四級晨讀主題美文
How the Americans View Friendship
Steve and Yaser ‵first met｜in their chemistry class｜at an American university. Yaser was an ‵international student｜from Jordon. He wanted to learn ‵more｜about American culture｜and hope that he and Steve would become ‵good friends. At first, Steve seemed ‵very friendly. He always greeted Yaser ‵warmly before class. Sometimes he offered to study with Yaser. He ‵even invited Yaser｜to eat lunch with him. ‵But after the semester was over, Steve seemed more distant.①The two former classmates｜didn’t see each other very much｜at school. One day Yaser decided to call Steve. Steve didn’t seem ‵very interested｜in talking to him. Yaser was ‵hurt｜by Steve’s change of attitude. “Steve said we were friends.” Yaser complained, “and I thought friends were friends｜for ever.” Yaser is a little ‵confused. As a foreigner, he doesn’t understand the way｜Americans view friendship. Americans use the word “friend”｜in a ‵very general way. They may call ‵both casual acquaintances｜and close companions “friends”.② These friendships are based on ‵common interests. When the shared activity ‵ends, the friendship may ‵fade. Now as Steve and Yaser｜are no longer classmates, their “friendship”｜has changed. In some cultures｜friendship means a ‵strong life-long bond｜ between two people. In these cultures｜friendships develop ‵slowly, since they are built to last. American society is one of ‵rapid change. Studies show｜that one out of five American families ‵moves every year. American friendships develop quickly, and they may change｜just as ‵quickly. People from the United States｜may at first seem friendly. Americans often chat ‵easily with strangers. But American friendliness｜is not always an offer of ‵true friendship. After an experience like Yaser’s｜people who’ve been in this country for only a ‵few months｜may consider Americans to be fickle. Learning how Americans view friendship｜can help non-Americans avoid misunderstandings. It can ‵also make them｜make friends the American way. [320 words]
美國人的友誼觀
史蒂夫和亞瑟第一次見面是在美國一所大學的化學課上。亞瑟是來自約旦的外國留學生，他想更多地瞭解美國文化，並希望能和史蒂夫成為好友。起初，史蒂夫顯得很友好，上課前他總是熱情地與亞瑟打招呼。有時他主動提出與亞瑟一起學習，甚至還邀請亞瑟共進午餐。但學期結束後，史蒂夫顯得比較冷淡了。①這兩位先前的同班同學在學校不再經常見面。有一天，亞瑟決定給史蒂夫打個電話，可史蒂夫似乎不大願意與其交談。史蒂夫態度的改變讓亞瑟感到受了傷害。“史蒂夫說過我們是好朋友，”亞瑟抱怨說，“我本來以為是朋友就永遠是朋友。”亞瑟有些不解。作為一個外國人，他不理解美國人對友誼的看法。美國人對“朋友”一詞的使用非常廣泛。他們可能把偶然相識的人和親密的夥伴都稱之為“朋友”。②這些友誼都是基於共同的興趣。當這些原來共同從事的活動不復存在時，友誼也可能隨之淡化。現在亞瑟和史蒂夫不再是同學，所以他們的“友誼”已經發生了變化。在有些文化中，友誼意味著維繫兩個人之間牢固的持續終生的紐帶。在這些文化中，友誼發展得很慢，因為人們是在建立持續終生的感情。而美國社會是個快速變化的社會。有研究顯示，每年每五個美國家庭中就有一家遷移。美國人的友誼建立得非常快，其變化也同樣快。從美國來的人給人的第一印象是很友好。美國人常隨意與陌生人交談。然而美國人的友好並不總是真正友情的`表示。來到美國才幾個月的外國人在經歷了一次如同亞瑟這樣的經歷之後，可能會認為美國人易變。瞭解美國人對友誼的看法，有助於非美國人避免誤解，還可以幫助他們學會以美國方式與美國人交朋友。
Competition
It is a plain fact that we are in a world where competition is going on in all areas and at all levels.This is exciting.Yet, on the other hand, competition breeze a pragmatic attitude.People choose to learn things that are useful,and do things that are profitable.Todays' college education is also affected by this general sense of utilitarianism. Many college students choose business nor computing programming as their majors convinced that this professions are where the big money is. It is not unusual to see the college students taking a part time jobs as a warming up for the real battle.I often see my friends taking GRE tests, working on English or computer certificates and taking the driving licence to get a licence. Well, I have nothing against being practical. As the competition in the job market gets more and more intense, students do have reasons to be practical. However, we should never forget that college education is much more than skill training. Just imagine, if your utilitarianism is prevails on campus, living no space for the cultivation of students' minds,or nurturing of their soul. We will see university is training out well trained spiritless working machines.If utilitarianism prevails society, we will see people bond by mind-forged medicals lost in the money-making ventures;we will see humality lossing their grace and dignity, and that would be disastrous.I'd like to think society as a courage and people persumed for profit or fame as a horese that pulls the courage.Yet without the driver picking direction the courage would go straight and may even end out in a precarious situation .A certificate may give you some advantage, but broad horizons, positive attitudes and personal integrities ,these are assets you cannot acquire through any quick fixed way.In today's world, whether highest level of competition is not of skills or expertise , but vision and strategy. Your intellectual quality largely determinds how far you can go in your career.
