英语美文阅读-Love is a telephone.doc

Love is a telephone 爱情是部电话机爱情是一部电话，渴望它响起时，它却总是悄无声息；不经心留意时，它又叮铃铃的响起。因此，我们经常错过另一端传来的温馨的甜蜜。爱情这部电话机，第一次使用，会令你紧张，激动不已，不是倒拿了电话筒，就是拨错了号码。等你不再紧张激动的时候，往往不知道该给谁打电话为好。Love is a telephone which always keeps silent when you are longing for a call, but rings when you are not ready for it. As a result, we often miss the sweetness from the other end.Love is a telephone which is seldom program-controlled or directly dialed. You cannot get an immediate answer by a mere hello, let alone go deep into your lovers heart by one call. Usually it had to be relayed by an operator, and you have to be patient in waiting. Destiny is the operator of this phone, who is always irresponsible and fond of laying practical jokes to which she may make you a lifelong victim intentionally or unintentionally.Love is a telephone which is always busy, When you are ready to die for love, you only find, to your disappointment, the line is already occupied by someone else, and you are greeted only by a busy line. This is an eternal regret handed down from generation to generation and you are only one of those who languish for followers.Love is telephone, but it is difficult to seize the center time for dialing, and you will let slip the opportunity if your call is either too early or too late.Love is a telephone which is not always associated with happiness. Honeyed words are transmitted by sound waves, but when the lovers are brought together, the phone servers no purpose that many lovers observe that marriage is the doom of love.Love is a telephone which, when you use it for the first time, makes you so nervous and excited that you either hold the receiver upside down or dial the wrong number. By the time youve calmed down, you will beat a loss to whom you should make the call.Love is a telephone which often has crossed lines. And this usually happens to you unexpectedly. Your time will either cross or be crossed. Both cases are refereed to as triangle. Fortunately, all such occurrences are transient.Achieving contentment 知足常乐如今的消费文化助长了人们的不满之心，并不断刺激着人们的物质欲望，学着知足自然变成一件相当困难的事了。事实上，要想在你的生命中完完全全地获得知足之心，没有什么放之四海而皆准的真理，但是仍然有六个关键的要素能够帮助我们在生活中知足常乐。Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” SocratesThere were many reasons that we chose to become minimalist and simplify our lives. We were frustrated with clutter. We discovered the time that was wasted managing our possessions. We realized that joy was not found in our possessions. And we determined that we value other things far more than physical belongings. This initial process of simplifying our home required energy, effort, and encouragement.But the process of remaining minimalist and living this counter-cultural lifestyle against all odds requires something completely different. It requires contentment. Contentment is the lifeblood of minimalism. And without it, the journey towards minimalism is short-lived. Discontent will always rear its ugly head and become the great obstacle to fully thriving in a simple life.Not only does contentment provide the opportunity for minimalism, it also reduces your stress level, improves your outlook, relaxes your body, and makes your life enjoyable. There is an unmistakable freedom that follows contentment: a freedom to be who you are, enjoy who you are, and live the life you were destined to live.Yet in our consumeristic-culture where discontent is promoted and material gratification is encouraged, learning to be content can be very difficult. It is certainly a personal journey that we all must travel and nobodys journey will look the same. Truly, there is no one-size-fits-all, seven-step program to fully-attain contentment in your life but here are six keys that have helped us further develop contentment in our lives:1. Become grateful.It is impossible to develop contentment without gratitude they are inseparable. And a grateful person is one who has learned to focus on the good things in their life, not the things that they lack. When you begin to question what you have to be grateful for, just start making a list a literal list of all the good things in your life. Dont worry about finishing, you dont need to. The simple discipline of beginning the exercise will undoubtedly shift your focus back to the many good things you already have.2. Take control of your attitude.A person who lacks contentment in their life will often engage in when and then thinking when i get _, then i will be