英语阅读材料.docx

1、英语阅读材料英语阅读材料（一）“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”One of the greatest sources of unhappiness, in my experience, is the difficulty we have in accepting things as they are.Without judgment, without wishing for otherwise.When we see something we

2、 dont like, we wish it could be different we cry out for something better. That may be human nature, or perhaps its something thats ingrained in our culture.The root of the unhappiness isnt necessarily that we want things to be different, however: its that we decided we didnt like it in the first pl

3、ace. Weve judged it as bad, rather than saying, Its not bad or good, it just is.An example: In my recent post, A Beautiful Method to Find Peace of Mind, quite a few commenters thought my outlook was negative, pessimistic, or fatalistic because I said you should expect people to mess up, expect thing

4、s to go differently than you planned, and that you should embrace that.Its too negative to expect things to go wrong, they said. However: its only negative if you see it as negative. If you judge it as bad.Instead, you could accept it as the way the world works as the way things actually are. And tr

5、y to understand why that is, and embrace it. As it is.This can be applied to whatever you do: whether it be how other people act at work, how politics works and how depressing the news media can be. Accept these things as they are, and try to understand why theyre that way.Itll save you a lot of gri

6、ef, because youll no longer say, Oh, I wish things didnt suck!Does it mean you can never change things? Not at all. But change things not because you cant accept things as they are, but because you enjoy the process of change, of learning and growing.Can we make this world a better place? Again, tha

7、ts assuming that its a bad place right now. But instead, you could say the world is just what it is and thats neither good nor bad. You can say that youll continue to try to do things to help others, to grow as a person, to make a difference in this world not because youre such a bad person now, or

8、the world sucks, but because thats the path you choose to take, because you enjoy that path.As you catch yourself judging, and wishing for different and we all do it try a different approach: accept, and understand. It might lead to some interesting results. （二）What would you do if you only had a sh

9、ort time to live?Its hard, from within the storm of every day life, to see things with real perspective, to know whats important and whats simply pressing on our consciousness right now, demanding attention.We have people emailing us for information and requesting action, we have phone calls and vis

10、itors and a long to-do list and a million chores and errands to run and all of the slings and arrows of our daily reality and yet, what is important?Ask yourself this: if you suddenly found out you only had 6 months to live (for whatever reason), would the thing in front of you matter to you?Would t

11、hose 20 emails waiting for a response matter? Would the paperwork waiting to be processed matter? Would the work youre doing matter? Would the meetings youre supposed to have matter? Would a big car and nice house and high-paying job and cool computer and mobile device and nice shoes and clothes mat

12、ter?Im not saying they wouldnt matter but its important to ask yourself if they would.What would matter to you?For many of us, its the loved ones in our lives. If we dont have loved ones maybe its time we started figuring out why, and addressing that. Maybe we havent made time for others, for gettin

13、g out and meeting others and helping others and being compassionate and passionate about others. Maybe we have shut ourselves in somehow. Or maybe we do have loved ones in our lives, but we dont seem to have the time we want to spend with them.When was the last time you told your loved ones you love

14、d them? Spent good quality time with them, being in the moment?For many of us, doing work that matters would matter. That might mean helping others, or making a vital contribution to society, or creating something brilliant and inspiring, or expressing ourselves somehow. Its not the money that matte

15、rs, but the impact of the work. Are you doing work that matters?For many of us, experiencing life would matter really being in the moment, finding passion in our lives, seeing the world and traveling, or just seeing the world thats around us right now, being with great people, doing amazing things,

16、eating amazing food, playing.These are just a few ideas but what would matter to you?I highly recommend that you spend at least a little time now, and regularly, thinking about this question figuring out what really matters and living a life that shows this.How do you live a life that puts a great e

17、mphasis on what matters? Start by figuring out what matters, and what doesnt. Then eliminate as much as you can of the stuff that doesnt matter, or at least minimize it to the extent possible. Make room for what does matter.Make the time for what does matter today. Put it on your schedule, and dont

18、miss that appointment. Make those tough decisions because choosing to live a life that is filled with the important stuff means making choices, and theyre not always easy choices. But it matters.Spend time with your significant other, show them how important they are. Take the time to cuddle with yo

19、ur child, to read with her, to play with her, to have good conversations with her, to take walks with her. Take time to be in nature, to appreciate the beauty of the world around us. Take time to savor the little pleasures in life.Because while you might not have only 6 months to live, Im here to br

20、eak the news to you: you really do only have a short time to live. Whether thats 6 months, 6 years or 60 its but the blink of an eye.The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it. Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now. （三）There once was a master who went to India. In those times, we didn

21、t have the communications or airplanes or many kinds of transportation that we do now. So the master went to India on foot. He had never been to India before; perhaps he came from Persia. And when he got there, he saw a lot of fruit. In India they have plenty of fruit to sell, but much of it is expe

22、nsive because they cant grow much due to the water situation. So he saw one basket, a big basket of some very red, long fruit. And it was the cheapest in the shop, not expensive at all.So he went up and asked, How much per kilo? And the shopkeeper said, Two rupees. Two rupees in India is nothing; it

23、s like dirt. So he bought a whole kilogram of the fruit and started eating it. But after he ate some of it: Oh, my God! His eyes watered, his mouth watered and burned, his eyes were burning, his head was burning and his face became red. As he coughed and choked and gasped for breath, he jumped up an

24、d down, saying, Ah! Ah! Ah!But he still continued to eat the fruit! Some people who were looking at him shook their heads and said, Youre crazy, man. Those are chilies! You cant eat so many; theyre not good for you! People use them as a condiment, but only a little bit to put into food for taste. Yo

25、u cant just eat them by the handful like that; theyre not fruit! So the stupid master said, No, I cant stop! I paid money for them, and now Ill eat them. Its my money!And you think that master was stupid, right? Similarly, we sometimes do a lot of things like that. We invest money, time or effort in

26、 a relationship, business or job. And even though its been a long time, bitter experience tells us it wont work, and we know theres no more hope that things will change in the future - this we definitely know by intuition - we still continue just because weve invested money, time, effort and love in

27、to it. If so, were kaput in the brain. Just like the man who ate the chilies and suffered so much but couldnt stop because he didnt want to waste the money hed paid.So even if youve lost something, let it go and move on. Thats better than continuing to lose.（四）The scars of loveSome years ago on a ho

28、t summer day in south Florida a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house.In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle o

29、f the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore. His mother - in the house was looking out the window - saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, she ran toward the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could.Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and m

30、ade a return to swim to his mother. It was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him.From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. Then began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the m

31、other, but the mother was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard her screams, raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator.Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the an

32、imal and, on his arms, were deep scratches where his mothers fingernails dug into his flesh in her effort to hang on to the son she loved.The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter. But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my mom wouldnt let go.Y