天堂和地獄的真正差別

Heaven and Hell—The Real Difference

A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord said to the man, “Come, I will show you hell.” They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was skinny, desperate and starving. Each held a spoon that could reach the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arms that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible.

“Come, now I will show you heaven.” The Lord said after a while. They entered another room, similar to the first—the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handle spoons. But there everyone was happy, healthy and satisfied.

“I don’t understand,” said the man. “Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room and everything was the same?” The Lord smiled. “Ah, it is simple,” he said. “Here they have learned to feed each other.”

【日積月累】

◇stew n.燉肉(或菜) v.燉，燜

We had beef stew for lunch. 中飯我們吃了燉牛肉。

The meat needs to stew for several hours. 這肉得燉幾個鐘頭。

注意：漢語說“燉牛肉”“燜羊肉”，用英語表示分別是beef stew和mutton stew，也可以是stewed beef和stewed mutton——前一表達中的stew為名詞，它受beef和mutton的修飾，表明是什么樣的燉肉；后一表達中的stewed為動詞stew的過去分詞，在此表示被動意義，指被燉過的什么肉。

◇desperate adj.極需要的；絕望的

I’m desperate to see her. 我很想見到她。

He was desperate when he lost all his money. 當他丟了所有的錢時，他絕望了。

◇miserable adj.痛苦的；悲慘的

The girl felt so miserable that she wanted to cry. 這姑娘感到那樣痛苦，她簡直想哭。

【參考譯文】

天堂和地獄的真正差別

一個人在和上帝談論天堂和地獄。上帝對這個人說：“來，我帶你去地獄看看。”他們走進一個房間，里面有一群人圍坐在一鍋燉肉旁邊。每個人都面黃肌瘦，絕望無助，饑腸轆轆。他們各持一個能夠著湯鍋的長勺，但是每個勺柄都遠比他們的手臂還長，所以他們沒法把燉肉送到自己嘴里去。這樣的煎熬十分可怕。

過了一會兒，上帝說：“來，現在我帶你去天堂看看。”他們走到另一間房，和第一間房間一樣，里面都有一鍋燉肉，一群人，手里都拿著長柄勺。但是每個人都健康快樂，心滿意足。

那個人說：“我不懂，為什么兩個房間里東西都是一樣的，這里的人卻這么開心，而那邊的人那么悲慘。”上帝笑了。他說：“啊，這很簡單，這里的人學會了彼此喂食。”

【人生啟迪】

天堂的人們互助互愛，地獄的人們自私自利，而處于兩者之間的人間，既有“自掃門前雪”的人，亦有努力付出不計回報的人。在生活中，如果你想讓自己身處的環境猶如天堂，請你毫不吝嗇地伸出你的手，這樣他人快樂，你也快樂！