"The one down at the corner," she explained. "It's a beautiful tree-all kinds of colors.Cars are stopping to look. You ought to see it."
“就是下去拐角处的那棵”她解释说,“漂亮极了—五颜六色的。好多车路过都停下来看,你该去看看。”
I told her I would, but I soon forgot about the tree. Three days later, I was jogging down the street, my mind swimming with petty worries, when a splash of bright orange caught my eye. For an instant, I thought someone's house had caught fire. Then I remembered the tree.
As I approached it, I slowed to a walk. There was nothing remarkable about the shape of the tree. a medium-sized maple. But Mrs. Gargan had been right about its colors.Like the messy whirl of an artist's palette, the tree blazed a bright crimson on its lower branches, burned with vivid yellows and oranges in its center. and simmered to deep red at its top. Through these fiery colors cascaded thin rivulets of pale-green leaves and blotches of deep-green leaves, as yet untouched by autumn.
Edging closer-like a pilgrim approaching a shrine-I noticed several bare branches near the top, their black twigs scratching the air like claws.The leaves they had shed lay like a scarlet carpet around the trunk.
With its varied nations of color, this tree seemed to become a globe, embracing in its broad branches all seasons and continents: the spring and summer of the Southern hemisphere in the light and dark greens, the autumn and winter of the Northern in the blazing yellows and bare branches.
As I marveled at this all-encompassing beauty, I thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson's comments about the stars. If the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, he observed in Nature, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they're up there every night, we barely give them a look.
Once when Emily Dickenson's father noticed a brilliant display of northern lights in the sky over Massachusetts, he tolled a church bell to alert townspeople. That's what I felt like doing about the tree. I wanted to become a Paul Revere of autumn, awakening the countryside to its wonder.
I didn't have a church bell or a horse, but as I walked home, I did ask each neighbor I passed the same simple but momentous question Mrs. Gargan had asked me: "Have you seen the tree?"
I want to fall head over heels this year. By the very end of it, I want to be bursting at the seams of all my scars with a love burning happily in my heart.
这一年我希望自己爱得死心塌地。待到年末之际,我希望冲破所有创伤,让爱的火焰在心中快乐地燃烧。
I want the authentic feeling that surpasses dreaming -- a love that is true and never fleeting. I want this for myself as well as for you. I'd like it for the world, if possible.
I want to be every fear I've ever held in the darkest parts of my heart transformed into the purest desire for truth. I want to feel the magic of love singing my soul to sleep.
So I would like to fall in love many times this year, so that I may know how extraordinary you are when you appear.
所以今年我想坠入爱河很多次,次数多到你一出现我就知道你是多么的与众不同。
I must fall in love this year so I can understand the magnitude of what you will be -- of what you will mean to me, and I to you.
我今年一定要坠入爱河,这样我才能知道你的出现是多么的重要——关于你对我、我对你意味着什么。
That's how I want to fall in love in 2016. I want to know love before I know you. I want to feel its essence and understand its woes. I want to fall in love this way so that I am full of so much love to hand to you, and I am waiting patiently for the day when I can give it all to you.
Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese people all over the world. It is also called the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year.
The exact date of the Spring Festival on the Western calendar changes from year to year. However, Chinese New Year takes place between January 1 and February 19.
On the Chinese calendar every year has an animal's name. These animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. A Chinese legend says that these twelve animals had a race. The first year was named after the rat, the winner. The other eleven years were named according to the order in which the animals arrived in the race. The clever rat jumped onto the ox's back, and then at the end jumped over the ox's head to arrive first!
The Chinese believe that a person born in a particular year has some of the characteristics of that animal.
There was a young flower in the desert where all was dry and sad looking…… It was growing by itself…… enjoying every day…… and saying to the sun "When shall I be grown up?" And the sun would say "Be patient - Each time I touch you, you grow a little……" She was so pleased. Because she would have a chance to bring beauty to this corner of sand…… And this is all she wanted to do - bring a little bit of beauty to this world.
One day the hunter came by - and stepped on her. - She was going to die - and she felt so sad. Not because she was dying - but because she would not have a chance to bring a little bit of beauty to this corner of the desert.
And she grew up to be a beautiful flower…… and this corner of the desert became so beautiful because of her.
她长成一朵美丽的花……由于她的存在,这沙漠的一隅变得如此美丽.
A Teenager's Joke: Guidelines for Doing Schoolwork
My school had a policy about homework. Students should not spend more than ninety minutes per night doing homework. This is how I use the time for my work.
Fifteen minutes looking for assignment; Eleven minutes calling a friend for the assignment; Twenty three minutes explaining why the teacher is mean and does not like teenagers; Eight minutes in the bathroom; Ten minutes getting a snack; Seven minutes checking the TV Guide;
Six minutes telling my parents that the teacher never explained the assignment;
Ten minutes sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Mom or Dad to do the assignment.