictly delimited.Such stories set up thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances.What associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness shouldwe find in reviewing the past, what regrets? Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should dietomorrow.Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life.We should live each daywith a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretchesbefore us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.6、Youth Youth is not a time of life;it is a state of mind;it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions;it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20.Nobody grows old merely by a number of years.We grow old by deserting our ideals.Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for what’s next and the joy of the game of living.In the center of your heart and my heart, there is a wireless station;so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20;but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.7、A reason, season, or lifetime People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need youhave expressed.They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually.They are there for the reason you need them to be.Then, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.Sometimes they walk away.Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.Sometimes they die.What we must realize is that our need has been met, their work is done, and now it is time to move on.When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh.They may teach you something you have never done.They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy, but only for a season.LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

第二篇：英语美文片段

First, they go into the supermarket, Roberto usually pushes the cart.Mrs.Baroni reads the shopping list.Mr.Baroni and Bruno look for the groceries.Bruno often forgets an item when he sees a pretty girl.They almost always buy vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and cheese.The shopping list is usually long.They do their shopping for the entire week.Many families shop on Saturdays.The checkout line is always long.

第三篇：高中英语 经典美文背诵_英语

By heart

Some plays are so successful that they run for years on end.In many ways, this is unfortunate for the poor actors who are required to go on repeating the same lines night after night.One would expect them to know their parts by heart and never have cause to falter.Yet this is not always the case.A famous actor in a highly successful play was once cast in the role of an aristocrat who had been imprisoned in the Bastille for twenty years.In the last act, a gaoler would always come on to the stage with a letter which he would hand to the prisoner.Even though the noble was expected to read the letter at each performance, he always insisted that it should be written out in full.One night, the gaoler decided to play a joke on his colleague to find out if, after so many performances, he had managed to learn the contents of the letter by heart.The curtain went up on the final act of the play and revealed the aristocrat sitting alone behind bars in his dark cell.Just then, the gaoler appeared with the precious letter in his hands.He entered the cell and presented the letter to the aristocrat.But the copy he gave him had not been written out in full as usual.It was simply a blank sheet of paper.The gaoler looked on eagerly, anxious to see if his fellow-actor had at last learnt his lines.The noble stared at the blank sheet of paper for a few seconds.Then, squinting his eyes, he said: 'The light is dim.Read the letter to me.' And he promptly handed the sheet of paper to the gaoler.Finding that he could not remember a word of the letter either, the gaoler replied: 'The light is indeed dim, sire.I must get my glasses.' With this, he hurried off the stage.Much to the aristocrat's amusement, the gaoler returned a few moments later with a pair of glasses and the usual copy of the letter which he proceeded to read to the prisoner.有些剧目十分成功，以致连续上演好几年。这样一来，可怜的演员们可倒霉了。因为他们需要一夜连着一夜地重复同样的台词。人们以为，这些演员一定会把台词背得烂熟，绝不会临场结巴的，但情况却并不总是这样。

有一位名演员曾在一出极为成功的剧目中扮演一个贵族角色，这个贵族已在巴士底狱被关押了20年。在最后一幕中，狱卒手持一封信上场，然后将信交给狱中那位贵族。尽管那个贵族每场戏都得念一遍那封信。但他还是坚持要求将信的全文写在信纸上。

一天晚上，狱卒决定与他的同事开一个玩笑，看看他反复演出这么多场之后，是否已将信的内容记熟了。大幕拉开，最后一幕戏开演，贵族独自一人坐在铁窗后阴暗的牢房里。这时狱卒上场，手里拿着那封珍贵的信。狱卒走进牢房，将信交给贵族。但这回狱卒给贵族的信没有像往常那样把全文写全，而是一张白纸。狱卒热切地观察着，急于想了解他的同事是否记熟了台词。贵族盯着纸看了几秒钟，然后，眼珠一转，说道：“光线太暗，请给我读一下这封信。”说完，他一下子把信递给狱卒。狱卒发现自己连一个字也记不住，于是便说：“陛下，这儿光线的确太暗了，我得去眼镜拿来。”他一边说着，一边匆匆下台。贵族感到非常好笑的是：一会儿工夫，狱卒重新登台，拿来一副眼镜以及平时使用的那封信，然后为那囚犯念了起来。

Three Days to See I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life.Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight;silence would tech him the joys of sound.Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see.Recently I was visited by a very good friends who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed.“Nothing in particular.” she replied.I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such reposes, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch.I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf.I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine.In the spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter's sleep.I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions;and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me.Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.I am delighted to have the cool waters of a brook rush thought my open finger.To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.To me the page ant of seasons is a thrilling and unending drama, the action of which streams through my finger tips.我常常想，如果每个人在他成年的早期有一段时间致瞎致聋，那会是一种幸事，黑暗会使他更珍惜视力，寂静会教导他享受声音。

我不时地询问过我的能看见东西的朋友们，以了解他们看到什么。最近，我的一个很好的朋友来看我，她刚从一片森林里散步许久回来，我问她看到了什么，她答道：“没什么特别的。”如果我不是习惯了听到这种回答，我都可能不相信，因为很久以来我已确信这个情况：能看得见的人却看不到什么。

我独自一人，在林子里散步一小时之久而没有看到任何值得注意的东西，那怎么可能呢？我自己，一个不能看见东西的人，仅仅通过触觉，都发现许许多多令我有兴趣的东西。我感触到一片树叶的完美的对称性。我用手喜爱地抚摸过一株白桦那光潮的树皮，或一棵松树的粗糙树皮。春天，我摸着树干的枝条满怀希望地搜索着嫩芽，那是严冬的沉睡后，大自然苏醒的第一个迹象。我抚摸过花朵那令人愉快的天鹅绒般的质地，感觉到它那奇妙的卷绕，一些大自然奇迹向我展现了。有时，如果我很幸运，我把手轻轻地放在一棵小树上，还能感受到一只高声歌唱的小鸟的愉快颤抖，我十分快乐地让小溪涧的凉水穿过我张开的手指流淌过去。对我来说，一片茂密的地毯式的松针叶或松软而富弹性的草地比最豪华的波斯地毯更受欢迎。对我来说四季的壮观而华丽的展示是一部令人激动的、无穷尽的戏剧。这部戏剧的表演，通过我的手指端涌淌出来。

YOUTH

Samuel Ullman Youth is not a time of life;it is a state of mind;it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions;it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20.Nobody grows old merely by a number of years.We grow old by deserting our ideals.Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living.In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.青春

塞缪尔·厄尔曼

青春不是年华，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏的想象，炙热的恋情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进取压倒苟安。如此锐气，二十后生而有之，六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并非垂老，理想丢弃，方堕暮年。

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓废必致灵魂。忧烦，惶恐，丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

无论年届花甲，拟或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线，只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号，你就青春永驻，风华常存。

一旦天线下降，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生，即使年方二十，实已垂垂老矣；然则只要树起天线，捕捉乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉希望。

Hello, Chicago.If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled.Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.We are, and always will be, the United States of America.It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.Yes we can.America, we have come so far.We have seen so much.But there is so much more to do.So tonight, let us ask ourselves--if our children should live to see the next century;if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call.This is our moment.This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids;to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace;to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one;that while we breathe, we hope.And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.Thank you.God bless you.And may God bless the United States of America.您好，芝加哥

如果还有人仍在怀疑美国是否是一个一切皆有可能的国度的话，如果还有人仍在疑虑我们美国的缔造者的梦想是否还存在于我们这个时代的话，如果还有人仍在质疑我们民主的力量的话，今晚你就可以得到答案。

它的答案告诉延伸线，围绕学校和教堂的人数这个民族从未见过的，等待三个小时，四个小时的人们，许多第一次在他们的生活，因为他们认为，这次一定是不同的，他们的声音可能是不同的。

不管你是年轻人还是老年人，是富人还是穷人，是民主党人还是共和党人，是黑人还是白人，也不管你是拉丁美洲人或亚洲人还是本土美国人，更无论你是否为同性变者、是否是残疾人，这是美国人共同的答案。美国人向全世界传递一个声音，那就是我们的选举从不分红州或蓝州。

我们属于，而且永远只属于美利坚合众国。

它的答案，导致这些谁一直在说这么长时间这么多的是玩世不恭和恐惧和怀疑是我们能够实现把他们手中的弧的历史和弯曲再次向希望一个更美好的一天。

虽然等待了很长时间，但在今晚的这一决定性时刻，由于我们在这次选举中的努力，美国终于迎来了变革。

一名男子降落在月球上，墙上下来在柏林，世界是连接我们自己的科学和想象力。

今年，在这次选举中，她谈到她的手指到屏幕上，她和演员投票，因为106年后，在美国，通过最好的时候和最黑暗的时间，她知道怎样可以改变美国。

是我们能够做到。

美国，我们来到迄今。我们已经看到这么多。但有这么多事情要做。因此，今夜，让我们反问一下我们自己，如果我们的孩子能够活到下个世纪；如果我的女儿能够幸运地活得像安-尼克森-库珀那样长，他们将会看到什么样的变化？我们那时将会取得什么样的进步？

这是我们来回答问题的机会，这是我们的时刻。

这是我们的时代，要使我们的人民重新工作并将机会留给我们的子孙；重新恢复繁荣并促进和平；回归我们的美国梦想并重申一个基本事实--在众人之中，我们也是其中一个；当我们呼吸，当我们充满希望的时候，我们遭遇冷嘲热讽和质疑，那些人认为我们无法做到。我们将用一句话来做出回应：不，我们可以！

谢谢您。上帝保佑你。愿上帝保佑美利坚合众国。

We are on a Journey

Wherever you are, and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence.We are not at rest;we are on a journey.Our life is a movement, a tendency, a steady ceaseless progress toward an unseen goal.We are gaining something, or losing something, everyday.Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing.For the mere advance of time is a change.It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July.The season makes the difference.The limitations that are childlike in the children are childish in the man.Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another.Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed.It sets us forward or backward.The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole.To decline is to accept — the other alternative.Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? Yes, — you must be a little nearer to some port or other;for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life, you have never been still for a single moment;the sea is too deep, you could not find an anchorage if you would;there can be no pause until you come into port.无论你身处何处，也不管你是谁，此刻，抑或是我们生命存在的每一个瞬间，有一件事对我们来说都是一样的：我们没有停留；我们正在旅途上。

生命是一种运动，是一种趋势，是一个向着未知目标奋进的无休止的行进。每天，我们有所得亦有所失。我们时时刻刻都在改变，即使我们的状态和角色看上去没有丝毫的变化。只因为时间推移的本身就是一种变化。对于一块荒芜的土地，一月和七月是截然不同的。因为季节的变化让他有所区别。能力的局限在孩子们的身上只是一种天真，而在大人的身上却表现出一种幼稚。

我们做的所有事情都是向着某个方向迈出了一步。即使是失败，本身也是一个作为，左右着我们的进退。磁针的负极作用与正极作用是一样的真实。

对比昨天的你，今天你是否离自己的目标更近了？答案是肯定的，你一定离某个港口更近了些。因为自从你的航船在生命的海洋中起航的那一刻起，你就从来没有停泊过。海水太深了，你寻找不到抛锚之处。你永远都不可能停下来，除非你到达自己的港口。

《海上钢琴师》 经典英文对白

1900: Moonlight city.You just couldn’t see an end to it.It wasn’t what I saw that stopped me ,Max.It was what I didn’t see.Take the piano.Keys begin.Keys end.You know there are 88 of them.They’re not infinite.You’re infinite.And on those keys, the music that you can make is infinite.I like that.That I can live by.But you get me up on that gangway, and you roll them out

in front of me.Keyboards have millions and billions of keys that never end.That keyboard is infinite.Then on that keyboard there’s no music you can play.That’s God’s piano.Did you see the streets?

There’re thousands of them.How do you choose just one?

One woman, one house, one way to die…….You don’t even know where it comes to an end.Aren’t you ever just scared of breaking apart with the

thought of it?

I was born on this ship.And the world passed me by.But 2000 people at a time and there’re old wishes here.But nevermore that fit between prow and stern..You played out your happiness bit on a piano that was not

infinite.I learned to live that way.Land?

Land is a ship too big for me，It’s a woman too beautiful, a bridge too long, perfume to

strong, music I don’t know how to play.I can never get off this ship.At best, I didn’t step off my life.After all, I don’t exist for anyone.偌大的城市，绵延无尽。

并非是我眼见的让我停住了脚步，而是我所看不见的。你能明白吗？

拿钢琴来说。

键盘有始亦有终。

你确切地知道88个键就在那儿，错不了。

它们并不是无限的，而你，才是无限的。你能在键盘上表现的音乐是无限的。

我喜欢这样，我能轻松应付。

而你现在让我走过跳板，走到城市里，等着我的是一个没有尽头的键盘。

我又怎能在这样的键盘上弹奏呢？

那是上帝的键盘啊！

你看到那数不清的街道吗？

如何只选择其中一条去走？

一个共渡一生的女人，一幢属于自己的屋子，一种生与死的方式~~~~

你甚至不知道什么时候才是尽头。

一想到这个，难道不会害怕、会崩溃吗？

我在这艘船上出生。

世事千变万化，然这艘船每次只载2000人。

这里有着希望，但仅在船头和船尾之间。

你可以在有限的钢琴上奏出你的欢欣快乐。

我习惯了这样的生活。

陆地？

陆地对我来说是一艘太大的船，太漂亮的女人，太长的旅程，太浓烈的香水，无从着手的音乐。

我永远无法走下这艘船，这样的话，我宁可舍弃我的生命。

毕竟，我从来没有为任何人存在过

If I Were a Boy Again

If i were a boy again, I would practise perseverance more often, and never give up a thing because it was hard or invonvenient.If we want light, we must conquer darkness.Perseverance can sometimes equal genius in its results.“There are only two creatures,” says a proverb, “who can surmount the pyramides-the eagle and the snail.” If i were a boy again, I would school myself into a habit of attention;I would let nothing come between me and the subject in hand.I would remember that a good skater never tries to skate in two directions at once.The habit of attention becomes part of our life, if we begin early enough.I often hear grown-up people say,“I could not fix my attention on the lecture or book, althought i wished to do so,” and the reason is, the habit was not formed in yourth.If I were to live my life over again, I would pay more attention to the cultivation of memory.I would strengthen that faculty by every possible means, and , on every possible occasion.It takes a little hard work at first to remember things accurately,but memory soon helps itself, and gives very little trouble.It only needs early cultivation to become a power.If i were a boy again, I would look on the cheerful side.Life is very much like a mirrow.If you smile upon it, it smiles back upon you;but if you frown and look doubtful on it, you will get a similar look in return.Inner sunshine warms not only the heart fo the owner, but of all that come in contact with it.Who shuts love out, in turn shall be shut from love.If I were a boy again, I would school myself to say“No” oftenner.I might write pages on the importance of learning very early in life to gain that point where a young boy can stand erect, and decline doing a unworthy act because it is unworthy.If I were a boy again, I would demand of myself more courtesy towards my companions and friends, and indeed towards stangers as well.The smallest courtesies along the rough roads of life are like the little birds that sing to us all winter long, and make that season of ice and snow more endurable.Finally, instead of trying hard to be happy, as if that were the sole purpose of life, I would , if I werea boy again, try still harder to make others happy..假如我又回到了童年

假如我又回到了童年，我做事要更有毅力，决不因为事情艰难或者麻烦而撒手不干，我们要光明，就得征服黑暗。毅力在效果上有时能同天才相比。俗话说：“能登上金字塔的生物，只有两种——鹰和蜗牛。”

假如我又回到了童年，我就要养成专心致志的习惯；有事在手，就决不让任何东西让我分心。我要牢记：优秀的滑冰手从不试图同时滑向两个不同的方向。如果及早养成这种专心致志的习惯，它将成为我们生命的一部分。我常听成年人说：“虽然我希望能集中注意听牧师讲道或读书，但往往做不到。”而原因就是年轻时没有养成这种习惯。

假如我现在能重新开始我的生命，我就要更注意记忆力的培养。我要采取一切可能的办法，并且在一切可能的场合，增强记忆力。要正确无误地记住一些东西，在开始阶段的确要作出一番小小的努力；但要不了多久，记忆力本身就会起作用，使记忆成为轻而易举的事，只需及早培养，记忆自会成为一种才能。

假如我又回到了童年，我就要培养勇气。一位明智的作家曾说过：“世上没有东西比勇气更温文尔雅，也没有东西比懦怯更残酷无情。” 我们常常过多地自寻烦恼，杞人忧天。“怕祸害比祸害本身更可怕。”凡事都有危险，但镇定沉着往往能克服最严重的危险。对一切祸福做好准备，那么就没有什么灾难可以害怕的了。

假如我又回到了童年，我就要事事乐观。生活犹如一面镜子：你朝它笑，它也朝你笑；

如果你双眉紧锁，向它投以怀疑的目光，它也将还以你同样的目光。内心的欢乐不仅温暖了欢乐者自己的心，也温暖了所有与之接触者的心。“谁拒爱于门外，也必将被爱拒诸门外。”

假如我又回到了童年，我就要养成经常说“不”字的习惯。一个少年要能挺得起腰，拒绝做不应该做的事，就因为这事不值得做。我可以写上好几页谈谈早年培养这一点的重要性

假如我又回到了童年，我就要要求自己对伙伴和朋友更加礼貌，而且对陌生人也应如此。在坎坷的生活道路上，最细小的礼貌犹如在漫长的冬天为我们歌唱的小鸟，那歌声使冰天雪地的寒冬变得较易忍受。

最后，假如我又回到了童年，我不会力图为自己谋幸福，好像这就是人生唯一的目的；与之相反，我要更努力为他人谋幸福.No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you!

