When we use the word “love”, we do not simply
mean an attraction to a person of the opposite sex, which is a very narrow
definition of the word. Love is emotional strength, which can support us no
matter how dark the world around us becomes. In fact, throughout history people
of many different cultures have regarded love as the noblest of human emotions.
As an example of the power of love, we should remember how the Chinese people
of all nationalities respond to the call to help the victims of natural
disasters every year. Although their incomes are still low by international
standards, people all over the country do not hesitate to donate whatever they
can ― be it money or goods ― to help their needy fellow citizens. Moreover,
they do this with no thought of gain for themselves.
In my opinion, the best way to show love is to help people who are more
unfortunate than we are. We should always be ready to give a helping hand to
those who are in trouble, no matter whether they are family members or complete
strangers. In this way, we can help to make the world a better place, for the
darker the shadows of sorrow become, the more brightly the lamp of love shines.
当我们用“爱”这个词时，我们不仅仅指异性对一个人的吸引，这只是对这个词非常狭隘的解释。爱心是一种情感的力量，不论我们周围的世界多么黑暗，爱心都能支撑我们。事实上，纵观历史，不同文化背景的人都把爱看成是人类最高尚的情感。
说到爱心的力量，我们马上就会想起每年中国各族人民是如何响应号召支援自然灾害受害者的。尽管按照国际标准他们的收入还处于低水平，全国人民毫不犹豫地倾囊相助――不管是钱还是物――帮助那些有需要的同胞。而且，他们这么做并不考虑自己的得失。
我认为，表达爱心的最好方式是帮助比我们更加不幸的人。我们应该随时准备向有困难的人伸出援助之手，无论他们是家庭成员还是素昧平生。这样，我们就能够助一臂之力把世界变成一个更美好的地方，因为，悲伤的阴影越黑暗，爱心之灯的光芒就越闪亮。
There are two major arguments that can be made
for studying at home. First, as advances in the electronic media have brought
the whole world of scholarship into the home via the Internet and educational
courses on TV, the classroom is no longer the only place for acquiring
knowledge. Second, it is widely held that a person studies better in the
familiar surroundings of his own home and when he can arrange his own study
time.
But we must not lose sight of the fact that there are advantages to studying in
the classroom, too. Being surrounded by people of roughly the same abilities
and interests can be a great stimulus to acquiring knowledge, whereas studying
in solitude at home is boring for many people. More importantly, there can be
no substitute for a good teacher, who must not only be able to impart facts and
theories, but also to appraise and encourage his students.
Given the choice between these two methods of learning, I prefer the classroom.
This is because I am the sort of person who finds it difficult to concentrate
on study in the midst of household chores, and disturbances from visitors and
telephone calls. The classroom environment, I feel, is the only one in which
most people feel comfortable applying all their energies to the all-important
task of acquiring knowledge.
关于在家学习，我们可以提出两个主要论点。第一，由于电子媒体方面取得的进步把整个世界的知识通过互联网和电视上的教育课程带入了家庭，教室不再是惟一获取知识的场所。第二，人们普遍认为，在自己家里这样熟悉的环境中，并且能自己安排学习时间，一个人能学得更好。
但是，我们不能忽视在教室里学习也有好处这一事实。周围都是能力相近和兴趣相投的人可能会对获取知识形成巨大的刺激，而对很多人来说孤独一人在家学习会有些枯燥乏味。更重要的是，没有什么可以替代一个好老师，他不仅能够传道授业，而且能够评估并鼓励学生。
如果在两种学习方法中选择，我更喜欢在教室里学习，因为我是那种很难在家务琐事、客人、电话的打扰下集中注意力学习的人。我认为大多数人只有在教室里才能把全部精力放在获取知识这件十分重要的工作上。
What I Have Lived For
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the
longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the
suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither
and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the
very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy ― ecstasy so great that I
would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I
have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness ― that terrible loneliness
in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the
cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union
of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the
heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though
it might seem too good for human life, this is what ― at last ― I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the
hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to
apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A
little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the
heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain
reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors,
helpless old people ― a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of
loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I
long to alleviate the evil, but I can’t, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it
again if the chance were offered me.
我的人生追求
有三种简单然而无比强烈的激情左右了我的一生：对爱的渴望，对知识的探索和对人类苦难的难以忍受的怜悯。这些激情像飓风，无处不在、反复无常地吹拂着我，吹过深重的苦海，濒于绝境。
我寻找爱，首先是因为它使人心醉神迷，这种陶醉是如此的美妙，使我愿意牺牲所有的余生去换取几个小时这样的欣喜。我寻找爱，还因为它解除孤独，在可怕的孤独中，一颗颤抖的灵魂从世界的边缘看到冰冷、无底、死寂的深渊。最后，我寻找爱，还因为在爱的交融中，神秘而又具体而微地，我看到了圣贤和诗人们想象出的天堂的前景。这就是我所寻找的，而且，虽然对人生来说似乎过于美妙，这也是我终于找到了的。
以同样的激情我探索知识。我希望能够理解人类的心灵。我希望能够知道群星为何闪烁。我试图领悟毕达哥拉斯所景仰的数字力量，它支配着此消彼涨。仅在不大的一定程度上，我达到了此目的。
爱和知识，只要有可能，通向着天堂。但是怜悯总把我带回尘世。痛苦呼喊的回声回荡在我的内心。忍饥挨饿的孩子，惨遭压迫者摧残的受害者，被儿女们视为可憎负担的无助的老人，连同这整个充满了孤独、贫穷和痛苦的世界，使人类所应有的生活成为了笑柄。我渴望能够减少邪恶，但是我无能为力，而且我自己也在忍受折磨。
这就是我的一生。我发现它值得一过。如果再给我一次机会，我会很高兴地再活它一次。
(祝你成功！)
