杯中之水

　　A group of students got together to visit their teacher. The teacher was happy to see them， and their talking soon turned into complaints about their difficulties in studies and life.

　　一群学生一同去拜访他们的老师。老师看到他们很开心，但不久学生们就满腹牢骚地抱怨他们学习和生活中的压力了。

　　The teacher just smiled and went to the kitchen to get all kinds of cups：some porcelain， some plastic，some glass， some looking plain and some looked rather expensive and beautiful. The teacher offered his students the cups to get drinks for themselves.

　　老师只是笑笑，然后到厨房取来各式各样的杯子：瓷杯、塑料杯、玻璃杯等等。有些外表平平，有些看起来漂亮名贵。老师将这些杯子递给他的学生，让他们自己倒水喝。

　　When all the students had a cup in hand with water， the teacher spoke，“If you noticed， all the nice looking， expensive cups were taken up， leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal that you only want the best for yourselves， that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you wanted was water， not the cup， but you all went for the better cups.”

　　當学生们人手一杯水时，老师便发话了：“不知你们发现没有，所有好看的、昂贵的杯子都被拿走了，剩下的都是一些普通的和便宜的杯子。大家都想为自己拿到最好的，这属人之常情，不过这也是你们出现问题和压力的根源所在。其实你们真正需要的是水，不是杯子，但我们都情不自禁地拿了更好的杯子。”

　　Just like in life， if life is water， then the jobs， money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold life， but the quality of life doesn’t change. If we only concentrate on the cup， we won’t have time to enjoy the water in it.

　　生活也是如此，如果生活是水，那么工作、金钱和社会地位都只是杯子。这些只是用来盛水的工具，而实际上生活的本质并未改变。如果我们只将注意力放在杯子上，那就没有时间来享受杯里的水了。

　　张秋伟摘自《中学生英语》