Thinking Out of the Box
《黑白卵石》
In a small Italian town, hundreds of years ago, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loan-shark was a very old, unattractive looking guy that just so happened to fancy the business owner's daughter.
幾百年前，在一個意大利小鎮里，一位小商人欠下一個高利貸債主一大筆錢。高利貸債主是一個又老又丑，但碰巧喜歡這位商人家女兒的家伙。
He decided to offer the businessman a deal that would completely wipe out the debt he owed him. The catch was that he would only wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman's daughter. Needless to say, this proposal was met with a look of disgust.
高利貸債主決定向這位商人提供一筆交易。通過這筆交易，這位商人欠他的錢可以一筆勾銷。交易的潛在的危險就是，商人的女兒要嫁給高利貸債主。毋庸置疑，這必定是一筆令人作嘔的交易。
The loan-shark then said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black. The daughter would have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, the debt would be wiped out, and the loan-shark would marry her. If it was white, the debt would also be wiped out, but then the daughter wouldn't have to marry the loan-shark.
然后，高利貸債主對交易的細節進行了說明——他將在一個袋子里放入兩枚卵石，一枚白色，一枚黑色。商人的女兒需要把手伸進袋子里，取出一枚卵石。如果取出的是黑色卵石，商人欠他的錢將一筆勾銷，但商人的女兒將嫁給他；如果是白色的，商人欠他的錢也將一筆勾銷，而且商人的女兒不必嫁給他。
Standing on a pebble strewn path in the businessman's garden, the loan-shark bent over and picked up two pebbles. Whilst he was picking them up, the daughter noticed that he'd picked up two black pebbles and placed them both into the bag. He then asked the daughter to reach into the bag and pick one.
高利貸債主站在商人家花園里的一條散落著卵石的小路上，彎腰拾起了兩枚卵石。與此同時，商人的女兒注意到他實際上拾起了兩枚黑色的卵石，并將它們放入了袋子中。隨后，高利貸債主讓商人的女兒將手伸進袋子，取出其中的一枚卵石。
The daughter, obviously, now had three choices in what she could do: Refuse to pick a pebble from the bag; Take both pebbles out of the bag and expose the loan-shark's cheating; Pick a pebble from the bag fully well knowing it was black and sacrifice herself for her father's freedom.
顯然，商人的女兒此時有三種選擇：她可以拒絕從袋子中取出卵石；還可以從袋子中取出全部兩枚鵝卵石，以此揭露高利貸債主的欺騙行為；或者，在明知道取出的肯定是黑色卵石的情況下，還是從袋子里取出一枚卵石，為了她的父親能夠重獲自由而犧牲她自己。
She picked out a pebble from the bag, and before looking at it, she 'accidentally' dropped it into the midst of the other pebbles on the path. She said to the loan-shark; "Oh, how clumsy of me. Never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."
她從袋子里取出了一枚卵石，還沒來得及看這枚卵石一眼，就“不小心”把它掉落到了小路上，混進了其他卵石中。她對高利貸債主說：“哦，您看我多笨啊！不過，沒關系，看看袋子里剩下的那枚卵石的顏色，您就可以知道我之前取出的那枚卵石的顏色了。”
The pebble left in the bag was obviously black, and since the loan-shark didn't want to reveal that he originally wanted to deceive them, he had to play along and acknowledge that the pebble the daughter dropped was white, and therefore he had to clear her father's debt without marrying her.
袋子中剩下的卵石顯然是黑色的。由于高利貸債主不想揭穿自己的欺騙行為，就只能配合并承認商人女兒掉落的卵石是白色的，而且不得不在商人的女兒不嫁給他的情況下，免除了商人欠他的全部債務。
Moral of the story: It's always possible to overcome a tough situation through thinking out of the box, and not give in to the only options you think you have to pick from.
寓意：只要我們肯放開思路，無論形勢有多么艱難，我們也一定會找到出路，克服困難一路前行。永遠不要被眼前的窘境嚇倒，因為辦法總比困難多。

The black dot
《白紙黑點》
One day, a professor entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin. The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.
一天，一位教授走進教室，要求他的學生們準備一次突擊考試。學生們全都坐在座位上焦急地等待考試的開始。像往常一樣，教授將試卷正面朝下分發到每位同學的書桌上。分發完畢，教授要求學生們將試卷翻過來正面朝上。
To everyone's surprise, there were no questions—just a black dot in the centre of the paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone's faces, told them the following: "I want you to write about what you see there." The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task.
讓每位學生大感意外的是，試卷上沒有任何問題——只有試卷中央的一個黑點?？吹綄W生們臉上露出的驚訝表情，教授解釋說：“我要你們寫下在試卷上看到的東西?！睂W生們在困惑中開始了這次莫名其妙的考試。
At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams, and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students. All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the centre of the sheet. After all the students' writings had been read and the classroom was silent, the professor started to explain:
臨近下課時，教授收上了全部試卷，然后開始在所有學生面前大聲朗讀每一份試卷。毫無例外，每一份試卷都對黑點進行了定義，并嘗試對其在試卷的中央位置進行了解釋說明。當教授讀完所有學生的試卷，并且教室安靜下來后，教授做出了如下解釋：
"I'm not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about; No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot—and the same thing happens in our lives. We insist on focusing only on the 'black dot': —the health issues that bother us, the lack of money we have, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment in a friend.
“這次考試我不給你們打分，我只是想給你們一些值得思考的東西；全班沒有任何一位同學在試卷中提到了試卷的白色部分。每個人關注的都是那個黑點——其實，同樣的事情也會發生在我們的生活中。我們堅持只去關注那個“黑點”——比如：困擾我們的健康問題、拮據的家庭經濟狀況、與家庭成員之間復雜的關系、對朋友感到失望。
The dark spots however, are very small when compared to everything else we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your eyes away from the black dots in your life. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a life filled with love!"
但是，與我們生活中的任何其他事物相比，黑點都是非常微不足道的，但是它卻會污染我們的頭腦。讓我們的眼睛遠離我們生活中的“黑點”，去享受我們被賜予的每一份祝福，以及生活給予我們的每一個時刻。我們應該快樂起來，去感受我們充滿愛的人生?！?br />