书城外语转个弯人生更开阔
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第11章 成功的DNA密码 (10)

他们在工作中成功的机会,就像通过拉斯维加斯赌城的老虎机,或是彩票的方式成为百万富翁的机会一样少。鸵鸟并不是真的把头埋在沙子里,可我们中的许多人都在这样做,对自己从未实现梦想感到疑惑。奥运会的运动员们从来都不靠企求和希望取得胜利。伟大的音乐家、演员、厨师、建筑师、律师、父母或商人也不会这样做。我知道,我绝不会通过希望来出版自己的第一本书。

梦想能够成真,但这里也是有秘诀的。他们已经意识到了通过坚持、决心、奉献、激情、实践、集中精力和刻苦工作这些魔法来实现梦想。梦想的实现需要一步一个台阶,要经过多年,而不是几个星期就能实现。当企求与希望使你成为一个梦想家时,行动和做事才会使你的梦想成真。你想实现工作中的梦想吗?开始行动吧!

心灵小语

企求和希望是使梦想成真的最没用的方法。当企求与希望使你成为一个梦想家时,行动和做事才会使你的梦想成真。通过坚持、决心、奉献、激情、实践、集中精力和刻苦工作才可能实现梦想。

记忆填空

1. Maybe because__ I was five, my favorite uncle took me to a wondrous new place called Disneyland. Maybe because I__ up in Southern California, visiting it every year or two, watching a man’s vision come to__ and grow. Or maybe because I learned that“when you wish upon a star, it makes no__ who you are.”Growing up on the Wonderful World of Disney, I learned how to__ .

2.__ can come true, but there is a__. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice,__ and hard work.

佳句翻译

1. 奥运会的运动员们从来都不靠企求和希望取得胜利。

译______________

2. 梦想的实现需要一步一个台阶,要经过多年,而不是几个星期就能实现。

译______________

3. 当企求与希望使你成为一个梦想家时,行动和做事才会使你的梦想成真。

译______________

短语应用

1. When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are.

make no difference:没作用;没影响;都一样;毫无区别;没有关系

造______________

2. Want your work dreams to come true?

come true:实现;成真;达到

造______________

有恒心才能走向成功

The Reward of Persistence

奥里森·马登 / Orison Marden

Cyrus W. Field had retired from business with a large fortune when he became possessed with the idea that by means of a cable laid upon the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, telegraphic communication could be established between Europe and America. He plunged into the undertaking with all the force of his being. The preliminary work included the construction of a telegraph line one thousand miles long, from New York to St. John’s, Newfoundland. Through four hundred miles of almost unbroken forest they had to build a road as well as a telegraph line across Newfoundland. Another stretch of one hundred and forty miles across the island of Cape Breton involved a great deal of labor, as did the laying of a cable across the St. Lawrence.

By hard work he secured aid for his company from the British government, but in Congress he encountered such bitter opposition from a powerful lobby that his measure only had a majority of one in the Senate.

On the second trial, when two hundred miles at sea, the electric current was suddenly lost, and men paced the decks nervously and sadly, as if in the presence of death. Just as Mr. Field was about to give the order to cut the cable, the current returned as quickly and mysteriously as it had disappeared.

The following night, when the ship was moving but four miles an hour and the cable running out at the rate of six miles, the brakes were applied too suddenly just as the steamer gave a heavy lurch, breaking the cable.

Field was not the man to give up. Seven hundred miles more of cables were ordered, and a man of great skill was set to work to devise a better machine for paying out the long line. Before the vessels were three miles apart, the cable, parted. Again it was spliced, but when the ships were eighty miles apart, the current was lost. A third time the cable was spliced and about two hundred miles paid out, when it parted some twenty feet from the Agamemnon, and the vessels returned to the coast of Ireland.

Directors were disheartened, the public skeptical, capitalists were shy, and but for the indomitable energy and persuasiveness of Mr. Field, who worked day and night almost without food or sleep, the whole project would have been abandoned.

Finally a third attempt was made, with such success that the whole cable was laid without a break, and several messages were flashed through nearly seven hundred leagues of ocean, when suddenly the current ceased.

Faith now seemed dead except in the breast of Cyrus W. Field, and one or two friends, yet with such persistence did they work that they persuaded men to furnish capital for another trial even against what seemed their better judgment. A new and superior cable was loaded upon the Great Eastern, which steamed slowly out to sea, paying out as she advanced. Everything worked to a charm until within six hundred miles of Newfoundland, when the cable snapped and sank.

Not discouraged by all these difficulties, Mr. Field went to work with a will, organized a new company, and made a new cable far superior to anything before used, and on July 13, 1866, was begun the trial which ended with the following message sent to New York:

“We arrived here at nine o’clock this morning. All well. Thank God! The cable is laid and is in perfect working order—Cyrus Field.”

The old cable was picked up, spliced, and continued to Newfoundland, and the two are still working, with good prospects for usefulness for many years.

希拉斯·菲尔德先生退休时已经是个很富有的人了。退休后,他想用自己的财产在大西洋海底铺设一条连接欧洲和美国的电缆线。决心已定,他便全身心地投入到这项事业中。前期的基础性工作是需要铺设一条从纽约到纽芬兰圣约翰的电缆,预计有1,000英里长。首先,在纽芬兰大约400英里长的原始森林中,他们不仅要建造一条电报线路,还要修建一条同样长的公路。然后,还要穿越布雷顿角全岛140英里的线路和横跨圣劳伦斯海峡铺设电缆,这绝对是一个浩大的工程。

通过艰苦的努力,菲尔德最终从英国政府那里得到了资助。不幸的是,国会极力否决他的方案——仅有1票支持。

在第二次尝试中,当电缆线在海上铺到200英里时,电流突然中断,工作人员都在为此感到紧张不已,似乎意味着工程即将失败。正当菲尔德先生要下达切断电缆的命令时,电流又奇迹般地恢复了。

夜幕降临时,轮船仅能以4英里的时速缓缓前行。意想不到的是,轮船却在途中意外倾斜,致使电缆再次被割断。

菲尔德绝不是随便就放弃的人。他又重新订购了700英里长的电缆,并特地聘请相关方面的专家设计了一台适合远距离作业的设备。在两艘轮船分开不到3英里时,电缆线再次发生了断裂。紧急修补之后,两艘船继续前行。可是,在行驶了80英里后,电流又一次消失。电缆第三次修复后,在距离“阿伽门农”号20英尺的地方再次出现问题,两艘船被迫重新返回爱尔兰海港。

相关工作人员都备受打击,各种质疑的舆论从四面八方涌来。投资方也失去了信心,不愿再出资。唯独菲尔德没有放弃,他废寝忘食地继续工作——如果没有他,这项工程注定会以失败告终。

在菲尔德的坚持下,第三次尝试开始了。这一次可谓一帆风顺,所有电缆一次铺设完毕,也没有出现中途断电等事故。通过这条长长的海底电缆,终于可以发出信息了。就在这时,电流又一次中断了。