(完整版)综合教程3课文翻译

Unit 1

Something for stevie

I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about hiring Stevie. His placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy. But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and wasn’t sure I wanted one. I wasn’t sure how my customers would react. Stevie was short, a little dumpy, with the smooth facial features and thick-tongued speech of Down’s syndrome.

I wasn’t worried about most of my trucker customers. Truckers don’t generally care who buses tables as long as the food is good and the pies are homemade. The ones who concerned me were the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded “truck-stop germ;”and the pairs of white-shirted businessmen on expense accounts who think every truck-stop waitress wants to be flirted with. I knew those people would be uncomfortable around Stevie, so I closely watched him for the first few weeks.

I shouldn’t have worried. After the first week, Stevie had my staff wrapped around his little finger. Within a month my trucker regulars had adopted him as their official truck-stop mascot. After that I really didn’t care what the rest of the customers thought.

He was a 21-year-old in blue jeans and Nikes, eager to laugh and eager to please, but fierce in his attention to his duties. Every salt and pepper shaker was exactly in its place, not a bread crumb or coffee spill was visible when Stevie got done with the table.

Our only problem was convincing him to wait to clean a table until after the customers were finished. He would hover in the background, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, scanning the dining room until a table was empty. Then he would hurry to the empty table and carefully bus the dishes and glasses onto the cart and meticulously wipe the table with a practiced flourish of his rag. If he thought a customer was watching, his brows would pucker with added concentration. He took pride in doing his job exactly right, and you had to love how hard he tried to please each and every person he met.

Over time, we learned that he lived with his mother, a widow who was disabled after repeated surgeries for cancer. They lived on their Social Security benefits in public housing two miles from the truck-stop. Their social worker, who stopped to check on him every so often, admitted they had fallen between the cracks. Money was tight, and what I paid him was probably the difference between them being able to live together and Stevie being sent to a group home.

That’s why the restaurant was a gloomy place that morning last August, the first morning in three years that Stevie missed work. He was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester getting a new valve or something put in his heart. His social worker said that people with Down’s syndrome often have heart problems at an early age, so this wasn’t unexpected. There was a good chance he would come through the surgery in good shape and be back at work in a few months.

A ripple of excitement ran through the staff later that morning when word came that he was out of surgery, in recovery and doing fine. Frannie, my head waitress, let out a war whoop and did a little dance in the aisle when she heard the good news. Belle Ringer, one of our regular trucker customers, stared at the sight of this 50-year-old grandmother of four doing a victory shimmy beside his table. Frannie blushed, smoothed her apron and shot Belle Ringer a withering

look.

9 He grinned. “OK, Frannie, what was that all about?”he asked.

10 “We just got word that Stevie is out of surgery and going to be okay.”she responded.

“I was wondering where he was,”said Belle. “I had a new joke to tell him. What was the surgery about?”

12 Frannie quickly told him and the other two drivers sitting at his booth about Stevie’s surgery, then sighed. “Yeah, I’m glad he is going to be okay,”she said, “but I don’t know how he and his mom are going to handle all the bills. From what I hear, they’re barely getting by

as it is.”Belle Ringer nodded thoughtfully, and Frannie hurried off to wait on the rest of her tables.

After the morning rush, Frannie walked into my office. She had a couple of paper napkins in her hand and a funny look on her face. “What’s up?”I asked. “That table where Belle Ringer and his friends were sitting,”she said, “this was folded and tucked under a coffee cup.”She handed the napkin to me, and three $20 bills fell onto my desk when I opened it. On the outside, in big, bold letters, was printed “Something For Stevie.”

“Pony Pete also asked me what that dance was all about,”she said, “so I told him about Stevie and his mom and everything, and Pete looked at Tony and Tony looked at Pete, and they ended up giving me this.”She handed me another paper napkin that had “Something For Stevie”scrawled on its outside. Two $50 bills were tucked within its folds. Frannie looked at me with wet, shiny eyes, shook her head and said simply, “Truckers.”

15 That was three months ago. Today is Thanksgiving, the first day Stevie is supposed to be back to work. His placement worker said he’s been counting the days until the doctor said he could work, and it didn’t matter at all that it was a holiday. He called 10 times in the past week, making sure we knew he was coming, fearful that we had forgotten him or that his job was in jeopardy. I arranged to have his mother bring him to work. We met them in the parking lot and invited them both to celebrate his day back.

Stevie was thinner and paler, but couldn’t stop grinning as he pushed through the doors and headed for the back room where his apron and busing cart were waiting. “Hold up there, Stevie, not so fast,”I said. I took him and his mother by their arms. “Work can wait for a minute. To celebrate you coming back, breakfast for you two is on me.”I led them toward a large corner booth at the rear of the room. I could feel and hear the rest of the staff following behind as we marched through the dining room. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw booth after booth of grinning truckers empty and join the procession.

We stopped in front of the big table, its surface covered with a mess of coffee cups, saucers and dinner plates, all sitting crooked on dozens of folded paper napkins. “First thing you have to do, Stevie, is to clean up this mess,”I said, trying to sound stern. Stevie looked at me, and then at his mother, then pulled out one of the napkins. It had “Something for Stevie”written on the outside. As he picked it up, two $10 bills fell onto the table. Stevie stared at the money, then at dozens of napkins peeking from beneath the tableware, each with his name printed or scrawled on it.

I turned to his mother. “There’s over $10,000 in cash and checks on that table, all from truckers and trucking companies that heard about your problems. Happy Thanksgiving!”Well, it got real noisy about that time, with everybody shouting, and there were a few tears, too. But you know what’s funny? While everybody else was busy shaking hands and hugging each other,

Stevie, with a big, big smile on his face, was busy clearing all the cups and dishes from the table —the best worker I ever hired.

送给史蒂维的一点心意

1 我力求不存偏见，不过在雇用史蒂维时我有理由心存疑虑。他的就业顾问向我保证，说他会成为出色、可靠的餐馆杂工。我从未雇过智障的员工，是否要招收一位，我举棋不定。我的顾客会有什么反应，我没有把握。史蒂维是个矮个儿，胖墩墩的，如其他唐氏综合症患者一样，面部光滑，口齿不清。

2 对大多数来就餐的卡车司机们，我还是很放心的。只要食物好，馅饼地道，他们基本不在

乎谁收碗碟。真正让我担心的是那些高谈阔论的大学走读生，那些因惧怕”路边餐馆的细菌”而用餐巾悄悄擦拭银餐具的雅皮士势利眼儿们，还有那些穿白色衬衫、使用公款消费、认为餐馆里每个女服务员都渴望调情的商务人员。我知道，史蒂维在这里工作，他们会感到别扭，所以开头几个星期我密切地关注着他。

3 我的担心是多余的。第一周过后，史蒂维就抓住了我每位员工的心。不足一个月，我的老顾客?那些卡车司机们?就正式认定史蒂维为卡车司机休息站的吉祥人物。自此以后，我不再介意其他顾客的看法了。

