到西南大学大学英语三级背诵段落

Personal history, educational opportunity, individual dilemmas

—

none

of these can inhibit a strong spirit committed to success. No task is too hard.

No amount of preparation is too long or too difficult. Take the example of two

of

the

most

scholarly

scientists

of

our

age,

Albert

Einstein

and

Thomas

Edison.

Both

faced

immense

obstacles

and

extreme

criticism.

Both

were

called

to

learn

and

written

off

as

idiots

by

their

teachers.

Thomas

Edison ran away from school because his teacher whipped him repeatedly for

asking too many questions. Einstein didn't speak fluently until he was almost

nine years old and was such a poor student that some thought he was unable

to learn. Yet both boys' parents believed in them. They worked intensely each

day with their sons, and the boys learned to never bypass the long hours of

hard work that they needed to succeed. In the end, both Einstein and Edison

overcame

their

childhood

persecution

and

went

on

to

achieve

magnificent

discoveries that benefit the entire world today.

个人经历、教育 机会、个人困境，这些都不能阻挡一个全力以赴追求成功的、有

着坚强意志的人。任务再 苦，准备再长，难度再大，都不能让他放弃自己的追求。就

以本时代最有学问的两位科学 家——阿尔伯特〃爱因斯坦和托马斯〃爱迪生为例，他

们都曾面临巨大的障碍和极端的批 评，

都曾被说成

“不开窍”

，

被老师当成笨蛋而放 弃。

托马斯〃爱迪生还曾逃学，因为老师嫌他问的问题太多而经常鞭打他。爱因斯坦一直

到将近

9

岁才能流利地说话，学习成绩太差，有些人认为 他都已经学不好了。然而，

这两个男孩的父母都相信他们。他们坚持不懈地每天和儿子一 起努力，孩子们也了解

到，要想成功，就绝不要怕付出长期而艰辛的努力。最终，爱因斯 坦和爱迪生都摆脱

了童年的困扰，进而作出了造福当今全世界的伟大发现。

Many people simply say that they want something, but they do not expend

the

substantial

effort

required

to

achieve

it.

Many

people

let

the

threat

of

failure stop them from trying with all of their heart. The secret of success is

based

upon

a

burning

inward

desire

—

a

robust,

fierce

will

and

focus

—

that

fuels

the

determination

to

act,

to

keep

preparing,

to

keep

going

even

when we are tired and fail. As a wise saying goes:

you fall down that matters. It's how many times you get back up that makes

s uccess!

很多人只是嘴上说他们想要什么东西，但并不真正地付出大量努力去实现 。很多

人因为害怕失败而不敢全心尝试。而成功的秘诀在于内心燃烧的欲望——一种坚定 不

移的意志和专注力——从而激发行动的决心，即使疲惫，即使失败，也会继续准备，< /p>

继续前进。正如一句箴言所说：

“你摔倒了多少次并不要紧；你能多少次重 新站起来对

成功才至关重要。

Audrey felt it was wicked that billions of children were deprived of simple

joys and drowned in overwhelming misery. She believed deeply in the ideology

that all people share in the duty to care for those in need. Audrey Hepburn

was always ready to lead by example. She said:

you deny life.

lives and said of UNICEF's results,

not a realist.

奥黛丽觉得 ，太多的儿童被剥夺了简单的快乐而陷入无边的痛苦之中，这是一种

罪恶。她坚信一个理 念：所有人都有责任去关心那些需要帮助的人。奥黛丽〃赫本始

终都身为表率。她说：< /p>

“当你放弃童年，你就放弃了生命。

”她将联合国儿童基金会的

工作看作人们生活中不可分割、神圣的力量，谈到其成果时她说：

“任何不相信奇迹的

人都不是一个现实主义者。

”

The larger lesson, though, is that our thoughts are saturated with the

familiar. The brain is a space of near infinite possibility, which means that it

spends

a

lot

of

time

and

energy

choosing

what

not

to

notice.

As

a

result,

creativity is traded away for efficiency; we think in finite, literal prose, not

symbolic verse. A bit of distance, however, helps loosen the cognitive chains

that

imprison

us,

making

it

easier

to

mingle

the

new

with

the

old;

the

mundane is grasped from a slightly more abstract perspective. According to

research,

the

experience

of

an

exotic

culture

endows

us

with

a

valuable

open-mindedness,

making

it

easier

to

realize

that

even

a

trivial

thing

can

have

multiple

meanings.

Consider

the

act

of

leaving

food

on

the

plate:

In

China, this is often seen as a compliment, a signal that the host has provided

enough to eat. But in America the same act is a subtle insult, an indication

that the food wasn't good enough to finish.

但更应该知道的是我们的思想被熟悉的东西所充 满。大脑是一个几乎具有无限可

能性的空间，这就意味着它花了大量的时间和精力选择不 去注意什么。因此

,

我们牺牲

创造力来换取效率。我们以 字义明确的散文方式思考，而非以具有象征意义的诗歌方

式思考。然而，一点的距离就可 以帮助我们放松禁锢我们认知的链条，使新旧思想的

结合更容易，对平淡无奇的事情可从 更抽象的角度加以认知。有研究指出，体验异国

文化可以赋予我们宝贵的开放性思维，使 我们更容易明白即使是微不足道的事物也可

以有多种意义。

想一想把食物 剩在盘子里这个行为

:

在中国，

这通常被看成是一种赞美，

说明主人提供了足够的食物。

但是在美国，

同样的行为却暗含侮 辱，

表明食物不够好，

人们不愿意吃完。

Of

course,

this

mental

flexibility

doesn't

come

from

mere

distance,

a

simple

change

in

latitude

and

longitude.

Instead,

this

renaissance

of

creativity appears to be a side effect of difference: We need to change cultures,

to experience the disorienting diversity of human traditions. The same facets

of foreign travel that are so confusing (Do I tip the waiter? Where is this train

taking

me?)

turn

out

to

have

a

lasting

impact,

making

us

more

creative

because we're less insular. We're reminded of all that we don't know, which is

nearly everything; we're surprised by the constant stream of surprises. Even

in this globalized age, we can still be amazed at all the earthly things that

weren't included in the Let's Go guidebook and that certainly don't exist back

home.

当然，这种思维的灵活性不仅仅来自纯粹的距离变 化，即简单的经纬度的变化。

相反，

这种创造力的复兴似乎是差异所带来 的副产品

:

我们需要处于不同的文化中，

体

验人类传统中纷繁复杂的多样性。在国外旅行中让人迷惑的同一个方面的问题（如我

该给服务生小费吗？火车要把我带到哪里？

)

，

产生了一种持久的 影响

,

使我们更加具有

创造性

,