對這只來說有意義

It matters to this one

Along the coast of the vast Atlantic Ocean there lived an old man. Each day when the tide went out he would make his way along the beach for miles. Another man who lived not far away would occasionally watch as he disappeared into the distance and later notice that he had returned. The neighbor also noticed that, as he walked, the old man would often stoop down to lift something from the sand and then throw it away into the water.

One day, when the old man went down to the beach this neighbor followed to satisfy his curiosity and, sure enough, as he watched, the old man bent down and gently lifted something from the sand and threw it into the ocean. By the time the old man made his next stop the neighbor had come near enough to see that he was picking up a starfish which had been stranded by the retreating tide and would, of course, die of dehydration before the tide returned. As the old man turned to walk along the coast the neighbor called out with a degree of mockery in his voice, “Hey, old timer! What are you doing? This beach goes on for hundreds of miles, and thousands of starfish get washed up every day! Surely you don’t think that throwing a few back is going to matter.”

The old man listened and paused for a moment, then held the starfish in his hand out toward his neighbor. “It matters to this on.”

【日積月累】

◇stoop vi.俯身，彎腰

◇stranded adj.擱淺的，處于困境的

◇starfish  n. 海星（一種海星綱的棘皮動物，典型特征是長有厚而帶剌的身體，并生有五條輻射排列的腕）

◇dehydration n. 脫水

◇mockery n. 嘲笑，嘲弄

【參考譯文】

對這只來說有意義

在廣闊的大西洋海岸住著一位老人。每天當潮水退去后他都會沿著海岸線走上幾英里，不遠處住著另外一個人，他偶爾也會注視著這個老人消失在遠處，然后又看著老人回來。鄰居也發現，老人走著的時候會經常彎下腰從沙灘上揀起什么東西拋到海里。

一天，當老人又一次沿著海岸線走的時候，這個鄰居跟在后面看老人到底在干什么來滿足自己的好奇心。他看到老人彎下腰輕輕地從沙灘上揀起什么東西又扔進了大海。當老人再次停下來時，這個鄰居走進一看，原來老人正在揀起一只被潮水沖到岸上的海星，當然，這只海星在潮水再次到來之前就會脫水而死。當老人沿海岸返回的時候，這個鄰居用一種嘲弄的口吻叫住他：“嘿，老家伙！你在做什么？這個海灘有數百英里長，每天都會有成千上萬只海星沖上岸！你不知道你扔一部分回去實在是沒什么意義嗎？”

老人聽完停了一會，把手中的那只海星拿到鄰居眼前說：“對這只來說有意義。”

【人生啟迪】

有句俗語叫“莫以善小而不為”，有些時候我們總是因為善事太小而忽視，但是正所謂聚少成多，雖然老人每天只能將很小一部分的海星扔回海里，這對于成千上萬只被沖上岸的海星來說是微乎其微，但是對于這些被扔回海里的海星來說，他們獲得了重生，如果老人因為這樣做沒有意義就不做的話，那么連這一小部分的海星都無法獲得重生。所以從現在開始，不要忽視身邊的每一件小事，聚少成多，你能做到的其實很多！