4 史蒂维21岁，蓝色牛仔裤，耐克运动鞋，满面笑容，讨人喜爱，极端地敬业。他收拾好一张餐桌后，盐瓶和胡椒瓶归于原位，丝毫不差，桌面不见一点面包屑、一滴咖啡液。

5 我们唯一的问题是得说服他等待客人用餐完毕再去收拾桌子。他总是在不起眼的地方守候，左右脚替换着支撑体重，眼睛巡视整个餐厅。一看见哪张餐桌边的客人都离去，他立即赶过去，仔细地把碗碟收拾到餐车上，拿起抹布细密地擦桌子，动作娴熟、夸张。若他觉得有顾客正在看他，他就会眉头紧锁，更加专注。工作一丝不苟，这是他自豪的源泉。他取悦面前的每一个人，那煞费苦心的劲头真是惹人喜爱。

6 后来，我们得知史蒂维和母亲一起生活。他母亲是个寡妇，因患癌症多次经历手术而落下残疾。母子俩靠社会保险金生活，住在离餐馆两英里以外的廉租房里。社工人员偶尔登门看望，说他们母子生活着实艰辛贫困。他们手头拮据，我所付的工资仅能保证母子俩相依为命，史蒂维才不至于沦落到被”集体之家”（为残障人士提供护理的机构）收容。

7 到了去年八月的一个早上，就是三年里史蒂维没能来上班的第一个早上，整个餐馆气氛忧伤。他在罗切斯特的梅奥诊所接受一个心脏手术，大概要置入新的心脏膜瓣。社工人员说，有唐氏综合症的人常会在年轻时犯心脏病，所以史蒂维做手术不足为奇；几个月后，他有望从手术中恢复健康，重返工作岗位。

8 有一天接近中午时，有消息传来，说史蒂维手术结束，正在恢复，状况良好。员工当中激动的情绪如涟漪荡漾。领班弗兰妮听到消息，一声欢呼，旋即在过道上跳了一阵舞。经常光顾我们餐馆的一位卡车司机贝尔·林格，此时诧异地看着年届五十、已有四个孙儿的弗兰妮在他桌边晃动身体，跳起祝贺胜利的希米舞。弗兰妮窘得红了脸，用手抹平围裙，朝着贝尔狠狠地瞪了一眼。

9 贝尔咧嘴一笑。”好了，弗兰妮，什么事那么高兴啊?”他问。

10 “我们刚得到消息，史蒂维做完了手术，平安无事。”她回答。

11 “我还一直在纳闷，怎么今天不见他呢?”贝尔问。”本来有个笑话要讲给他听呢。做的是什么手术呢?”

12 弗兰妮快言快语，把史蒂维的手术情况告诉贝尔和他旁边坐着的两个司机。”唉!”弗兰妮叹息着说：”他平安无事，我很开心，但是我不知道他和他妈妈怎样支付所有的费用。我听说，他们的日子一直过得紧巴巴的。”贝尔·林格点点头，若有所思。弗兰妮匆匆离

开，去招待其它桌的客人了。

13 上午的客流高峰一过，弗兰妮走进我的办公室。她手上拿着几张纸餐巾，表情诡异。”怎么了?”我问。”在贝尔·林格和他朋友坐过的那张餐桌上，”她说，”这张折叠的餐巾纸就塞在一个咖啡杯下”。她把那张餐巾递给我。我抖开它，三张20元的钞票跌落在我的桌面上。纸巾外面工整地写着：”送给史蒂维的一点心意”，字母很大很粗。

14 “波尼·皮特也问我为何跳那支舞，”她说。”我把史蒂维和他母亲的一切都告诉他了。皮特看看托尼，托尼看看皮特，他们最后把这个给了我。”她递给我另一张纸餐巾，只见外面潦草地写着：”送给史蒂维的一点心意”。折叠的餐巾中夹着两张50元的钞票。弗兰妮看着我，眼睛闪着泪花，摇摇头，只说一句话，”这些卡车司机啊。”

15 那是三个月前的事了。今天是感恩节，是史蒂维重返工作岗位的第一天。他的就业顾问说，史蒂维一直数算着日子，直到医生告诉他可以上班了。就算这天是假日也没有关系。他在过去一周内打了十次电话，确保我们知道他要回来了，担心我们忘记他，担心丢掉这份工作。我经过筹划，让他母亲陪他来上班。我们在停车场迎接他们，邀请母子二人一起庆祝他归来。

16 史蒂维面色苍白，人也瘦了，但是总咧着嘴笑。他用力推开门，径直走向工作间，他的围裙和餐车正在那儿等着他呢。”等一下，史蒂维，别着急，”我说。我挽着他们母子的手臂说，”等会儿再开工。我请二位吃早餐，庆祝史蒂维归来。”我带他们向餐厅后面角落里一个大隔间走去。我们穿过餐厅的时候，我能感觉到、也能听到其他员工紧紧跟着。我回头望去，看见笑容满面的卡车司机们走出一个个隔间，融入员工的队伍中。

17 我们来到那张大餐桌前。桌面上凌乱的咖啡杯、小碟、餐盘，横七竖八地摆放在一堆折叠的纸餐巾上。”史蒂维，你要做的第一件事是，把这堆东西清理干净，”我佯装严肃地说。史蒂维看看我，又看看母亲，从那堆餐巾纸中抽出一张。那餐巾外面写着：”送给史蒂维的一点心意”。他拿起餐巾，两张10元钞票掉在桌子上。史蒂维看看钞票，又看看餐具下面露出的几十张餐巾，每一张都或工整或潦草地写着他的名字。

18 我转身对他母亲说：”这张桌上，有一万多元现金和支票，是卡车司机、卡车公司听说你们的家庭状况后送来的。感恩节快乐!”天哪，此时一片欢腾，人们大声地叫着，也有流泪的。但是你知道此刻最有意思的是什么吗?就在大家都忙着握手、拥抱的时候，史蒂维笑容绽放，正忙着清理桌上的杯盘—他真是我手下最好的员工。

UNIT 2：

How Deep Is Your Love?

|你的爱有多深|

Mansi Bhatia

Love to some is like a cloud

To some as strong as steel

For some a way of living

For some a way to feel

And some say love is holding on

And some say let it go

And some say love is everything

Some say they don't know

1 有人认为爱如浮云

有人认为爱坚强如铁

有人认为爱是一种生活方式

有人认为爱是一种感觉

有人说爱要执着

有人说爱不要约束

有人说爱是生命的全部

有人说不知道爱为何物

At some stage or the other in our lives we experience an emotion which defies definition. It's a feeling that can only be felt and not described. An overwhelming joy that comes together with its share of sadness. Love.

2 在我们生命中的某个阶段，我们会经历难以名状的情感。这种情感只能体会，无法用语言描述。莫大的喜悦伴随着丝丝的伤感一同降临，这就是爱。

Given the busy nature of our lives, it's to be appreciated that we even find the time to indulge in matters of the heart. But at the same time I wonder if we even understand its true depth. I remember having countless crushes while in school. My math teacher, our neighbour's son, my best friend's brother and lots of others whom I fancied for the colour of their eyes, the

shape of their moustaches or just the way they walked. Harmless puppy loves that are as brief as soap bubbles. I can laugh about all those silly and adventurous thoughts and acts now but at that time nothing could be more serious an affair for me. Then came the stage of real relationships.

