鼓勵(lì)

Encouragement

Some of the greatest success stories of history have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a trusting friend. Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy.

“Now,” she said triumphantly, “you can write your book!”

“Yes,” replied the man, with sagging confidence, “and what shall we live on while I am writing it?”

To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money.

“Where on earth did you get that?” he exclaimed.

“I have always known you are a man of genius,” she told him. “I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year.”

From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature—The Scarlet Letter.

【助讀詞匯】

◇exclamation  n. 呼喊，驚叫

◇sag vi.下垂，下陷，下降

◇triumphantly adv. 勝利地，成功地

◇substantial adj. 堅(jiān)固的，實(shí)質(zhì)的

【參考譯文】

鼓勵(lì)

歷史上一些最偉大的成功故事往往是因?yàn)橐痪湓挼墓膭?lì)，或是愛(ài)人或知己充分信任的結(jié)果，如果不是因?yàn)槠拮犹K菲亞的信任，那么也許我們就不會(huì)把納撒尼爾·霍桑的名字列在著名的文學(xué)家中。當(dāng)納撒尼爾這個(gè)傷心的人回家告訴妻子說(shuō)，他很失敗，因?yàn)樗�在海關(guān)的工作已經(jīng)被炒魷魚(yú)了，讓他驚訝的是，妻子充滿(mǎn)了興奮的喜悅。

“現(xiàn)在，”她洋洋得意地說(shuō)，“你可以寫(xiě)你的書(shū)了。”

“是的，”日漸失去信心的他回答道，“那么在我寫(xiě)作的時(shí)候我們靠什么生活呢？”

讓他吃驚的是，她打開(kāi)抽屜并且拿出一筆可觀的金額。

“你從哪得來(lái)的？”他喊道。

“我一直知道你是一個(gè)天才，”她告訴他，“我知道有一天你可能會(huì)寫(xiě)出一部杰作。因此每周你給我的生活費(fèi)，我存了一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)，所以現(xiàn)在有足夠的錢(qián)夠我們生活一整年。”

因?yàn)樗�的信任和信心，于是誕生出了對(duì)美國(guó)文學(xué)貢獻(xiàn)最大的小說(shuō)之一——《紅字》。

【人生啟迪】

處于失敗之中的我們總是會(huì)抱怨很多，時(shí)機(jī)不對(duì)、資金不夠……很多時(shí)候，我們失敗并不是因?yàn)槲覀儧](méi)有取得成功的實(shí)力，而是因?yàn)槲覀內(nèi)鄙倭艘环菪判模�不要妄自菲薄，你能做到的其�?shí)很多，充滿(mǎn)自信，也許你離成功只是一步之遙！