happy. instead take control of your own life. Remember, your happiness is not reliant on the acquisition of any possession. Your happiness is based solely on your decision to be happy and this may be one of the most important life lessons you can ever learn.3. Break the habit of satisfying discontentment with acquisitions.For many of us, it has been ingrained into our lives that the proper way to diffuse discontent is to purchase the outward item that is seemingly causing the discontentment. Almost no energy is spent determining the true root of the discontent. Are you dissatisfied with your wardrobe? Go buy new clothes. Not content with your vehicle? Go buy a new one. We have gotten into the habit of satisfying our discontent by simply spending more money. We must break that habit. Understand that material possessions will never fully satisfy the desires of your heart (thats why discontent always returns). The next time you recognize discontentment surfacing in your life, refuse to give into that bad habit. Instead, commit to better understand yourself and why the lack of that item is causing discontent. Only after you intentionally break this habit will true contentment begin to surface.4. Stop comparing yourself to others.Comparing your life with someone elses will always lead to discontentment. There will always be people who appear to be better off than you and seemingly living the perfect life. But be advised, we always compare the worst of what we know about ourselves to the best assumptions that we make about others. Their life is never as perfect as your mind makes it out to be. You are unique. You are special. And its always better that way.5. Help others.When you begin helping others, sharing your talents, time and money, you will find yourself learning to be content. The practice will give you a finer appreciation for what you own, who you are, and what you have to offer.6. Be content with what you have, never with what you are.Never stop learning, growing, or discovering. Take pride in your personhood and the progress that you have made, but never become so content that you cannot find room for improvement. Contentment is not the same as complacency. As soon as you stop growing, you start dying.成功实现人生目标的8大准则1) Set only one goal at a time.一次一个目标When you try take on too much at once, you can become overwhelmed quickly. Instead of trying to tackle three or four goals try to prioritize them. Create a list and take one goal at a time. Once you achieve that goal, back to your list mark it off, and move to the next one. The act of marking off the goals and achieving them individually will give you a greater sense of accomplishment. You can even break the one goal done into smaller parts. This gives you motivation and success more often than waiting for days or months to achieve a larger goal. 一次想做太多的事情，你会很快变得手忙脚乱。不要试图一次完成三、四个目标，要将它们优先化。作一份目标清单，一次取其中一个目标。一旦成功实现后，从你的清单上把它划掉，继续下一个。这种“划”目标、逐个实现的办法会给你更多成就感。 甚至你还能把一个目标分化成数个“小目标”。这比等上数天或数月实现一个“大”目标能获得更多动力和成就感。For example, let us say you want to lose thirty pounds in 45 days. Break the goal down weekly to losing about five pounds a week. You can make up a calendar and mark off the week as you achieve your weekly goal. If you did not achieve your goal that week, adjust the other weeks according and still give yourself credit for what you did achieve. 比如：你想用45天减肥30磅。 将这一目标划分为每周减大约5磅。你可以创建一份日历，每周实现了目标，就将这一周划去。如果没按周实现目标，那么可以调整到后面数周，这样过去的成绩仍会获得认可。2) Evaluate your desire and motivation.认准所求和动力People often think they know what they want. The good news is that if you set a goal and work hard, you are likely to achieve it. The bad news is that it might not really be what you want. 人们总是认为自己知道想要什么。好的方面是：如果你设定了一个目标，并且为之努力，你就可能实现。坏的方面是：这个目标也许不是你真正想要的。Suppose you want to date a girl at the gym. You overheard her say that she likes men with large muscular arms. You set the goal of working extra everyday to achieve bigger than life biceps and triceps. You reach your goal after grueling hours of sweat and pain. In the meantime, she met a guy half the size as you, and who was available because he was not in the gym 12 hours a day. 假设你想和一位健身房的MM约会。你偷听到这位MM说她喜欢手臂肌肉壮的男性。于是你设定了每天额外运动来获得更大肌肉的目标。在不知流了多少汗、吃了多少苦后实现了目标。与此同时，她却看上了比你小一半的男人，那个人有时间，因为（不像你）他不会一天12小时泡在健身房。You reached your goal of large arms, but set the wrong goal of trying to get a date with a particular girl. Make sure you are really reaching for what you really want in life. You can achieve what you sought and still feel empty inside. 