In 1989 an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened America, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes.In the midst of utter devastation and chaos, a father left his wife safely at home and rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be, only to discover that the building was as flat as a pancake.After the unforgettably initial shock, he remembered the promise he had made to his son: “No matter what, I'll always be there for you!” And tears began to fill his eyes.As he looked at the pile of ruins that once was the school, it looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his commitment to his son.He began to direct his attention towards where he walked his son to class at school each morning.Remembering his son's classroom would be in the back right corner of the building;he rushed there and

started digging through the ruins.As he was digging, other helpless parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: “My son!” “My daughter!” Other well-meaning parents tried to pull him off what was left of the school, saying: “It's too late!They're all dead!You can't help!Go home!Come on, face reality, there's nothing you can do!” To each parent he responded with one line: “Are you going to help me now?” And then he continued to dig for his son, stone by stone.The fire chief showed up and tried to pull him off the school's ruins saying, “Fires are breaking out, explosions are happening everywhere.You're in danger.We'll take care of it.Go home.” To which this loving, caring American father asked, “Are you going to help me now?”

The police came and said, “You're angry, anxious and it's over.You're endangering others.Go home.We'll handle it!” To which he replied, “Are you going to help me now?” No one helped.Courageously he went on alone because he needed to know for himself: “Is my boy alive or is he dead?” He dug for eight hours...12 hours...24 hours...36 hours...then, in the 38th hour, he pulled back a large stone and heard his son's voice.He screamed his son's name, “ARMAND!” He heard back, “Dad!?!It's me, Dad!I told the other kids not to worry.I told them that if you were alive, you'd save me and when you saved me, they'd be saved.You promised, No matter what happens, I'll always be there for you!You did it, Dad!” “What's going on in there? How is it?” the father asked.“There are 14 of us left out of 33, Dad.We're scared, hungry, thirsty and thankful you're here.When the building collapsed, it made a triangle, and it saved us.” “Come out, boy!”

“No, Dad!Let the other kids out first, cause I know you'll get me!No matter what happens, I know you'll always be there for me!”

第四篇：英语美文段落背诵

Youth Youth is not a time of life;it is a state of mind;it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions;it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living.In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.------

Risks To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.To reach out for another is to risk involvement.To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.To place your ideas and your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.To love is to risk not being loved in return.To live is to risk dying.To hope is to risk despair.To try is to risk failure.But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.The person, who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing.This person may avoid suffering and sorrow, but cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.Chained by attitudes he is a slave;and forfeited freedom.Only a person who risks is free.------

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;A time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;A time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance;A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;A time to get, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away;A time to rend, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;A time to love, and a time to hate;a time of war, and a time of peace.－

Ecclesiastes 3:3

------

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after

righteousness: for they shall be filled.Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the

children of God.Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.--Matthew 5:3-11------

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.Amen.--Matthew 6:9-13------

First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.--Martin Niem?ller------

An Anonymous Poem After a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul, And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning and company doesn’t mean security，And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts and presents aren’t promises，And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open, with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child, And learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans.After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much.So plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.And you learn that really can endure…that your really are strong, And you really do have worth.------

Happiness Consists in Love

Who can say in what remoteness of time, in what difference of earthly shape, love first comes to us as a stranger in the jungle? We, in our human family, know him through dependence in childhood, through possession in youth, through sorrow and loss in their season.In childhood we are happy to receive;it is the first opening of love.In youth we take and give, dedicate and possess—rapture and anguish are mingled, until parenthood brings a dedication that, to happy, must ask for no return.All these are new horizons of content, which the lust of holding, the enemy of love, slowly contaminates.Loss, sorrow and separation come, sickness and death;possession, that tormented us, is nothing in our hands;it vanishes.Love’s elusive enchantment, his ubiquitous presence, again became apparent;and in age we may reach a haven that asking for nothing knows how to enjoy.------

Mystery We are all still romantics at heart.The romantics give us back our moon, for instance, which science has taken away from us and made into just another airport.Secretly we all want the moon to be what it was before—a mysterious, hypnotic light in the sky.We want love to be mysterious too, as it used to be, and not a set of psycho-therapeutic rules for interpersonal relationships.We crave mystery even as we forge ahead toward the solution of one cosmic mystery after another.

第五篇：英语经典美文背诵100篇007-010

Learn to live in the present moment 学会生活在现实中

To a large degree,the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live on the present moment.Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are---always!我们内心是否平和在很大程度上是由我们是否能生活在现实之中所决定的．不管昨天或去年发生了什么，不管明天可能发生或不发生什么，现实才是你时时刻刻所在之处． Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about variety of things--all at once.We allow past problems and future concerns dominate your present moments, so much so that we end up anxious,frustrated,depressed,and hopeless.On the flip side, we also postpone our gratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing that “someday” will be much better than today.Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that 'someday' never actually arrives.Jhon Lennone once said, “Life is what is happening while we are busy making other plans.” When we are busy making 'other plans', our children are busy growing up, the people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape, and our dreams are slipping away.In short, we miss out on life.毫无疑问，我们很多人掌握了一种神经兮兮的艺术，即把生活中的大部分时间花在为种种事情担心忧虑上－－而且常常是同时忧虑许多事情．我们听凭过去的麻烦和未来的担心控制我们此时此刻的生活，以至我们整日焦虑不安，委靡不振，甚至沮丧绝望．而另一方面我们又推迟我们的满足感，推迟我们应优先考虑的事情，推迟我们的幸福感，常常说服自己＂有朝一日＂会比今天更好．不幸的是，如此告戒我们朝前看的大脑动力只能重复来重复去，以至＂有朝一日＂哟贫农公元不会真的来临．约翰．列侬曾经说过：＂生活就是当我们忙于制定别的计划时发生的事．＂当我们忙于指定种种＂别的计划＂时，我们的孩子在忙于长大，我们挚爱的人里去了甚至快去世了，我们的体型变样了，而我们的梦想也在消然溜走了．一句话，我们错过了生活．

Many people lives as if life is a dress rehearsal for some later date.It isn't.In fact, no one have a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow.Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over.When we put our attention on the present moment, we push fear from our minds.Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future--we won't have enoughh money,our children will get into trouble,we will get old and die,whatever.许多人的生活好象是某个未来日子的彩排．并非如此．事实上，没人能保证他或她肯定还活着．现在是我们所拥有的唯一时间，现在也是我们能控制的唯一的时间．当我们将注意力放在此时此刻时，我们就将恐惧置于脑后．恐惧就是我们担忧某些事情会在未来发生－－我们不讳有足够的钱，我们的孩子会惹上麻烦，我们会变老，会死去，诸如此类．

To combat fear, the best stradegy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present.Mark Twain said,“I have been through some terrible things in life, some of which actually happened.” I don't think I can say it any better.Practice keeping your attention on the here and now.Your effort will pay great dividends.若要克服恐惧心理，最佳策略是学会将你的注意力拉回此时此刻．马克．吐温说过：＂我经历过生活中一些可怕的事情，有些的确发生过．＂我想我说不出比这更具内涵的话．经常将注意力集中于此情此景，此时此刻，你的努力终会有丰厚的报偿．

3How High Can You Jump?

Flea trainers have observed a strange habit of fleas while training them.Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it.The fleas will jump up and hit the top of the cardboard box over and over and over again.As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious.The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box.They won't jump out because they can't jump out.Why? The reason is simple.They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high.Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that's all they can do!Many times, people do the same thing.They restrict themselves and never reach their potential.Just like the fleas, they fail to jump higher, thinking they are doing all they can do.跳蚤训练人在训练跳蚤时发现跳蚤有一个奇怪的习惯。若把跳蚤放在一个有顶盖的盒子里，他们会不断地跳起来，撞击顶盖。

你观察他们跳起来撞击顶盖，会慢慢发现一个有趣的现象。他们仍会跳起来，但不会再撞到顶盖。

当你把顶盖拿开时，跳蚤还会接着跳，但却不会跳出盒子。为什么呢？原因很简单。它们已经习惯了只跳那么高。

一旦它们习惯只跳这么高之后，它们就只能跳这么高了。

很多时候，人们也是一样。他们自己限制了自己，从来不去发掘自己的潜力。就像跳蚤一样，没能跳得更高，还以为已经到了自己能力的极限。4热爱生活（Love Your Life）Henry David Thoreau/享利.大卫.梭罗

However mean your life is,meet it and live it;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.不论你的生活如何卑贱，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一样光亮；在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的，不靠城镇来支援他们；可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段来对付生活，他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧！不要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你的思想。5父爱和母爱

Motherly and Fatherly Love Motherly love by its very nature is unconditional.Mother loves the newborn infant because it is her child, not because the child has fulfilled any specific condition, or lived up to any specific expectation.Unconditional love corresponds in one of 'the deepest longings, not only of the child, but of every human being;on the other hand, to be loved because of one's merit, because one deserves it, always leaves doubt: maybe I did not please the person whom I want to love me, maybe this or that--there is always a fear that love could disappear.Furthermore, “deserved” love easily leaves a bitter feeling that one is not loved for oneself, that one is loved only because one pleases, that one is, in the last analysis, not loved at all but used.No wonder that we all cling to the longing for motherly love, as children and also as adults.The relationship to father is quite different.Mother is the home we come from, she is nature, soil, the ocean;father does not represent any such natural home.He has little connection with the child in the first years of his life, and his importance for the child in this early period cannot be compared with that of mother.But while father does not represent the natural world, he represents the other pole of human existence;the world of thought, of man-made things, of law and order, of discipline, of travel and adventure.Father is the one who teaches the child, who shows him the road into the world.Fatherly love is conditional love.Its principle is “1 love you because you fulfill my expectations, because you do your duty, because you are like me.” In conditional fatherly love we find, as with unconditional motherly love, a negative and a positive aspect.The negative aspect is the very fact that fatherly love has to be deserved, that it can be lost if one does not do what is expected.The positive side is equally important.Since his love is conditional, I can do something to acquire it, I can work for it;his love is not outside of my control as motherly love is.母爱和父爱

母爱的天性是无条件的。母亲爱她的新生婴儿，因为那是她的孩子，而不是因为这个小孩符合了什么特别的条件，也不是因为孩子达到了她的某种特别的期望。无条件的爱符合——不只是小孩子，而且是每个人最深切的渴望。另一方面，如果因为自己的优点，因为自己值得爱而被别人爱，我们总会心存疑虑：可能我没有使那个我希望他(她)爱我的人满意吧?可能这个，可能那个——总是害怕那份爱会消失。而且―值得的‖爱很容易令人产生一种辛酸的感觉：似乎一个人不是因为自身而被爱，而是因为自己可以令别人高兴，令别人满足才被爱，似乎自己根本不是被爱而是被利用了。无怪乎我们全都依恋、渴望着母爱，不论小孩还是成年人都如此。

孩子同父亲的关系就完全不同了。母亲是我们的发源地，她是自然、是土壤、是海洋；父亲不代表任何这些自然的归宿。在孩子初生的前几年中，父亲和孩子接触很少。在此期间，对于孩子来说，父亲的重要性远远比不上母亲。但是，虽然父亲不代表这自然的世界，他却代表了人类存在的另一极——思想的世界、人造的世界、法律和秩序的世界、纪律的世界、旅行和冒险的世界。教育孩子的人是父亲，向孩子展示通向世界之路的人也是父亲。父爱是有条件的。它的原则是：―因为你达到了我的期望，因为你完成了你的职责，因为你像我，所以我爱你。‖在有条件的父爱中，我们(像在无条件的母爱中一样)发现它既有消极的一面，又有积极的一面。消极的一面是父爱的给予只在你值得得到爱的条件下，而且如果你没有做到他所期望的事，你可能会失去这份爱。积极的一面也同样重要。既然他的爱是有条件的，我可以采取一些办法去获取它，我可以为之而努力；他的爱像母爱一样，并没有越出我的控制力

LOVE I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.我爱你，不是因为你是一个怎样的人，而是因为我喜欢与你在一起时的感觉。

2)No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is, won‘t make you cry.没有人值得你流泪，值得让你这么做的人不会让你哭泣。

3)The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can‘t have them.失去某人，最糟糕的莫过于，他近在身旁，却犹如远在天边。

4)Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.纵然伤心，也不要愁眉不展，因为你不知是谁会爱上你的笑容。

5)To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.对于世界而言，你是一个人；但是对于某个人，你是他的整个世界。

6)Don‘t waste your time on a man/woman, who isn‘t willing to waste their time on you.不要为那些不愿在你身上花费时间的人而浪费你的时间。

7)Just because someone doesn‘t love you the way you want them to, doesn‘t mean they don‘t love you with all they have.爱你的人如果没有按你所希望的方式来爱你，那并不代表他们没有全心全意地爱你。

8)Don‘t try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.不要着急，最好的总会在最不经意的时候出现。

9)Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.在遇到梦中人之前，上天也许会安排我们先遇到别的人；在我们终于遇见心仪的人时，便应当心存感激。

10)Don‘t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.不要因为结束而哭泣，微笑吧，为你的曾经拥有

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy –ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy.I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss.I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what-at last-I have found.With equal passion I have sought knowledge.I have wished to understand the hearts of men.I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flu.A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens.But always pity brought me back to earth.Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart.Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.This has been my life.I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.三种激情-----罗素

三种激情虽然简单，却异常强烈，它们统治着我的生命，那便是：对爱的渴望，对知识的追求，以及对人类苦难的难以承受的同情。这三种激情像变化莫测的狂风任意地把我刮来刮去，把我刮入痛苦的深海，到了绝望的边缘。

我曾经寻找爱，首先是因为它能使我欣喜若狂——这种喜悦之情如此强烈，使我常常宁愿为这几个小时的愉悦而牺牲生命中的其他一切。我寻求爱，其次是因为爱能解除孤独——在这种可怕的孤独中，一颗颤抖的良心在世界的边缘，注视着下面冰凉、毫无生气、望不见底的深渊。我寻求爱还因为在爱的融合中，我能以某种神秘的图像看到曾被圣人和诗人想象过的天堂里未来的景象。这就是我所追求的东西，虽然这似乎对于人类的生命来说过于完美，但这确实是我最终发现的东西。我怀着同样的激情去寻找知识，我曾渴望着理解人心，我曾渴望知道为何星星会闪烁，我还企图弄懂毕达哥拉斯所谓的用数字控制变化的力量，但在这方面，我只知道一点点。

