精美英文欣赏:坚持的意义

Dig a Little Deeper

There's a story about the California gold rush that tells of two brothers who sold all they had and went prospecting¹ for gold. They discovered a vein² of the shining ore, staked a claim, and proceeded to get down to the serious business of getting the gold ore out of the mine.

All went well at first, but then a strange thing happened. The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the vein, and the spot of gold was no longer there. The brothers continued to pick away, but without success.

Finally, they gave up in disgust. They sold their equipment and claim rights for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Now the man who bought the claim hired an engineer to examine the rock strata³ of the mine. The engineer advised him to continue digging in the same spot where the former owners had left off. And three feet deeper, the new owner struck gold. A little more persistence⁴ and the two brothers would have been millionaires themselves.

That's gold in you too. Do you need to dig three feet farther?

再挖深一点

这是一个发生在加利福尼亚淘金热时期的故事。兄弟两个卖掉他们所有的财产，西去淘金。他们发现了一个闪闪发光的矿石脉，于是买下这一矿石脉的所有权，便开始了从矿石中挖取黄金这一严肃重大的劳作。

开始时，一切进展顺利，但后来一件奇怪的事情发生了——金矿脉消失了！他们快要挖到金矿脉的尽头了，然而那儿却没有金块。兄弟两人继续挖着，但是毫无结果。

最后，他们非常沮丧地放弃了。他们卖掉了他们的淘金设备和淘金所有权，换了几百美元，然后乘着火车回家了。现在有人重新买下这一矿脉所有权，他雇佣了一名工程师来探测矿石的岩层结构。这位工程师建议他在原来物主挖的地方继续挖下去。结果，仅仅挖了三英尺深，这个新的物主挖到了黄金。只需要多坚持一会儿，那两个兄弟就会成为百万富翁。

每个人都蕴藏着一块金子，你是否需要再挖三尺深呢？

1 prospecting   

n.探矿

参考例句：

• The prospecting team ploughed their way through the snow. 探险队排雪前进。
• The prospecting team has traversed the length and breadth of the land. 勘探队踏遍了祖国的山山水水。

2 vein   

n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络

参考例句：

• The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
• The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

3 strata   

n.地层（复数）；社会阶层

参考例句：

• The older strata gradually disintegrate.较老的岩层渐渐风化。
• They represent all social strata.他们代表各个社会阶层。

4 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。