3 在紧张忙碌的生活中，我们竟能找到时间，沉湎于感情之中，这的确令人感佩。然而，此时我想知道：我们是否懂得爱到底有多么深刻。记得上学的时候，我迷恋的对象真是数不清：我的数学老师、邻居的儿子、好朋友的弟弟，还有另外一些因为眼睛的颜色、胡子的形状或走路的姿势而让我倾慕的人。年少时的爱慕，不会带来伤害，如肥皂泡一样转瞬即逝。那些稚气、大胆的想法和行为，现在想来大可一笑了之。但是，在那时，对我来说，没有比恋爱更重要的事了。接着就进入了真正“谈”情“说”爱的阶段。

Being in an all girls' school I hardly had the opportunity to interact with members of the opposite gender. Socials between our school and the boys' college, therefore, would be awaited anxiously. Those three hours of unhesitant attention by a group of well-groomed young gentlemen provided us with enough content to talk and feel excited about for the next four weeks.

4 我在女子学校学习，和男孩子交往的机会寥寥无几，因此，我热切地期待着我们学校和男子学校举办的交谊会。交谊会上，一群精心打扮的年轻男子毫无顾忌地盯着我们。这三个小时中的点点滴滴，成了我们在以后四个星期中足够的谈资，我们在议论时，心情澎湃。

And even then there was no real need of having a boyfriend.

5 即使是在那个时候，我也没有真正交男朋友的需要。

I somehow grew up believing that love would happen when it had to. And sure enough it did. It came at an age when I had a career, a long-term plan and a more or less settled life (and now I am not yet 25!). I was mature enough to enter a relationship which demands a lot of give and not so much of take.

6 在我的成长岁月中，不知何故，我相信爱情该来的时候自然会来。事实果真如此。当我有了稳定的工作，有了长期的计划和比较安定的生活（我现在还不到25岁呢！）时，爱情降临了。我也比较成熟了，能够步入不贪图许多回报而需要大量付出的感情关系。

Love was a magnificent building I built on the foundation of friendship. It took time to blossom. It took a lot of understanding, loads of sharing and caring, and plenty of affection to become what it is today. And it meant a meeting of minds. You might say that I belong to the traditional school of romance. But in my opinion, love needs to be nurtured. And it has to be distinguished from the intense but short-lived love or the pleasures of the flesh.

7 我的爱情是在友谊这块地基上建起的高楼大厦。爱情经过旷日持久的培养才开花。我和我的恋人相互理解、同甘共苦、相互关心，投入了丰富的感情，才使爱情发展到今天。爱情意味着情投意合。你也许会说，我属于浪漫的传统派。但是，依我看，爱情需要培养。我们必须把爱情同强烈而短暂的激情或身体的愉悦区别开来。

Our parents' generation was fed lavishly with ideals. It was an era of constraints, restraints, respect, admiration, and plenty of romance. The long skirts, the quiet and unpretentious looks, the curled long hair, the calmness, the shy glance 鈥?these are all so frequently remindful of a bygone era. An age when the distance between the sexes somehow managed to help preserve the holiness of love and relationships.

8 我们的父辈，接受了理想爱情的灌输。那是一个约束、压抑、崇敬、仰慕和十足浪漫的年代。长裙、娴静质朴的外表、卷曲的长发、恬静的气质、羞怯的目光——这一切常使人想起一个消逝久远的年代。那个年代，男女之间的距离无论如何都有助于维持爱情以及恋爱关系的神圣性。

The younger generation, with its openness and fading lines of proximity, has jumped on the bandwagon of love with so much haste that it is difficult for them to distinguish between physical attraction and mental compatibilities. What we have been exposed to via the media have fast paced our sensibilities so much that taking things slow requires effort on our parts.

9 年轻的一代人，由于观念开放，随着男女之间交往界线的消退，他们便急于赶浪头，匆忙恋爱，以至于难以区分身体的互相吸引与心灵的相投。我们从媒体中接触到的人和事，使我们的感情历程大大加速，要想慢慢地体会自己的感受，确实需要付出努力。

I am sorry to learn about the kind of emotional baggage school kids are carrying in what are purely unemotional relationships. Some might blame the current state of affairs on peer pressure. But has anyone ever stopped to figure out where this peer pressure originates? Do any of us try and understand who is responsible for this shift? Does anyone bother to study the state of mind of the teenagers?

10 学校里的青少年在全然没有感情的关系中所背负的感情包袱，令我深感难过。也许有些人会把他们目前的感情状况归结为同龄人之间所施加的压力。但是，可曾有任何人停下来想一想同龄人之间的压力来自何处？我们是否尝试着弄清楚是谁造成了这样的转变？可曾有人费神去研究青少年的心理呢？

The mindset of this generation is all too evident in the way it handles its personal life. There are more relationships being distorted under the pressures of lust than ever before. There is more focus on physical beauty than on inner charm. There is more of closeness and less of intimacy. There is more of passion and less of emotion. There is more of acquiring and less of sharing. There is more of opportunism and less of selflessness. In short, there is more of ME and less of US.

11 从这一代人处理个人生活的方式上，我们很容易看出他们的思想倾向。跟从前相比，现在有更多的情感在欲望的压力下扭曲。他们更注重外表的美丽而忽视内在的魅力。两性交往随便了，亲密无间却少了；激情多了，感情却少了；个人获得的多了，相互间分享的少了；寻机获利的现象多了，无私的奉献少了。简而言之，“自我”多了，爱的分享少了。

We have hardened ourselves so much in this competitive age that we have forgotten the essence of relationships. There's much more to being someone's lover than gifting them red roses and fifty-cent cards. What about gifting our object of affection, our time, our company, our support, our friendship? What about setting priorities in our lives and focusing on each with sincerity? What about trying to be self-sufficient emotionally before letting ourselves loose? What about giving ourselves, and others, time and space to forge relationships? What about working towards meaningful and lasting friendships? What about honouring our commitments? What about channeling our energies and emotions towards building lifelong bonds rather than wasting them on seasonal relationships?

12 在这个竞争激烈的年代，我们已经变得麻木不仁，将恋爱的实质抛于脑后。作为恋爱中的人，不只是意味着把红色的玫瑰花和五毛钱一张的卡片送给恋人，我们要做的事情还很多。我们将自己的时间、陪伴、支持和友谊作为礼物送给自己的恋人了吗？我们是否确定了生活中最重要的事情，而后真诚地做好每一件事？我们是否先在情感上成熟起来，再尽情地追求爱情？我们是否给自己、给他人足够的时间和空间以巩固恋情的发展？我们是否为了追求有意义的、永恒的友谊而不遗余力？我们是否履行了自己的承诺？我们是否将自己的精力和感情倾注于终生不渝的关系而不是浪费在朝秦暮楚的关系中？

We have but one life and we must experience everything that can make us stronger. True love happens once in a lifetime. And we should not have become so tired by our frivolous acts that when it comes we aren't able to receive it with open arms.

