首页英语经典美文摘抄
The Brewer's Son
酿酒也疯狂
When I was a teenager, my dad did everything he could to dissuade me from becoming a brewer. He'd spent his life brewing beer for local breweries, barely making a living, as had his father and grandfather before him. He didn't want me anywhere near a vat of beer.
在青少年时期，父亲就极力告诫我，将来不要做一个酿酒人。因为，他一辈子就像他父亲及祖父一样，仅仅是为了谋生，专为当地的啤酒厂酿造啤酒。他甚至不许我靠近啤酒桶半步。
So I did as he asked. I got good grades, went to Harvard and in 1971 was accepted into a graduate program there that allowed me to study law and business simultaneously.
因此我也就按他的意愿做了。我以优异的成绩考取了哈佛大学，并于1971年获得了继续在那里攻读研究生课程的机会，得以同时学习法律和商业专业。
In my second year of grad school, I had something of an epiphany I've never done anything but go to school. I thought, and I'm getting pressured to make a career choice for the rest of my life. That's stupid. The future was closing in on me a lot earlier than I wanted.
在读研究生二年级时，我似乎有一种顿悟的感觉，我想除了上学以外，我什么也没有做过。我感到有一种压力迫使我为今后的人生道路作出事业的选择。我真傻。未来早已向我逼近，比我预期的要早得多。
So, at 24, I decided to drop out. Obviously, my parents didn't think this was a great idea. But I felt strongly that you can't wait till you're 65 to do what you want in life. You have to go for it.
所以在24岁时，我决定退学。显然，父母并不认为这是什么好主意。但我强烈地意识到，人不能等到65岁才去做想要做的事。你得自己去寻找。
I packed my stuff into a U-Haul and headed to Colorado to become an instructor at Outward Bound, the wilderness-education program. The job was a good fit for me. Heavily into mountaineering and rock climbing, I lived and climbed everywhere, from crags outside Seattle to volcanoes in Mexico.
我打点起行囊，把它们装进一辆小面包车内，便上路向科罗拉多进发，去作一名野外训练项目教练。这工作的确很适合我。大量地登山、攀岩，从西雅图周围的峭壁到墨西哥的火山，到处都留下了我生活和登攀的身影。
I never regretted taking time to "find myself". I think we'd all be a lot better off if we could take off five years in our 20s to decide what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Otherwise we're going to be making other people's choices, not our own.
我从未因花费时间去“寻找自我”而后悔。我觉得如果人们能在20岁左右的时候，拿出五年时间去决定自己今后想要做什么，那可能会更快乐一些。否则，我们就将按别人的、而不是自己的意愿行事了。
After three and a half years with Outward Bound, I was ready to go hack to school. I finished Harvard and got a highly paid job at the Boston Consulting Group. a think tank and business-consulting firm. Still, after working there five years, I was haunted by doubt. Is this what I want to be doing when I'm 50?
野外训练工作干了三年半后，我准备重返学校。哈佛毕业后，在波士顿顾问咨询集团——一家智囊团兼商业咨询的公司，我找到了一份薪水丰厚的工作。然而，在那里工作了五年之后，我头脑中又萦绕起一丝疑虑：难道这就是我想一直做到50岁的工作吗?
I remembered that some time before, my dad had been cleaning out the attic and came across some old beer recipes on scraps of yellow paper. "Today's beer is basically water that can hold a head," he'd told me.
记得不久前，父亲在整理阁楼时，偶然找到了一些写在发了黄的小纸片上的古老的啤酒配方。他告诉我：“现在的啤酒基本上都是水，只是面上有一些泡沫。”
I agreed. If you didn't like the mass-produced American stuff, the other choices were imports that were often stale. Americans pay good money for inferior beer, I thought. Why not make good beer for Americans right here in America?
他说的对。如果人们不喜欢喝那种大批量生产出的美国啤酒，那他们就只能喝进口的啤酒，但那常常是不新鲜、走味儿的。我想，美国人是在花大价钱买劣等酒。为什么不就在美国本地为美国人自己酿造好啤酒呢?