爱的力量和知识的力量引我接近天堂，但同情之心往往又把我拉回大地。痛苦的哭泣回响、震荡在我的心中。饥饿的儿童，被压迫、受折磨的人们，成为儿孙们讨厌的包袱的、无助的老人们，充斥着整个世界的孤独的气氛，贫穷和苦难，所有这一切都是对人类生活原本该具有的样子所作的讽刺。我渴望消除一切邪恶，但我办不到，因为我自己也处于苦难之中。这就是我的生活，我认为值得一过。而且，如果有第二次机会，我将乐意地再过一次。

奥哈拉给女儿的信

这是奥哈拉写给女儿的一封信。女儿将从中学毕业，这就意味着她将不再是小孩了。在这人生关键时刻，作为父亲，他既对女儿过去的表现表示满意，也对女儿的将来充满信心。然而，他却不忘再次重复自己对女儿立身行事的一句忠告：真诚地对待自己。这是要求女儿具有自信、自助、自律、自尊、自爱的品质。这句话显然是作者丰富的生活阅历和人生经验的总结，也是对女儿的谆谆教诲，赋予思想一种真切动人的感情力量。虽然信是写给予自己女儿的，但是这句忠告却具有普遍性的教育意义，是天下父母对子女的最真挚的希望。作者的语言温馨自然，平和亲切，看似叙述家常，却在平常中显示了令人惊叹的智慧，又让人产生一心的感觉。

John O'hara to His Daughter

TLS,1 p.Mrs.Doughty Quogue, Long Island 16 September 1962, Sunday

My dear: Well, here we are — but not here.You at St.Tim's, Sister in Princeton, and me in Quogue, and another brand new year is about to start for you.For me, too.I always seem to approach the autumn in the frame of mind that spring induces in most people.The excitement of new things;the new plays, the new books, new clothes, etc., etc., etc.At the same time the autumn for me is a season of a sweet melancholy that is hard to explain.I love the early evenings, the leaves burning, the lights in houses.It is the beginning of a big year for you, in many respects your biggest so far.By the time June comes around you will be 18, and graduating from school.In the past week or so I have called you ―Kid‖ but subconsciously I have been doing that because your kid days are over, or just about.I suspect that you are going through the experience of first love, and no matter what else happens, after that experience you are never a kid again.Most of the nice things we associate with being a kid are okay — while you are still kid.But you gain more than you lose.You gain in understanding standing, in appreciation of people, in understanding and appreciation of yourself.You begin to see the wisdom in that quotation I have so often repeated to you: to thine own self be true.Every year at this time I have repeated that quotation to you, and the time is not really too far distant when you will be passing it on to your own children.It is probably the best single piece of advice I can give you, or you can give them.You have done well, and I am pleased with you, not only for what you have done, but for what you are.As Miss Finnegan said to Sister, ―Wylie has the right reactions.‖ So good luck in your Senior Year, and always know that the

oldman loves you very much

Always Dad Mother & Child 妈妈与孩子

It was Christmas 1961.I was teaching in

那是1961年的圣诞节。我在俄a small town in Ohio where my twenty-seven third graders eagerly anticipated the great day of gifts giving.亥俄州的一个小镇上教小学三年级。班上27个孩子都在积极参加“礼物赠送日”的活动。

教室的一角被一棵树装点得熠熠生辉，树上缀满了金银丝帛和华丽的彩纸。教室的另一角是A tree covered with tinsel and gaudy paper

一个涂着海报油彩由纸板制成的chains graced one corner.In another rested a manger scene produced from cardboard and 马槽，这出自孩子们那胖乎乎、脏poster paints by chubby, and sometimes

兮兮的小手。有人带来了一个娃grubby, hands.Someone had brought a doll and placed it on the straw in the cardboard

娃，把它放在纸板槽里的稻草上box that served as the manger.It didn't matter that you could pull a string and hear(假装小耶稣)。只要拉拉它身上的the blue-eyed, golden-haired dolly say, “My name is Susie.” “But Jesus was a boy 一条细绳，这个蓝眼睛、金发的娃baby!” one of the boys proclaimed.Nonetheless, Susie stayed.娃就会说道，“我叫苏西”，不过这都没有关系。一个男孩提出：“耶稣可是个小男孩呀!”不过苏西还是留了下来。Each day the children produced some new

每天孩子们都会做点儿新wonder--strings of popcorn, hand-made trinkets, and German bells made from

玩意--爆米花串成的细链子、手工wallpaper samples, which we hung from the

做的小装饰品和墙纸样做的德国ceiling.Through it all she remained aloof, watching from afar, seemingly miles away.式风铃，我们把这些风铃挂在了天I wondered what would happen to this quiet child, once so happy, now so suddenly

花板上。但自始至终，她都是孤零withdrawn.I hoped the festivities would

零地远远观望，仿佛是隔了一道几appeal to her.But nothing did.We made cards and gifts for mothers and dads, for

里长的障碍。我猜想着这个沉默的sisters and brothers, for grandparents，原来那个快乐and for each other.At home the students 孩子发生了什么事，made the popular fried marbles and vied 的孩子怎么突然变得沉默寡言起with one another to bring in the prettiest ones.“ You put them in a hot frying pan，来。我希望节日的活动能吸引她，Teacher.And you let them get real hot, and then you watch what happens inside.But you 可还是无济于事。我们制作了许多don't fry them too long or they break.”So，准备把它们送给爸爸as my gift to them, I made each of my 卡片和礼物，students a little pouch for carrying their

妈妈、兄弟姐妹、祖父母和身边的fried marbles.And I knew they had each made something for me: bookmarks carefully cut, 同学。学生们在家里做了当时很流colored, and sometimes pasted together;cards and special drawings;liquid embroidery doilies, hand-fringed, of course.把玻璃弹子放在热油锅里，让它们烧热，然后看看里面的变化。但不要炸得时间过长否则会破裂。“所以，我给每个学生做了一个装”油炸弹子“的小袋作为礼物送给他们。我知道他们每个人也都为我做行“油炸”玻璃弹子，并且相互比着，要把最好看的拿来。“老师，了礼物：仔细剪裁、着色，或已粘集成串的书签；贺卡和特别绘制的图片；透明的镶边碗碟垫布，当然是手工编制的流苏。

The day of gift-giving finally came.We 赠送礼物的那天终于到了。

在oohed and aahed over our handiwork as the presents were exchanged.Through it all, 交换礼物时我们为对方亲手做的she sat quietly watching.I had made a

小礼品不停地欢呼叫好。而整个过special pouch for her, red and green with white lace.I wanted very much to see her

程，她只是安静地坐在那儿看着。smile.She opened the package so slowly and carefully.I waited but she turned away.I 我为她做的小袋很特别，红绿相间had not penetrated the wall of isolation

还镶着白边。我非常想看到她笑一she had built around herself.笑。她打开包装，动作又慢又小心。我等待着，但是她却转过了身。我还是没能穿过她在自己周围树起的高墙，这堵墙将她与大家隔离了开来。

After school the children left in little 放学后，学生们三三俩俩地离groups, chattering about the great day yet 开了，边走边说着即将到来的圣诞to come when long-hoped-for two-wheelers 节：家中的圣诞树旁将发现自己心and bright sleds would appear beside their 系已久的自行车和崭新发亮的雪trees at home.She lingered, watching them 橇。她慢慢地走在后面，看着大家bundle up and go out the door.I sat down 拥挤着走出门外。我坐在孩子们的in a child-sized chair to catch my breath, 小椅子上稍稍松了口气，对要发生hardly aware of what was happening, when 的事没有一点准备。这时她向我走she came to me with outstretched hands, 来，双手拿着一个白色的盒子向我bearing a small white box, unwrapped and 伸过来。盒子没有打包装，稍有些slightly soiled, as though it had been held 脏。好像是被孩子未洗过的小手摸many times by unwashed, childish hands.She

过了好多遍。她没有说话。”给我said nothing.“For me?” I asked with a weak smile.She said not a word, but nodded her 的吗?“我微微一笑。她没出声，只head.I took the box and gingerly opened it.是点点头。我接过盒子，非常小心There inside, glistening green, a fried marble hung from a golden chain.Then I looked into that elderly eight-year-old

链子，上面坠着一块闪闪发光的face and saw the question in her dark brown eyes.In a flash I knew--she had made it

“油炸”玻璃弹子。然后我看着她for her mother, a mother she would never see again, a mother who would never hold her or 的脸，虽只有8岁，可却是成人的brush her hair or share a funny story, a mother who would never again hear her

表情。在她深棕色的眼睛里我找到childish joys or sorrows.A mother who had

了问题的答案。我在一瞬间明白过taken her own life just three weeks before.来--这是她为妈妈做的项链，她再也见不到的妈妈，再也不能抱她、给她梳头或一起讲故事的妈妈。她的妈妈已再也不能分享她充满童稚的快乐，分担她孩子气的忧伤。就在3个星期前她的妈妈离开了人世。

I held out the chain.She took it in both

我拿起那条链子。她用双手her hands, reached forward, and secured the simple clasp at the back of my neck.She 接过它，向前探了探身，在我的脖stepped back then as if to see that all was

子后把简易的项链钩系好。然后她well.I looked down at the shiny piece of glass and the tarnished golden chain, then

向后退了几步，好像在看看是否合back at the giver.I meant it when I whispered,“ Oh, Maria, it is so beautiful.适。我低下头看着闪闪发亮的玻璃She would have loved it.”Neither of us

珠和已失去光泽的金色链子，然后could stop the tears.She stumbled into my

地打开它。盒子里面有一条金色的arms and we wept together.And for that 抬起头望着她。

我很认真地轻声说brief moment I became her mother, for she had given me the greatest gift of all: 道：“哦，玛丽亚，这链子真漂亮。herself.你妈妈一定会喜欢的。“我们已无法抑制住泪水。她踉踉跄跄地扑进我的怀里，我们都哭了。在那短暂的一刻我成了她的妈妈，而她送给了我一份最珍贵的礼物：她的信任和爱。By Patricia A.Habada

What's your spiritual IQ? 什么是你的精神智商?

It's the secret weapon that will help you

对付生活烦扰的一个秘密武cope with the hassles of life.Here's how 器。以下几点教你如何将精神智商to put spiritual intelligence to work for 运用到工作中去。you.她前夫又一次失约了。他没能

参加他们10岁女儿的舞蹈演出 Her ex had done it again.After missing

会，第二天，他带着一束玫瑰来看their 10-year-old daughter's dance recital, he showed up the following day 她们。我的朋友詹妮承认说：”我第一个冲动就是批评他。“但是接with a bouquet of roses.”My first impulse was to tear into him,“ admits my friend 着闪入脑海的却是：”他是爱女儿的。女儿需要他。算了吧。“深吸Jennie.Then some phrases popped into her

一口气，她以此宽慰自己说：”纳mind: “He loves her.She needs him.Let it

塔利会喜欢这些花的。”至少在那be.“ Taking a deep breath, she listened to

一短暂、轻松的时刻，世上多了一this inner voice and said, ”Natalie's going

份和睦。to love the flowers.“ And for at least one brief, shining moment, there was a little more peace on earth.What happened? Without consciously beyond reason to a deeper level of

发生了什么情况呢？原来不到理解的深层次了，即心理学家称realizing why or how, Jennie had reached 知不觉间，詹妮已经超越理智进入understanding, a newly recognized way of 之为”精神智商“的一个刚被公认knowing that psychologists have dubbed 的认知方法。我们的精神智商，或”spiritual intelligence.“ Our spiritual SQ，帮助我们了解自我，生活得更intelligence quotient, or SQ, helps us 充实，更幸福。understand ourselves, and live fuller, happier lives.精神智商是一种能力，可以感受、理解并触及最深的自我、他人 Spiritual intelligence is the capacity 及我们周遭的世界。这种内心深处to sense, understand and tap in to the 的宁静可能是我们抵御日常困扰highest part of ourselves, of others and of 的最佳能力。the world around us.This source of inner serenity may be our best defense against the hassles that barrage us every day.While we' re all born with SQ, most of us

虽然我们生来就有精神智商，aren't even aware that we have it.但大多数人并没有意识到它的存Fortunately, you don't have to sign up for 在。有幸的是，你不必报名去学习classes to learn how to enhance your SQ.如何加强你的精神智商。以下几个Here are some simple steps that can lead you 简单的方法就可帮你达到理解的to this new level of understanding:

新境界：

Sit Quietly.The process of cultivating

静坐培养 精神智商可从独处和spiritual intelligence begins in solitude 静默开始。精神上的信仰大多需要and silence.Most spiritual traditions 心灵的智慧。要听到心灵的细语就involve an inner wisdom.To tune in to its 要放慢节奏，使纷繁嘈杂的生活平whisper, you have to turn down the volume 静下来，迫使自己放下一切事务。in your busy, noisy, complicated life and 逐渐为每一天创造一段安静的时force yourself to do nothing at all.Start 间。在开车时，用一些时间思考，small by creating islands of silence in 而不是打开收音机。在工作时，不your day.In the car, instead of reaching 妨利用会议间歇关上办公室的门，for the radio dial, use the time to reflect.深吸几口气，然后缓缓地呼出。在At work, shut the door to your office

家里，孩子上床后，独自细细地品between meetings, take a few deep breaths 位一下家里的宁静。and let them out very, very slowly.Savor the stillness in your home after the kids are finally in bed.Step Outside.For many people, nature

户外活动

对于许多人来说，sets their spirit free.It puts the hassles 大自然能给予他们精神上的自由，of daily living into perspective.使他们对日常生活中烦心的事能

用”风物长宜放眼量“的角度去看。Go outside to watch a beautiful sunset.If you're walk-ing the dog, take the time to

出去观看美丽的日出。如果出admire an azalea bush in bloom.Follow the 门遛狗，可以留意一下路边盛开的flight of a bird;watch clouds float of the stars as holes in the darkness letting heaven shine through.Find An

杜鹃花丛；可以仰望飞翔的小鸟；设想群星不过是黑幕上的点点小洞，让天堂之光透射进来。找到一overhead.Gaze into the night sky and think 观赏空中的浮云。凝视夜空，可以Activity You Enjoy.It's important to find 种自己喜爱的活动培养一种爱好a hobby that helps you tune in to your 对修身养性十分重要。例如：园艺、spirit.Garden, walk or jog, arrange soul.散步或慢跑、插花、倾听触动心灵flowers, listen to music that touches your 的音乐。

Ask Questions Of Yourself.Some people use

向自己提问 一些人在沉思中their contemplative time to focus on a line 思考圣经中的语句。另一些人问自of Scripture.Others ask open-ended are my choices? Where am I heading?”