13 人的生命只有一次，我们必须去体验能使我们更为坚强的每件事。真正的爱情一生只有一次。我们任由轻佻的行为令自己身心疲惫，当真正的爱情到来时，我们却没有能力伸开双臂迎接它的降临。

Unit 3

What Is Friendship?

When we approach the notion of friendship, our first problem is that there is a lack of socially acknowledged criteria for what makes a person a friend. In one setting, we may describe someone as a friend; in another, the label may seem less appropriate. Therefore, people tend to have a very thin understanding of what friendship really means. To help us understand what friendship really means, we need to review some classical views of friendship.

One classical view of friendship is provided by Aristotle, the famous ancient Greek philosopher. Aristotle distinguishes between what he believes to be genuine friendships and two other forms: one based on mutual usefulness, the other on pleasure. So, according to Aristotle, we may find three kinds of friendship:

Friendship based on utility. Utility is an impermanent thing: it changes according to circumstances. When the ground for friendship disappears, the friendship also breaks up. Friendships of this kind seem to occur most frequently between the elderly, because at their age what they want is not pleasure but utility. Friendships based on utility are also frequently found among those in middle or early life who are pursuing their own advantage. Such persons do not spend much time together, because sometimes they do not even like one another, and therefore feel no need of such an association unless they are mutually useful. They take pleasure in each other’s company only in so far as they have hopes of advantage from it.

Friendship based on pleasure. Friendship between the young is thought to be grounded on pleasure, because the lives of the young are regulated by their feelings, and their chief interests are in their own pleasure and the opportunity of the moment. As they grow up, however, their tastes change too, so that they are quick to make and to break friendships. That is why they fall in and out of friendship quickly, changing their attitude often, even within the same day.

Friendship based on goodness. Perfect friendship is based on goodness. Only the friendship of those who are good, and similar in their goodness, is perfect. The conduct of good men is the same or similar. It is between good men that both love and friendship are chiefly found and in the highest form. Such for as the saying goes, true friends must go through trials and tribulations together. And no two persons can accept each other and become friends until each has proved to the other that he is worthy of love, and so won his trust. The wish for friendship may develop rapidly, but true friendship does not.

Another classical view of friendship can be found in the writings of Cicero, an ancient Roman statesman and orator. According to Cicero, true friendship is only possible between good men. He further defines “the good”as “those whose actions and lives leave no question as to their honor, purity, equity, and liberality; who are free from greed, lust, and violence; and who have the courage of their convictions.”The friendship between good men, based on virtue, does offer material benefits, but it does not seek them. All human beings are bonded together in a community of shared reason. Therefore, in friendships and relationships, those who possess any superiority must regard themselves as equals of those who are less fortunate. It is virtue that creates and preserves true friendship.

Thus, we may see that the traditional idea of friendship is made up of three components: Friends must enjoy each other’s company; they must be useful to one another; and they must share a commitment to the good. According to the classical views, virtuous friends are bound together, as the recognize each other’s moral

excellence. To perceive a friend, therefore, is to perceive oneself; and to know a friend is to kno w oneself. Each can be said to provide a mirror in which the other may see himself. Through netw orks of such virtuous friends, we can develop a shared idea of good and pursue it together. Friend ship of this kind is necessarily involves conversations about well-being and of what might be involved in living the good life.

什么是友谊？

1 我们探讨友谊这个概念时，遇到的第一个问题是，没有社会公认的择友标准。在某一情境下，我们会把某个人称为朋友；然而，情境一旦变迁，朋友这个称呼就显得没那么贴切了。因此，人们对友谊的真谛的理解往往是非常肤浅的。为了帮助我们理解友谊的真正含义，我们需要回顾有关友谊的几种传统的看法。

2 一种传统的友谊观在古希腊著名的哲学家亚里士多德的著作里得以阐述。他将自己心目中真正的友谊同另外两种友谊截然分开。这两种友谊分别是：基于互利的友谊；基于愉悦的友谊。因此，根据亚里士多德的观点，我们可以将友谊分为三类：

3 建立在功利之上的友谊。功利并非永恒，它依照环境而变化。友谊的根基一旦消失，友谊也随之破灭。这类友谊似乎在老人之间最为常见，因为上了年纪的人需要的不是愉悦而是实用。基于功利的友谊也同样存在于追逐个人利益的中年人和青年人中。这些人不会在一起消磨时光，因为他们有时甚至不喜欢对方，因而觉得除非可以互相利用，否则没有交往的必要。只有当他们认为彼此有希望相互利用的时

候，才会乐于呆在一起。

4 建立在愉悦之上的友谊。年轻人之间的友谊常被看作是建立在愉悦基础之上的，因为年轻人的生活受感情支配，他们感兴趣的主要是自己的快乐和眼前的重要机会。然而，他们的情趣随着自己日渐成长也会变化，他们交友容易，分手也干脆。年轻人的态度变化无常，甚至一日数变，难怪他们的友谊总是迅速地开始，又匆匆地结束。

5 建立在美德之上的友谊。完美无瑕的友谊立足于美德。只有那些品德高尚而且拥有相似美德的人之间建立的友谊才是最完美的。品行高尚的人，其行为是相同的，或者是类似的。爱和友谊多半在品行高尚的人之间发生，而且以最高雅的形式出现。这种友谊是罕见的，需要时间，需要交往。常言道，真正的朋友必须同甘共苦，历经风雨。只有当两个人互相证明自己值得爱并获得对方的信任之后，彼此方能接受对方为朋友。交友的意愿可能倏忽而至，但真正的友谊却要慢慢培养。

6 另一种传统的友谊观可以在古罗马政治家、演说家西塞罗的著作里找到。西塞罗认为，真正的友谊只能在好人之间发生。他进而将”好人”定义为”那些行为和生活无损于自己的荣誉、纯洁、公平和开明的人；那些摆脱了贪婪、欲念和暴力的人；那些敢于依照自己的信念说话和做事的人。”好人之间建立的这种友谊立足于美德，它确实可以带来物质利益，但决不以追求物质利益为目标。人类生活在以共同的理想为基础的社会。因此，在处理朋友关系和其他人际关系时，优越于他人的人必须平等地对待那些没那么幸运的人。美德创造友谊，美德使友谊之树常青。

7 我们由此可以看出，传统的友谊观由三个要素构成：朋友以相伴为乐；朋友必须彼此受益；彼此都有志于崇高的事业。这些传统的友谊观告诉我们，两个品德高尚的朋友是永不分离的，因为彼此认同对方的高尚品德。因此，认识朋友就是认识自我，了解朋友就是了解自我。可以说朋友就好比是一面镜子，每个人都可以从朋友身上看清自己。置身于品德高尚的

朋友之中，我们会对美德达成共识，共同为之不遗余力。这样的友谊是永恒的，因为朋友应该具备的一切品质都凝结在这种友谊关系中。

Unit 4

My Greatest Olympic Prize

我最珍贵的奥林匹克奖

[1]It was the summer of 1936. The Olympic Games were being held in Berlin. Because Adolf Hitler childishly insisted that his performers were members of a "master race," nationalistic feelings were at an all-time high.

