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Is It Worth It?
Horror gripped the heart of the World War I soldier as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. Caught in a trench with continuous gunfire whizzing over his head, the soldier asked his lieutenant if he might go out into the “No Man’s Land” between the trenches to bring his fallen comrade back.
“You can go,” said the Lieutenant, “but I don’t think it will be worth it. Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your own life away.” The Lieutenant’s words didn’t matter, and the soldier went anyway.
Miraculously he managed to reach his friend, hoisted him onto his shoulder, and brought him back to their company’s trench. As the two of them tumbled in together to the bottom of the trench, the officer checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend. “I told you it wouldn’t be worth it,” he said. “Your friend is dead, and you are mortally wounded.”
“It was worth it, though, sir,” the soldier said.
“How do you mean ‘worth it’?” responded the Lieutenant. “Your friend is dead!”
“Yes sir,” the private answered. “But it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive, and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”
Many a time in life, whether a thing is worth doing or not really depends on how you look at it.
Take up all your courage and do something your heart tells you to do so that you may not regret not doing it later in life.
【日積月累】
◇trench n. 塹壕
◇lieutenant n. 中尉
◇hoist v. 舉起
◇mortally adv. 致命地
◇private n. 士兵，列兵
【參考譯文】
值不值得
當他看到從小到大的朋友在戰(zhàn)役中倒下時，這名一戰(zhàn)士兵的心因恐懼而揪得緊緊的。他們被困在一個戰(zhàn)壕里，戰(zhàn)火不停從他們上方呼嘯而過，士兵請示中尉他能不能走到戰(zhàn)壕間的無人區(qū)把倒下的同志帶回來。
“你可以去，”中尉說，“但是我覺得不值得。你的朋友很可能已經死了，你有可能丟掉自己的性命。”中尉的話沒起作用，士兵還是去了。
他奇跡般地走到了朋友身邊，把他扛在肩膀上，帶回了戰(zhàn)壕。當他們倆跌跌撞撞到達戰(zhàn)壕底部的時候，中尉察看了受傷的士兵，然后溫和地看著他的朋友。“我說過不值得，”他說，“你朋友已經死了，而你落得一身重傷。”
“但還是值得，中尉，”士兵說。
“你說‘值得’是什么意思？”中尉說，“你朋友已經死了！”
“沒錯，中尉，”士兵回答道，“但是當我到他身邊的時候，他還活著。聽到他說‘吉姆，我就知道你會來’的時候我就心滿意足了。”
生活中很多時候，一件事是否值得去做，完全在于你對它的看法。
鼓起勇氣，做你內心告訴你去做的事，這樣你才不會在未來的日子后悔。
【人生啟迪】
失信還是破財，是一道太好做的二選一題。商場上很多例子都告訴我們，不惜代價把誠信堅持到底的人才會名利雙收。但是，如果在天平一邊的籌碼上添上你的性命，你還是能輕而易舉就做出抉擇嗎？每個人都只能活一次，把誠信這些品質看得比生命還重的人才真正活過。
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