Making a living as a door-to-door salesman demands a thick skin, both to protect against the weather and against constantly having the door shut in your face. Bill Porter puts up with all this and much, much more.
干挨家挨戶上門推銷這一營生得臉皮厚，這是因為干這一行不僅要經受風吹日曬，還要承受一次又一次的閉門羹。比爾 · 波特忍受著這一切，以及別的種種折磨。

Life of a Salesman

Tom Hallman Jr.

Alex Haley served in the Coast Guard during World War ll. On an especially lonely day to be at sea -- Thanksgiving Day -- he began to give serious thought to a holiday that has become, for many Americans, a day of overeating and watching endless games of football. Haley decided to celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving by writing three very special letters.
亞歷克斯·黑利二戰時在海岸警衛隊服役。出海在外，時逢一個倍感孤寂的日子――感恩節，他開始認真思考起這一節日的意義。對許多美國人而言，這個節日已成為大吃大喝、沒完沒了地看橄欖球比賽的日子。黑利決定寫三封不同尋常的信，以此來紀念感恩節的真正意義。

Writing Three Thank-You Letters

Alex Haley

1 It was 1943, during World War II, and I was a young U. S. coastguardsman. My ship, the USS Murzim, had been under way for several days. Most of her holds contained thousands of cartons of canned or dried foods. The other holds were loaded with five-hundred-pound bombs packed delicately in padded racks. Our destination was a big base on the island of Tulagi in the South Pacific.
寫三封感謝信

亞利克斯·黑利

那是在二戰期間的1943年，我是個年輕的美國海岸警衛隊隊員。我們的船，美國軍艦軍市一號已出海多日。多數船艙裝著成千上萬箱罐裝或風干的食品。其余的船艙裝著不少五百磅重的炸彈，都小心翼翼地放在墊過的架子上。我們的目的地是南太平洋圖拉吉島上一個規模很大的基地。
　
2 I was one of the Murzim's several cooks and, quite the same as for folk ashore, this Thanksgiving morning had seen us busily preparing a traditional dinner featuring roast turkey.
我是軍市一號上的一個廚師，跟岸上的人一樣，那個感恩節的上午，我們忙著在準備一道以烤火雞為主的傳統菜肴。

3 Well, as any cook knows, it's a lot of hard work to cook and serve a big meal, and clean up and put everything away. But finally, around sundown, we finished at last.
當廚師的都知道，要烹制一頓大餐，擺上桌，再刷洗、收拾干凈，是件辛苦的事。不過，等到太陽快下山時，我們總算全都收拾停當了。

4 I decided first to go out on the Murzim's afterdeck for a breath of open air. I made my way out there, breathing in great, deep draughts while walking slowly about, still wearing my white cook's hat.
我想先去后甲板透透氣。我信步走去，一邊深深呼吸著空氣，一邊慢慢地踱著步，頭上仍戴著那頂白色的廚師帽。

5 I got to thinking about Thanksgiving, of the Pilgrims, Indians, wild turkeys, pumpkins, corn on the cob, and the rest. 我開始思索起感恩節這個節日來，想著清教徒前輩移民、印第安人、野火雞、南瓜、玉米棒等等。

6 Yet my mind seemed to be in quest of something else -- some way that I could personally apply to the close of Thanksgiving. It must have taken me a half hour to sense that maybe some key to an answer could result from reversing the word "Thanksgiving" -- at least that suggested a verbal direction, "Giving thanks."
可我腦子里似乎還在搜索著別的事什么――某種我能夠賦予這一節日以個人意義的方式。大概過了半個小時左右我才意識到，問題的關鍵也許在于把Thanksgiving這個字前后顛倒一下――那樣一來至少文字好懂了：Giving thanks。

7 Giving thanks -- as in praying, thanking God, I thought. Yes, of course. Certainly.
表達謝意――就如在祈禱時感謝上帝那樣，我暗想。對啊，是這樣，當然是這樣。

8 Yet my mind continued turning the idea over.
可我腦子里仍一直盤桓著這事。