精美英文欣赏:伸出你的友爱之手

If you want your life to stand for peace and kindness, it' s helpful to do kind, peaceful things. One of my favorite ways to do this is by developing my own helping¹ rituals³. These little acts of kindness are opportunities to be of service and reminders⁴ of how good it feels to be kind and helpful.

We live in a rural area of the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of what we see is be auty and nature. One of the exceptions to the beauty is the litter that some peop le throw out of their windows as they are driving on the rural roads. One of the few drawbacks⁵ to living out the boondocks is that public services, such as litter collection, are less available than they are closer to the city.

A helping ritual² that I practice regularly with my two children is picking up li tter in our surrounding area. We' ve become so accustomed to doing this that my da ughters will often say to me in animated⁶ voices, "There' s some litter, Daddy, stop the car!" And if we have time, we will often pull over and pick it up. It may seem strange, but we actually enjoy it. We pick up litter in parks, on sidewalks, practically anywhere. Once I even saw a complete stranger picking up litter close to where we live. He smiled at me and said, "I saw you doing it, and it seemed like a good idea."

Picking up litter is only one of an endless supply of possible helping rituals. You might like holding a door open for people, visiting lonely elderly people in nursing homes, or shoveling snow off someone else' s driveway. Think of something that seems effortless yet helpful. It' s fun, personally rewarding, and sets a good example. Everyone wins.

如果你想让自己的生活安宁祥和，最好做一些友善平和的事情。我最喜欢的一种方式是培养自己乐于助人的习惯。这些小小的善行让你有机会去帮助别人，让你意识到待人友善、乐于助人的感觉有多好。

我们住在旧金山圣弗朗西斯科湾地区的郊外。我们目所能及的几乎都是美丽的自然风光。与这美景不太和谐的是有人驱车行驶在乡间小路上时随手从车窗往外扔垃圾。而居住在这种偏远的地方的一个缺点就是缺少必要的公共服务，例如，垃圾的收集就不如靠近市区那样方便。

我跟我的两个孩子经常做的一件事就是捡拾我们周围地区的垃圾。对此我们已经习以为常，我的女儿们经常会兴奋地对我说，“爸爸，这儿有垃圾，请停一下车！”只要时间来得及，我们总是将车开到路边并将垃圾捡起来。这似乎有点不可思议，但我们真的喜欢这样做。我们在公园里，人行道上，几乎任何地方捡拾垃圾。曾经有一次，我在我们家附近看到一位陌生人在捡垃圾。他笑着对我说，“我看到你这么做了，看来是个好主意。”

捡垃圾只不过是无数善意行为中的一种形式而已。你可以为别人开门，或者去敬老院看望那些孤独的老人，或者清除别人行车道上的积雪。总会想出一些似乎毫不费力但又非常有益的事情。这真的很有趣，自己会感觉很好，也为别人树立了榜样。每个人都会从中受益。

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 ritual   

adj.例行的，老规矩的，惯常的

参考例句：

• This was the monthly ritual.这是每月一次的例规。
• I realized that here the conventions required me to make the ritual noises.我意识到此时按照惯例我应该说些客套话。

3 rituals   

（宗教等的）仪式( ritual的名词复数 )； 例行公事，老规矩

参考例句：

• A cognac before bed is one of our little nightly rituals. 临睡之前喝点儿干邑是我们每天晚上的小习惯之一。
• Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills. 这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。

4 reminders   

n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。

5 drawbacks   

缺点，不利条件，障碍( drawback的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The house had many drawbacks, most notably its price. 这房子有很多缺陷，尤其是它的价格。
• This method has quite a few drawbacks. 这种做法弊病不少。

6 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。