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中英文小故事：删繁就简 一个年轻人去找一位智者，说他大学毕业后，为自己树立了许多目标，但几年来仍然一事无成。 他找到智者时，智者正在河边小屋里读书。智者微笑着听完年轻人的倾诉，对他说：“来，你先帮我烧壶幵水！” 年轻人看见墙角放着一个极大的水壶，旁边是一个小火灶，但没有看到柴火。于是，他 他在外面拾了一些枯枝回来，装满一壶水，放在灶台上。他在灶里放了一些柴，便烧了起来。可是，壶太大，那捆柴烧尽了，水也没开。于是，他跑出去继续找柴火，回来时那壶水已经凉得差不多了。这次，他学聪明了，没有急于点火，而是再次出去找柴。因为柴准备充足，所以水不一会儿就烧开了。 智者突然问他：“如果没有足够的柴，你该怎样把水烧开？” 年轻人想了一会儿，摇了摇头。 智者说：“如果那样，就把水壶里的水倒掉一些！” 年轻人若有所思地点了点头。 智者接着说：“你一开始踌躇满志，树立了太多的目标，就像这个大水壶装了太多水一样，而你又没有足够的柴，所以不能把水烧开，要想把水烧开，你要么倒出一些水，要么先去准备柴！” 年轻人恍然大悟。 回去后，他把计划中所列的目标删掉了许多，只留下最近的几个，同时利用业余时间学习各种专业知识。 几年后，他的目标都变成了现实。 Reduce to Bare Essentials A young man went to see a wise man, saying that after graduation, he set many targets for himself, but years later he accomplished nothing. When he found the wise man, the latter was reading in the cottage by the river. With a smile, the wise man heard the young man’s words, and said to him, “Come help me boil a kettle of water first!” The young man saw a big pitcher standing in the corner, next to a small fire stove, but he found no firewood, so he went out for it. He came back with some dead wood, filled up the kettle with water and put on the stove. He put some firewood in the stove and burned up, but because the pot was too large, when the faggot burned out, the water did not boil. Then he ran off to get firewood. When he went back, the water had nearly turned cold. This time he became smart, so he was not eager to light the fire, but went out to look for some firewood again. Because the firewood was well prepared, the water boiled pretty soon. The wise man suddenly asked him, “If there is not enough firewood, how should you boil the water?” The young man thought for a moment and shook his head. The wise man said, “If so, pour out some water of the kettle!” The young man nodded thoughtfully. The wise man continued, “You had so many aspirations at first and set too many goals, just as the large kettle was filled with too much water but you didn’t have enough firewood, so you couldn’t boil the water, and if you wanted to make the water boil, you either emptied some of the water or prepared some firewood!” The young man saw the light suddenly. When he went back, he removed many listed targets from his plan, leaving only a few recent ones, while with spare time he studied all kinds of specialties. A few years later, his goals were realized. accomplish 实现；完成 faggot 柴把；枝条捆 aspiration 抱负；志向 |
