（一）

a country maid was walking along with a can of milk upon her head,when she fell into the following train of reflections."the money for which i shall sell this milk will enable me to increase my stock of eggs to three hundred,these eggs,allowing for what may prove addle,and what may be destroyed by vermin,will produce at least two hundred and fifty chickens.the chickens will be fit to carry to market just at the time when poultry is always dear;so that by the new year i cannot fail of having money enough to purchase a new gown.green-let me consider-yes,green becomes my complexion best .and green it shall be, in this dress i will go to the fair,where all young fellows will strive to have me for a parter;but no-i shall refuse every one of them,and with a disdainful toss turn from them."

transported with this idea,she could not forbear acting with her head the thought that passed in her mind,when down came the can of milk!and all her imaginary happiness vanished in a moment.

一個村姑頭上頂著一罐牛奶在路上行走。走著走著，她的腦子里浮現出一連串的幻想：“我賣了這罐牛奶后，用這筆錢買雞蛋，這樣我有的雞蛋可以增加到300個。用這300個雞蛋孵小雞，這就算有壞的、生蟲的，至少也能孵出250只小雞。等小雞長大后，正好能趕上賣個好市價;那么到了新年，我就能有錢買一件新晚裝。買一件綠色的??讓我好好想想??對，綠色與我的膚色最相襯。我穿上這件衣服去趕集，所有的年輕小伙子都會搶著邀請我做舞伴;但是不行??我要輕蔑地把頭一揚，轉身過去不理他們，讓他們人人都碰個釘子。

她想得得意忘形，情不自禁地把頭一揚，剎那間，牛奶罐跌了下來!她幻想的一切幸福間破滅了。

（二）

The Raven and the Swan烏鴉和天鵝
A RAVEN saw a Swan and desired to secure for himself the same beautiful plumage. Supposing that the Swan's splendid white color arose from his washing in the water in which he swam, the Raven left the altars in the neighborhood where he picked up his living, and took up residence in the lakes and pools. But cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change their color, while through want of food he perished.
Change of habit cannot alter Nature.
烏鴉非常羨慕天鵝潔白的羽毛。他猜想天鵝一定是經常洗澡，羽毛才變得如此潔白無 瑕。于是，他毅然離開了他賴以生存的祭壇，來到江湖邊。他天天洗刷自己的羽毛，不但一 點都沒洗白，反而因缺少食物饑餓而死。
這故事是說，人的本性不會隨著生活方式的改變而改變。

（三）

The Miser守財奴
A MISER sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at daily. One of his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it. The Miser, on his next visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations. A neighbor, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said, "Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of it."
有個守財奴變賣了他所有的家產，換回了金塊，并秘密地埋在一個地方。他每天走去看 看他的寶藏。有個在附放羊的牧人留心觀察，知道了真情，趁他走后，挖出金塊拿走了。 守財奴再來時，發現洞中的金塊沒有了，便捶胸痛哭。有個人見他如此悲痛，問明原因后， 說道：“喂，朋友，別再難過了，那塊金子雖是你買來的，但并不是你真正擁有的。去拿一 塊石頭來，代替金塊放在洞里，只要你心里想著那是塊金子，你就會很高興。這樣與你擁有 真正的金塊效果沒什么不同。依我之見，你擁有那金塊時，也從沒用過。”

四：A Little Bit More

Today is an excellent day for small improvements. Whatever is working for you, find a way to improve it just a little. There’s no need to make a huge change, just a small one, something you can do right now.

If you called just one additional customer each day, over the course of the next month you would talk to about 20 new people. If you learned just one more new word each day, in the next year you would increase your vocabulary by more than 300 words.

Small improvements can add up over time into big accomplishments. Look around you. Consider the work you do each day. Think about how you could do it just a little bit better.

In a marathon race, each step the winner takes is just a little bit longer and a little bit faster than each stride taken by the 100th place finisher. Yet over the course of the race, that small difference adds up in a big way.

Do just a little bit more today, and tomorrow too, and each day after that. Anyone can make just a small improvement, and that can make a big, big difference.

