Consider This

Consider This

Written by Jack¹ Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
Read by Jonathan Else

General Douglas MacArthur was turned down for admission to West Point not once but twice. But he tried a third time, was accepted and marched into the history books.

Basketball superstar Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

In 1889, 1)Rudyard Kipling received the following 2)rejection letter from the San Francisco Examiner: “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language.”

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of 3)defeats and 4)setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a “5)senior citizen.”

The parents of the famous opera singer Enrico Caruso wanted him to be an engineer. His teacher said he had no voice at all and could not sing.

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as “6)mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.” He was 7)expelled and was refused 8)admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic² School.

9)Louis Pasteur was only a 10)mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 in chemistry.

In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker³ (Marilyn Monroe), “You'd better learn 11)secretarial work or else get married.”

While turning down the British rock group called the Beatles, one executive⁴ of Decca Recording⁵ Company said, “We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.”

In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of 12)the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, “You ain't goin' nowhere…son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck.” 

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook⁶ with calls from potential 13)backers. President Rutherford Hayes said, “That's an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”

Rafer Johnson, the 14)decathlon champion, was born with a 15)club foot.

When Thomas Edison invented the 16)light bulb, he tried over 2,000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, “I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process.”

After years of progressive 17)hearing loss, by age 46 German composer Ludwig van Beethoven had become completely deaf. Nevertheless, he wrote his greatest music—including five symphonies—during his later years.

注释：
1)Rudyard Kipling 拉迪亚德·吉卜林（英国作家，1907年获诺贝尔文学奖）
2)rejection [ri5dVekFEn] n. 拒绝
3)defeat [di5fi:t] n. 击败，战胜，失败
4)setback [5setbAk] n. 顿挫，挫折
5) senior citizen 老年人
6) mentally [5mentEli] ad. 精神上，智力上，在内心
7)expel [iks5pel] v. 驱逐，开除
8)admittance [Ed5mitEns] n. 入场权，准入
9)Louis Pasteur 路易斯·巴斯德（法国化学家、微生物学家）
10)mediocre [7mi:di5EukE] a. 普普通通的
11)secretarial [7sekrE5tZEriEl] a. 秘书的，书记的
12)the Grand Ole Opry 乡村老大剧院（美国历史最悠久，专门播放乡村音乐与节目的娱乐机构）
13)backer [5bAkE] n. 支持者
14)decathlon [di5kAWlCn] n. 十项运动
15)club foot 畸形足，内外足
16)light bulb 电灯泡
17)hearing loss 听觉损耗，听力损失

 

人生失意且细思

 道格拉斯·麦克阿瑟将军曾经遭到西点军校不止一次而是两次的拒绝。但他做了第三次尝试，最终被录取并且名垂青史。
篮球巨星迈克尔·乔丹在高中时曾被校篮球队除名。
 1889年，拉迪亚德·吉卜林曾收到《旧金山晚报》的退稿信：“很抱歉，吉卜林先生，你根本不懂如何使用英语。”
 温斯顿·丘吉尔没有通过六年级的考试。他62岁才当上英国首相，这之前他已经历了一生的失败和挫折。他作出最大了贡献的时候已是垂暮之年了。
 著名歌剧演唱家恩里科·卡鲁索的父母本想让他做个工程师。而他的老师则说他五音不全，根本唱不了歌。
 艾伯特·爱因斯坦四岁之前不会说话，七岁之前不会认字。他的老师是这样描述他的：“迟钝，不合群，神思恍惚，老在做白日梦。”他曾被苏黎世工艺学校逐出校门并拒其入学。
路易斯·巴斯德在大学里成绩平平，在22名化学专业的学生中排名15。
1994年，蓝皮书模特公司的经理埃米琳·斯尼维利对希望成为模特的诺玛·琼·贝克（即玛丽莲·梦露）说：“你要不学点秘书实务，或者干脆嫁人算了。”
 DECCA音像公司的一位决策人在拒绝英国摇滚乐组合“甲壳虫”乐队时说：“我们不喜欢他们的音乐。吉他组合行将过时了。”
 1954年，乡村老大剧院的经理吉米·丹尼在一次演出后开除了艾维斯·普雷斯利（猫王）。他对普雷斯利说：“孩子，你出不了名的。还是回去开货车吧。”
 1876年，亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔发明了电话，但并没有吸引投资商的眼光。拉瑟福德·海斯总统说：“这是个了不起的发明，但谁会用它呢？”
 十项全能运动冠军拉斐·约翰逊出生的时候一只脚畸形。
 托马斯·爱迪生发明灯泡的时候，他做了2000次多的实验才成功。一个年轻的记者问他失败了这么多次的感受如何，他回答说：“我从来没有失败。我发明了灯泡，所以只能说这恰恰是个有2000个步骤的过程。”
 多年来听力不断衰退，德国作曲家路德维希·凡·贝多芬46岁时双耳完全失聪。尽管如此，他在之后的几年里创作出了生平最伟大的音乐篇章——其中包括五支交响曲。

 

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 polytechnic   

adj.各种工艺的，综合技术的；n.工艺(专科)学校；理工(专科)学校

参考例句：

• She was trained as a teacher at Manchester Polytechnic.她在曼彻斯特工艺专科学校就读，准备毕业后做老师。
• When he was 17,Einstein entered the Polytechnic Zurich,Switzerland,where he studied mathematics and physics.17岁时，爱因斯坦进入了瑞士苏黎士的专科学院，学习数学和物理学。

3 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

4 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 hook   

vt.钩住；n.钩子，钩状物

参考例句：

• The blacksmith forged a bar of iron into a hook.铁匠把一根铁条锻造成一个钩子。
• He hangs up his scarf on the hook behind the door.他把围巾挂在门后的衣钩上。