I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. When I told Dad, I was hoping he'd put his arm around me and get misty about reviving tradition. Instead he said, "Jim, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard!"
我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。当我把这个想法告诉父亲时，我希望他会拥抱我，并为传统的复苏而心情激动。结果恰恰相反，他说：“吉姆，这是我所听到过的最愚蠢的话!”
As much as Dad objected, in the end he supported me: he became my new company's first investor, coughing up $40,000 when I opened the Boston Beer Company in 1984. I plunked down $ 100,000 of my savings and raised another $ 100,000 from friends and relatives. Going from my fancy office to being a brewer was like mountain climbing: exhilarating, liberating and frightening. All my safety nets were gone.
虽然父亲尽全力反对我，但最终还是支持我了。1984年当我开办波士顿啤酒公司时，他成了我新公司的第一个投资者，勉强投入了4万美元。我拿出了10万美元的积蓄，又从朋友和亲戚那里募集了10万美元。从条件舒适的办公室出来，去做一名酿酒人，就像爬山一样：令人振奋，感到自由，但又觉法有些害怕。因为我所有的安全保护网都撤掉了。
Once the beer was made, I faced my biggest hurdle yet: getting it into beer drinkers' hands. Distributors all said the same thing: "Your beer is too expensive; no one has ever heard of you." So I figured I had to create a new category: the craft-brewed American beer. I needed a name that was recognizable and elegant, so I called my beer Samuel Adams, after the brewer and patriot who helped to instigate the Boston Tea Party.
一旦啤酒酿造出来后，我面临的最大问题就是：如何将它送到消费者手中。销售商们几乎异口同声地说：“你的啤酒太贵了;没人听说过你的名字。”于是我想，我得创造一个新品种：手工酿造的美国啤酒。我需要为它取一个响亮而又高雅的名字，这样，我便以曾领导波士顿倾茶事件的酿酒人及爱国音的名字来命名我的啤酒----塞缪尔·亚当斯。
The only way to get the word out, I realized, was to sell direct. I filled my leather briefcase with beer and cold packs, put on my best power suit and hit the bars.
我意识到，唯一能创出这个牌子的办法就是直销。我将啤酒及冰袋装进大皮箱里，穿上我那套尽显男人风度与地位的笔挺西装，向一间间酒吧走去。
Most bartenders thought I was from the IRS. But once I opened the briefcase, they paid attention. After I told the first guy my story--how I wanted to start this little brewery in Boston with my dad's family recipe--he said, "Kid, I liked your story. But I didn't think the beer would be this good." What a great moment.
大多数调酒师起初还以为我是国家税务局的呢。但当我打开皮箱时，便引起了他们的注意。我向第一个家伙讲述了我的故事----我如何用父亲家传的啤酒配方开创了这家小小的波士顿啤酒厂——之后，他说：“孩子，我喜欢你的故事，但我没想到你这啤酒会这么好。”多么激动人心的时刻啊!
Six weeks later, at the Great American Beer Festival, Sam Adams Boston Lager won the top prize for American beer. The rest is history. It wasn't supposed to work out this way--what ever does? --but in the end I was destined to be a brewer.
六周后，在美国大啤酒节上，我的“塞缪尔·亚当斯波士顿啤酒”获得了美国啤酒的最高奖项。接下来的事情就成为历史了。其实开始时，无论如何都没有想到我会走这条路----但最终我注定还是要做个酿酒人。
My advice to all young entrepreneurs is simple: life is very long, so don't rush to make decisions. Life doesn't let you plan.
我对所有年轻的企业家有个简单的建议：生活的道路是漫长的，因此不要急于作出决定。生活不让你做计划。
英语经典美文鉴赏
Courage
勇气
A father was worried about his son, who was sixteen years old but had no courage at all. So the father decided to call on a Buddhist monk to train his boy.
