8-2 态度

Attitude

 

The 92-year-old, petite¹, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully¹ dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed² and makeup² perfectly³ applied⁴, even though she is legally blind, was moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

 

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered³ her walker to the elevator, the nurse provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet⁴ sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy. “Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room ... just wait.”

 

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged... it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided⁶ to love it ...

 

“It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice to either accept changes and look for the best in them, or worry about ifs that may never happen. I can spend the day in bed recounting⁵ the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the parts that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I make the choice not to focus on the things that have ‘happened to me,’ but rather the things that I have made happen.

 

　“I have five simple rules to happiness:

　　1. Free your heart from hatred⁷.

　　2. Free your mind from worries.

　　3. Live simply.

　　4. Give more.

　　5. Expect less.”

 

注释：

1. petite [pE5tit] [法 ] a. (妇女等)个子小的，娇小的

2. coif [kCif] vt. 给……做头发，把(头发)做成某种式样

3. maneuver⁵ [mE5nu:vE] [美] =manoeuvre vt. 调动，(敏捷或巧妙地)操纵，控制

4. eyelet [ailit] n. (绣制品中)镶边小圆孔

5. recount [ri5kaunt] vt. 详细叙述，列举

 

态度

 

这位92岁高龄、身材娇小但仪态自若并略带几分矜持的女士，每天早晨都在8点钟前穿戴完毕，头发做成时髦的样式，面部的化妆也是十分精心完美，而她实际上已经双目失明。她今天要被送进一家养老院。她70岁的丈夫前不久去世了，她不得不住进养老院。

在养老院的大厅耐心等候了数小时，当被告知她的房间已准备就绪时，她的脸上露出了甜甜的笑容。她转动步行器进入电梯，护士对她那小小的房间进行了一番描述，包括挂在窗户上的镶有小圆孔的窗帘。“我真喜欢，”她说道，流露出的热情简直和一个8岁的孩子得到一个新的小狗一样。“琼斯夫人，您还没有看到房间……再等等。”

“这和看不看没有什么关系，”她回答。“快乐是你事先决定好的。我喜欢不喜欢我的房间并不取决于家具是怎样安排的，而在于我怎样安排我的想法。我已经决定喜欢它……

“这是我每天早晨醒来后做的决定。我可以选择接受变化，并且在种种变化中寻找最佳；我还可以选择担忧那些可能永远不会发生的‘假如’。我可以整天躺在床上琢磨我身体哪些部分不灵了，给我带来这样或那样的困难，我也可以从床上起来，对我身体还有许多部位能工作心怀感激。每一天都是一份礼物，只要我睁开眼睛，我就决定不去老想那些已经‘发生在我身上’的事情，而是专注于我已使之发生的事情。

　　“我有5条简单易行的快乐法则：

　　1.心中不存憎恨。

　　2．脑中不存担忧。

　　3．生活简单。

　　4．多点给予。

　　5．少点期盼。”

1 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

2 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

5 maneuver   

n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略

参考例句：

• All the fighters landed safely on the airport after the military maneuver.在军事演习后，所有战斗机都安全降落在机场上。
• I did get her attention with this maneuver.我用这个策略确实引起了她的注意。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。