四六级考试网

I believe honesty is one of the greatest gifts there is. I know they call it a lot of fancy names these days, like integrity（朴重，诚笃） and forthrightness. But it doesn’t make any difference what they call it; it’s still what makes a man a good citizen. This is my code, and I try to live by.I’ve been in the taxicab（出租车） business for thirty-five years, and I know there is a lot about it that is not so good. Taxicab drivers have to be rough and tumble（摔倒，颠仆） fellows to be able to take it in New York. You’ve got to be tough to fight the New York traffic eight hours a day, these days. Because taxi drivers are tough, people get the wrong impression that they are bad. Taxi drivers are just like other people. Most of them will shake down as honest fellows. You read in the papers almost every week where a taxi driver turns in money or jewels or bonds, stuff like that, people leave in their cabs. If they weren’t honest, you wouldn’t be reading those stories in the papers.One time in Brooklyn, I found an emerald（绿宝石，翡翠） ring in my cab. I remembered helping a lady with a lot of bundles that day, so I went back to where I had dropped her off. It took me almost two days to trace her down in order to return her ring to her. I didn’t get as much as “thank you.” Still, I felt good because I had done what was right. I think I felt better than she did.I was born and raised in Ireland and lived there until I was nineteen years old. I came to this country in 1913 where I held several jobs to earn a few dollars before enlisting in World War Number I. After being discharged, I bought my own cab and have owned one ever since. It hasn’t been too easy at times, but my wife takes care of our money and we have a good bit put away for a rainy day（以备不时之需） .When I first started driving a cab, Park Avenue was mostly a bunch of coal yards. Hoofer’s Brewery was right next to where the Waldorf-Astoria is now. I did pretty well, even in those days.In all my years of driving a taxicab, I have never had any trouble with the public, not even with drunks. Even if they get a little headstrong（率性的，固执的） once in a while, I just agree with them and then they behave themselves.People ask me about tips. As far as I know, practically everyone will give you something. Come to think of it, most Americans are pretty generous. I always try to be nice to everyone, whether they tip or not. I believe in God and try to be a good member of my parish（教区） . I try to act toward others like I think God wants me to act. I have been trying this for a long time, and the longer I try, the easier it gets.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas（胰腺） . I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up（缄舌闭口的） so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy（活组织查抄） , where they stuck an endoscope（内窥镜） down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines（肠） , put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated（舒适的） , but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma（教条） — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition（直觉） . They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