一位父亲为儿子担心。儿子16岁了，却没有一点勇气。于是，父亲决定去拜访一位禅师，请他训练儿子。
The Buddhist monk said to the boy's father, "You should leave your son alone here. I'll make him into a real man within three months. However, you can’t come to see him during this period. "
禅师对男孩的父亲说：“你应该让他单独留在这里。不出3个月，我要让他成为一个真正的男子汉。不过，在这段时间，你不能来见他。”
Three months later, the boy's father returned. The Buddhist monk arranged a boxing match between the boy and an experienced boxer. Each time the fighter struck the boy, he fell down, but at once the boy stood up; and each time a punch knocked him down, the boy stood up again. Several times later, the Buddhist monk asked, "What do you think of your child?"
3个月后，男孩的父亲又来见禅师。禅师安排这个男孩和一位经验丰富的拳师进行拳击比赛。拳师每次一出手，男孩就倒在地上，但男孩又马上站起来;每次将他击倒，他就又站起来。几个回合后，禅师问道：“你认为自己的孩子怎么样?”
"What a shame!" the boy's father said. "I never thought he would be so easily knocked down. I needn't have him left here any longer."
“真丢人!”男孩的父亲说，“我绝没想到他这样不堪一击。我不需要他再留在这里了。”
"I'm sorry that that's all you see. Don't you see that each time he falls down; he stands up again instead of crying? That's the kind of courage you wanted him to have."
“很遗憾，你只看到了这一点。难道你没看到他每次倒下后并没有哭泣，而是重新站起来了吗?这才是你想要他拥有的那种勇气。”
英语经典美文赏析
Piano Music
难忘的钢琴曲
There are advantages and disadvantages to coming from a large family. Make that a large family with a single parent, and they double. The disadvantages are never so apparent as when someone wants to go off to college. Parents have cashed in life insurance policies to cover the cost of one year.
来自大家庭既有好处也有坏处。如果是个单亲大家庭，好坏都会变成双倍。当有人要离家去念大学时，坏处尤其明显。为了支付一年的开销，父母只好将寿险兑换成现金。
My mother knew that she could not send me to college and pay for it. She worked in a retail store and made just enough to pay the bills and take care of the other children at home. If I wanted to go to college, it was up to me to find out how to get there.
母亲一早知道她无力送我上学与支付学费。她在一家零售店工作，挣的钱刚够养活家里的其他孩子。如果我想上大学，就得自食其力。
I found that I qualified for some grants because of the size of our family, my mom"s income and my SAT scores. There was enough to cover school and books, but not enough for room and board. I accepted a job as part of a work-study program. While not glamorous, it was one I could do. I washed dishes in the school cafeteria.
我发现我的家庭人口、妈妈的收入与我的学业能力测试分数符合拿助学金的标准。那只足够用来交学费和买书，但维持不了食宿。于是我半工半读，找了一份工作。虽然工作不讨人喜欢，可那是我力所能及的事情。我在学校饭堂里洗碗。
To help myself study, I made flash cards that fit perfectly on the large metal dishwasher. After I loaded the racks, I stood there and flipped cards, learning the makeup of atoms while water and steam broke them down all around me. I learned how to make y equal to z while placing dishes in stacks. My wrinkled fingers flipped many a card, and many times my tired brain drifted off, and a glass would crash to the floor. My grades went up and down. It was the hardest work I had ever done.
为了促进学习，我做了一副恰好能装在大金属洗碗机上的学习卡。把碗碟放在架子上之后，我就站在那儿翻卡片，四周弥漫着水汽，而我在学习原子的构成。我学会了如何在叠碟子的时候背下方程式。我起皱的手指翻过许多卡片，很多时候我疲倦的大脑恍恍惚惚，令玻璃杯也摔破到地上。我的成绩时起时落。那是我做过的最艰难的工作。
Just when I thought the bottom was going to drop out of my college career, an angel appeared. Well, one of those that are on earth, without wings.
正当我的大学学业快进行不下去时，天使出现了。是在地球上的天使，没翅膀的。
“I heard that you need some help,” he said.
“我听说你需要帮助，”他说。
“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to figure out which area of my life he meant.
“你说什么?”我问道，竭力想弄清楚他说的是我生活中的那些方面。
“Financially, to stay in school.”