己一些随意的问题，如“我现在感在去往何处？” questions, such as“What am I feeling? What 觉怎样？我的选择是什么？我现 But don't expect an answer to arrive via

但是不要期望以超自然的电子some super-natural form of e-mail.”Rarely 邮件方式得到答案。加利福尼亚do I get an immediate answer to my Presbyterian minister in Sausalito，州，索萨利托的长老会牧师雷弗伦很少立刻得到答案，但晚些时侯，questions,“ says Reverend Joan Carter, a 德〃琼〃卡特说：”对自问问题，California.“But later that day I suddenly 我会突然从不曾考虑到的另一个find myself thinking about a problem from 角度去思考这个问题。” a perspective I never considered before.“ Trust Your Spirit.While most of us rely on

相信自己的心灵 大多数人觉gut feelings to alert us to danger，察危险是凭直觉。精神智商却常常spiritual intelligence usually nudges us, 引导我们去采取，而不是背离某种not away from, but toward some action that 可以使结局更好的行动。will lead to a greater good.这是伊利诺伊州的一位作家 This is a lesson that Charlene Baumbich, 兼演说家查伦〃鲍姆比切曾经有过an author and speaker in Illinois, has 的一个亲身体会，甚得教益。几年learned well.Several years ago she was 前，她签约写一本书却认为自己无convinced that she couldn' t write a book 法如约完成，就在她准备取消合同she' d contracted to do.The day before she 的前一天，她去了一个工艺品交易planned to scuttle the deal, she went to a 市场。在那儿，她看到了一张照片，crafts fair.There Baumbich found a treasure chest--out of which flew butterflies.”There was a voice that

照片上一个胖乎乎的小孩正打开蝶。“有个声音说道'掀开盖子，写下第一个字'。”于是她照着去做photograph of a chubby toddler opening a 一个珠宝盒，从盒子中飞出了蝴said,'Just open the lid.Write the first 了，接着，《如何“忍气吞声”而不word.'“ So she did.And that book, How to 会”消化不良“》一书问世并获得成Eat Humble Pie and Not Get Indigestion, was 功。对心灵智慧有好奇心的其他女a success.Her advice to other women

子，她建议道：第一步，窥探心灵，curious about tuning in to their inner 如果看到了那蝴蝶，不要吃惊。By wisdom: Take the first step.Peer inside Dianne Hales（尹明 译自 yourself.And don' t be surprised if you Ladies’ Home Journal）find butterflies.Relish the moment

拥抱今天

Tucked away in our subconscious is an 我们的潜意识里藏着一派田idyllic vision.We see ourselves on a long 园诗般的风光!我们仿佛身处一trip that spans the continent.We are

次横贯大陆的漫漫旅程之中!乘traveling by train.Out the windows, we 着火车, 我们领略着窗外流动的drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby 景色：附近高速公路上奔驰的汽highways, of children waving at a crossing, 车、十字路口处招手的孩童、远山of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of 上吃草的牛群、源源不断地从电厂smoke pouring from a power plant, of row 排放出的烟尘、一片片的玉米和小upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and 麦、平原与山谷、群山与绵延的丘valleys, of mountains and rolling halls.But uppermost in our minds is the final

然而我们心里想得最多的却destination.On a certain day at a certain 是最终的目的地!在某一天的某hour, we will pull into the station.Bands 一时刻, 我们将会抵达进站!迎will be playing and flags waving.Once we 接我们的将是乐队和飘舞的彩旗!get there, so many wonderful dreams will 一旦到了那儿, 多少美梦将成为come true and the pieces of our lives will 现实, 我们的生活也将变得完整, fit together like a completed jigsaw

如同一块理好了的拼图!可是我puzzle.How restlessly we pace the aisles, 们现在在过道里不耐烦地踱来踱

陵、天空映衬下城市的轮廓, 以及hillsides, of city skylines and village 乡间的庄园宅第!damning the minutes for loitering--waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.去, 咒骂火车的拖拖拉拉!我们期待着, 期待着, 期待着火车进站的那一刻!

”When we reach the station, that will be “当我们到站的时候, 一切就it!”we cry.“When I'm 18.”“When I buy a 都好了!”我们呼喊着!“当我18new 450SL Mercedes Benz!”“When I put the 岁的时候!”“当我有了一辆新last kid through college.”“When I have 450SL奔驰的时候!”“当我供最小paid off the mortgage!”“When I get a promotion.”“When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!” 的孩子念完大学的时候!“"当我偿清贷款的时候!”“当我官升高任的时候!”“当我到了退休的时候, 就可以从此过上幸福的生活啦!”

Sooner or later, we must realize there

可是我们终究会认识到人生的is no station, no one place to arrive at 旅途中并没有车站, 也没有能够“once and for all.The true joy of life is 一到永逸”的地方!生活的真正乐the trip.The station is only a dream.It 趣在于旅行的过程, 而车站不过constantly outdistances us.是个梦, 它始终遥遥领先于我们!

“Relish the moment ”is a good motto, “享受现在”是句很好的箴言, especially when coupled with Psalm 118：尤其是当它与《圣经〃诗篇》中第24：“This is the day which the Lord hath １１８页２４行的一段话相映衬made；we will rejoice and be glad in it.”It 的时候, 更是如此：“今日乃主所isn't the burdens of today that drive men 创造；生活在今日我们将欢欣、高mad.It is the regrets over yesterday and 兴!”真正令人发疯的不是今日的the fear of tomorrow.Regret and fear are 负担, 而是对昨日的悔恨及对明twin thieves who rob us of today.日的恐惧!悔恨与恐惧是一对孪生窃贼, 将今天从你我身边偷走!

So stop pacing the aisles and counting

那么就不要在过道里徘徊吧, the miles.In stead, climb more mountains, 别老惦记着你离车站还有多远!eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, 何不换一种活法, 将更多的高山swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh 攀爬, 多吃点儿冰淇淋甜甜嘴巴, more, cry less.Life must be lived as we go 经常光着脚板儿溜达溜达, 在更along.The station will come soon enough.多的河流里畅游, 多看看夕阳西

下, 多点欢笑哈哈, 少让泪水滴

答!生活得一边过一边瞧!车站就会很快到达!By Robert J.Hastings 李端奇译

Thoughts for a new year

新年沉思

Most of us look away when we pass

当我们与陌生人擦肩而过时，多strangers.It is the expectional person who 数人往往把目光移开。要是有人停stops to help the woman maneuvering her 下来帮妇女哄她的小孩和帮她把kids and groceries up the staircase.We 食品搬上楼梯，反而会被人看成另rarely give up in line or on the subway or 类。无论是排队还是乘地铁或公共bus.Locked into our automobiles, we prefer 汽车，我们很少让位于他人。坐在gridlock to giving way.自己的汽车里，我们宁愿堵塞交通

也不愿给人让路。

These daily encounters, when they are angry

这些日常接触，要是气冲冲的or alien, diminish our lives.When they are 或是使人反感的，那便会减少我们pleasant, we feel buoyed.Yet when we sit 生活的乐趣，要是它们令人愉快，at home and make resolutions, we think 那便会使我们精神振奋。然而，当about what we can accomplish in private 我们坐在家里做出各种决定的时spaces：home, work.Too many have given up 候，我们考虑的仅是在个人天地--the belief that they control the shared, 家庭和工作里可以实现的目标。太the public world.多的人已经放弃了他们也管理着共享的、公共的世界这一信念。

As individuals we can change the contour 作为众人的一员，我们可以改变of a day, the mood of a moment, the way 一天的面貌，一时的情绪，以及人people feel.The demolition and

们对某件事的感觉。公共生活的毁reconstruction of public life is the result 坏和重建是人们每日所做的种种of personal decisions made every day：the 个人决定的综合结果。这些决定包decision to give up a seat on the bus；the 括：公共汽车上让座，面对逆境而decision to be patient or pleasant against 能容忍或具有乐观精神；让那个笨all odds；the decision to let that jerk take 蛋从右车道往左拐而不摇下车窗a left－hand turn from a right－hand lane 骂他蠢货。without rolling down the window and calling him a jerk.It's the resolution to be a civil, social 这是做一个文明的、社会的人的决creature.This may be a peak period for the 定。今天也许是人们为减少腰围和battle against the spread of a waistline 降低胆固醇而斗争的高峰期。然and creeping cholesterol.But it is also 而，反对城市野蛮行为和人际敌对within our will power to fight the spread 态度的蔓延，也是我们只要愿做就of urban rudeness and creeping hostility.能做到的事。有礼貌不能制止核战Civility doesn't stop nuclear holocaust 争，也不能为无家可归者提供栖身and doesn't put a roof over the head of the 之所，但它的确能改变一个社会群homeless.But it makes a difference in the 体的面貌，犹如举重定能改变一个shape of a community, as surely as lifting 人的体形一样。（摘自The World weights can make a difference in the shape of English）of a human torso.Interview God 采访上帝

“Come in,” God said to me, “so, you would “进来”，上帝

对我说，“你想like to interview Me?” 采访我?” “If you have the time,” I said.“是的，如果您有时间的話。” 我说。

He smiled through His beard and said: “My 上帝

微笑了，笑容通过他的胡须time is called eternity and is enough to do 绽开，说：“我时间的名字叫永恒，everything;what questions do you have in 足足可以做任何事情。你心里有什mind to ask me?” thing that surprises you most about mankind?“

麽问题想问我?”

人类让您感到最惊奇的事情是什麽呢?” ”None that are new to you.What's the one “对您来说是没有新鲜的提问的。He answered: “That they get bored of being 上帝

回答道：“人类在做孩子的children, are in a rush to grow up, and then 时候感到无聊，盼望着长大，长大long to be children again.That they lose 后又向往着返回童年；他们浪费自their health to make money and then lose 己的健康去赢得个人的财富，然后their money to restore their health.That 又浪费自己的财富去重建自身的by thinking anxiously about the future, 健康；他们焦虑地憧憬未来，忘记they forget the present, such that they 了眼前的生活，活得既不是为了现live neither for the present nor the

在也不是为了将来；他们活得似乎future.That they live as if they will never 永远不会死，他们死得也好像从来die, and they die as if they never had never 没活过…” lived...” His hands took mine and we were silent.上帝

握着我的手，我们一阵沉After a long period, I said, “May I ask you 默。过了好长一段时间，我说：“我another question?”

可以再问您一个问题吗?” He replied with a smile.“As a Father, what would you ask your children to do for the new year?”

上帝用微笑回答了我。

“作为天父，在新的一年里您会要求您的子民做什么?”

“To learn that they cannot make anyone love “去学习人不能强迫别人爱自己，them.What they can do is to let themselves 能做的是让自己接受爱； be loved.To learn that it takes years to build trust, 去了解信誉需要多年的努力去建and a few seconds to destroy it.立，但几秒钟就可以毁掉； To learn that what is most valuable is not 去懂得最有价值的不是他们生活what they have in their lives, but who they 中拥有的东西，而是他们生活里的have in their lives.人； To learn that it is not good to compare 去学会把自己和别人攀比是不好themselves to others.There will be others 的，比上不足比下总是有余； better or worse than they are.To learn that a rich person is not one who 去学知富有的人不是他的财产最has the most, but is one who needs the 多，而是他对生活的要求最少； least.To learn that they should control their 去学会应该端正他们的态度，否则attitudes, otherwise their attitudes will 他们的态度会控制他们； control them.To learn that it only takes a few seconds 去了解深深地伤害我们所爱的人to open profound wounds in persons we love, 只需要几秒钟，然而要愈合这个伤and that it takes many years to heal them.口需要许多年； To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.To learn that there are persons that love 去明白有很多人关爱着他们，只是them dearly, but simply do not know how to 这些人不懂得如何表达自己的情show their feelings.happiness.感； 幸福； To learn that money can buy everything but 去了解钱可以买万物，就是买不到To learn that while at times they may be 去懂得在某些时候他们有资格愤entitled to be upset, that does not give 怒，但愤怒本身没有给他们权力让them the right to upset those around them.身边的人不安；

To learn that great dreams do not require 去学习伟大的梦想不需要有伟大great wings, but a landing gear to achieve.的翅膀，有落地的齿轮才能使梦想

去通过宽恕的行为学习饶恕。

成真；

To learn that true friends are scarce, 去了解真正的朋友非常稀罕，找到he/she who has found one has found a true 了的人找到了真正的财富； treasure.To learn that they are masters of what they 去懂得自己是守住的言语的主人、keep to themselves and slaves of what they 脱口的奴隶； say.To learn that they shall reap what they 去懂得种什么收什么，如果散播流plant;if they plant gossip they will will harvest happiness.To learn that true happiness is not to 去学会真正的幸福不是实现自己achieve their goals but to learn to be 的目标，而是满足于所达到的成satisfied with what they already achieved.就； To learn that happiness is a

去得知幸福是一种决定，他们决定decision.They decide to be happy with 为自己是谁自己有什么快乐地活，what they are and have, or die from envy and 或为自己所没有的东西羡慕妒嫉jealousy of what they lack.same thing and see something totally different.To learn that those who are honest with 去学到那些能诚实地面对自己、不themselves without considering the consequences go far in life.担心后果的人，人生之路能走得很远； 地死；

到完全不同的东西； To learn that two people can look at the 去明白两个人看同样的事情会看

言蜚语他们就收获钩心斗角，如果harvest intrigues, if they plant love they 种植爱心他们就收获欢乐；

To learn that even though they may think 去了解尽管有时可能认为自己无they have nothing to give, when a friend 能为力，但是当一位朋友同他们一cries with them, they find the strength to 起挥泪的时候，他们能找到生活的appease the pain.勇气去抚平伤痛；

To learn that by trying to hold on to love 去懂得试图抓住所爱的人，所爱的ones, they very quickly push them away;and 人会推开你；给所爱的人以自由，by letting go of those they love, they will 他们会永远在你的左右。be side by side forever.To learn that even though the word ”love“ 去学习尽管爱这个字含义很广，滥has many different meanings, it loses value 用这个字会失去她的价值； when it is overstated.To learn that they can never do something 去明白他们永远不能用特殊的举extraordinary for Me to love them;I simply 动使我爱他们，我爱人类不需要理do.由；

To learn that the shortest distance they 去认识到他们和我最靠近的距离could be from Me is the ”the distance of a 是“祈祷者的距离 prayer.“ Roses for Rose 送给罗丝的玫瑰

Red roses were her favorites, her name

红玫瑰花是她的最爱，她的名字was also Rose.And every year her husband 也叫Rose。每年她的丈夫都要送sent them, tied with pretty bows.The year 她打了可爱蝴蝶结的红玫瑰。他去he died, the roses were delivered to her 世的那年，玫瑰花送到了她的门door.The card said, ”Be my Valentine, 口，卡片上写着：“我的情人节礼”like all the years before.物“，跟往年一样。

Each year he sent her roses, and the note

每年他为她送红玫瑰，卡片上would always say, ”I love you even more this 总这样说：“我今年更爱你，比去year, than last year on this day.”“My love 年的今天更爱。”“随着逝去的岁for you will always grow, with every time that the roses would appear.She

月，我对你的爱一直在增长。”她她想，他是提前订了玫瑰花。她亲passing year.“She knew this was the last 知道这将是最后一次收到玫瑰花。thought, he ordered roses in advance before 爱的丈夫不知道，他将走了。他总this day.Her loving husband did not know, 喜欢把事情做在前头，这样，如果that he would pass away.He always liked to 他很忙的话，每件事都照样做得妥do things early.Then, if he got too busy, 妥当当。她整理好花茎，把它们插everything would work out fine.She trimmed 进一个特别的花瓶，然后，将花瓶the stems, and placed them in a very special 放在他满脸笑容的像片旁，她会在vase.Then, sat the vase beside the

她丈夫喜欢的椅子上坐上好几个portrait of his smiling face.She would sit 小时，看着他的相片，玫瑰花放在for hours, in her husband's favorite chair.那儿。While staring at his picture, and the roses sitting there.A year went by, and it was hard to live 一年过去了，没有他的日子很难without her mate.With loneliness and

过。孤独和寂寞，成了她的命运。solitude, that had become her fate.Then, 然而，在情人节这天，跟以往送花the very hour, as on Valentines before, the 的时间相同，门铃响了，在她的门door－bell rang, and there were roses, 口放着玫瑰花。她将玫瑰拿进屋，sitting by her door.She brought the roses 吃惊地看着它们。然后，拨通了花in, and then just looked at them in shock.店的电话。她问店主能否向她解释Then, went to get the tele phone, to call 一下，为什么有人要这么做，引起the florist shop.The owner answered, and 她的痛苦？ she asked him, if he would explain, why