I have a friend who is falling in love. She honestly claims the sky is bluer. Mozart moves her to tears. She has lost 15 pounds and looks like a cover girl.”I’m young again!” she shouts exuberantly（生机勃勃地） .As my friend raves on about her new love, I’ve taken a good look at my old one. My husband of almost 20 years, Scott, has gained 15 pounds. Once a marathon runner, he now runs only down hospital halls. His hairline（发际线） is receding and his body shows the signs of long working hours and too many candy bars. Yet he can still give me a certain look across a restaurant table and I want to ask for the check and head home.When my friend asked me “What will make this love last?” I ran through all the obvious reasons: commitment, shared interests, unselfishness, physical attraction, communication. Yet there’s more. We still have fun. Spontaneous（自发的，天然的） good times. Yesterday, after slipping the rubber band off the rolled up newspaper, Scott flipped it playfully at me: this led to an all-out war. Last Saturday at the grocery, we split the list and raced each other to see who could make it to the checkout first. Even washing dishes can be a blast. We enjoy simply being together.And there are surprises. One time I came home to find a note on the front door that led me to another note, then another, until I reached the walk-in closet. I opened the door to find Scott holding a “pot of gold” (my cooking kettle) and the “treasure” of a gift package. Sometimes I leave him notes on the mirror and little presents under his pillow.There is understanding. I understand why he must play basketball with the guys. And he understands why, once a year, I must get away from the house, the kids – and even him – to meet my sisters for a few days of nonstop talking and laughing.There is sharing. Not only do we share household worries and parental burdens – we also share ideas. Scott came home from a convention（大会，常例） last month and presented me with a thick historical novel. Though he prefers thrillers and science fiction, he had read the novel on the plane. He touched my heart when he explained it was because he wanted to be able to exchange ideas about the book after I’d read it.There is forgiveness. When I’m embarrasssingly loud and crazy at parties, Scott forgives me. When he confessed losing some of our savings in the stock market, I gave him a hug and said, “It’s okay. It’s only money.”There is sensitivity. Last week he walked through the door with that look that tells me it’s been a tough day. After he spent some time with the kids, I asked him what happened. He told me about a 60-year-old woman who’d had a stroke. He wept as he recalled the woman’s husband standing beside her bed, caressing her hand. How was he going to tell this husband of 40 years that his wife would probably never recover? I shed a few tears myself. Because of the medical crisis. Because there were still people who have been married 40 years. Because my husband is still moved and concerned after years of hospital rooms and dying patients.There is faith. Last Tuesday a friend came over and confessed her fear that her husband is losing his courageous battle with cancer. On Wednesday I went to lunch with a friend who is struggling to reshape her life after divorce. On Thursday a neighbor called to talk about the frightening effects of Alzheimer’s disease on her father-in-law’s personality. On Friday a childhood friend called long-distance to tell me her father had died. I hung up the phone and thought, this is too much heartache for one week. Through my tears, as I went out to run some errands , I noticed the boisterous orange blossoms of the gladiolus outsidemy window. I heard the delighted laughter of my son and his friend as they played. I caught sight of a wedding party emerging from a neighbor’s house. The bride, dressed in satin（缎子） and lace, tossed her bouquet（花束，酒喷鼻） to her cheering friends. That night, I told my husband about these events. We helped each other acknowledge the cycles of life and that the joys counter the sorrows. It was enough to keep us going.Finally, there is knowing. I know Scott will throw his laundry just shy of the hamper（食盒，障碍物） every night; he’ll be late to most appointments and eat the last chocolate in the box. He knows that I sleep with a pillow over my head; I’ll lock us out of the house at a regular basis, and I will also eat the last chocolate.I guess our love lasts because it is comfortable. No, the sky is not bluer: it’s just a familiar hue. We don’t feel particularly young: we’ve experienced too much that has contributed to our growth and wisdom, taking its toll on our bodies, and created our memories.I hope we’ve got what it takes to make our love last. As a bride, I had Scott’s wedding band engraved with Robert Browning’s line “Grow old along with me!” We’re following those instructions.”If anything is real, the heart will make it plain.”

Horror gripped the heart of the World War I soldier as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. Caught in a trench（水沟，战壕） with continuous gunfire whizzing over his head, the soldier asked his lieutenant（中尉，副官） if he might go out into the “No Man’s Land” between the trenches to bring his fallen comrade back.”You can go,” said the Lieutenant, “but I don’t think it will be worth it. Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your own life away.” The Lieutenant’s words didn’t matter, and the soldier went anyway.Miraculously he managed to reach his friend, hoisted（升起，举起） him onto his shoulder, and brought him back to their company’s trench. As the two of them tumbled in together to the bottom of the trench, the officer checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend. “I told you it wouldn’t be worth it,” he said. “Your friend is dead, and you are mortally（致命地，很是） wounded.”"It was worth it, though, sir,” the soldier said.”How do you mean ‘worth it’?” responded the Lieutenant. “Your friend is dead!”"Yes sir,” the private answered. “But it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive, and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”Many a time（很多次） in life, whether a thing is worth doing or not really depends on how you look at it.Take up all your courage and do something your heart tells you to do so that you may not regret not doing it later in life.

