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能让大多数人钦佩的品质之一在于勇于承认自己的错误。有时候一句简单的话，比如：“在那件事上我错了”太难开口，至于说"我错了，你对了"就更难上加难。 我最近经历了一件事，有人向我承认了15年前的错误。他告诉我，他是我所长大地区附近一家百货的经理，并问我是否记得一箱鸡蛋的事。然后他向我讲起那件事，我模模糊糊地想起了一些。 那时，我8岁左右，跟母亲来到那家百货公司进行每周大采购。就在那一天，我无意走到乳制品柜台时，这事情就发生了。 那天，我印象很深，鸡蛋装在一打或半打的箱子里展销，一定是在促销。箱子垒得有三四英尺高。我一定是停在箱子面前观望。这时，一名妇女走过来，使劲推了一下她的购物车，撞倒了那堆箱子。出于某种原因，我觉得我应该收起箱子，于是我这样做了。 经理听到了嘈杂声，飞快地赶来看到底出了什么事。他过来时，我正跪着检查箱子看鸡蛋是否碎了。但在他看来，我就是罪魁祸首。他严厉地斥责了我，让我赔偿砸碎鸡蛋的钱。我向他解释，表明我的清白，但根本没用。虽然我很快忘了这件事，但很显然，经理没有忘记。 An Apology Made 15 Years Late One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the one’s mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing bout that，” and it is even harder to say, “I was wrong, and you were right about that. ” I had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made a mis- take fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain grocery store in the neighborhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I remembered the egg cartons. Then he related an incident and I began to remember vaguely the incident he was descri¬bing. I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gone into the store with my mother to do the weekly grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have found my way to the dairy food department where the incident took place. There must have been a special sale on eggs that day be¬cause there was an impressive display of eggs in dozen and half- dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four feet high.I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by, pushing her grocery cart, and knocked off the stacks of cartons. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back together, so I went to work. The manager heard the noise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting some of the cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as though I was the culprit. He severely repri¬manded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs.丨 protested my innocence and tried to explain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, apparently the manager did not. |
