決心的作用

DETERMINATION HELPS

Cows have to be milked twice a day, so work on a farm never stops. But every Christmas, we nine Gardner children let Dad sleep in. We woke before dawn in the Wyoming cold to do the chores. My brother and I would argue — and sometimes wrestle — over who had to do what. One year he fed the calves — a ten-minute job, while I had to herd the cows into their stalls to be milked. They can knock you over, and while you’re down 20 of them will escape. That morning I decided I wasn’t going to run from work that had to be done. I wanted to say I did my best. By myself, I pushed them all into the milking pens.

The same determination helped me win a gold medal in Sydney, and kept me alive when I drove my snowmobile into a frozen Wyoming creek in February 2002. I was lost outside in sub-zero weather from 4:30 in the afternoon until the next morning. When the rescuers found me, they had to saw my boots off. I should have died that night but willed myself to stay alive by focusing like I did on herding the cows, like I did on facing an opponent. Even if I didn’t make it, I wanted to know I had done my best.

I did make it. Doctors amputated a toe and I had several skin grafts, but I can still wrestle. That first Christmas after the accident meant a lot to me. My nieces and nephews did the farm chores, so I got to sleep in. I woke up viewing the day, and any that followed, as a bonus.

【助讀詞匯】

◇chore n. 家務雜事，零工

◇will vt.（用意志的力量）驅使

◇amputate v. 切斷，截，鋸掉

◇graft n. 移植

◇bonus n. 獎金，紅利，意外的好處

【參考譯文】

決心的作用

一頭奶牛一天需擠兩次奶，所以農場里的活總是干不完。但是每個圣誕節，我們9個加納家的孩子都會讓爸爸睡懶覺。在懷俄明州寒冷的天氣下我們在破曉前就開始干活。我和哥哥總是為誰去干什么吵架——有時候還打起來。有一年他喂小牛犢——只需十分鐘的活，而我卻要把牛趕進牛棚里面給它們擠奶。它們可能會踢翻你，并且當你摔倒在地的時候，這20頭奶牛就是全部逃跑掉。那天早上我決定不再躲避該干的活，我想說我的確是盡全力了。結果，我自個兒把它們全趕時了擠奶的圍欄里。

同樣的決心讓我在悉尼贏得了金牌，不僅如此，2002年2月當我將雪地車誤駕入懷俄明州一條冰冷刺骨的小河里時，也是決心讓我活了下來。在零度以下的天氣里，我在野外迷了路，從四點半一直撐到第二天早上。當援救隊找到我，他們不得不把靴子從我的腳上鋸下來。那一晚我有可能被凍死了，但是意志力讓我活了下來，就像讓我趕奶牛去擠奶的時候一樣，就像我在賽場上面對對手的時候一樣。即使不能成功，我也想知道我的確是盡全力了。

我最終還是挺了過來。醫生截掉了我一根腳趾頭，給我做了幾處植膚，但是我還能摔跤。那次意外的后的第一次圣誕節對我來說很有意義。我的侄子和侄女負責農場里的農活，所以我可以睡懶覺。我醒來的時候把這一天，和往后的每一天，視為額外的恩賜。

【人生啟迪】

這篇文章的作者是美國運動員魯倫·加德納。在2000年悉尼奧運會上他被人們認為是最不可能成為焦點的人；然而，這位名不見經傳的選手竟摔倒了有“西伯利亞熊”之稱的三屆奧運會冠軍卡列林(Aleksandr Karelin)，創造了奧運會古羅馬式角力的奇跡。這就是決心的力量。