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other―it doesn’t matter who it is―and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.Many Americans are familiar with The Little Prince, a wonderful book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is a whimsical（古怪的） and fabulous book and works as a children’s story as well as a thought-provoking（刺激的） adult fable. Far fewer are aware of Saint-Exupery’s other writings, novels and short stories.Saint-Exupery was a fighter pilot who fought against the Nazis and was killed in action. Before World War II, he fought in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. He wrote a fascinating story based on that experience entitled The Smile. It is this story which I’d like to share with you now. It isn’t clear whether or not he meant this to be autobiographical or fiction. I choose to believe it to be the former.He said that he was captured by the enemy and thrown into a jail cell. He was sure that from the contemptuous（不放在眼里的，欺侮的） looks and rough treatment he received from his jailers he would be executed the next day. From here, I’ll tell the story as I remember it in my own words.”I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous and distraught（发疯的） . I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had taken those.“I looked through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. After all, one does not make eye contact with a thing, a corpse. I called out to him ‘Have you got a light?’ He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.”As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently（不重视地） locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don’t know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn’t want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.”I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension, too. ‘Do you have kids?’ he asked.”‘Yes, here, here.’ I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for（摸索） the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I’d never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too.Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out. Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.My life was saved by a smile.Yes, the smile―the unaffected（天然的，竭诚的） , unplanned, natural connection between people. I tell this story in my work because I’d like people to consider that underneath all the layers we construct to protect ourselves, our dignity, our titles, our degrees, our status and our need to be seen in certain ways―underneath all that, remains the authentic（真实的） , essential self. I’m not afraid to call it the soul. I really believe that if that part of you and that part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn’t be enemies. We couldn’t have hate or envy or fear. I sadly conclude that all those other layers, which we so carefully construct through our lives, distance and insulate（隔离，使孤立） us from truly contacting others. Saint-Exupery’s story speaks of that magic moment when two souls recognize each other.I’ve had just a few moments like that. Falling in love is one example. And looking at a baby. Why do we smile when we see a baby? Perhaps it’s because we see someone without all the defensive layers, someone whose smile for us we know to be fully genuine and without guile（奸刁，狡计） . And that baby-soul inside us smiles wistfully（巴看地） in recognition.

We were standing at the top of a church tower. My father had brought me to this spot in a small Italian town not far from our home in Rome. I wondered why.”Look down, Elsa,” Father said. I gathered all my courage and looked down. I saw the square in the centre of the village. And I saw the crisscross（十字形） of twisting, turning streets leading to the square.”See, my dear, ” Father said gently. “There is more than one way to the square. Life is like that. If you can’t get to the place where you want to go by one road, try another.”Now I understood why I was there. Earlier that day I had begged my mother to do something about the awful lunches that were served at school. But she refused because she could not believe the lunches were as bad as I said.When I turned to Father for help, he would not interfere. Instead, he brought me to this high tower to give me a lesson. By the time we reached home, I had a plan.At school the next day, I secretly poured my luncheon（午宴） soup into a bottle and brought it home. Then I talked the cook into serving it to Mother at dinner. The plan worked perfectly. She swallowed one spoonful and sputtered（喷溅） , “The cook must have gone mad!” Quickly I told her what I had done, and Mother stated firmly that she would take up the matter of lunches at school the next day!In the years that followed I often remembered the lesson Father taught me. I knew where I wanted to go in life. I wanted to be a fashion designer. And on the way to my first small success I found the road blocked.I was busy getting ready to show my winter fashions. Then just 13 days before the presentation the sewing（缝纫） girls were called out on strike. I found myself left with one tailor and woman who was in charge of the sewing room! I was as gloomy as my models and salesgirls. “We’ll never make it,” one of them cried.Here, I thought, is the test of all tests for Father’s advice. Where is the way out this time? I wondered and worried. I was certain we would have to call off the presentation or else show the clothes unfinished. Then it dawned on me. Why not show the clothes unfinished?We worked hurriedly. And, exactly 13 days later, right on time, the Schiaparelli showing took place.What a showing it was! Some coats had no sleeves; others had only one. Many of our clothes were still in an early stage. They were only patterns made of heavy cotton cloth. But on these we pinned sketches and pieces of material. In this way we were able to show that what colors and textures the clothes would have when they were finished.All in all, the showing was different. It was so different that it was a great success. Our unusual showing caught the attention of the public, and orders for the clothes poured in.Father’s wise words had guided me once again. There is more than one way to the square always.