[2] I wasn't too worried about all this. I'd trained, sweated and disciplined myself for six years, with the Games in mind. While I was going over on the boat, all I could think about was taking home one or two of those gold medals. I had my eyes especially on the running broad jump. A year before, as a sophomore at the Ohio State, I'd set the world's record of 26 feet 8 1/4 inches. Nearly everyone expected me to win this event.

[3] I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the broad-jump trials, I was startled to see a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps! He turned out to be a German named Luz Long. I was told that Hitler hoped to win the jump with him.

[4] I guessed that if Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis' "master race" (Aryansuperiority) theory. After all, I am a Negro. Angry about Hitler's ways, I determined to go out there and really show Der Fuhrer and his master race who was superior and who wasn't.

[5] An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you. I was no exception. On the first of my three qualifying jumps, I leaped from several inches beyond the takeoff board for a foul. On the second jump, I fouled even worse. "Did I come 3,000 miles for this?" I thought bitterly. "To foul out of the trials and make a fool of myself?"

[6] Walking a few yards from the pit, I kicked disgustedly at the dirt. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look into the friendly blue eyes of the tall German broad jumper. He had easily qualified for the finals on his first attempt. He offered me a firm handshake.

[7] "Jesse Owens, I'm Luz Long. I don't think we've met." He spoke English well, though with

a German twist to it.

"Glad to meet you," I said. Then, trying to hide my nervousness, I added, "How are you?"

"I'm fine. The question is: How are you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Something must be eating you," he said--proud the way foreigners are when they've mastered a bit of American slang. "You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed."

"Believe me, I know it," I told him--and it felt good to say that to someone.

1936年夏天。奥林匹克运动会在柏林举行。由于阿道夫·希特勒幼稚地坚持他的选手是“优等民族”的成员，民族主义情绪空前高涨。

我对这一切并不太担心。六年来，我心里想着这次奥运会，一直在坚持刻苦训练，从严要求

自己。我乘船来时，就一心想带一两块金牌回家。我特别想在急行跳远项目上夺取金牌。一年前，我在俄亥俄州上大学二年级时，就创下了26英尺81/4英寸的世界纪录。几乎所有的人都认为我会赢得这项赛事。

然而，事情出乎我的意料。到了急行跳远预选赛时，我吃惊地看见一个高个儿小伙子试跳时就落在了沙坑将近26英尺的地方！原来他是个德国人，名叫卢茨·隆格。有人告诉我，希特勒就希望靠他来获得跳远冠军。

我心想，如果隆格获胜，那势必给纳粹的“优等民族“（雅利安人优异）论调增加新的佐证。毕竟，我是个黑人。我很气个过希特勒的那一套，决心显一显身手，着实让“元首大人”和他的优等民族看看谁优谁劣。

任何一个教练员都会对你说．运动员一生气就会犯错误。我也不例外。预赛三跳中的第一跳，我踏过起跳板几英寸犯了现。第二跳时，则犯规更严重。“难道我从3000英里外跑到这儿就为了这个结局？”我痛苦地想道，“为了在预赛里就犯规出局丢自己的丑吗？” 我从沙坑里走出几码远，气愤地踢着沙土。忽然，我感到有一只手搭在我的肩膀上。我转过脸去，瞧见了那个高个子德国跳远运动员一双友好的蓝眼睛。他头一跳就轻松地取得了决赛资格。他主动用力地握了握我的手。“杰西·欧文斯，我叫卢茨·隆格。我想我们以前没见过面。”他英语说得不错，尽管带一点德国味儿。

“认识你很高兴，”我说。随后，我竭力想掩饰自已的不安，便又说道：“你怎么样？”

“我很好。问题是：你怎么样？”

“你的意思是？”我问道。

“一定有什么困扰着你，”他说——显得很得意，外国人掌握了一点美国俚语都会这样。“你就是闭着眼睛也能进入决赛。” “相信我，这我知道，”我对他说－－能跟别人说这话，心里觉得好受些。

[8] For the next few minutes we talked together. I didn't tell Long what was "eating" me, but he seemed to understand my anger, and he took pains to reassure me. Although he'd been schooled in the Nazi youth movement, he didn't believe in the Aryan-supremacy business any more than I did. We laughed over the fact that he really looked the part, though. An inch taller than I, he had a lean, muscular frame, clear blue eyes, blond hair and a strikingly handsome face. Finally, seeing that I had calmed down somewhat, he pointed to the take-off board.

[9] "Look," he said. "Why don't you draw a line a few inches behind the board and aim at making your take-off from there? You'll be sure not to foul, and you certainly ought to jump far enough to qualify. What does it matter if you're not first in the trials? Tomorrow is what counts."

[101 Suddenly all the tension seemed to leave my body as the truth of what he said hit me. Confidently, I drew a line a full foot behind the hoard and proceeded to jump from there. I qualified with almost a foot to spare.

[11] That night I walked over to Luz Long's room in the Olympic village to thank him. I knew that if it hadn't been for him I probably wouldn't be jumping in the finals the following day. We sat and talked for two hours--about track and field, ourselves, the world situation, a dozen other

things.

[12] When I finally got up to leave, we both knew that a real friendship had been formed. Luz would go out to the field the next day trying to beat me if he could. But I knew that he wanted me to do my best--even if that meant my winning.

[13] As it turned out, Luz broke his own past record. In doing so, he pushed me on to a peak performance. I remember that at the instant I landed from my final jump--the one which set the Olympic record of 26 feet 5 1/16 inches--he was at my side, congratulating me. Despite the fact that Hitler glared at us from the stands not a hundred yards away, Luz shook my hand had--and it wasn't a fake "smile with a broken heart" sort of grip, either.

