評論
打印
Are we too quick to blame and slow to praise? It seems we are.
我們是不是指責別人太快而表揚別人太慢呢？看來是的。
Profits of Praise
贊揚的好處
by Janet Graham
珍妮特·格雷厄姆
It was the end of my exhausting first day as waitress in a busy New York restaurant.
我在紐約一家生意繁忙的餐館做女侍的第一天，令人精疲力竭的第一天，就要結束了。
My cap had gone awry, my apron was stained, my feet ached.
我的帽子歪了，圍裙上污跡斑斑，兩腳疼痛。
The loaded trays I carried felt heavier and heavier.
我感到手中盛著食物的托盤越來越重。
Weary and discouraged, I didn't seem able to do anything right.
我又疲倦又沮喪，仿佛什么事情都沒法干好。
As I made out a complicated check for a family with several children who had changed their ice-cream order a dozen times, I was ready to quit.
當我為有好幾個孩子的一家人開好一份復雜的賬單時——因為這些孩子在要冰淇淋時換來換去有十幾次之多——我便準備辭職不干了。
Then the father smiled at me as he handed me my tip. "Well done," he said. "You've looked after us really well."
這時候，那位做父親的一邊把小費交給我，一邊對我微微一笑，“干得很好他說。“你對我們照顧得真是太好了。”
Suddenly my tiredness vanished.
聽了這話，我的倦意頓時消失了。
I smiled back, and later, when the man-ager asked me how I'd liked my first day, I said, "Fine!" Those few words of praise had changed everything.
我對他也報以微笑；后來，經理問我對第一天感覺怎樣時，我說：“好極了!”那兩句贊揚的話改變了一切。
Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it.
對于人的精神來說，贊揚就像陽光一樣；沒有它我們便不能開花生長。
And yet, while most of us are only too ready to apply to others the cold wind of criticism, we are somehow reluctant to give our fellows the warm sunshine of praise.
然而我們大多數人動不動就對別人刮起批評的寒風，不知為什么卻不愿意把表揚的溫暖陽光給予我們的同伴。
Why — when one word can bring such pleasure? A friend of mine who travels widely always tries to learn a little of the language of any place she visits.
只要一句話就能帶來這樣的歡樂，我們為什么卻不愿意這樣做呢？我有一個到處旅行的朋友總是努力學一點她要去訪問的國家的語言。
She's not much of a linguist, but she does know how to say one word— "beautiful" — in several languages.
她并不是什么了不起的語言學家，但她的確知道怎樣用幾種語言說一個詞——“美極了。”
She can use it to a mother holding her baby, or to a lonely salesman fishing out pictures of his family.
她可以對一個懷抱嬰兒的母親或者對一個從身上掏出全家照的寂寞的推銷員用上這個詞。
The ability has earned her friends all over the world.
這種能力為她在全世界贏得了朋友。[by:可可英語～www.ccdyzl.cn]