”我知道你的丈夫一年多前去would someone do this to her, causing her

世了，“店主说：”我知道你会打电such pain？

话来，你想知道是怎么回事。“" ”I know your husband passed away, more 今天你收到的花，已经提前付了than a year ago, “ The owner said, ”I knew 钱。“"你的丈夫总是提前计划，他you'd call, and you would want to know.” 做事从来不碰运气。“ ”The flowers you received today, were paid for in advance.“ ”Your husband always planned ahead, he left nothing to chance.“ ”There is a standing order, that I have on “我的存档里有一个固定的订file down here.And he has paid, well in 单，他已经提前付了钱，你每年都advance, you'll get them every year.There 会收到玫瑰花。还有另外一件事，also is another thing, that I think you 我想你应该知道，他写了一张特别should know.He wrote a special little 的小卡片……他几年前就写好了card...he did this years ago.” 的。“

”Then, should ever, I find out that he's “这样，如果我发现他已不在人no longer here.That's the card...that 世的话，这张卡片……这张卡片将should be sent, to you the following year.在下一年送给你。” “ She thanked him and hung up the phone, 她谢了他，挂了电话，眼泪her tears now flowing hard.Her fingers 夺眶而出，当她慢慢地伸手去拿卡shaking, as she slowly reached to get the 片时，她的手指在颤抖。在卡片里，card.Inside the card, she saw that he had 他看到了他写给她的短信。她默默written her a note.Then, as she stared in 地看着，他是这样写的：”亲爱的，total silence, this is what he wrote：“Hello 我知道我离开你已经一年了，我希my love, I know it's been a year since I've 望你所度过的这段日子不是太难。been gone, I hope it hasn't been too hard ”“我知道你肯定很孤独，而且这种for you to overcome.” “I know it must be 痛苦是如此的真切。因为如果这样lonely, and the pain is very real.For if 的事发生在我身上，我知道我会有it was the other way, I know how I would 怎样的感受。我们分享的爱让生命feel.The love we shared made everything so 中的每件事都是那么的美好，我对beautiful in life.I loved you more than 你的爱无法用言语表达，你是最完words can say, you were the perfect wife.美的妻子。” “

”你是我的朋友和爱人，你总能

满足我的每一个需求。我知道才过 “You were my friend and lover, you

了一年，但是请你尽可能不要悲fulfilled my every need.I know it's only

伤。我希望你快乐，即使流着泪。been a year, but please try not to grieve.这就是为什么在今后的岁月里每I want you to be happy, even when you shed

年都会送玫瑰给你?” your tears.That is why the roses will be sent to you for years.“ ”When you get these roses, think of all “当你收到这些花时，请想想the happiness that we had together, and how 我们一起度过的所有的幸福时光，both of us were blessed.I have always loved 我们是怎样受到祝福的。我一直爱you and I know I always will.But, my love, 着你，我知道我将永远爱着。但是，you must go on, you have some living still.亲爱的，你必须继续生活下去，你”

还有好多日子要过。

“Please...try to find happiness, while ”请你……在你的生活中努力living out your days.I know it is not easy, 去寻找欢乐，我知道并不容易，但but I hope you find some ways.The roses 我希望你能找到一些方式。玫瑰每will come every year, and they will only 年都会送来，而且，只有当你不再stop when your door's not answered, when 应门时，只有当花店店主停止敲门the florist stops to knock.“

时，它们才不会再来。”

“He will come five times that day, in case ”这一天，以防你出门不在，他会you have gone out.But after his last visit, 来５次。你是否还在，他最后一次he will know without a doubt.To take the 拜访就会明了。他会将花送到我指roses to the place, where I've instructed 定的地方，并将玫瑰放在我们再次him, and place the rose where we are, together once again.“ Peeling Away Artifice For the Pure Original

Sarah came running in.”Look what I

相聚的

回归童真

萨拉跑进来。“看，我发现了什么。”我正在看报，一条卷长的有found.“ Over the top of the paper I was 点支离破碎的东西出现在报纸上，reading came a crispy, crumbling long

把我吓得跳了起来。那是一条蛇的object that caused me to jump.It was a 蜕皮，我们的花园里有很多蛇。snake skin that had been shed by one of our

”它难道不漂亮吗？“我那7岁many garden snakes.的小女儿眨着她的大眼睛问道。

”Isn't it beautiful?“ said my wide-eyed seven-year-old.I stared at the organic wrapper and thought

我看着那条蛇皮，自忖它实在to myself that it really wasn' t that

算不上漂亮，但我明白决不能对孩beautiful, but I have learned never to 子冷淡抑或感到厌烦。孩子们初次appear nonchalant or jaded with children.见到的东西对于他们是形成美感Everything they see for the first time is 以及创造力的基础。在接受相关教elementary to their sense of beauty and 育之前，他们应当只会看到世上美creativity;they see only merit and excellence in the world until educated otherwise.”Why does it do this?“ Sarah asked.Robert, ever the innocent comedian，萨拉问：”蛇为什么要蜕皮？“

曾经做过天真喜剧演员的罗伯特说：”我们花园里有一条光着身子的蛇。“

said:”We have a naked snake in our garden!“ I also try to customize every opportunity

我也利用一切机会教给孩子们to teach my children that there is almost 知道任何事物不单有其表像，更有always something beyond the obvious;that 其深层原因的含义。我解释说：”there is something else going on besides 蛇为了获得新生，所以要蜕皮。“what they see in front of them.”Snakes shed 正如我家常常出现的情况，最初的their skin because they need to renew

话题会引出其它一个又一个新问themselves,“ I explained.As is so often 题，直到我们谈论的内容与最初的the case in my family, the original subject 毫不沾边为止。leads to another and another, until we are discussing something quite different.”Why do they need to renew themselves?“

萨拉问：”蛇为什么要获得新Sarah asked.生？“ 好的事物。

Robert quipped:” 'Cos they don't like who

罗伯特诙谐地说：“因为它们不

喜欢自己的样子，想要变成另外的they are and they want to be someone else.” 样子。“

Sarah and I politely ignored her brother.萨拉和我没再理会她哥哥。我I suddenly remembered an article on this 忽然记起许多年前报上曾有一篇page many years ago where the writer was 文章，作者表述了她对新生的看expressing her concept of renewal.She used 法：她用糊在墙壁上的一层层的壁layers of paper over a wall to describe how 纸来形容我们是如何将真实的自we hide our original selves, and said that 我隐藏起来的，并且说一层一层地by peeling away those layers one by one, we 剥去那些壁纸，我们便会发现藏在see the underlying original beneath.下面的纯真。

”We often need to shed our skins, those

我告诉全神贯注的小女儿：“coatings and facades that we cover

我们常常要'蜕皮'，换掉身上那些ourselves with,” I said to my now absorbed 衣服。我们长大了，有些东西不想daughter.“We outgrow some things and find 要了，有些不需要了。这条蛇不再other stuff unwanted or unnecessary.This 需要这张皮了。可能是蛇感到这张snake no longer needs this skin.It is 皮既僵硬又难看，穿在身上不像以probably too stiff and crinkly for him, and 前那么漂亮。就像买一套新衣服那he probably doesn' t think he looks as smart 样。” in it as he once did.Like buying a new suit.“

当然了，我敢肯定这样的解释 Of course, I' m sure this explanation won'

不能让真正的博物学家满意。但萨t sit well with bonafide naturalists.But

拉听明白了。谈话间，我知道萨拉Sarah was getting the point.As we talked，尽管是朦朦胧胧的，但理解了新生I knew that she began to comprehend, albeit

是进步的一部分，理解到我们需要slightly, that renewal is part of progress;

好好审视自我、房间、功课、创造that we need to take a good look at

力以及灵性，想想需要留下什么，ourselves, and our rooms and schoolwork and

摒弃哪些。我用心地解释这是自然creativity and spirituality, and see what

过程，并非强迫着去做的。we need to keep and what we need to cast off.I was careful to point out that this is a natural process, not one to be forced.”Snakes don' t peel off their skin when

我解释说：“蛇喜欢它的皮的时they feel like it.” I explained.“ It

侯，就不会蜕皮。随着它们的生长，happens as a natural consequence of their growth.” 蜕皮是自然的过程。“

”I see, Dad,“ said Sarah and jumped off my 萨拉说：”爸爸，我懂了。“说完从lap, grabbed the snakeskin, and ran off.我腿上跳下去，拿着蛇皮跑了。I hoped she would remember this.That often, in order to find our real selves

为了underneath the layers of community and

我希望她能记住这一次。

找寻年复一年为社会和环境所掩culture with which we cloak ourselves year

我们需要检查这after year, we need to start examining 盖的真正的自我，些”壁纸“，一旦认识到它们毫无价these layers.We need to gently peel some

值，不再需要或者有缺陷，需要轻away, as we recognize them to be worthless，轻剥去一些，最好是将那些摒弃的unnecessary, or flawed;or at best, store

激励我们更有the discarded ones as mementoes of our 东西尘封在记忆中，活力和更有精神地前进。By Roy H.promotion to a better vitality or spirit.Barnacle（袁堂欣 译The Christian Science Monitor

每个人都可以成为很伟大的人，因为任何人都很有用。你即使没有大学文凭或造不出一个合乎语法的句子，也可以发挥你的作用。只要有体谅的心、充满爱的灵魂足矣……

马丁．路瑟．金

一件微不足道的小事（也许你做这些事时并无意识），会改变一个人的命运……

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve.You don't have to have a college degree to serve.You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.You only need a heart full of grace.A soul generated by love.Martin Luther King, Jr.Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed that the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder.Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles.Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden.As they walked Mark discovered that the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television.The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home.They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both gradated from junior high school.They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years.Finally the long awaited senior year came, and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met.”Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?“ asked Bill.”You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else.I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide.But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow.So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more.You saved my life.“

重点词汇：

* trip：我们都知道trip的意思是―旅行‖，是名词。而在这里，trip用作动词，表示―绊倒‖的意思。

* article：article有很多意思，我们常见的是―文章‖、―论文‖、―报道‖等。本文里，article表示―物件‖的意思。另外，article还表示―货色‖的意思，当它用来指人时，就含有贬义了。

* break up：break是―打碎‖的意思。break up在这里表示―终止‖、―破裂‖的意思。指男孩子与女朋友断绝了关系。另外，break up还有一个很有趣的含义，表示―大笑‖，是那种忍俊不禁、突然爆发出来的笑声。

* await：表示―等待‖，此时与wait for同义。另外它还表示―降临到……身上‖的意思，如：death awaits all men的意思是―死亡将临到一切人‖。

* locker ：―锁柜‖、―可锁的衣物柜‖的意思。

* mess：―凌乱状态‖、―凌乱的一堆‖等意思。在西方国家，如果有客到访，而房间正好比较凌乱时，要说一句excuse the mess，否则就是不礼貌的表现。* store away：或store up，意思是―把……储存起来‖、―储备‖。

Bill准备自杀，所以偷偷攒了一些他妈妈的安眠药。看来，Bill早已下定了自杀的决心。但Mark 不经意的友善行为改变了Bill 的决定，他决定不自杀了。可见，生活中的一些事情对一些人来说无足轻重，另一方面却可以改变其他人的命运。让我们多做一些象这样我们称为 ―举手之劳‖的事吧！

Feed Your Mind充实你的思想

Since the pre-historic times, man has had an urge to satisfy his needs.Be it hunger, shelter or search for a mate, he has always manipulated the circumstances to the best of his advantages.Probably this might be the reason why we human are the most developed of all living species on the earth, and probably also in the universe.As we climbed the steps of evolution with giant leaps, we somehow left behind common sense and logical thinking — we forgot that we have stopped thinking ahead of times.If you are hungry, what do you do? Grab a piece of your favorite meal and stay quiet after that? Just like your stomach, even your mind is hungry.But it never lets you know, because you keep it busy thinking about your dream lover, favorite star and many such absurd things.So it silently began to heed to your needs and never let itself grow.When mind looses its freedom to grow, creativity gets a full stop.This might be the reason why we all sometimes think ”What happens next?“, ”Why can't I think?“, ”Why am I always given the difficult problems?“ Well this is the aftermath of our own karma of using our brain for

thinking of not-so-worthy things.Hunger of the mind can be actually satiated through extensive reading.Now why reading and not watching TV? Because reading has been the most educative tool used by us right from the childhood.Just like that to develop other aspects of our life, we have to take help of reading.You have innumerable number of books in this world which will answer all your ―How to?‖ questions.Once you read a book, you just don't run your eyes through the lines, but even your mind decodes it and explains it to you.The interesting part of the book is stored in your mind as a seed.Now this seed is unknowingly used by you in your future to develop new ideas.The same seed if used many times, can help you link and relate a lot of things, of which you would have never thought of in your wildest dreams!This is nothing but creativity.More the number of books you read, your mind will open up like never before.Also this improves your oratory skills to a large extent and also makes a significant contribution to your vocabulary.Within no time you start speaking English or any language fluently with your friends or other people and you never seem to run out of the right words at the right time.Actually, I had a problem in speaking English fluently, but as I read, I could improve significantly.I am still on the path of improvement to quench my thirst for satisfaction.So guys do join me and give food for your thoughts by reading, reading and more reading.Now what are you waiting for? Go, grab a book, and

let me know!

充实你的思想

自史前时代起，人类就已有满足自己需求的强烈欲望。无论是饥饿、避难或寻觅配偶，人类总是操纵着环境使其达到最利于自己的状态。这或许解答了为什么人类是地球上甚至是宇宙中最高级的现存物种。然而在进化的阶梯上取得巨大飞跃之时，我们却不知何故将一些常识和逻辑思维抛诸脑后了——我们忘记了自己已经停止了超前思维。

如果你饿了，你会怎么做？抓起你最喜爱的美食饱餐一顿，然后静静地呆在那里？而你的大脑也像你的胃，是会感到饥饿的，但它却从不让你知道，因为你让它一直想着你的梦中情人、你最喜爱的明星和许多诸如此类的荒唐事。因此它只是默默地留意着你的需要却从不让自己成长。当思维恣意成长时，创造力就嘎然而止。这也许就是为什么我们有时会想―下一步该如何‖、―为什么我想不到？‖、―为什么我总是碰到难题？‖的原因吧。这也是我们的大脑总在考

虑那些毫无价值的事情产生的后果。

事实上，思维的饥荒可以通过广泛的阅读来满足。为什么是阅读而不是选择看电视呢？因为自孩提时代起，读书就已经是最具教育性的工具了。正如人生发展的其他方面一样，我们不得不求助于阅读。世界上有无数书籍可以回答你―如何做‖的问题。读书时不仅要用眼睛浏览文字，还要用脑去解读、诠释。书中有趣的部分就会像种子一样贮存在你的脑海里。将来你会不自觉地运用这粒种子引发新的想法。多次运用这粒种子将有助于你把许多事情联系起来，即使你做梦都想不到这些！这不是别的，就是创造力！你读的书越多，你的心智就会前所未有地开阔。而且这还会大幅度地提高你的演讲能力、丰富你的词汇量。你很快就能用流利的英语或别的语言与你的朋友或别人交谈，而且你再也不会在适合的场合缺少适合的词语。

实际上，我的英语还是不够流利，但只要我阅读，我就会取得显著进步。现在我仍在―自我提高‖、为头脑―解渴‖的长路上跋涉。请加入到我的行列吧！通过阅读、阅读、再阅读来为你的思想―喂食‖。你还在等什么？现在就拿起一本书让我瞧瞧！

三个纽约

《三个纽约》是一篇叙述不同人对纽约不同看法的随笔。作为闻名世界的国际大都市，纽约在不同人的心目中含有不同的意义。作者以敏锐的目光进行观察，发现三种视觉产生了三个纽约。土生土长的纽约城里人对一切都已习以为常。他们眼里的纽约总是那个老模样。住在郊外而在城里办公的人，每天乘班车上下班，来去匆匆，使纽约显得人潮滚滚，喧闹不定。唯有从其他各个地方纽约来寻求发展的人，纽约就是他们最后的目的地。在他们眼里，纽约是个应有尽有，充满希望，充满创业精神，令人振奋的城市，所以他们对纽约的感情也最为强烈。这篇随笔虽然篇幅短小，但是构思精巧，一气呵成，表现了作者扎实的文笔功底。