[14]All the gold medals and cups I have wouldn't make a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at the moment. I realized then that Luz was just what Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Games, must have had in his mind when he said, "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

然后我们交谈了一会。我没有告诉隆格是什么在“困扰”找，但他却好像知道我心里有气，便竭力安慰我。他尽管接受了纳粹青年运动的教育，却一点也不比我更相信雅利安人优异那一套。不过，他看起来倒确实像个优等民族的人，我俩不由得笑起来了。他比我高一英寸，身材修长，肌肉结实，蓝蓝的眼睛，金黄的头发，还长着一张异常英俊的面孔。后来，他见我有些平静了，便用手指向踏板。“看，”他说。“你为什么不在踏板后面几英寸的地方划一道线，然后就从那儿起跳呢？你肯定不会犯规，而且足可以跳进决赛。预赛得不到第一又有什么关系呢？明天的才算数。”

找领悟了他话中的道理，浑身的紧张顿时消失了。我满怀自信，在踏板后方整整一英尺的地方划了一道线，然后就从那儿起跳。我通过了预赛，超出资格标准近一英尺。

那天晚上，我到奥运村卢茨·隆格的房间去道谢。我知道，要不是多亏了他，我很可能参加不成第二天的决赛。我们坐着谈了两个钟头－－谈田径运动，谈我们自己，谈国际局势，以及许多其他事情。最后我起身告辞时，我们都发觉彼此己经建立了真正的友谊。卢茨第二天上场要尽力战胜我。。可我也知道，他想让我竭尽全力－－哪怕那会意味着我取胜。

结果，卢茨打破了他自己以前的纪录。这样一来，他也促使我发挥到了最佳竞技状态。我记得我最后一跳着地那一瞬间——一那刻我创造了26英尺51/16英寸的奥运会纪录--－他来到我旁边，向我祝贺。尽管希特勒就在不足一百码以外的看台上瞪着我们，卢茨紧紧握着我的手－－而且还不是“内心沮丧、强额为笑”的那种虚情假意的握手。

我当时对卢茨·隆格感受到的是24K纯金般的友谊，我所获得的所有金牌、所有金杯都不足以构成这纯金友情的一个镀层。我这时才意识到，现代奥运会创始人皮埃尔·德·顾拜旦当年心里正是想着卢茨这样的运动员，才这样说道：“奥运会重在参与而不在取胜。生命的关键在于干得出色而不在于征服。”

UNIT 5

Set Your Body's Time Clock to Work for You

1 As the first rays of sunlight filter over the hills of California's Silicon Valley', Charles Winget opens his eyes. It is barely 5 a. in., but Winget is eager to go. Meanwhile, his wife pulls up the covers and buries her face under the pillow. "For the past fifteen years," says Winget, "we've hardly ever gotten up together."

2 The Wingets' situation is not uncommon. Our bodies operate with the complexity of clocks, and like clocks, we all run at slightly different speeds. Winget is a morning person. His wife is not at her best until after nightfall. Behavioral scientists long attributed such differences to personal eccentricities or early conditioning. This thinking was challenged by a theory labeled chronobiology by physician-biologist Franz Halberg. In a Harvard University laboratory study, Dr Halberg found that certain blood cells varied predictably in number, depending on the time of day they were drawn from the body. The cell count was higher at a given time of day and lower 12 hours later. He also discovered that the same patterns could be detected in heart and metabolic rates and body temperature.

3 Halberg's explanation: instead of performing at a steady, unchanging rate, our systems function on an approximately 25-hour cycle. Sometimes we are accelerating, sometimes slowing down. We achieve peak efficiency for only a limited time each day. Halberg dubbed these bodily cadences "circadian rhythms".

4 Much of the leading work in chronobiology is sponsored today by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Charles Winget, a NASA research physiologist and authority on circadian rhythms, says that circadian principles have been applied to astronauts' work schedules on most of the space-shuttle flights.

5 The space-age research has many useful applications here on earth. Chronobiologists can tell you when to eat and still lose weight, what time of day you're best equipped to handle the toughest challenges, when to go to the dentist with your highest threshold of pain and when to exercise for maximum effect. Winget says, "It's a biological law of human efficiency: to achieve your best with the least effort, you have to coordinate the demands of your activities with your biological capacities."

6 Circadian patterns can be made to work for you. But you must first learn how to recognize them. Winget and his associates have developed the following approach to help you figure out your body's patterns.

7 Take your temperature one hour after getting up in the morning and then again at

four-hour intervals throughout the day. Schedule your last reading as close to bedtime as possible. You should have five readings by the end of the day.

8 Now add your first, third and fifth readings and record this total. Then add your second and fourth readings and subtract this figure from the first total. That number will be an estimate of your body temperature in the middle of the night consider it your sixth reading.

9 Now plot all six readings on graph paper. The variations may seem extremely small only one-tenth of a degree in some cases but are significant. You'll probably find that your temperature will begin to rise between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., reaching a peak sometime in the late morning or early afternoon. By evening the readings start to drop. They will steadily decline,

reaching their nadir at around 2 a.m.

10 Of course, individual variations make all the difference. At what hour is your body temperature on the rise? When does it reach its highest point? Its lowest? Once you have familiarized yourself with your patterns, you can take advantage of chronobiology techniques to improve your health and productivity.

11 We do our best physical work when our rhythms are at their peak. In most people, this peak lasts about four hours. Schedule your most demanding activities when your temperature is highest.

12 For mental activities, the timetable is more complicated. Precision tasks, such as mathematical work, are best tackled when your temperature is on the rise. For most people, this is at 8 or 9 a.m. By contrast, reading and reflection are better pursued between 2 and 4 p.m., the time when body temperature usually begins to fall.

13 Breakfast should be your largest meal of the day for effective dieting. Calories burn faster one hour after we wake up than they do in the evening. During a six-year research project known as the Army Diet Study, Dr Halberg, chronobiologist Robert Sothern and research associate Erna Halberg monitored the food intake of two groups of men and women. Both ate only one,

2000-calorie meal a day, but one group ate their meal at breakfast and the other at dinner. "All the subjects lost weight eating breakfast," states Sothern. "Those who ate dinner either maintained or gained weight."

14 If foods are processed differently at different times of day, certainly caffeine, alcohol and medicines will be too. Aspirin compounds, for example, have the greatest potency in the morning, between 7 and 8. So does alcohol. They are least effective between 6 p.m. and midnight. Caffeine has the most impact around 3 in the afternoon. Charles Walker, dean of the College of Pharmacy at Florida A&M University, explains, "Stimulants are most effective when you are normally active, and sedatives work best when you're naturally sedate or asleep."

15 Knowing your rhythms can also help overcome sleep problems. Consult your

body-temperature chart. Your bedtime should coincide with the point at which your temperature is lowest. This is between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. for most people.

16 Dr Michael Thorpy of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City offers other circadian sleep tips: go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning, even on weekends. "Irregularity in sleep and waking times is the greatest cause of sleep problems," Dr Thorpy says. The best way to recover from a bad night's sleep is simply to resume your normal cycle. Beware of sleeping pills. "Most sleeping pills won't work for periods longer than two weeks," warns Dr Thorpy. And there is real danger of drug accumulation in the blood.

17 Visit a doctor or dentist as early in the day or as late in the evening as possible, since your highest pain threshold is between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

18 Winget and fellow NASA chronobiologist Charles DeRoshia also offer advice to diminish the debilitating effects of jet lag: a week or so before departure begin adjusting your daily activities so that they coincide with the time schedule of your destination. Eat a small,

high-protein low-carbohydrate meal just before your trip. Get plenty of sleep in the days before your trip. In flight, eat very little, drink lots of water and avoid alcohol and caffeinated drinks. When you arrive, walk around, talk to people, try to adapt to your environment. Before retiring, have a light meal, high in carbohydrates. Take a warm bath.