你是达到了让手臂肌肉发达的目标，但是，对于争取要和某个MM约会来说，这个目标设错了。你一定要为生活中真正想要的东西努力。（因为不然的话）你可能会达到了追求的目标而仍感到内心空虚。3) Find inspiration for accomplishing your goal.找到激励The reason that personal trainers are so popular is that they can help you achieve things that alone you may not. It has nothing to do with your desire to achieve your goals; it is because we need inspiration to continue on our road to success. As humans, we can talk ourselves and make excuses why we do not achieve of goals everyday. Having someone that has walked down the same path and has reached the end is a great inspiration that can help motivate you to continue on your path everyday. They can inspire you to go beyond what you thought that you were capable and hold a hand out to you in order assist you on your way. 个人教练如此受欢迎的原因是他们能帮你实现单枪匹马一个人实现不了的事情。这和你要实现它们的愿望无关；而是因为我们需要在通往成功的道路上不断获得激励。人们常常会为不能实现目标找借口。如果有一个过来人，一个已经达到目标的人能每天帮助你朝目标不断前进，这是一个很大的激励。他们能激励你超越自我，助你一臂之力。4) Make a public commitment to accomplishing your goal.把目标“说”出来There is a power in stating our goal to others. It is a public commitment that you will achieve what you have stated that you will. It takes it out of your head and puts it out into the world. This creates a sense of responsibility on our part because we do not wish to disappoint others. It should be in the form of a definitive statement. Instead of “I am trying to reduce my waist down two sizes,” try instead “I will lose two waist sizes in the next two weeks.” This sends the message of a definitive rather than a wish. There is little room for doubt in a definitive statement. 把你的目标告诉别人，这就带来一股力量。因为告诉别人就是一种公众承诺，表示你将实现你的话。这样就把目标从你的脑子放到现实世界里。这会让人们产生一种责任感，因为他们不愿意让别人失望。告诉别人你的目标要用确定性的语气。不要说“我要试试把腰围减两个尺码”，要说“我要在两周后把我的腰围减两个尺码”。这就表示一种决心，而不是仅仅一种愿望。表示了决心，就没有犹疑的余地了。5) Seek out support.获取支持。People are social creatures that do better in groups than they do alone. People try to lose weight for years find greater success in a peer group trying to lose weight than they do alone. Find others with similar goals or try to join an already established support group. This can inspire and push you along when you begin to doubt ourselves. 人是社会动物。一起做某件事比一个人做要容易。那些想减肥的人和其他有同样目标的人一起比独自行动取得更好的效果。找到和你有类似目标的人，或者加入一个现成的组织。这可以在你自我怀疑的时候激励你、敦促你。6) Think thoughts conducive to success.作有益的思考There is only one constant in the universe and that is change. People are often resistant to change. Their resistance is often fueled by fear. This can be the fear of failure or maybe even fear of the unknown. You must face that fear and tell yourself everyday that change is good and change is what is needed to achieve what you want out of life. Self-talk in front of a mirror daily can help you achieve this. Remember to keep your talk positive. Instead of saying, “I will try not to be afraid of that new Pilates class because it looks hard.” Say instead “I will enjoy the Pilates class and get the rock hard abs I have always wanted.” This shift in thought can create wonders in your life. 宇宙中唯一不变的就是变化。人们常会对变化抵制。这样的抵制往往来源于恐惧：对失败的恐惧甚至是对未知的恐惧。你必须面对恐惧，并每天提醒自己变化是好的，变化是你要实现目标所必需的。每天对着镜子自言自语能帮助你克服恐惧。记住要对自己讲积极的话。不要说 “我会试着不去害怕普拉提课因为它看起来太难了”，而要说“我要去享受普拉提来获得我孜孜以求的坚硬腹肌”。思想上的转变能给生活带来奇迹。7) Keep a success journal.写“功劳簿”Earlier I mentioned keeping a calendar to mark your successes. A step beyond this is a success journal. In it, you can write down your achievements and successes. You can include pictures or whatever else is inspiring to you. This success journal is not only a testament that you achieved what you told others you would, but it also provides an instrument in which you can look back to when you are achieving new goals to help inspire you. It is a message to yourself that you can achieve anything you set you mind to and the journal is proof of it. 前面提到了用日历来记录成功。进一步的做法是做一本“功劳簿”。 在里面，你可以写下取得的各种成就。你可以附上照片，或者任何能激励你的东西。它不仅是个人成就的证明，而且当你想要实现其它目标时能给你激励。这本功劳簿会给你一个信息，即你只要用心什么都可能实现。功劳簿就是证明。8) Keep before you, at all times, the benefits of attaining your goal不要忘记目标Sometimes we can be so caught up in the process of achieving a goal that we can forget what the goal is. When you set out on a trip, you may have a map. On that map are two important items, where you started, and where you are going. Create your own map of your goal. Keep it where you can see it daily so that you do not forget where you are going or forget how far you have come. 有时我们会太过于专注实现目标的过程，而忘记了目标是什么。如果你出行，你也许会有张地图。在地图上有两样重要的东西：出发点和目的地。为自己的目标制作一张地图，放在一个每天都能看到的地方，这样你就不会忘记你要去往何处，或者，走过了多少路。