翻譯：再多一點點

今天就是你可以做改進的極好的一天。無論你在做什么,找一個方法去做一點點的改進。不用做太大的改變,只要一點點??你現在可以做到的一點點。

如果你每天多給一個顧客打電話的話,一個月下來你會發現你又多認識了差不多二十個人。如果每天多學會一個新詞,過一年,你的詞匯量將會增加300多個。

小小的改進能夠逐步積累成大的成就。觀察你的周圍。思考你每天所做的工作。英語短文想一下你怎么能做得更好一點。

在馬拉松比賽中,冠軍的每一步都只比第一百名的選手的步伐大一點點、快一點點。英語短文但是在比賽過程中,那些小小的不同積累成了巨大的區別。

今天、明天、今后的每一天盡力做更多一點點。任何人都能做一點小小的改進,但那小小的改進將會起到非常大、非常大的作用。

五：Facing the Reality in Silence

Thetruest and most exPssive thought was hardly be exPssed.

Weall face it alone in silence to the most important thing in life. We can talkoccasionally about love, loneliness, happiness, miseries, death and so on, butthe true meaning is hard to deliver by words. I cannot tell others how gentlemy love is; how desperate my loneliness is; my enjoyable happiness is; howdePssive my miseries is; how ridiculous my death is. I have no choice but tohide then deeply in my heart. All what I said and wrote but the product ofthinking, while thinking, to some extend, is a kind of escape which from theparticular to general, fate to life and the abyss of silence to the bank oflanguage. If they have not become

pure/solely and abstract idea, it is merelybecause they have newly struggled out from the silence and with something hardto tell in their bodies.

Iam not to deny the possibility of communication between human beings, but thecondition. It is silence, instead of words.had an excellent explanation: the nature of silence tells the nature of one’ssoul. There is no any words may have a possibility to make a communicationbetween their soul if the two cannot share the same silence. To those who havenot solved the same questions in silence, even profound philosophy is only somepolite formulas. In fact, those superficial reader have no ability to identifythe profound philosophy and abstract thoughts, proverb and polite formulas,philosophy, insipid/prosaic and commonplace,the knowledge of Buddha dharma and deceitful trick. One’s ability in wordscomPhension is based on his understanding to silence and eternally based onhis silence; that is his capacity of soul. Therefore, I insist that the lessonof one who is determined to seek the life philosophy is silence----to face hisimportant problem of sale in silence. Until he has enough accumulation and tootires to bear, all windows opened to him. This is the way that he not onlyunderstands the limited words, but also the unlimited information behind thesilence of words.

翻譯：在沉默中面對

最真實，最切己的人生感悟是找不到言辭的。

對于人生最重大的問題，我們沒跟人都是能在沉默中獨自面對。我們可以一般的談論愛情、孤獨、幸福、苦難、死亡等等，但是，那屬于每個人自己的真正意義始終在話語之外。我無法告訴別人我的愛情有多么溫柔，我的孤獨有多么絕望，我的幸福有多么美麗，我的幸福有多么美麗，我的苦難有多么沉重，我的死亡有多么荒誕。我只能把這一切藏在心中，我所說出的寫出的東西只是先思考的產物，而一切思考在某種意義上都是一種逃避，從最個別的逃向一般的，從命運逃向生活，從沉默的深淵逃向語言的彼岸。如果說他們尚未淪為純粹的空洞的概念，那也只是因為他們是從沉默中掙扎出來的，身上還散發著深淵里不可名狀的事物的七夕。

我不否認人與人之間溝通的可能，但我確信其前提是沉默，而不是言辭。美特林克說得好：沉默的性質解釋了一個人靈魂的性質。在不能共享沉默的兩個人之間，任何言辭都無法使他們的靈魂發生溝通。對于未曾在沉默中面對過相同問題的人來說，在深刻的哲理也只是一些套話，事實上那些淺薄的讀者奇缺分不清深刻的感悟和空洞的感嘆，格言和套話，哲理和老生常談，淡和庸，佛性和故弄玄虛的禪機。一個人言辭理解的深度取決于他對沉默理解的深度，歸根結底取決于她的沉默，亦即他的靈魂的深度。所以，在我看來，凡有志探究人生真理的人首要功夫便是沉默，在沉默中面對他靈魂中真正屬于自己的重大問題。到他有了足夠的孕育并因此感到不堪重負的時候，一切言語之門便向他打開了，這是他不但理解了有限的言辭，而且理解了言辭背后的沉默著的背后無限的存在。