本帖最后由 ヮ成熟、羙° 于 2013-7-7 22:28 编辑
不要以貌取人
荷叶/译
一对夫妇在波士顿火车站下车，女的穿一条褪色格子布连衣裙，男的穿一套家纺旧西服。他们没有预约，胆怯地走到哈佛大学校长办公室的外间。校长秘书立刻判断出这样老土的乡下人来哈佛不会有什么正经事，他们甚至都不配出现在哈佛。她皱起了眉头。“我想见校长。”男人轻声说。“校长整天都没空。”秘书脱口而出。“那我们就等等吧。”女人答道。
一连几个小时，秘书都没再理他们，希望这对夫妇会失望而去。但他们没有走。秘书变得很沮丧，最后决定去请示校长。她对校长说：“也许他们只想见见您就走。”校长很恼火，叹着气点了点头。很显然，一个身份显赫的人是没有时间和无名小卒周旋的，让穿花格布和家纺西服的人进他的办公室，会让他觉得很不顺眼。 校长屈尊降贵，一脸严肃，趾高气扬地朝这对夫妇走来。女人说：“我们有一个儿子，他在哈佛读过一年书。他在这里很开心，他热爱哈佛。但他意外地去世了。我和丈夫想在哈佛的某一地方建一东西来纪念他。”让她震惊的是，校长一点不为所动，只冷漠地说：“太太，我们不可能为在哈佛读过书而去世的每个人立一尊雕像，那样哈佛岂不成了墓地？” “噢，不，”女人解释道：“我们不是想立一雕像，我们想送给哈佛一幢大楼。”校长转动着眼珠，他盯着格子布连衣裙和家纺布西服看了一会儿，惊呼道：“一幢大楼？你知道一幢大楼要花多少钱吗？哈佛仅物质设备就耗资超过七百五十亿美元。” 女人沉默了一会儿，校长很高兴，他终于可以摆脱他们了。女人转向他丈夫，问：“建立一所大学，这些钱就够了吗？”他丈夫点了点头。校长一脸茫然，困惑至极。利兰斯坦福夫妇离去了，他们到了加里弗尼亚，在那里建了一所大学，名字上写道：谨以此所大学纪念一个哈佛不再关心的儿子。 一个人的人品很容易被判断出来，那就是看他如何对待一个对他无足轻重的人。
附：原文
Never Judge A Book by Its Cover A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president of Harvard’s outer office .The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods country folk had not business at Harvard, and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Harvard. She frowned. “We want to see the president,” the man said softly.“He’ll be busy all day,” the secretary snapped.“We’ll wait,” the lady replied. For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn’t. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president. ”Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they’ll leave,” she told him. He signed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn’t have the time to spend with nobodies, but he detested gingham and homespun suits cluttering his office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, “We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard, and was very happy here. But he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him somewhere on campus. ”The president wasn’t touched, and she was shocked,“Madam,” he said gruffly, ”we can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died, this place would look like a cemetery.” “Oh, no”the lady explained quickly, “we don’t want to erect a statue .We thought we would give a building to Harvard.” The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed,“A building! Do you have and earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard.” For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased .He could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly.” Is that all it costs to start a university?” Her husband nodded .The president’s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to California where they established the university that bears their name -------a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about. You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them. | 
发表于 2013-7-7 14:21:14
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发表于 2013-7-7 16:40:57