The whisper 让我轻声鼓励你玛丽把听不见的耳朵遮起来，假装用好的耳朵来做听力测试。她知道老师通常会说些“天空是蓝色的”、“你鞋子是什么颜色的呢”之类的话。但是那天却没有。那天莱纳德对着玛丽说出的几个字犹如神灵一般，彻底改变了她的一生。在“轻言细语”听力测试中，玛丽听见的那句话就是：我希望你是我的乖女儿。Recently, I heard a touching story which illustrates the power that words have to change a life - a power that lies right in the hands of those reading this article. Mary had grown up knowing that she was different from the other kids, and she hated it. She was born with a cleft palate and had to bear the jokes and stares of cruel children who teased her non-stop about her misshaped lip, crooked nose, and garbled speech. With all the teasing, Mary grew up hating the fact that she was different. She was convinced that no one, outside her family, could ever love her . until she entered Mrs. Leonards class.Mrs. Leonard had a warm smile, a round face, and shiny brown hair. While everyone in her class liked her, Mary came to love Mrs. Leonard. In the 1950s, it was common for teachers to give their children an annual hearing test. However, in Marys case, in addition to her cleft palate, she was barely able to hear out of one ear. Determined not to let the other children have another difference to point out, she would cheat on the test each year. The whisper test was given by having a child walk to the classroom door, turn sideways, close one ear with a finger, and then repeat something which the teacher whispered. Mary turned her bad ear towards her teacher and pretended to cover her good ear. She knew that teachers would often say things like, The sky is blue, or What color are your shoes? But not on that day. Surely, God put seven words in Mrs. Leonards mouth that changed Marys life forever. When the Whisper test came, Mary heard the words: I wish you were my little girl.Dads, I wish there was some way that I could communicate to you the incredible blessing which affirming words impart to children. I wish, too, that you could sit in my office, when I counsel, and hear the terrible damage that individuals received from not hearing affirming words-particularly affirming words from a father. While words from a godly teacher can melt a heart, words from a father can powerfully set the course of a life.If affirming words were something rarely spoken in your home growing up, let me give you some tips on words and phrases that can brighten your own childs eyes and life. These words are easy to say to any child who comes into your life. Im proud of you, Way to go, Bingo . you did it, Magnificent, I knew you could do it, What a good helper, Youre very special to me, I trust you, What a treasure, Hurray for you, Beautiful work, Youre a real trooper, Well done, Thats so creative, You make my day, Youre a joy, Give me a big hug, Youre such a good listener, You figured it out, I love you, Youre so responsible, You remembered, Youre the best, You sure tried hard, Ive got to hand it to you, I couldnt be prouder of you, You light up my day, Im praying for you, Youre wonderful, Im behind you, Youre so kind to your (brother/sister), Youre Gods special gift, Im here for you.婚姻保鲜的秘密是什么？ 导读快餐文化下的我们，内心其实始终不愿放弃对天长地久的追求。奈何千千万万的人挂在了婚姻这样一门人生的必修课上，抱憾终身。今天，邀请一对来自英国婚龄47年的资深夫妇谈论他们天长地久的秘密。Mastering the Art of Marriage Wedded bliss: Jane and Rob Fearnley-Whittingstall on their wedding day Photo: CHRISTOPHER JONESI fancied him for all the wrong reasons, says Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, eyes twinkling at the memory. Rob was terribly handsome, which wasnt necessarily a sound basis for a permanent relationship.After 47 years of marriage she is, she says, lucky that the glamorous Oxford undergraduate turned out to be a kind and thoughtful man who still makes her laugh (and who grows some very fine purple sprouting broccoli). I dont think we ever run out of conversation, she says, although she happily admits they still have arguments, as all couples do. Rob will have got over it in five minutes, while Ill be brooding away in my lair for hours and hours. As you would expect from the author of The Good Granny Guide, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, a very young-looking 70-year-old, has her feet firmly on the ground. In her new book For Better, For Worse, subtitled A light-hearted guide to wedded bliss, she celebrates the institution of marriage while wondering how on earth any of us manages to stay the course.She talks about the domesticfront line housework, the television remote, snoring and the vexedissu