英语美文：完美的人生

 　　The Wholeness of Life

　　Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching.

　　Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly¹. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

　　There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, she can lose someone and still feel like a complete person. 

　　[参考译文]

　　人生的完整

　　从前有个圆圈，它丢失了一小段。它想变得完整，于是它到处寻找它所丢失的那部分。由于不完整，它只能滚的非常慢。在路上，它羡慕过花儿，它与虫子聊过天，它享受了阳光的照耀。它遇到过很多不同的小段，可是没有一个适合它。所以它把它们丢在路边，继续寻找。

　　有一天，圆圈找到了可以与它完美结合的一小段，它非常高兴。它现在终于完整了，不缺任何东西了。它把丢失的那段装到自己身上，然后滚了起来。它现在是个完整的圆圈了，它可以滚的很快，，快到忽视了花儿，快到没有时间和虫子们说话。当它意识到由于它滚的太快，世界变得如此的不同时，它便停了下来，把找到的那段卸下丢在路边，慢慢地滚走了。

　　人生的完整性，在于接受自己的缺陷，勇敢地丢弃不切实际的幻想，并且不觉得这样做是失败的；人生的完整性，在于知道自己足够强大，可以承受人生的苦难，可以在失去一个人时仍然觉得自己是完整的。 

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。