“经济上的，留校念书。”
“Well, I make it okay. I just have trouble working all these hours and finding time to study.”
“这个，我还好。只是我工作得太久了，找不到读书的时间。”
“Well, I think I have a way to help you out.”
“啊，我想我可以有办法帮你一把。”
He went on to explain that his grandparents needed help on the weekends. All that was required of me was cooking meals and helping them get in and out of bed in the morning and evening. The job paid four hundred dollars a month, twice the money I was making washing dishes. Now I would have time to study. I went to meet his grandparents and accepted the job.
接着他解释道，他的祖父母周末需要人帮助。我只用做做饭、早晚帮他们上下床就好了。这份工作的报酬是一个月四百美元，两倍于我洗碗赚的钱。现在我可以有学习的时间了。我去与他的祖父母见面并接下了工作。
My first discovery was his grandmother"s great love of music. She spent hours playing her old, off-key piano. One day, she told me I didn"t have enough fun in my life and took it upon herself to teach me the art.
我的第一个发现是他的祖母无比热爱音乐。她许多时候都在弹她那架又旧变调的钢琴。有一天，她说我的生活缺乏乐趣，并执意亲自教我艺术。
Grandma was impressed with my ability and encouraged me to continue. Weekends in their house became more than just books and cooking,they were filled with the wonderful sounds of the out-of-tune piano and two very out-of-tune singers.
祖母非常赞赏我的能力，她鼓励我继续学下去。在他们家度过的周末并非只有书本与烹调;那些日子里洋溢着走调钢琴与两个走调歌手的动人音乐和歌声。
When Christmas break came, Grandma got a chest cold, and I was afraid to leave her. I hadn"t been home since Labor Day, and my family was anxious to see me. I agreed to come home, but for two weeks instead of four, so I could return to Grandma and Grandpa. I said my good-byes, arranged for their temporary care and return home.
圣诞假期来临了，祖母患上胸口冷的疾病，我非常不愿离开她。可自从劳动节后我就没回家，家人都急切希望见到我。所以我还是同意回家去，但只住上两周而不是四周，然后我就回来看祖母和祖父。我道了别，安排好他俩的暂时看护后就回家去了。
As I was loading my car to go back to school, the phone rang.
等我装车要返校的时候，电话响了。
“Daneen, don"t rush back,” he said.
“丹宁，别赶回来了，”他说。
“Why? What"s wrong?” I asked, panic rising.
“怎么了?出什么事了?”我心急火燎地问。
“Grandma died last night, and we have decided to put Grandpa in a retirement home. I"m sorry.”
“祖母昨晚去世了，我们决定让祖父搬到老年人之家去。很抱歉。”
I hung up the phone feeling like my world had ended. I had lost my friend, and that was far worse than knowing I would have to return to dishwashing.
我挂上电话，感觉世界末日到了一般。我失去了我的朋友，那比起知道我还得回去洗碗要糟糕得多。
I went back at the end of four weeks, asking to begin the work-study program again. The financial aid advisor looked at me as if I had lost my mind. I explained my position, then he smiled and slid me an envelope. “This is for you,” he said.
四周后我回去要求再加入半工半读计划。奖助学金顾问看着我的模样好像我疯了似的。我解释了自己的情况，他于是微笑着传给我一个信封。”给你的，”他说。
It was from grandma. She had known how sick she was. In the envelope was enough money to pay for the rest of my school year and a request that I take piano lessons in her memory.
是祖母的信。她早已知道自己的病情有多严重了。信封里有足够的钱支付我剩下几年的学费，她还请求我去上她记忆中的钢琴课。
I don"t think “The Old Grey Mare” was even played with more feeling than it was my second year in college. Now, years later, when I walk by a piano, I smile and think of Grandma. She is tearing up the ivories in heaven, I am sure.
我觉得《那匹老灰马》不会再有大二时我弹的那样深情。如今，多年之后，当我走过钢琴旁，我总会微笑着想起祖母。她正在天堂里大弹特弹着钢琴呢，我敢肯定。
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