埃尔文·布鲁克斯·怀特(Elwyn Brooks White, 1899-1985)是美国优秀散文作家。他生于纽约州弗农山，1921年康奈尔大学毕业，曾先后但任《纽约人》和《哈珀斯》杂志的编辑、专栏作家和自由撰稿人。1941年与妻子合著《美国幽默拾零》。他的作品有《斯图亚特·利特尔》（1945）、《夏洛特的网》（1952）、《我罗盘上的方位》（1962）、《天鹅的喇叭》（1970）、《怀特书信集》（1976）、《怀特散文集》（1977）以及两本诗选。1960年曾获美国文学艺术协会金奖。怀特以文笔犀利，讽刺尖刻，思维独特，风格高雅而

在美国文坛享有极高声誉。

The Three New Yorks

Elwin Brooks White

There are roughly three New Yorks.There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable.Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night.Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last — the city of final destination, the city that is a goal.It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements.Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidarity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison

Company.The Rose

英汉对照

---Logan Pearsall Smith(1865-1946)The old lady had always been proud of the great rose-tree in her garden, and was fond of telling how it had grown from a cutting she had brought years before from Italy, when she was first married.She and her husband had been travelling back in their carriage from Rome(it was before the time of railways)and on a bad piece of road south of Siena they had broken down, and had been forced to pass the night in a little house by the road-side.The accommodation was wretched of course;she had spent a sleepless night, and rising early had stood, wrapped up, at her window, with the cool air blowing on her face, to watch the dawn.She could still, after all these years, remember the blue mountains with the bright moon above them, and how a far-off town on one of the peaks had gradually grown whiter and whiter, till the moon faded, the mountains were touched with the pink of the rising sun, and suddenly the town was lit as by an illumination, one window after another catching and reflecting the sun's beam, till at last the whole little city twinkled and sparkled up in the sky like a nest of stars.That morning, finding they would have to wait while their carriage was being repaired, they had driven in a local conveyance up to the city on the mountain, where they had been told they would find better quarters;and there they had stayed two or three days.It was one of the miniature Italian cities with a high church, a pretentious piazza, a few narrow streets and little palaces, perched, all compact and complete, on the top of a mountain, within and enclosure of walls hardly larger than an English kitchen garden.But it was full of life and nose, echoing all day and all night with the sounds of feet and voices.The Cafe of the simple inn where they stayed was the meeting place of the notabilities of the little city;the Sindaco, the avvocato, the doctor, and a few others;and among them they noticed a beautiful, slim, talkative old man, with bright black eyes and snow-white hair — tall and straight and still with the figure of a youth, although the waiter told them with pride that the Conte was molto vecchio — would in fact be eightey in the following year.He was the last of his family, the waiter added — they had once been great and rich people — but he had no descendants;in fact the waiter mentioned with complacency, as if it were a story on which the locality prided itself, that the Conte had been unfortunate in

love, and had never married.The old gentleman, however, seemed cheerful enough;and it was plain that he took an interest in the strangers, and wished to make their acquaintance.This was soon effected by the friendly waiter;and after a little talk the old man invited them to visit his villa and garden which were just outside the walls of the town.So the next afternoon, when the sun began to descend, and they saw in glimpses through door-ways and windows, blue shadows beginning to spread over the brown mountains, they went to pay their visit.It was not much of a place, a small, modernized, stucco villa, with a hot pebbly garden, and in it a stone basin with torpid gold-fish, and a statue of Diana and her hounds against the wall.But what gave a glory to it was a gigantic rose-tree which clambered over the house, almost smothering the windows, and filling the air with the perfume of its sweetness.Yes, it was a fine rose, the Conte said proudly when they praised it, and he would tell the Signora about it.And as they sat there, drinking the wine he offered them, he alluded with the cheerful indifference of old age to his love-affair, as though he took for granted that they had heard of it already.”The lady lived across the valley there beyond that hill.I was a young man then, for it was many years ago.I used to ride over to see her;it was a long way, but I rode fast, for young men, as no doubt the Signora knows, are impatient.But the lady was not kind, she would keep me waiting, oh, for hours;and one day when I had waited very long I grew very angry, and as I walked up and down in the garden where she had told me she would see me, I broke one of her roses, broke a branch from it;and when I saw what I had done, I hid it inside my coat — so —;and when I came home I planted it, and the Signora sees how it has grown.If the Signora admires it, I must give her a cutting to plant also in her garden;I am told the English have beautiful gardens that are green, and not

burnt with the sun like ours.“ The next day, when their mended carriage had come up to fetch them, and they were just starting to drive away from the inn, the Conte's old servant appeared with the rose-cutting neatly wrapped up, and the compliments and wishes for a buon viaggio from her master.The town collected to see them depart, and the children heard a rush of feet behind them for a few moments, but soon they were far down towards the valley;the little town with all its noise and life was high

above them on its mountain peak.She had planted the rose at home, where it had grown and flourished in a wonderful manner;and every June the great mass of leaves and shoots still broke out into a passionate splendour of scent and crimson colour, as if in its root and fibres there still burnt the anger and thwarted desire of that Italian lover.Of course the old Conte must have died many years ago;she had forgotten his name, and had even forgotten the name of the mountain city that she had stayed in, after first seeing it twinkling at dawn in the sky, like a nest of stars.Siena: 意大利城镇名

piazza: 特指意大利都市中的广场或市场

Sindaco: 意语，市长 avvocato: 意语，律师 Conte: 意语，伯爵

molto vecchio: 意语，very old

Signora：意语，夫人 buon viaggio: =good journey.参考译文：

老太太一直为她园中那株蔷薇树感到骄傲，好对人讲，这树是怎么从一根由意大利带回的枝条上长起来的，那是好多年以前的事，那时她刚结婚。她和她丈夫正从罗马乘坐马车回国（那时还没有火车），一天在辛拿城南一段崎岖的路上，车子出了毛病，不得已只好暂时到路边一所小宅院去过夜。设备当然是简陋极了；她度过了一个不眠之夜，次日很早起身，披衣凝立窗前，在拂面的习习晨风中，注视天色破晓。虽然事隔多年，她仍然记得青山让一轮皓月，远山之颠的一座城镇，逐渐泛白，继而月落，山边为徐徐升起的朝阳染成绯红；不久，城镇恍然似为巨焰所映，斗然大亮，窗扉一扇扇在朝霞的照耀下，光晶泛彩。最后整个小城在天

宇之间闪烁辉耀起来，宛若一团星群。

由于修车尚待时日，那天早上他们便搭乘当地车辆去了那座山城，那里据说可以觅到较好住处；他们在那里逗留了两三天。那座城是典型意大利式的小城，有一座高耸的教堂，一个矜饰的广场，几条狭窄的街道，几所矮小的楼房，紧凑齐全，毕集于一座山头之上，周围还有城墙环绕，占地比一个英国的家厨菜园也大不许多。然而这里却充满生机，非常热闹，轮蹄

喧哗，彻夜不休。

他们下榻的一家普通旅店中的餐馆为城中名流聚会之地；包括市长，律师，医生，以及一些其他人物；这些人中他们遇见了一位风姿翩翩，消瘦健谈的老人，乌黑的眸子炯炯有神，头发已经雪白 —— 他的体格修长挺立，仍然具有年轻人的身段，虽然侍者骄傲地对他们讲，这位伯爵已经molto vecchio（年纪很大）了 —— 实际上翌年即满八十。他是他家族的最后一人，侍者补充到 —— 他家曾经是富贵望族 —— 但他没有后代；伯爵在爱情上受过挫折，并从此未曾结婚，云云。实际上侍者提及此事时面有得意之色，仿佛这是当地人民引

以为荣的一段故事。

这为老先生兴致很高；显然他对这两位陌生人很感兴趣，并愿意结识他们。这事随即由友好的侍者促成；于是，在一次短暂的交谈之后，老人便邀请他们去他的别墅与花园做客，地址即在城墙之外不远的地方。于是次日下午，当夕阳开始西沉，门窗启处，兰色暗影已渐渐笼罩棕褐的山岭时，他们遂欣然命驾。那里地势局促 —— 一座不大的现代式灰墁别墅而外，另有一个炎澳的软石路面的花园，石砌水池之中浮游着一些懒散的金鱼，池旁靠墙处并有一尊女猎神及其猎犬的雕像等等。但是足为这小园增色的是其中一巨株蔷薇，树身过屋，绿荫翳窗，使院中沁满浓香。的确，这是一株不错的蔷薇，伯爵听了客人夸奖之后得意地说，并说他乐意把树的来历讲给夫人听听。于是当他们坐定之后，一边饮着酒时，他便以老年人满不在乎的欣然神情，略微提了提他的一段旧情，仿佛他相信他们对此一定早有所闻似的。―女士就住在青山背后的河谷对岸。那时我还是个少年，因为这已是多年前的事了。我常常骑马过去看她；路途不近，但我骑得很快，这点夫人当然理解，年轻人总是性急的。但这位女士心地不善良，喜欢叫人等个不休，往往一等就是几个小时；一天，我因为等得过久而生气起来。当我在她叫我等她的那个花园中踱来踱去时，我折了她的一朵，应该说一枝，蔷薇；当我发现自己做了这么一件事时，我便把那枝蔷薇藏在外衣里面 —— 就像这样 ——；回来以后我就把它种上，而夫人也已看到，它长得多好。如果夫人喜爱的话，我当然要奉赠一枝，好把它栽在园里；听说英国人的花园非常美丽，青葱翠绿，不象我们此地给太阳晒得那么燥

热。‖

第二天，修好了的马车来迎接他们。正当他们即将离开旅社之际，伯爵的老仆赶来，奉上包扎精致的蔷薇枝条一束，并代其主人转致一路平安之意。城中的人也都跑来向他们道别，儿童尾随在车子后面，一直跟出城外。他们听见车后的脚步声乱哄了一阵，但不久车子已经往下走了很远，进入河谷地带，而这座喧闹的山顶小城则早已高高地在他们头顶之上了。她把蔷薇栽在家中，蔷薇长得枝遂叶茂，十分美丽；每逢六月到来，浓碧的枝叶丛中，猩红馥郁，蔚成一派情如火灼的奇观，仿佛它的根茎之间依旧燃烧着那位意大利情人的愤怒与郁悒。当然那老伯爵此时肯定早已去世多年；而她也记不起他的名字，甚至连她所住过的那座山城叫什么名字，她也都记不起了，虽然她曾经在拂晓之时看它在空中闪烁发光，宛若一团

星The Two Roads

英汉对照

John Ruskin

It was New Year's Night.An aged man was standing at a window.He raised his mournful eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake.Then he cast them on the earth, where few more hopeless people than himself now moved towards their certain goal——the tomb.He had already passed sixty of the stages leading to it, and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse.Now his health was poor, his mind vacant, his heart sorrowful, and his old age short of comforts.The days of his youth appeared like dreams before him, and he recalled the serious moment when his father placed him at the entrance of the two roads——one leading to a peaceful, sunny place, covered with flowers, fruits and resounding with soft, sweet songs;the other leading to a deep, dark cave, which was endless, where poison flowed instead of water and where devils and poisonous snakes hissed and crawled.He looked towards the sky and cried painfully, ”O youth, return!O my father, place me once more at the entrance to life, and I'll choose the better way!“ But both his father and the days of his youth had passed away.He was the lights flowing away in the darkness.These were the days of his wasted life;he saw a star fall from the sky and disappeared, and this was the symbol of himself.His remorse, which was like a sharp arrow, struck deeply into his heart.Then he remembered his friends in his childhood, who entered on life together with him.But they had made their way to success and were now honoured and happy on this New Year's night.The clock in the high church tower struck and the sound made him remember his parents' early love for him.They had taught him and prayed to God for his good.But he chose the wrong way.With shame and grief he dared no longer look towards that heaven where his father live.His darkened eyes were full of tears, and with a despairing effort, he burst out a cry: ”Come back, my early days!Come back!“

And his youth did return, for all this was only a dream which he had on New Year's Night.He was still young though his faults were real;he had not yet entered the deep, dark cave, and he was still free to walk on the road which leads to the peaceful and sunny land.Those who still linger on the entrance of life, hesitating to choose the bright road, remember that when years are passed and your feet stumble on the dark mountains, you will cry bitterly, but in vain: ”O youth, return!Oh give me back my early days!“ Words:

mournful 悲伤的

remorse 悔恨

resounding 回响

hiss 嘶嘶作声

grief 悲痛

burst out 大声说出，脱口而出

linger 徘徊

stumble 绊倒

in vain 徒劳地

参考译文：

除夕之夜，一位老人伫立窗前。他满眼哀伤，仰望着深蓝色的天空，那儿，星星如清澈平静的湖面上的朵朵白莲在漂移着；后来，他将目光投向地面，几个比他更加绝望的人正在走向人生的终点——坟墓。在通往人生终点的道路上，他已走过了60多个驿站，除了过失和悔恨，他一无所获。现在，他健康欠佳，精神空虚，心情忧郁，缺少晚年应有的舒适和安逸。

青春的岁月如梦幻般浮现在他眼前，他回想起父亲将他放在人生岔路口上的关键时刻，当时，他面前有两条路：一条通向和平宁静、阳光灿烂的地方，那里到处是花果，到处回荡着柔和甜美的歌声；另一条则通向黑暗无底的深渊，那里流淌着毒液而不是清水，恶魔肆虐，毒蛇嘶嘶爬动。

他仰望天空，痛苦地哭喊：―哦，青春，你回来吧！哦，爸爸，请把我重新放到人生的路口上吧，我会做出更好的选择。‖然而他的父亲和他的青春年华皆离他远去。

他看见灯消逝在黑暗中，那便是他虚度的时光；他看见一颗星星从空中陨落、消失，那是他自身的象征。悔恨如同一支利箭，深深地刺进他的心。接着，他想起童年时代的朋友，他们曾与他一同踏上人生的旅程，现已获得成功，受到人们的尊敬，此刻正在幸福中欢度除夕。

教堂塔顶的钟声响了，使他回忆起父母早年对他的爱，他们曾给予他谆谆教诲，曾为他的幸福祈祷上帝。可他偏偏选择人生的歧途。羞愧和忧伤使他再也不敢正式他父亲所在的天堂。他双眼黯然无光，饱噙着泪水，在绝望中，他拼力高喊：―回来吧，我那逝去的年华！回来吧！‖

青春真的回来了，因为以上所发生的一切只是他在除夕所做的一场梦。他仍旧年轻，当然他真的犯有过失；但还未堕入深渊；他仍然可以自由地走上通向宁静和光明的道路。

在人生路口徘徊，不知该不该选择光明大道的年轻人啊，你们千万要记住：当你青春已逝，双足在黑暗的群山中举步维艰，跌跌撞撞之时，你才痛心疾首地呼唤：―哦，回来吧、青春！哦，把我的美好年华还给我！‖，这只会是徒劳无益的。群。

Crocus

It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house.Our children were upstairs unpacking，and I was looking out the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn.My parents lived nearby，and Dad had visited us several times already.”What are you doing out there?‖ I called to him.那是一个秋日的早晨，全家刚搬进我们第一处住宅不久。孩子们在楼上从包果里往外拿东西。我望着窗外，见父亲正神秘地在屋前的草地上打转。父母住在附近，父亲已到我家来过几次了。我向他喊道：―您在外边干什么呢?‖

He looked up，smiling.“I 'm making you a surprise.” Knowing my father, I thought it could be just about anything.A self-employed jobber, he was always building things out of odds and ends.When we were kids, he once rigged up a jungle gym out of wheels and pulleys.For one of my Halloween parties, he created an electrical pumpkin and mounted，it on a broomstick.As guests came to our door, he would light the pumpkin and have it pop out in front of them from a hiding place in the bushes.他笑着抬起头来说：―我要给你一个惊喜。‖我了解父亲，他会做出点事来的。他是个体手艺人，总是用零星东西做些小玩艺儿。当我们还是孩子的时候，有一次他用几个轮子和滑轮装配了一个攀登架。有一次万圣节，他为我做了个电南瓜，还把它装在一个扫帚把上。客人到我家门前时，他就把点亮藏在树丛中的南瓜灯，在他们走到跟前突然伸出来。

Today, however, Dad would say no more, and, caught ups in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise.不过今天爸爸却不愿多说什么，况且我们新生活的还有千头万绪要理，结果我也就忘了他的什么惊喜了。

Until one raw day the following March when I glanced out the window.Dismal.Overcast.Little piles of dirty snow still stubbornly littering the lawn, Would winter ever end? 第二年三月的一天，我感到潮湿阴冷于是朝窗外望了望，外面阴沉沉，灰蒙蒙的，草坪上到处是一堆堆不―化‖的污雪。难道冬天就不会走了吗?

