|
星期日的早上，一个小男孩在玩沙箱。沙箱里有小汽车、卡车、塑料桶和又红又亮的塑料铲。他在柔软的沙子里铺路和幵道时，发现沙箱中间有一块大石头。 小男孩在石头周围挖着，想设法把它从沙土中挖出来。他费了九牛二虎之力，脚蹬肘推想把石头移出沙箱。他人小力单，石头巨大。然而，等把石头移到沙箱边时，男孩发现他无法让石头向上越过那堵小墙。 小男孩下定决心，挤推着，但每当他认为有些进展时，那块石头就侧翻着滚回了沙箱。他吭吭哧苦苦挣扎，又推又挤，但他得到的唯一回报就是石头又滚回沙箱，划破了他胖乎乎的手指。 最后，他因沮丧而放声大哭。在此期间，男孩的父亲透过客厅的窗户注视着事情的进展。当男孩眼泪滚下来时，一个巨大的身影横过了小男孩和沙箱。是男孩的父亲。 他温和而坚定地说：“儿子，你为什么不用全力呢？” 男孩像被打败了似的，哭着回答说：“可我尽全力了，爸爸，我尽全力了呀！我用尽了所有的力量呀！” “没有，儿子，”父亲温和地纠正说，“你没有用上所有的力量。你没有请求我的帮助。” Have You Used All You Strength? A little boy was spending his Sunday afternoon playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. He was a very small boy and the rock was very huge. When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall. Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved—but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, cutting his chubby fingers. Finally, he burst into tears with frustration. All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father. Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?" Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!” “No, son,” corrected the father kindly, “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.” shovel 铲子 dislodge 取出 nudge 用肘推 determined 下定决心的 shove （口） l推；挤 pry （用杠杆等}撬；撬起 tip 倾斜 chubby 圆胖的 frustration 挫折；失败 available 可利用的 |
