A Simple Gesture只是舉手之勞

每個人都可以成為很偉大的人，因為任何人都很有用。你即使沒有大學文憑或造不出一個合乎語法的句子，也可以發揮你的作用。只要有體諒的心、充滿愛的靈魂足矣……
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 馬丁．路瑟．金
　　 一件微不足道的小事（也許你做這些事時并無意識），會改變一個人的命運……

　　Everybody can be great . . . because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed that the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered that the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend
They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both gradated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came, and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. 　　 Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. "Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?" asked Bill. "You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life."

重點詞匯：

* trip：我們都知道trip的意思是“旅行”，是名詞。而在這里，trip用作動詞，表示“絆倒”的意思。

* article：article有很多意思，我們常見的是“文章”、“論文”、“報道”等。本文里，article表示“物件”的意思。另外，article還表示“貨色”的意思，當它用來指人時，就含有貶義了。

* break up：break是“打碎”的意思。break up在這里表示“終止”、“破裂”的意思。指男孩子與女朋友斷絕了關系。另外，break up還有一個很有趣的含義，表示“大笑”，是那種忍俊不禁、突然爆發出來的笑聲。

* await：表示“等待”，此時與wait for同義。另外它還表示“降臨到……身上”的意思，如：death awaits all men的意思是“死亡將臨到一切人”。 * locker ：“鎖柜”、“可鎖的衣物柜”的意思。

* mess：“凌亂狀態”、“凌亂的一堆”等意思。在西方國家，如果有客到訪，而房間正好比較凌亂時，要說一句excuse the mess，否則就是不禮貌的表現。

* store away：或store up，意思是“把……儲存起來”、“儲備”。 Bill準備自殺，所以偷偷攢了一些他媽媽的安眠藥。看來，Bill早已下定了自殺的決心。但Mark 不經意的友善行為改變了Bill 的決定，他決定不自殺了。可見，生活中的一些事情對一些人來說無足輕重，另一方面卻可以改變其他人的命運。讓我們多做一些象這樣我們稱為 “舉手之勞”的事吧！