英语励志美文精华 71

Walk Clean Around the Hill

By Darryl F. Zanuck

Now that I can look back across the years, from the so-called vantage point of experience and two world wars, extensive travel and contact with many outstanding personalities¹, it gives me a great deal of reassurance² to know that way down deep, the fundamental values I learned as a boy in a small town in Nebraska, stand me in good stead every day of my life. I have found one thing to be so very true—the virtues³ I learned as a boy are still fundamental virtues. My point of view has changed, of course, over the years, and so has that of my friends. But so much of all this change of viewpoint is like a small boy gazing at a hill on the plains of Nebraska. The hill remains⁴ the same; the small boy only sees it from another angle as he grows up.

I have always tried to walk completely around every hill I’ve encountered in life so that I could get a view from every angle. This, I think, reveals the difference between honesty and cynicism. When you see the hill from every angle, you have a much better chance of keeping life in focus. When you only see it from one angle, you run the very great danger of becoming cynical⁵, which, to my way of thinking, is not only superficial, but poisonous.

Two of the fundamental virtues that have been such a great comfort to me in my life, from the days of my boyhood in Wahoo, Nebraska, until now, are loyalty⁶ and charity. There are other fundamentals I learned as a boy that go hand in hand with me every day of my life wherever I am, but these two—loyalty and charity—I think have played a larger part in my life than others. Loyalty is not only just a term; it has always been a way of life for me. I mean not only loyalty to my friends and family, but to the honest values on which our country was founded, and to me, this guidepost of loyalty of necessity means loyalty to one’s own self, which to me is a basic, essential honesty.

When I was growing up, I rebelled against so many things and fought against so many of the basic ideas of life, but I found after so much rebellion and walking completely around that hill on the Nebraska plains in my mind’s eye, that these virtues had not been tested over the centuries in vain.

Charity is another rule that has been of great comfort to me in so many trying situations. Charity is something you must learn. I’ve been very lucky in life because I’ve been in a position in life to give charity, and one should never expect any other reward from charity than the satisfaction it gives. When it is needed, there is such a desperate urgency about it that the recipient⁷ often does not have time to thank the giver. In talking about any charity, you must give from your heart, and any other type of giving is a terrible cheat on life itself. I think somewhere deep in the consciousness of things, such dishonesty is felt.

In walking around the hill on the plain each day of my life, the virtues I see, whether I am in London, Paris, Rome, Cairo, New York, Hollywood, or Wahoo, Nebraska, are always the same. I am grateful for those old-fashioned virtues that I learned as a boy in Nebraska, and I hope I will have enough humility⁸ always to be thankful I was born in a country that gave me this chance at life.

1 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

2 reassurance   

n.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• He drew reassurance from the enthusiastic applause.热烈的掌声使他获得了信心。
• Reassurance is especially critical when it comes to military activities.消除疑虑在军事活动方面尤为关键。

3 virtues   

美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处

参考例句：

• Doctors often extol the virtues of eating less fat. 医生常常宣扬少吃脂肪的好处。
• She delivered a homily on the virtues of family life. 她进行了一场家庭生活美德方面的说教。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

6 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

7 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

8 humility   

n.谦逊，谦恭

参考例句：

• Humility often gains more than pride.谦逊往往比骄傲收益更多。
• His voice was still soft and filled with specious humility.他的声音还是那么温和，甚至有点谦卑。