19 Knowing your body's patterns is no guarantee of good health. But what chronobiology reveals is the importance of regularity in all aspects of your life and of learning to act in synchronization with your body's natural rhythms.

让你的生物钟为你服务

1 当第一道曙光穿过黑暗洒在加里福尼亚硅谷的山冈上时，查尔斯·温格特便睁开了眼睛。才刚刚5点，温格特就急着要起床了。而他妻子则把被子望上拉了拉，把脸埋在了枕头下，”15年来”温格特说”我们几乎从未同时起床过”。

2 像温格特夫妇这样的情况并不少见，我们身体的运转像时钟一样复杂。而且像始终一样，我们每个人运转的速度也略有不同。温格特是一个早上精力充沛的人，而他妻子则是要到黄昏后才能到达最佳状态。

3 行为科学家们长期以来一直认为这些差异是个人异常习惯和早期训练的结果。但这种想法遭到了内科医生兼生物学家弗朗兹·哈尔博格称为时间生物学的一种理论的质疑。在哈佛大学的实验室研究中，哈尔博格博士发现根据抽血时间的不同，人体中某种血细胞的数量会发生可以预见的变化。在一天中的某个时间里，细胞数量会多一些，而12小时后数量会有所减少。他还发现在心跳速度、新陈代谢的速度以及体温方面也能观测到同样的变化模式。

4 哈尔博格的解释是：我们身体系统运转速度并不是一成不变的。大约每25小时为一个运转周期，有时速度加快，有时速度减慢。每天我们只有在一段有限的时间里达到最高效率。哈尔博格将这些身体的节奏称为”生理节奏”。

5 目前，时间生物学领域中许多处于领先地位的研究工作都是由国家航空和航天局资助的。查尔斯·温格特是国家航空和航天局的一名从事研究工作的生理学家，也是生理节奏方面的权威。他说在大多数航天飞机的飞行中人们已经应用生理节奏的原理来制定宇航员的工作日程。

6 这项太空时代的研究在地球上也能得到许多有益的应用。时间生理学家能告诉你什么时候进食能使你吃了东西却又能减轻体重，在一天中什么时候你应付最艰难的挑战的能力最强，什么时候去看牙医你最能忍得起疼痛，什么时候锻炼效果最佳。温格特说：”人体活动效率的生物规律是，要想花最小的力气取得最好的效果，就必须使你从事活动的需求与你的生物能力协调起来。”

7 生理节奏的规律可以用来为你服务。但你首先必须学会如何找出这些规律。温格特和他的同事们研究出了下面这个方法来帮助你找出自己身体的规律。

8 早晨起床一小时后量一次体温，然后再每隔四小时量一次。尽量把最后一次安排在就寝前。一天下来你应该得到了5个数据。

9 现在将你第一次、第三次和第五次的体温相加，把和记下来。然后将第二次和第四次的体温相加，将前面得到的和减去这次得到的和，其的数大约就是你午夜时的体温。可以把它当成第六次测量到的体温。

10 现在将六个数据标在坐标图纸上。这些数据之间的差异可能看上去极小——有时仅为差0.1度，但却十分重要，你可能会发现你的体温在凌晨三点到六点之间将开始上升，在中午前后的某个时候达到最高点。傍晚时体温开始下降，并持续下降，在凌晨两点左右到了最低点。

11 当然，最重要的是每个人之间存在着差异。你的体温在什么时间里处于上升状态?什么时候达到最高点?又在什么时候落到最低点呢?一旦你了解了自身的规律，你便能利用时间生物学的手段增强健康、提高生产率。

12 当我们的生物节奏处于顶峰时，干体力活效果最好。对大多数人来说，这种顶峰状

态持续四小时左右。因此你应该将最繁重的活动安排在你体温处于最高点的时候去做。

13 就脑力活动而言，如何安排时间就更复杂一些，从事精密度高的任务，如数学方面的工作，最佳时间是体温处于上升状态的时候。对大多数人来说，是在早晨八、九点钟。与此相反，阅读和思考工作最好在下午两点到四点间进行，这时候体温通常开始下降。

14 要想有效节食，一天进食量最大的应该是早餐。因为在我们醒后一小时的这段时间里，能量消耗的比晚上快。在一个历时六年，被称为”军队饮食研究”的研究项目中，哈尔伯格博士、时间生物学家罗伯特·萨森及其研究项目的合作者厄娜·哈尔伯格观察了两组男士和女士的进食情况。两组人都每天只吃一吨含2000卡路里热量的食物，但一组在早餐时吃，另一组则在晚饭时吃。”所有吃早餐的实验对象的体重都减轻了，”萨森说，”而那些吃晚饭的人的体重要么保持不变，要么有所增加。”

15 如果食物的消化过程在一天不同的时间里有所不同的话，那么咖啡因、酒精和药物也一定如此。诸如，复方阿司匹林在早晨七点至八点之间药性最强（酒精也是这样），在下午六点至午夜之间药效最差。咖啡因在下午三点左右作用最强。佛罗里达州的A&M大学药学院院长查尔斯·沃克解释说：”兴奋剂在你通常比较活跃的时间里效果非常好，而镇定剂在你本来就比较安静或已熟睡的这段时间里最有效。”

16 了解你自己的生物节奏还可以帮助你克服睡眠问题。参考一下你的体温的图表，你就寝的时间应该和你体温处于最低点的时间相一致。对大多数人来说，这个时间是在晚上11点到凌晨两点之间。

17 在纽约市蒙蒂菲奥里医疗中心睡眠紊乱中心工作的迈克尔·索佩博士提出了其它一些按照生物节奏调整睡眠的建议：每晚在同一时间上床睡觉，早晨在同一时间起床，周末也不例外。”入睡和醒来的时间缺乏规律是导致睡眠问题的最大原因，”索佩博士说。一夜没睡好觉的最好的恢复方法就是继续遵守你正常的作息时间。对服用安眠药要慎重。”大多数安眠药的作用只能维持两周”，索佩博士警告说。而且还存在血液中药物积淀的真正危险。

（看医生或牙医应在早晨尽量早或是晚上尽量晚的时候，因为从晚上八点到早晨八点之间你对疼痛的忍受力最强。

温格特和同在国家航空和宇宙航行局工作的时间生物学家查尔斯·德罗西亚还就如何缓解飞行时差反应所带来的疲劳提出了一些建议，在出发前一周左右开始调整日常活动时间，使之与你到达目的地的时间安排一致起来。旅行之前吃少量的高蛋白低糖食物。旅行前几天里应睡眠充足。飞行时少吃东西多喝水，避免饮用含酒精和咖啡因的饮料。到达目的地后，四处走走，与人交谈，努力适应你周围的环境。就寝之前，吃一些含糖量高的清淡食物。洗个热水澡。）

18 了解身体的规律并不能保证你身体健康。但是时间生物学揭示了在生活各方面都保持规律的重要性，同时它还表明，学会使你的行动与你身体的自然节奏同步也是至关重要的。

UNIT 6

The Eighth Tuesday we talk about money

I held up the newspaper so that Morrie could see it:

I DON'T WANT MY TOMBSTONE TO READ

I NEVER OWNED A NETWORK."