“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said whenever I faced disappointment. “If you can carry on, one day something good will happen. And you’ll realize that it wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous disappointment.”Mother was right, as I discovered after graduating from college in 1932. I had decided to try for a job in radio, then work my way up to sports announcer. I hitchhiked（搭便车） to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station-and got turned down every time.In one studio, a kind lady told me that big stations couldn’t risk hiring inexperienced person-”Go out in the sticks and find a small station that’ll give you a chance,” she said.I thumbed home to Dixon, Illinois. While them was no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon, my father sad Montgomery Ward had opened a store and wanted a local athlete to manage its sports department. Since Dixon was where I had played high school football, I applied. The job sounded just right for me. But I wasn’t hired.My disappointment must have shown. “Everything happens for the best,” Mom reminded me. Dad offered me the car to job hunt. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport, Iowa. The program director, a wonderful Scotsman named Peter MacArthur, told me they had already hired an announcer.As I left his office, my frustration boiled over（沸溢，发怒） . I asked aloud, “How can a fellow get to be a sport announcer if he can’t get a job in a radio station?”I was waiting for the elevator when I heard MacArthur calling, “What was that you said about sports? Do you know anything about football?” Then he stood me before a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary game.On my way home, as I have many times since, I thought of my mother’s words: “if you carry on, one day something good will happen. Something wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous disappointment”. I often wonder what direction my life might have taken if I’d gotten the job at Montgomery Ward.

Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one which has been opened for us.The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch（走廊） and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve every had.It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.Giving someone all your love is never an assurance（包管，保险） that they’ll love you back! Don’t expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn’t, be content it grew in yours. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.Don’t go for looks; they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real!Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow（哀痛） to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.Always put yourself in others’ shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can’t go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.Please send this message to those people who mean something to you, to those who have touched your life in one way or another, to those who make you smile when you really need it, to those that make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down, to those who you want to let them know that you appreciate their friendship. And if you don’t, don’t worry, nothing bad will happen to you, you will just miss out on the opportunity to brighten someone’s day with this message.

I teach economics at UNLV three times per week. Last monday, at the beginning of class, I cheerfully asked my students how their weekend had been. One young man said that his weekend had not been so good. He had his wisdom teeth removed. The young man then proceeded to ask me why I always seemed to be so cheerful.His question reminded me of something I’d read somewhere before: “every morning when you get up, you have a choice about how you want to approach life that day,” i said. “i choose to be cheerful.”"Let me give you an example,” I continued, addressing all sixty students in the class. “In addition to teaching here at UNLV, I also teach out at the community college in Henderson, 17 miles down the freeway from where I live. One day a few weeks ago I drove those 17 miles to Henderson. I exited the freeway and turned onto college drive. I only had to drive another quarter mile down the road to the college. But just then my car died. I tried to start it again, but the engine wouldn’t turn over. So i put my flashers on, grabbed my books, and marched down the road to the college.”"As soon as I got there I called AAA and arranged for a tow truck（拖车） to meet me at my car after class. The secretary in the provost（教务长，院长） ‘s office asked me what has happened. ‘This is my lucky day,’ i replied, smiling.”" ‘Your car breaks down and today is your lucky day?’ she was puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’”" ‘I live 17 miles from here.’ I replied. ‘My car could have broken down anywhere along the freeway. It didn’t. Instead, it broke down in the perfect place: off the freeway, within walking distance of here. I’m still able to teach my class, and I’ve been able to arrange for the tow truck to meet me after class. If my car was meant to break down today, it couldn’t have been arranged in a more convenient fashion.’”"The secretary’s eyes opened wide, and then she smiled. I smiled back and headed for class.” So ended my story.I scanned the sixty faces in my economics class at UNLV. Despite the early hour, no one seemed to be asleep. Somehow, my story had touched them. Or maybe it wasn’t the story at all. In fact, it had all started with a student’s observation that i was cheerful.