But the brave boy didn’t want to die. He made up his mind that he would survive. Somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive. When the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs.
Once more the brave boy made up his mind. He would not be a cripple. He would walk. But unfortunately from the waist down, he had no motor ability.
His thin legs just dangled there, all but lifeless. Ultimately he was released from the hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever. When he wasn’t in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair. One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air.
This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs. Ultimately through his daily massages, his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself—and then—to run. He began to walk to school, then to run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college he made the track team. Still later in Madison Square Garden this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run—this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the world’s fastest mile!
一座乡村校舍靠一种老式的大腹陶制煤炉取暖。一个小男孩的工作就是每天早早来到学校，在老师和同学们到校前把炉子生好，让屋子暖和起来。
一天早上，老师和同学来到学校，看到房子起火了。他们把昏迷的小男孩从烟火弥漫的教室拉出来时，小男孩已奄奄一息。他被烧得面目全非，下半身伤势尤为严重，人们把他送到最近的乡村医院。他昏迷着躺在床上，听到了医生和妈妈的谈话。医生告诉妈妈，他肯定活不了多久——要是这样，那最好不过了——要知道，他的下半身肌肉已被可怕的大火烧坏了。
但这个勇敢的小男孩不想死，他下定决心要活下去。让医生惊讶的是，他竟真的活了下来。脱离生命危险后，他又听到医生小声地告诉妈妈，大火烧掉了他下半身那么多肌肉，生不如死，因为他下肢已经烧得没用了，注定要终生残废。
他不想成为残疾，他要走路。勇敢的小男孩再一次下定决心，他要学会走路。不幸的是，他的腰部以下都失去了知觉。
他那两条孱弱的腿在裤管里打晃，了无生机。最终，他出院了。妈妈每天都给他按摩小腿，但它没有知觉，小腿根本不受大脑支配。他不在床上时，就坐在轮椅上。然而，他要学会走路的决心丝毫未减。一个晴朗的日子，妈妈把轮椅推到院内，让他呼吸新鲜空气。
这一天，他没有一直坐在轮椅里，而是爬了出来。他艰难地拖着两条腿，穿过草地，努力挪到包围着他们院子的白色尖桩栅栏处，费了好大劲儿，扶着栅栏站了起来。然后，他开始沿着栅栏，一个木桩一个木桩地向前挪动两条腿。他下定决心要学会走路。他开始每天都这样做，最后居然在栅栏边走出了一条平整的小路。没有什么事比给自己的腿注入生命更让他斗志昂扬了。最后，通过每天的按摩，凭借钢铁般的意志和坚定的决心，他最终站了起来，从蹒跚学步到独立行走——直至跑步！开始，他步行上学，然后，为了体验跑步的快乐，他开始跑步上学。后来，上大学时，他组织了田径队。再后来，在麦迪逊广场花园，这个意志坚强，曾被认为不能活下来、肯定不能走路、永远别指望会跑步的年轻人——格伦?坎宁安博士，他的奔跑速度竟打破了世界纪录！
心灵小语
没有做不成的事，只有没想到的事。这个世界总是给我们奇迹，而那奇迹不是上天赐予的，而是那么一批勇敢的、有斗志的人应该得到的回报。这个世界没有预言家，自己的命运掌握在自己手里。
记忆填空
1. One morning they arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in__. They dragged the unconscious little__ out of the flaming building more dead__ alive. He had major bums over the lower half of his body and was taken to a__ county hospital.
2. When he wasn’t in bed, he was confined to a__. One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some__ air.
3. Ultimately through his daily massages, his__ persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to__ up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself—and__—to run.
佳句翻译
1. 勇敢的小男孩再一次下定决心，他要学会走路。不幸的是，他的腰部以下都失去了知觉。
译______________
2. 然而，他要学会走路的决心丝毫未减。
译______________
3. 没有什么事比给自己的腿注入生命更让他斗志昂扬了。
译______________
短语应用
1. He made up his mind that he would survive.
make up mind：决意
造______________
2. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence.
start to do：开始做某事；开始做（另一件事）
造______________
学会接受
Cooperate with the Inevitable
戴尔·卡耐基 / Dale Carnegie
The late Booth Tarkington always said, “I could take anything that life could force upon me except one thing: blindness. I could never endure that.”
Then one day, when he was along in his sixties, Tarkington glanced down at the carpet on the floor. The colors were blurred. He couldn’t see the pattern. He went to a specialist. He learned the tragic truth: he was losing his sight. One eye was nearly blind; the other would follow. That which he feared most had come upon him.
And how did Tarkington react to this “worst of all disasters?” Did he feel: “This is it! This is the end of my life?” No, to his amazement, he felt quite gay. He even called upon his humor. Floating “specks” annoyed him; they would swim across his eyes and cut off his vision. Yet when the largest of these specks would swim across his sight, he would say, “Hello! There’s Grandfather again! Wonder where he’s going on this fine morning!”
How could fate ever conquer a spirit like that? The answer is it couldn’t. When total blindness closed in, Tarkington said, “I found I could take the loss of my eyesight, just as a man can take anything else. If I lost all five of my senses, I know I could live on inside my mind. For it is in the mind we see, and in the mind we live, whether we know it or not.”