Morrie laughed, then shook his head. The morning sun was coming through the window behind him, falling on the pink flowers of the hibiscus plant that sat on the sill. The quote was from Ted Turner, the billionaire media mogul, founder of CNN, who had been lamenting his inability to snatch up the CBS network in a corporate megadeal. I had brought the story to Morrie this morning because I wondered if Turner ever found himself in my old professor's position, his breath disappearing, his body turning to stone, his days being crossed off the calendar one by one-would he really be crying over owning a network?

"It's all part of the same problem, Mitch," Morrie said. "We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives. I think we should talk about that."

Morrie was focused. There were good days and bad days now. He was having a good day. The night before, he had been entertained by a local a cappella group that had come to the house to perform, and he relayed the story excitedly, as if the Ink Spots themselves had dropped by for a visit. Morrie's love for music was strong even before he got sick, but now it was so intense, it moved him to tears. He would listen to opera sometimes at night, closing his eyes, riding along with the magnificent voices as they dipped and soared.

"You should have heard this group last night, Mitch. Such a sound!"

Morrie had always been taken with simple pleasures, singing, laughing, dancing. Now, more than ever, material things held little or no significance. When people die, you always hear the expression "You can't take it with you." Morrie seemed to know that a long time ago.

"We've got a form of brainwashing going on in our country," Morrie sighed. "Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it-and have it repeated to us-over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.

"Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. `Guess what I got? Guess what I got?'

"You know how I always interpreted that? These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.

"Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have."

I glanced around Morrie's study. It was the same today as it had been the first day I arrived. The books held their same places on the shelves. The papers cluttered the same old desk. The outside rooms had not been improved or upgraded. In fact, Morrie really hadn't bought anything new-except medical equipment-in a long, long time, maybe years. The day he learned that he was terminally ill was the day he lost interest in his purchasing power.

So the TV was the same old model, the car that Charlotte drove was the same old model, the dishes and the silverware and the towels-all the same. And yet the house had changed so drastically. It had filled with love and teaching and communication. It had filled with friendship and family and honesty and tears. It had filled with colleagues and students and meditation teachers and therapists and nurses and a cappella groups. It had become, in a very real way, a wealthy home, even though Morrie's bank account was rapidly depleting.

"There's a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need," Morrie said. "You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don't need the latest sports car, you don't need the biggest house.

"The truth is, you don't get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction?" What?

"Offering others what you have to give."

You sound like a Boy Scout.

"I don't mean money, Mitch. I mean your time. Your concern. Your storytelling. It's not so hard. There's a senior center that opened near here. Dozens of elderly people come there every day. If you're a young man or young woman and you have a skill, you are asked to come and teach it. Say you know computers. You come there and teach them computers. You are very welcome there. And they are very grateful. This is how you start to get respect, by offering something that you have.

"There are plenty of places to do this. You don't need to have a big talent. There are lonely people in hospitals and shelters who only want some companionship. You play cards with a lonely older man and you find new respect for yourself, because you are needed. "Remember what I said about finding a meaningful life? I wrote it down, but now I can recite it: Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

"You notice," he added, grinning, "there's nothing in there about a salary."

I jotted some of the things Morrie was saying on a yellow pad. I did this mostly because I didn't want him to see my eyes, to know what I was thinking, that I had been, for much of my life since graduation, pursuing these very things he had been railing against-bigger toys, nicer house. Because I worked among rich and famous athletes, I convinced myself that my needs were realistic, my greed inconsequential compared to theirs.

This was a smokescreen. Morrie made that obvious. "Mitch, if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone."

He paused, then looked at me. "I'm dying, right?" Yes.

"Why do you think it's so important for me to hear other people's problems? Don't I have enough pain and suffering of my own?

"Of course I do. But giving to other people is what makes me feel alive. Not my car or my house. Not what I look like in the mirror. When I give my time, when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad, it's as close to healthy as I ever feel.

"Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back."

He coughed and reached for the small bell that lay on the chair. He had to poke a few times at it, and I finally picked it up and put it in his hand.

"Thank you," he whispered. He shook it weakly, trying to get Connie's attention.

"This Ted Turner guy," Morrie said, "he couldn't think of anything else for his tombstone?"

相约星期二

1 我把报纸举到莫里面前，他看见了上面的一行字：

2 “我不想在我的墓碑上写着”

“我从未拥有过广播网。”

3 莫里笑了，然后摇摇头，早晨的阳光从他背后的窗户照射进来，落在窗台上那盆木槿的淡红叶子上。这句话是亿万富翁。有线电视新闻网的创始人，媒体大亨特德?特纳写的，他为未能在公司的一笔大买卖中得到哥伦比亚广播公司的广播网而哀叹。我今天早上把这条新闻告诉莫里是因为我突发奇想，要是特纳发觉自己处于莫里的境地，呼吸渐渐地衰竭，躯体慢慢地变成石头，日子一天天地从日历上划去--他还会为失去广播网而大恸大悲吗?

4 “这是同一个问题，米奇，”莫里说。”我们树立了错误的价值观，从而对生活产生了一种幻想破灭的失落感。我认为我们该谈谈这个问题。”

5 莫里的注意力集中起来。他现在时好时坏。今天的情况算是不错。前一天晚上，当地的一个清唱组合来为他作了表演，他异常兴奋他讲述着这件事，似乎上门来为他演唱的是黑斑组合（极有名的黑人歌手组合，共有四人）。莫里患病前就十分喜爱音乐，如今这份爱好更强烈了，音乐会感动得他热泪盈眶。他有时在晚上听歌剧，闭上眼睛陶醉在激昂的歌声中。

6 “米奇，你昨晚要是来听就好了。他们唱得棒极了！”

7 莫里一向很容易满足，唱歌，跳舞，欢笑对他来说都是莫大的乐趣。如今，物质生活对他越来越无所谓了。人死的时候，人们常说”生不带来，死不带去”。莫里似乎早就明白了这个道理。

8 “我们国家提倡灌输的教育形式，”莫里叹道。”你知道他们是怎样灌输的吗，他们对你一遍又一遍地重复，这就是我们国家的做法。拥有得越多越好。钱越多越好。财富越多越好。商业行为也是越多越好。越多越好。越多越好。我们反复地对别人这么说--别人又反复地对我们这么说--一遍又一遍，直到人人都认为这是真理。大多数人会受它迷惑而失去自己的判断能力。

9 “无论我生活在哪里，我都会遇到一些对新的东西充满了占有欲的人，想拥有新的汽车，想拥有新的财产，想拥有新的玩具。然后沾沾自喜地向你炫耀：'猜我得到了什么?猜我得到了什么?'

10 “你知道我对此是怎么解释的?这些人都渴望得到爱，但又得不到，于是就接受了这些替代品。他们乐于接受物质的东西，期望能得到类似于拥抱的感情回报，但这是行不通的。你无法用物质的东西去替代爱，善良、温柔或朋友间的亲情。