And yet...was it a mirage? I strained to see what I thought was something pink, miraculously peeking out of a drift.And was that a dot of blue across the yard, a small note of optimism in this gloomy expanse? I grabbed my coat and.headed outside for a closer look.可是...这该不是幻觉吧?我瞪大眼睛看，似乎有粉色的什么东西从吹积成的雪堆中神奇地冒出来。那是院子那头的一个小蓝点，是这郁闷压抑的阴霾中的一个快乐的小音符吗?我抓起外衣向外奔去，我要去看个究竟。

They were crocuses, scattered whimsically throughout the front lawn.Lavender, blue, yellow and my favorite pink-little faces bobbing in the bitter wind.是番红花，在屋前草坪上星罗棋布到处都是。淡紫色、蓝色、黄色和我钟爱的粉色——一个个小脸在凛冽的寒风中摇曳着。Dad.I smiled, remembering the bulbs he had secretly planted last autumn.He knew how the darkness and dreariness of winter always got me down.What could have been more perfectly timed, more attuned to my needs? How blessed I was, not only for the flowers but for him.爸爸。我笑了，想起了他去年秋天他偷偷种下的球茎。他知道，在万物凋零的冬天我总是情绪低落。还有什么比番红花更适合时宜的呢？还有什么比番红花更合我的需求呢?我好幸福，因为有了这些花，更因为有这样的爸爸。

My father' s crocuses bloomed each spring for the next four or five seasons, bringing that same assurance every time they arrived: Hard times almost over.Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon.以后的四五年中，父亲种的番红花年年在竞相吐艳，每逢花开都给我带来同样的信心：艰难时刻就要结束。坚持不懈，继续努力，光明就会来临。

Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms.The next spring there were none.I missed the crocuses, but my life was busier than ever, and I had never been much of a gardener.I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs.But I never did.一年后的春天，开的花只有以往的一半。有过一年，一株花也不见了。我思念番红花，可我的妻子比平时更加忙碌而我又不擅长养花弄草。本想叫爸爸过来再种些球茎，可我一直也没付诸行动。

He died suddenly one October day.My family grieved deeply, leaning on our faith.I missed him terribly, though I knew he would always be a part of us.有一年十月的一天，他突然仙逝了。全家人都沉浸在悲痛之中，我们靠信念支撑着。我深深地怀念他，我知道他将永远和我们在一起。

Four years passed, and on a dismal spring afternoon I was running errands and found myself feeling depressed.You've got the winter blahs again, I told myself.You get them every year.四年过去了，这年春天的一个下午，天气阴沉郁闷，我外出办事感到心情压抑。难道你又犯冬季无聊症了，我心里想。你年年犯这个毛病。

It was Dad ' s birthday, and I found myself thinking about him.This was not unusual--my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived his faith.Once I saw him give his coat to a homeless man.Often he ' d chat with strangers, and if he learned they were poor and hungry, he would invite them home for a meal.But now, in the car, I could not help wondering: How is he now? Where is he? Is there really a heaven?

这天是爸爸的生日，我不由得想到了他，这并不奇怪——家里人经常谈起他，回忆他在生活中实践自己的信念的件件往事。有一次，我曾见他把自己的外衣送给一个无家可归的人。他常和陌生人聊天，要是听说他们处于困顿饥饿之境，他会把他们请到家里吃上一顿饭。而今，坐在汽车中我不禁自问：他现在怎样了?他在哪儿?真有天国存在吗?

I felt guilty for having doubts, but sometimes, I thought as I turned into our driveway, faith is so hard.我为有此疑惑而感到内疚，可有时，我认为坚守信念太难了。此时，我把车拐进了我家的车道上。

Suddenly I slowed, stopped and stared at the lawn.Muddy grass and small gray mounds of melting snow.And there, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.我猛地放慢了速度，停下车注视着草坪。草上粘满泥污，一个个灰色小雪堆正在溶化。就在这里，有一株粉红色的番红花却在不屈地迎风摇曳着。

How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years old, one that had not blossomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus.Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.18年前种下的已有10多年未曾生长开花的球茎，如今怎会从新开放呢?可那确是番红花。当我认识到其深刻含义时，不禁热泪盈眶。

Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon.The pink crocus bloomed for only a day.But it built my faith for a lifetime.坚持不懈，继续努力，光明就会来临。这株粉色番红花只开了一天。但却为我的一生树立了信念。

The Son

儿子

一位富翁和他儿子爱好收藏

画，他们收藏了从毕加索到拉费奥等很多艺术品。常常他俩坐在一起 A wealthy man and his son loved to collect works

欣赏着大师的作品。of art.They had everything from Picasso to Raphael.They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.当越战爆发的时候，儿子投入When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went

了战争。他非常勇敢，在一次作战to war.He was very courageous and died in battle

中因为抢救战友而牺牲了。父亲接while rescuing another soldier.The father was

到了通知，深深地哀恸他唯一的儿notified and grieved deeply for his only son.子。约一个月之后，正好是圣诞节About a month later, just before Christmas, there

前，门上传来敲门声。一位年轻人

站在那里，手里拿着一个很大的包was a knock at the door.A young man stood there

裹。他说道：“先生，你不认识我，with a large package in his hands.He said “Sir, you

我就是你儿子为了救我而牺牲的don't

那个战士。那天他救了很多人，当他背着我走向安全地带的时候，一know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son 颗子弹击中了他的心脏，他顿时就gave his life.He saved many lives that day, and he 牺牲了。他常常说起你和你对艺术的爱好，”年轻人举起他的包裹，was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him

“我知道这不算什么，我是真的不in the

怎样的艺术家，但我想你儿子会要

你保留这幅画的。”父亲打开了包heart and he died instantly.He often talked about

裹，是他儿子的一幅肖像画，是这you and your love for art.’’ The young man held

年轻人画的。他惊奇地注视着画中out his package.”I know this isn't much.I'm really 那士兵是如何捕捉到他儿子的个not a great artist, but I think your son would have 性的。父亲如此地被画里的眼睛吸

引，他自己的眼睛也充满了泪水。wanted you to have this.“ The father opened the

他谢了那年轻人并提议买下这幅package.It was a portrait of his son, painted by the

画。“噢，不要钱，先生，我永远young man.不能偿还你儿子给我做的一切。这是礼物。”

He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting.The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes swelled up with tears.He thanks the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.”Oh no, sir, I could never repay what you son did for me.It's a gift.父亲把这肖像画挂在壁炉架The father hung the portrait over his

上，每次有客人来他家拜访，他总mantle.Every time visitors came to his

是在给他们看他收藏的许多名作home he took them to see the portrait of

之前，先带他们看儿子的肖像。his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.富翁在几个月之后死了。他的The man died a few months later.There was to be a

伟大收藏也将要被拍卖掉。许多人great auction of his great works of art.Many people

聚集着，为能一睹这些伟大的收藏gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and

以及能从他的收藏里买一个加入自己的收藏品这一机会而激动不having an opportunity to purchase one for their

已。在讲台上安臵着那儿子的肖像collection.On the platform sat the portrait of his

画，拍卖经纪人用他的槌子敲打着son.The auctioneer pounded his gavel, “we will start

台面：“我们从这幅儿子的肖像画with this portrait of the son.Who will bid for this

开始。谁投这幅画的标？”

picture？

场面非常安静。这时有一个There was silence.Then a!voice in the back of the

声音在厅堂的后面叫道：“我们要

看名画，跳过这一幅。” room shouted ”We want to see the famous paintings.Skip this one.“

但拍卖经纪人坚持着：“有But the auctioneer persisted, ”Will someone bid for

没有人投这幅画的标？谁先开this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100，始？一百，两百？ $200?“

另外一个声音高喊着，非Another voice shouted angrily, ”We didn't come here

常愤怒：“我们不是来这里看这幅to see this painting.We came to see the Van Gohs，画的，我们是来看梵高的画，看伦the Rembrandts.Get on with the real bids“.伯朗的画的。快进入真正的竞标吧。”

但拍卖经纪人依旧继续 But still the auctioneer continued, ”The son!

着：“儿子，儿子，谁要这儿子？”The son!Who will take The son?“ Finally, a voice

终于，一个声音从厅堂的深处传came from the very back of the room.It was the longtime

来：“我出十块钱要这画。”因为穷，这是他力所能及的价钱。

gardener of the man and his son.”I'll give you $10 for the painting.“ Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.”We have $10, who will bid $20??“

“十块给他吧，让我们看名作。

”Give it to him for $10.Let's see the masters“.”

”$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?“

人群开始愤怒起来。他们不The crowd was becoming angry.They didn't want

想要这儿子的画。他们要收藏的是the picture of the son.They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.更值得投资的东西。

拍卖经纪人敲打着槌子：“一次竞标，两次竞标，十块得 The auctioneer pounded his gavel.”Going once, 标！” twice, SOLD for $10!“

一位坐在第二排的人喊道：“现在“标价十块，没有人标二十的吗？”

“有人标了十块，有谁肯标二十的吗？”

让我们开始进入收藏品的竞标。”

那拍卖经纪人放下他的A man sitting in the second row shouted, ”Now let's get on with the collection!

“那些收藏品怎么办？”

The auctioneer laid down his gavel “I'm sorry, the auction is over”.”

“What about the paintings?”

“对不起，当我被叫来负“I'm sorry, when I was called to conduct this auction，责这场拍卖的时候，我被告知那人I was told of a secret stipulation in the will.I was 的遗嘱中有秘密的约定，一直到现not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this

在我是不允许暴露这个秘密的。只有儿子这幅画是要拍卖的。谁买了time.Only the painting of the son would be 这幅画谁就继承整个遗产，包括这auctioned.Whoever bought that painting would 幅画。那个男人拿了儿子肖像，得到了一切。” inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.The man who took the son, gets everything!”

上帝在2000年以前给他God gave his son 2000 years ago to die on the cruel 的儿子在残酷的十字架上受死。和cross.Much like the auctioneer, His message today

这经纪人非常相似，他今天的福音is “The son, the son, who'll take the son?” Because，是：“儿子，儿子，谁承受这个儿you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.子？”因为，你看，谁接纳儿子谁

槌子说：“很抱歉，竞标已经结束了。”

就获得一切。

The Sunday School Teacher

Miss Swan couldn't take being a Sunday Sunday。This handful of disrespectful

主日学校的老师

斯万小姐再也受不了主日一个星期天都不行！这一群不知school teacher any longer.Not for another 学校教师的这一工作了。再多干teenagers snapped their gum during prayer 尊重为何物的十几岁孩子们，会time and read magazines during Bible study.在祈祷的时候大嚼口香糖，在学But most awful of all，at prayer re-quest习圣经的时候读杂志。最可气的they asked the Lord to increase their weekly 是：他们竟然在祈祷中要求上帝allowances!让他们每星期的零花钱有所增加。

“我受够你们了，我辞职！”“I have had it with you.I quit。”she

她朝学生们喊道。“酷毙了，”雷screamed at the students.“Cool，”Rick said

克说，一边还点头表示赞同。他nodding in approval.He was the rudest kid

是她曾遇到过的最没有礼貌的she'd ever met.小孩。

过了２个月才为那个主日It took two months to find a new replacement

学校班找到新的老师。贝蒂〃雷for that Sunday school class.The pastor

小姐去见这一群看起来像假天escorted Miss Betty Ray in to meet the

使一样的孩子们的时候，教区牧pseudo-angelic-looking group.New in town，师亲自为她护驾。她新来乍到，she hadn't heard of their reputation for

对镇上这群孩子赶走老师的名chasing off teachers.By the look of her

声尚无所闻。从她明显小一号的pink dress，one size too small，and her bad

粉红色衣服，以及染得不好的一blonde bleach job，the students obviously

头金发，学生们已经明显感到遇felt they had an easy mark.Soon bets were

到了一个好对付的目标。很快他taken as to how long Miss Betty would last.们开始打赌贝蒂会待多久。Betty introduced herself，stating that she

贝蒂做了自我介绍，说明自recently came from the South.She certainly 己刚从南方来。她的确看起来像looked like a southern belle who wore outdated clothes and whose beauty had

一个穿着过时衣服的南方女人，她已经不像１０年前那么漂亮，peaked a decade earlier，only she didn't 只是她自己没有察觉。当她在那know it yet.Snickers rip pled in the room 个被当作手袋的大背包里面寻as she rummaged through the huge shoulder 找什么东西的时候，窃笑声开始bag she carried for a purse.在教室里此起彼伏。

“Have any of you ever been out of state？

”你们中有谁去过其他州“she asked in a friendly tone.A few hands 吗？”她用友好的语调问道。有went up.“Anyone travel beyond five hundred

几个手举了起来。

”有人到过５００英里以外miles？“One hand went up as the snickering 的地方吗？”有一只手举了起diminished.来，同时窃笑声逐渐消失。“Anyone visited outside the country？”No

“有人去过国外吗？”现在hands went up now.The silent teens were 没有人举手了。安静下来的孩子puz-zled.What did this have to do with 们有点儿困惑。她问这些是什么anything？Was she using psychology on them，意思？她是在他们身上使用心or was she just plain clueless？

理学呢，还是她本来就是这样毫

无章法？ Finally，Betty's bony hand struck on what she had been searching for in her handbag.最后，贝蒂瘦消的手终于摸Pulling up a long tube，she unrolled a map 到了她在背包里找的东西。她抽of the world.“What else do you have in 出一个长卷筒，打开了一张世界there？Lunch？”Someone cracked.Betty later.“"Cool，”Rick quipped.地图。“背包里面还有什么呢？蒂淡淡地笑了一下回答道：”待会儿给大家的小点心。“"酷毙了，”雷克嘲弄道。

随后她用长长的指甲指向Then she pointed with a long fingernail to 一个样子挺奇怪的陆地。“我出an odd-shaped continent.”I was born here，生在这里，“她用手指敲了一下。”she tapped with her finger.“And I lived ”我一直长到你们这么大才离开here until I was about your age.“Everyone 那儿。”每个人都伸长了脖子去craned their neck to see where it was.“Is 看它到底在哪儿。”是德克萨斯that Texas？“Someone sitting in the back 吗？”坐在后面的一个学生问asked.“Not even close.It is India.”Her 道。“和德克萨斯不沾边，它是eyes twinkled with joy.印度。”她的眼睛高兴地眨了一下。

“How did you get way over there to be born？ ”你是怎么跑到那里出生的“Betty laughed.”My parents were

呢？“贝蒂笑了。”我的父母是那missionaries there，and that is where my 里的传教士，那就是我降生的时mother was when I came into the world.“ 候母亲待的地方。”

