感悟人生-Unit 07 Read My Lips 听我一言多读书

Once upon a time in the dead of winter in the Dakota Territory, Theodore Roosevelt took off in a makeshift boat down the Little Missouri River. After several days, he caught up and got the draw on them with his trusty Winchester rifle, at which point they surrendered. Then Roosevelt set off to haul the thieves cross-country to justice. They headed across the snow-covered wastes of the Badlands to the jail at Dickinson, and Roosevelt walked the entire 60 kilometers or so_ an astonishing feat¹. But what makes it especially memorable² is that during that time he managed to read Anna Karenina.

I often think of that when I hear people say they haven’t time to read. Reportedly, the average American does have time to watch TV, about four hours a day. The average person, I’m told, reads at a rate of 250 words per minute. So, based on these statistics, he or she could, in a week, read the complete poems of T. S. Eliot, two Thornton Wilder plays, the complete poems of Maya Angelou, Faulkner’s The Sound and the fury, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and the Book of Psalms³.

But a week is a long time by today’s standards, when information is available at the touch of a finger. We’re being sold the idea that information is learning, and we’re being sold a bill of goods. Knowing the area of the state of Connecticut or the jumping capacity of a flea⁴ may be useful, but it isn’t learning of itself. The greatest of all avenues to learning- to wisdom, adventure, pleasure, insight, to understanding ourselves and our world and our place in it_ is in reading books.

Read for life, all your life. Nothing ever invented provides such sustenance⁵, such infinite reward for time spent, as a good book. Read to your heart’s content. Let one book lead to another. They nearly always do.

Take up a great author and read everything he or she has written. Read about places you’ve never been. Read books that changed history: Tom Paine’s Common Sense, the autobiography⁶ of Frederick Douglass, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Read those books you know you’re supposed to have read and imagine as dreary⁷. A classic may be defined as a book that stays long in print, and a book stays long in print only because it’s exceptional. Why exclude the exceptional from your experience? And when you read a book you love_ a book you feel has enlarged the experience of being alive, a book that “lights the fire” _ then spread the word.

To carry a book with you wherever you go is old advice and good advice. John Adams urged his son John Quincy to carry a volume of poetry. “You will never be alone,” he said, “with a poet in your pocket.”

By-----

David Mc Cullouge

1 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

2 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

3 psalms   

n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的)

参考例句：

• the Book of Psalms 《〈圣经〉诗篇》
• A verse from Psalms knifed into Pug's mind: "put not your trust in princes." 《诗篇》里有一句话闪过帕格的脑海：“不要相信王侯。” 来自辞典例句

4 flea   

n.跳蚤

参考例句：

• I'll put a flea in his ear if he bothers me once more.如果他再来打扰的话，我就要对他不客气了。
• Hunter has an interest in prowling around a flea market.亨特对逛跳蚤市场很感兴趣。

5 sustenance   

n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• The urban homeless are often in desperate need of sustenance.城市里无家可归的人极其需要食物来维持生命。

6 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

7 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。