評論
打印
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor—a veritable sea of milk!
他說，在他看來，這一切都應與兩歲時他和母親的一次經歷有關。當時，他想從冰箱里拿一瓶牛奶。可是瓶子太滑了，他沒有抓住，牛奶瓶子掉在了地上，牛奶濺得滿地都是——看上 去簡直是一片牛奶的海洋。
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture or punishing him, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"
他的母親跑到廚房，并沒有對他大嚷大叫，也沒有狠狠地教訓或懲罰他，只是說：“哇！羅伯特！你制造的麻煩可真是棒極了！我還從來沒有見過這么大的一片牛奶呢！哎，反正奶瓶已經摔碎了，在我們把它打掃干凈以前，你想不想在牛奶中玩幾分鐘呢？”
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. Which do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
他還真的在牛奶中玩了起來。幾分鐘后，母親對他說道：“羅伯特，要知道，無論什么時候，當你制造了像這樣又臟又亂的場面時，你都必須要把它打掃干凈，并且要把每件東西按原樣放好。那么你打算怎么收拾呢？我們可以用海綿、毛巾或者拖把來打掃。你想用哪一種呢？”他選擇了海綿。很快，他們就一起將那滿地的牛奶打掃干凈了。
His mother then said, "You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
然后，他的母親又對他說：“羅伯特，剛才你用兩只小手拿大牛奶瓶的試驗已經失敗了。現在我們就到后院去，把瓶子裝滿水，看看你有沒有辦法把它拿起來還不會掉。”小羅伯特發現只要用雙手抓住瓶子頂部靠近瓶嘴的地方，瓶子就不會從他的手中滑掉。這堂課真是棒極了！