“Cool!”Rick leaned back in his chair duly “酷毙了！”雷克仰向椅子的impressed.Betty fumbled again in her 后背，很显然感兴趣了。贝蒂又purse，this time pulling out a handful of 在背包里摸索了一阵子。这次拿old wrinkled pictures along with a tin of 出来的是一叠起皱的旧照片和chocolate chip cookies.They passed the 一盒巧克力小点心。学生们开始pictures around，viewing each with great in 传阅照片，很感兴趣的样子。照terest.Dark faces stared up from the 片里被时间凝固下来的黑黑的photos，frozen in time.The kids studied 面孔盯着他们。孩子们一边吃小them as they bit into the sweets.点心，一边仔细观察这些面孔。

“You don't have to be a

你们没有必要非要当传教smiled lightly and answered，”Cookies for 午饭？“有人开玩笑地问道。贝missionary--everyone can do something in 士--在这个世界上每个人都可this world to help another，”Miss Betty 以为帮助其他人做些事情。“贝said.The hour quickly slid by as she told 蒂小姐说。她为孩子们讲述一些them her stories about faraway places and 发生在很远地方的故事，以及那what the people were like there and how they 里的居民是什么样子，他们是怎lived.么生活的等等，这样一小时很快

地过去了。”Wow，this is as exciting as TV。“one young girl told her.”喔，这简直和电视一样精彩！“一个小女孩告诉她。

一个星期天接着一个星期Sunday after Sunday，Betty came to class，天，贝蒂来到课堂上，把功课和tying her lessons to their everyday lives.学生们的日常生活紧密地结合She told the teens how they could make a 起来。她告诉这些十几岁的孩子difference right now.The students grew to 们他们怎样可以现在就做出一love her，bleached blonde hair and all.The 些有意义的事情来。学生们开始more they liked her，the lovelier she became.喜欢上了她，连同她染过的金发以及她的一切。他们越是喜欢她，她就显得越可爱。

Betty taught that Sunday school class for

贝蒂在那个主日学校班教了twenty years.Though she never married，２０年。尽管她从未结婚，也没or had children of her own，the town came

有自己的孩子，镇子里的人却认to think of her as a surrogate parent since

为她是母亲的化身，因为她教了she taught two generations of children.At

两代小孩。最后，她的头发变成last，her hair grew into a natural gray.了很自然的灰白色。嘴角和眼角Increasing wrinkles about her mouth and

不断增多的皱纹给她那张娃娃eyes added character to her cherub face.Her

脸上增添了个性。她的手随着年hands began to shake with age.Every now and

龄的增长开始颤抖。时不时地，then，she received a letter from a former

她会收到以前学生的一封封来student.There was a doctor，a research

信。他们中间有医生、科学家、scientist，a homemaker，a businessman，and

家庭主妇、商人，也有很多老师。

many teachers among them.One day she reached into her mailbox and

一天她打开信箱抽出一个pulled out a blue envelope with a familiar 蓝色的信封，信封的右上角贴着foreign stamp in the upper right-hand a boy in that very first Sunday school always liked her cookies and seemed so

一张熟悉的外国邮票。在左上角一个主日学校班里面的一个男么喜欢她的小点心，并且对她的corner.In the left corner was the name of 是一个很多年前她教的镇上第class，years ago.She recalled how he'd 生的名字。她回忆起他一直是多interested in her lessons.A picture slid 课是多么地感兴趣。一张照片从out of the envelope and onto her lap.信封里滑了出来，掉到了她的腿Squinting her eyes，she smiled at the man 上。她眯起眼睛看着照片，冲着in the photo，still seeing the teenage boy 照片里的那个男人笑了；在她眼in him.Standing in the rubble，in the city 里他还是那个十几岁的孩子。照of Delhi，India，he stood with other volunteers who had come to help the earthquake victims.片上他和其他去救助地震遇难者的志愿者们在一起，站在印度德里市的一片瓦砾中间，The caption read，”Because of you，I am here 旁边有几个字：“因为您，now.” 我现在来了这里。“

A Coke and a Smile

可乐与微笑

I know now that the man who sat with me

我现在知道，35年前那个炎on the old wooden stairs that hot summer

热夏夜和我坐在破旧的木楼梯night over thirty-five years ago was not a

上的老人并不高大，但对一个5tall man.But to a five-year-old, he was a

岁的孩子来说，他却是一个巨giant.We sat side by side, watching the sun

人。我们并排坐着，看着太阳落go down behind the old Texaco service

在繁忙的街对面那个老德克萨station across the busy street.A street

克加油站的背后。除非有大人或that I was never allowed to cross unless

至少一个哥哥或姐姐陪着，我从accompanied by an adult, or at the very

未被允许穿过那条街。

least, an older sibling.Cherry-scented smoke from Grampy's pipe

从祖父烟斗里喷出的白色烟kept the hungry mosquitoes at bay while 雾在我们脑袋周围上下旋绕，它gray, wispy swirls danced around our heads.们散发的樱桃香味使贪婪的蚊Now and again, he blew a smoke ring and 子不敢靠近。他不时地喷出一串laughed as I tried to target the hole with 烟圈，在我试着将手指插入烟圈my finger.I, clad in a cool summer nightie, 时他放声大笑。我穿着凉爽的小and Grampy, his sleeveless T-shirt, sat 睡衣，祖父穿着他的无袖T恤，watching the traffic.We counted cars and 坐在那儿观看繁忙的交通。我们tried to guess the color of the next one to 数着过往的车辆，并猜想着下一turn the corner.circumstances.The fourth born of six

辆拐过街角的汽车的颜色。的中间境遇，作为6个孩子中的 Once again, I was caught in the middle of 我又一次陷于两头都够不上children, it was not uncommon that I was 老四，很多事情对于我来说不是either too young or too old for something.因为年龄太小，就是太大而不合This night I was both.While my two baby 适。那天夜里就是这样。我的两brothers slept inside the house, my three 个小兄弟在屋里睡觉，我的另外older siblings played with friends around 3个长兄和姐姐在拐角与小伙伴the corner, where I was not allowed to go.们玩，而我是不允许去那里的。I stayed with Grampy, and that was okay with 我与祖父呆在一起，这也挺好，me.I was where I wanted to be.My grandfather was baby-sitting while my mother, father and grandmother went out.”渴吗？“祖父烟斗不离口地 Thirsty?” Grampy asked, never removing the

问我。

pipe from his mouth.“是的。”我回答说。“跑到街对 ” Yes,“ was my reply.” How would you like

面的加油站去给你自己买瓶可to run over to the gas station there and get

乐怎么样？“

yourself a bottle of Coke?”

我简直不敢相信自己的耳 I couldn't believe my ears.Had I heard

朵，我没有听错吧?他是在跟我right? Was he talking to me? On my family's

说话吗？就我们家微薄的收入modest income, Coke was not a part of our

来说，可乐不是我们家庭开销的budget or diet.A few tantalizing sips was

一部分。我只是迫不及待地啜过all I had ever had, and certainly never my

几小口，从来没有自己喝过一own bottle.瓶。“ Okay,” I replied shyly, already

“好的。”我害羞地回答说，已wondering how I would get across the street.经在想着该怎样穿过马路，祖父Surely Grampy was going to come with me.当然会跟我一块。Grampy stretched his long leg out straight 祖父将他的长腿伸直，把他的and reached his huge hand deep into the 大手伸进口袋。我能听到零钱相pocket.I could hear the familiar jangling 碰而发出的熟悉的丁当声，他总of the loose change he always carried.是把这些零钱带在身上。他张开Opening his fist, he exposed a mound of 手，露出了一堆宝贝似的银币。silver coins.There must have been a million 那里面一定有100万美元！他让dollars there.He instructed me to pick out 我拿出一个1角的硬币。把零钱a dime.After he deposited the rest of the 放回口袋后，他站了起来。

change back into his pocket, he stood up.“好吧，”他说，帮着我下楼 “ Okay,” he said, helping me down the

梯到马路沿儿那儿去，“我站在stairs and to the curb, ” I'm going to stay 这儿，听着屋里的两个孩子有没

正是我想呆的地方。在父母和祖母外出时，祖父就在家看孩子。here and keep an ear out for the babies.I'll 有动静，什么时候穿过马路安tell you when it's safe to cross.You go over 全，我会告诉你的。你到对面的to the Coke machine, get your Coke and come 可乐机那儿买到你的可乐后再back out.Wait for me to tell you when it's 走回来。等着我告诉你什么时候safe to cross back.“ My heart pounded.I clutched my dime

过马路安全。”

我的心砰砰地跳着，紧紧地tightly in my sweaty palm.Excitement took

用汗手攥着那枚1角的硬币，兴my breath away.奋地喘不上气来。Grampy held my hand tightly.Together we

祖父紧紧地拉着我的手，我looked up the street and down, and back up

们一块看了看大街的前后左右。again.He stepped off the curb and told me

他走下马路沿儿，告诉我现在可it was safe to cross.He let go of my hand

以过去了。他放开我的手，我跑and I ran.I ran faster than I had ever run

了起来。我从没有跑得这么快before.The street seemed wide.I wondered

过。街道似乎很宽，我怀疑自己if I would make it to the other side.是否能跑到对面。跑到对面后，Reaching the other side, I turned to find

我回头寻找祖父，他正站在我离Grampy.There he was, standing exactly

开他的地方，为我自豪地微笑where I had left him, smiling proudly.I

着。我朝他挥了挥手。

waved.“ Go on, hurry up,” he yelled.“接着走，快点。”他喊道。

My heart pounded wildly as I walked inside 我的心砰砰乱跳着走进昏the dark garage.I had been inside the garage 暗的修车站。我以前曾和父亲一before with my father.My surroundings were 块来过这里，对周围的一切都很familiar.I heard the Coca-Cola machine 熟悉。甚至在看见可口可乐机之motor humming even before I saw it.I walked 前就听到了其马达发出的嗡嗡directly to the big old red-and-white

声。我径直走向那台红白相间的dispenser.I knew where to insert my dime.巨大的老自动售货机。我知道该I had seen it done before and had fantasized 往哪儿插硬币，我曾看人做过并about this moment many times.曾多次幻想有一天我也能亲身

试一试。The big old monster greedily accepted my dime, and I heard the bottles shift.On

那个老巨人贪婪地吞下我的tiptoes I reached up and opened the heavy 硬币，我听见了瓶子移动的声door.There they were: one neat row of thick 音。我踮起脚尖伸手摸索着打开green bottles, necks staring directly at 了它厚重的门。它们就在那儿!me, and ice cold from the refrigeration.I 一排整齐的深绿色瓶子，瓶颈一held the door open with my shoulder and 个挨一个地凝视着我，冰箱里散grabbed one.With a quick yank, I pulled it 发出冰冷的气息。我用肩膀顶着free from its bondage.Another one

门，伸手抓住一个，迅速一拉，immediately took its place.The bottle was 将它从捆绑中拉了出来，另一个cold in my sweaty hands.I will never forget 立即占据了它的位置。瓶子在我the feeling of the cool glass on my skin.汗浸浸的手中显得格外冰凉，我With two hands, I positioned the bottleneck 永远忘不了冰凉的瓶子接触我under the heavy brass opener that was bolted 皮肤时的感觉。我两手抓住瓶to the wall.The cap dropped into an old 子，将瓶颈放在固定的墙上的厚wooden box, and I reached in to retrieve it.铜开瓶器下，瓶盖立即掉在一个I was cold and bent in the middle, but I knew 老木箱里，我伸手将它捡了出I needed to have this souvenir.Coke in 来，感觉好凉，中间已经弯曲，hand, I proudly marched back out into the 但我知道我需要拥有这个纪念early evening dusk.Grampy was waiting patiently.He smiled.品。手拿可乐，我自豪地走回到外面，已是黄昏时分。祖父正耐心地等待着，并面带微笑。

“停在那儿，”一两辆车在我面

前飞驶而过，祖父再次走下马路 “ Stop right there,” he yelled.One or two cars sped by me, and once again, Grampy 沿儿，“现在过来，”他说，“跑stepped off the curb.” Come on, now,“ he 过来！”我跑了起来，冰凉的棕

色泡沫溅在我的手上。“别再一said, ” run.“ I did.Cool brown foam sprayed my hands.” Don't ever do that alone,“ he 个人独自过马路！”他警告我。warned.I held the Coke bottle tightly, 我紧紧地抱着可乐瓶，生怕他让我把可乐倒在杯子里，毁掉我的fearful he would make me pour it into a cup，梦想。他没有。我咕噜噜长长地ruining this dream come true.He didn't.One 吞下一口冰凉的可乐，冒汗的身long swallow of the cold beverage cooled my

体顿觉清爽无比。我认为自己再sweating body.I don't think I ever felt so proud.也没有过当时那样的自豪。By Jacqueline M.Hickey（袁红梅 译 自 Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul)

have two adopt sisters

An only child, a perfectly ordinary little girl in rural Wisconsin, I wanted

我有两个领养妹妹

小时候我是家里的独生女，sisters more than anything.When I turned

是威斯康新州农村的一个非常seven, my parents made a decision that delighted me beyond measure: they chose to 普通的女孩。那时我特别想要的adopt.就是妹妹。我7岁那年，父母做出了一个让我喜出望外的决定：他们要领养了。

那是圣诞节期间，我的两个新妹妹，一个6岁，一个It was Christmastime when my two new sisters, aged 6 and 3, arrived from

3岁，从哥伦比亚来到了我家。

她们的到来带来了喜庆，亲朋好Colombia.They came with a great flourish of celebration, as friends and relatives 友带着礼物来我家欢迎她们。那visited us bearing gifts to welcome them.天晚上客人们走后，剩下了我们That evening our guests went home and we were left to ourselves.My sisters and I

自己，我和妹妹们走进我们共用went to the bedroom we were to share;as we 的卧室；当我们爬上床时，父母crawledsintosour beds, our parents came to each of us, tucking us in and saying

进来了，为我们一一掖好被角并goodnight.“Te amo,”they whispered to my new sisters in Spanish,“I love you.”

且道了晚安，“Te amo”，他们用西班牙语向我的新妹妹耳语道，“我爱你”。

From the beginning these newcomers were

从一开始，新来的妹妹就like my own flesh and blood;we played and

像是我的亲妹妹；我们一起玩，bickered and learned just as if we had

一起斗嘴，一起学习，仿佛我们always been sisters.From the beginning we all were my parents' daughters equally, as

一直就是姐妹；父母对我们指they supervised and scolded and encouraged us.教、训斥或鼓励时，我们都是父

母的女儿，谁都不受偏袒。

生活看上去非常好。然而，在表象之下，父母却在为他 Life seemed great.Beneath the surface, 们之间的婚姻问题而苦苦挣扎，however, my parents were struggling with

当我们姐妹十几岁时，父母说出their own marital problems.As we girls were approaching our teen years, my parents a divorce.”

了那句致命的话：“我们要离婚uttered the fateful words,“We're getting

了。”

My sisters had been hurt before.They had

妹妹们以前就受到过伤been dealt a great wound when their birth mother abandoned them, and none of us understood the depth of their inner

害，当她们遭生母遗弃时蒙受过turmoil.It was a pain that now resurfaced, 巨大的伤痛，无人能够理解她们as the emotions from that abandonment years

内心的烦乱有多深，而这一痛苦earlier overwhelmed them.如今又重新浮现出来，早年被遗弃时的情感使她们不知所措。

在这一段时间里我们都在苦苦挣扎。我的父亲再婚 We all struggled during this time.My

了，并努力通过新的家庭——另father remarried and strove to provide some sort of stability for us through this new

一个妈妈、弟弟和妹妹——为我family: another mother, brother and sister.But the bonds between my parents and sisters

们提供稳定的生活。但父母与我continued to disintegrate.By the time I left for college, my family was in profound

们姐妹间的关系仍在分崩离析。disarray.在我离开家上大学时，家里正处于一片混乱当中。