英語勵志散文堅持夢想欣賞

　　I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch. He has let me use his house toput on fund-raising events. The last time I was there he introduced me by saying: “I want totell you a story. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itineranthorse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race track, farm to farm andranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school career was continuallyinterrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted tobe and do when he grew up.

　　“That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch.He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch,showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailedfloor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch.

　　“He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to histeacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with anote that read, ‘See me after class.’

　　“The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, ‘Why did I receive anF?’ The teacher said, ‘This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have nomoney. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources . Owning a horse ranchrequires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breedingstock and later you’ll have to pay large stud fees . There’s no way you could ever do it.’ Thenthe teacher added, ‘If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsideryour grade.’

　　“The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he shoulddo. His father said, ‘Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think itis a very important decision for you.’ Finally, after a week, the boy turned in the same paper,making no changes at all. He stated, ‘You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.’ ”

　　Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, “I tell you this story because you aresitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still havethat school paper framed over the fireplace.” He added, “The best part of the story is that twoyears ago that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week. Whenthe teacher was leaving, he said, ‘Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher,I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunatelyyou had enough gumption not to give up on yours.’ ”

　　“Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what,” Monty at lastconcluded.

　　我有一個朋友叫蒙蒂•羅伯茨，他擁有一座養(yǎng)馬場。他讓我用他的房子作為舉辦籌集基金活動的地點。上次我在他那兒時，他跟我說：“我想給你講一個故事。這要追溯到一個年輕人身上發(fā)生的故事，他是一位巡回馴馬師的兒子，他的馴馬師父親從馬廄到賽馬場，從農(nóng)莊到牧場，負(fù)責(zé)訓(xùn)練那里的馬匹。結(jié)果，這個男孩的中學(xué)生涯就不斷地被中斷。當(dāng)他成為一名高年級學(xué)生的時候，老師要求他寫一篇文章，內(nèi)容有關(guān)他長大后想成為什么人以及想做些什么。

　　“那天夜里，他寫了長達(dá)七頁的文章，描述了自己將來有一天能擁有一座養(yǎng)馬場的目標(biāo)。他極其詳細(xì)地介紹了自己的這個夢想，甚至還畫出了一幅200英畝牧場的示意圖，在上面標(biāo)出所有建筑、馬廄和跑道的具體位置。然后他又畫了一幅面積達(dá)4,000平方英尺的房屋平面圖，這棟房子會坐落在200英畝的夢想牧場上。

　　“他在這個項目上投入了很多心血，第二天，他把文章交給了老師。兩天后，他收到了自己的文章。在第一頁上，有一個大大的紅色F，并帶有一條批注：‘課后來見我。’

　　“這個懷揣夢想的男孩課后去見那位老師，他問：‘為什么我得了一個F?’老師回答說：‘對于像你這樣的小男孩來說，這是一個不切實際的夢想。你沒錢。你出身于一個居無定所的家庭。你也沒什么才智謀略。要擁有一座養(yǎng)馬場需要很多錢。你得買地。你還得為原有的種畜付錢，之后，你將要支付大筆的種馬費(fèi)。你是永遠(yuǎn)也無法做到的。’隨后，老師又補(bǔ)充道：‘如果你針對一個更為實際的目標(biāo)重寫這篇文章的話，我會重新考慮你的成績的。’

　　“這個男孩回家苦苦思索了很久，他問自己的父親他該做些什么。父親回答說：‘哎，兒子，你必須要在這件事上自己下定決心。不過，我認(rèn)為這對你來說是一個非常重要的決定。’最終，男孩在一周后交上了同樣一篇文章，他根本沒做任何更改。他表明：‘你可以保留這個F，而我將繼續(xù)懷有我的這個夢想。’”

　　然后，蒙蒂轉(zhuǎn)向聚集的人群說：“我告訴你們這個故事，是因為你們目前正坐在我4,000平方英尺的房子里，它就坐落在我這200英畝的養(yǎng)馬場中心。我依然留著那份學(xué)校論文，把它裝在鏡框里，掛在壁爐的上方。”他補(bǔ)充道：“這個故事里最精彩的部分是，就在兩年前，同一位老師帶著30個孩子在我的牧場上露營了一周的時間。當(dāng)那位老師離開時，他說：‘喂，蒙蒂，我現(xiàn)在可以對你說這些了，當(dāng)我做你老師的時候，我其實有點兒像一個偷夢人。在那些歲月里，我偷走了很多孩子的夢想。但幸運(yùn)的是，你有足夠的魄力，沒有放棄自己的夢想。’”

　　“不要讓任何人偷走你的夢想。無論怎樣都要跟隨你自己的心，”蒙蒂最后總結(jié)道。