Chinese Undergraduates in the US
Each year, elite American universities and liberal arts colleges, such as Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Amherst and Wellesley, offer a number of scholarships to Chinese high school graduates to study in their undergraduate programs. Four years ago, I received such a scholarship from Yale.
What are these Chinese undergrads like? Most come from middle-class families in the big urban centers of China. The geographical distribution is highly skewed, with Shanghai and Beijing heavily over-represented. Outside the main pool, a number of Yale students come from Changsha and Ningbo,swhereseach year American Yale graduates are sent to teach English.
The overwhelming majority of Chinese undergraduates in the US major in science, engineering or economics. Many were academic superstars in their high schools - gold medallists in international academic Olympiads or prize winners in national academic contests. Once on US campuses, many of them decide to make research a lifelong commitment.
Life outside the classroom constitutes an important part of college life. At American universities the average student spends less than thirteen hours a week in class. Many Chinese students use their spare time to pick up some extra pocket money. At Yale, one of the most common campus jobs is washing dishes in the dining halls. Virtually all Chinese undergraduates at Yale work part-time in the dining halls at some point in their college years. As they grow in age and sophistication, they upgrade to better-paying and less stressful positions. The more popular and interesting jobs include working as a computer assistant, math homework grader, investment office assistant and lab or research assistant. The latter three often lead to stimulating summer jobs.
Student activities are another prominent feature of American college life. Each week there are countless student-organized events of all sorts - athletic, artistic, cultural, political or social (i.e. just for fun). New student organizations are constantly being created, and Chinese undergrads contribute to this ferment. Sport looms much larger on US campuses than in China. At Yale, intramural sports from soccer to water polo take place all year long; hence athletic talent is a real social asset. One of the Chinese students at Yale several years ago was a versatile sportsman. His athletic talents and enthusiastic participation in sporting events, combined with his other fine qualities, made him a popular figure in his residential college.
I Want to Know
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!
It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, without moving to hide it
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.
I want to know if you can see beauty , if you can source your life from god’s presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
Beauty
there were a sensitivity and a beauty to her that have nothing to do with looks. She was one to be listened to, whose words were so easy to take to heart.
I have thought about her often over the years and how she struggled in a society that places an incredible premium on looks, class, wealth and all the other fineries of life. She suffered from a disfigurement that cannot be made to look attractive. I know that her condition hurt her deeply.
Would her life have been different had she been pretty? Chances are it would have. And yet there were a sensitivity and a beauty to her that had nothing to do with looks. She was one to be listened to, whose words were so easy to take to heart. Her words came from a wounded but loving heart, very much like all hearts, but she had more of a need to be aware of it, to live with it and learn from it. She possessed a fine-tuned sense of beauty. Her only fear in life was the loss of a friend.
It is said that the true nature of being is veiled. The labor of words, the expression of art, the seemingly ceaseless buzz that is human thought all have in common the need to get at what really is so. The hope to draw close to and possess the truth of being can be a feverish one. In some cases it can even be fatal, if pleasure is one's truth and its attainment more important than life itself. In other lives, though, the search for what is truthful gives life.
The truth of her life was a desire to see beyond the surface for a glimpse of what it is that matters. She found beauty and grace and they befriended her, and showed her what is real.
Work and Pleasure
To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend.
It may also be said that rational, industrious useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.
工作和娛樂
要想獲得真正的快樂與安寧，一個人應該有至少兩三種愛好，而且必須是真正的愛好。到晚年才說“我對什麼什麼有興趣”是沒用的，這隻會徒然增添精神負擔。一個人可以在自己工作之外的領域獲得淵博的知識，不過他可能幾乎得不到什麼好處或是消遣。做你喜歡的事是沒用的，你必須喜歡你所做的事。總的來說，人可以分為三種：勞累而死的、憂慮而死的、和煩惱而死的。對於那些體力勞動者來說，經歷了一週精疲力竭的體力勞作，週六下午讓他們去踢足球或者打棒球是沒有意義的。而對那些政治家、專業人士或者商人來說，他們已經為嚴肅的事情操勞或煩惱六天了，週末再讓他們為瑣事勞神也是沒有意義的。
也可以說，那些理性的、勤勉的、有價值的人們可分為兩類，一類，他們的工作就是工作，娛樂就是娛樂；而另一類，他們的工作即娛樂。大多數人屬於前者，他們得到了相應的補償。長時間在辦公室或工廠裡的工作，回報給他們的不僅是維持了生計，還有一種強烈的對娛樂的需求，哪怕是最簡單的、最樸實的娛樂。不過，命運的寵兒則屬於後者。他們的生活很自然和諧。對他們來說，工作時間永遠不嫌長。每天都是假日，而當正常的假日來臨時，他們總是埋怨自己所全身心投入的休假被強行中斷了。不過，有些事情對兩類人是同樣至關重要的，那就是轉換一下視角、改變一下氛圍、將精力轉移到別的事情上。確實，對那些工作即是娛樂的人來說，最需要隔一段時間就用某種方式把工作從腦子裡面趕出去。