TIRED OF MYSELF
厌烦自己
1.Nellie Hall was seated very comfortably on the lounge,inthe sitting-room,reading,when her brother George came in.
2.“Ah,Nell,you are the very one I have been looking for.I do believe I have had my head in every room in the house.I want you to do something for me;will you,Nell?”
3.“Not just now,George;I am busy,do not trouble me.”
4.“O yes,please do,Nell;you are only reading,and your book won’t run off.I want you to cover this ball.Please do it for me,Nell;it won‘t take you long,”said George.
5.“O,do go away,George!I can’t read while you aretalking.Go to Jane;perhaps she can do it for you.”
6.With a sad,disappointed face,George turned and left theroom,just as Aunt Mary,who was there on a visit,came in.
7.Nellie tried to read but somehow her book did not seem so interesting to her,and after turning over leaf after leaf,she laid it down and looked up at her aunt.
8.“What is the matter,Nellie?”said her aunt.“Does not yourbook please you?”
9.“O yes,aunt;and it was so kind in uncle to get it for me.I like the book very much,indeed.”
10.“I thought you looked as though you felt dissatisfiedabout something.”
11.“Why,yes,aunt,I do feel a little so.I believe I am tiredof reading.”
12.“Are you sure you are tired of reading?”
13.“I do not quite understand you,aunt.”
14.“Is it of reading that you are tired,or are you tired ofyourself?”
15.For a moment Nellie was silent,wondering what her aunt could mean.At last she said,“Tired of myself?how can that be?”
16.“Forgetting every body but ourselves,very easily makes us tired of ourselves.Did you never notice,that,when you refuse to do an act of kindness,you feel just as you do now?”
17.“I do not know that I have noticed that,but I know I oftenfeel as I do now.”
18.“What was it your brother wanted of you,just now?”
19.“Why,”said Nellie,blushing,“he wanted me to put a new cover on his ball;but-”
20.“But what?”said Aunt Mary.
21.“I was only going to say,I was busy reading,and couldnot.”
22.“And you refused to do it for him?”
23.“Yes,I told him to ask Jane.-I see now,”she added,after a little,“I see now why my book fails to interest me,”and Nellie arose and left the room.
24.Very soon George was as happy as a lark,playing withhis new ball,and Nellie had learned a secret that would makemy little readers as happy as it did her,if they could only find itout.Guess what it was.
【中文阅读】
1.尼丽o 霍尔正舒服地坐在客厅沙发上看书,就在这时,她的弟弟乔治走了进来。
2.“嗨,尼丽,我正找你呢。我想让你帮我做点事,可以吗?”
3.“现在不行,乔治,我正忙着呢,别烦我。”
4.“哦,求你了,尼丽。你不过是在看书而已,书稍微放下一会儿又不会消失。我想请你帮我补一下这个球,快帮帮我吧,尼丽,不会占你太长时间的。”乔治说。
5.“天啊,快走开,乔治!你这么说话我还怎么看书啊。你去找简帮你,也许她可以。”
6.乔治满脸伤心、失望,转身走出了房间。这时,来探亲小住的姨妈玛丽走了进来。
7.尼丽努力让自己继续看书,但是书中的内容就是吸引不了她。她一页一页地往后不停地翻着,终于,她猛地把书放在一边,一抬头,看到了玛丽姨妈。
8.“怎么了,尼丽?”姨妈问她,“这本书不吸引你吗?”
9.“不是的,本来这本书很吸引我,叔叔把书拿来给我看真是对我太好了,我真的喜欢这本书。”
10.“我想你好像是对什么事情不满意了。”
11.“是的,姨妈,确实有点,我想我是看书看烦了。”
12.“你确信是因为看书看烦了?”
13.“我不太明白您是什么意思,姨妈。”
14.“你是看书看烦了吗?还是烦你自己了?”
15.尼丽沉默了一阵,思考着姨妈的话到底是什么意思。最后她说:“烦我自己了?那怎么可能呢?”
16.“只想着自己,不想别人的人很容易反感自己。你从来没有注意到过吗?当你拒绝帮助别人的时候,你就会有现在这样的感觉。”
17.“我不知道自己是否注意过,但确实经常像现在这样。”
18.“刚才你弟弟想让你帮他做什么?”
19.“怎么了?”尼丽说着脸红了,“他想让我帮他补新球。但是--”
20.“但是什么?”姨妈又问。
21.“我只是想说,我刚才正忙着看书,不能帮他。”
22.“所以你拒绝帮他了?”
23.“是的,我让他去找简--现在我明白了。”过了一会儿,她又说,“现在我明白为什么我看不下去书了。”说着尼丽站起身走出房间。
24.很快,乔治就像百灵鸟一样又高兴地玩起了他的新球。尼丽也从这件事获得了一个秘诀。小读者们一旦获得这个秘诀,就会和尼丽一样感觉幸福。你猜这个秘诀是什么?
WHAT THEY SAY
他们在说什么
1.Summer is full of happy life.The woods are alive with leaves and birds and butterflies and squirrels and rabbits and foxes and raccoons;the grass is full of crickets and moles and mice and caterpillars and spiders and all sorts of beautiful bugs;the cows are chewing a sweet cud under the trees,and every body is happy.
2.The Bible says,“Ask the beasts,and they shall teach thee,and the fowls of the air,and they shall tell thee;or speak to the earth,and it shall teach thee;and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.”What can they teach us?What can they tell us?
3.“God made us,”they say,“and not we ourselves.”“God feeds us.”“God loves us.”God‘s goodness is over all.The little insects,with the birds and bees,sing His praise.Go out into the woods to-day and listen.Hark!do you not hear them?
4.See the cows.All day long they are in the pasture feeding,or standing in the cool running brook;or,they are under the shade of the overhanging elms,-living quiet and pleasant lives.
5.But they are not living for themselves,alone.They are brewing milk in their warm,full bags,to bring home at night for the children’s supper,and to make butter and cheese for the family.
6.Look at the trees.They stretch out their limbs and spread out their leaves to catch all the sun and the dew and the wind and rain that they can,in order to grow healthy and strong.
7.Do they grow for themselves alone?No.They give us their cooling shade;they drop their Autumn fruit into our hands;they give us their wood to build our houses and our ships.
8.Let us walk to the rose-bush by the stone wall.The whole air is filled with its sweet scent.All day and all night it gives and gives.It does nothing but give,and it is none the poorer for it.
9.Can not we sweeten the lives of those around us?Should not pleasant looks and gentle words and kind deeds go forth from us as constantly as the perfume from the rose?
10.See the little river.On,on it goes.Stop,sparkling water;stay with me;do not go off on the run.
11.“Oh,I can‘t stop,”cries the brook.“I must water the cow-pasture,and fill Widow Gruff’s spring;I must turn the old miller‘s mill and grind his corn;and I have a world else to do by the way:so I must run.I should be lost if I stopped.”“He that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
【中文阅读】
1.夏天是充满生机的季节,森林因绿叶、鸟儿、蝴蝶、松鼠、兔子、狐狸和浣熊而生机勃勃,草丛里到处都跑着蟋蟀、鼹鼠、老鼠、毛毛虫、蜘蛛和各种各样的美丽昆虫,牛儿在树下反刍,所有的生物都生活得非常幸福。
2.《圣经》上说:“问动物,他们可以告诉你;问天上的飞禽,他们可以告诉你;问大地,他可以告诉你;问水中的鱼,鱼可以告诉你。他们可以告诉我们什么?他们到底可以告诉我们什么?”