上大学的时候，我是一个极其乐观的人。高考遭遇了滑铁卢，本来以为凭自己的实力可以上清北，可惜发挥严重时常，考了个历史上没有的成绩，平时在班里一直No.1 or No.2, 最终高考成绩却是班里40多名。也就是说，我800多分的水平，最终却考了600多分，足足比一贯的真实水平少了200多分。可怕吧？可把对我寄予厚望的班主任和班里那些10名之后的同学们惊讶坏了，以至于我小学（同村）的班长，一直跟我明争暗斗的男孩子，不过是考上了曲阜师范大学，他爸妈大摆宴席，把老师们都请来庆祝他考上了曲阜师大。哈哈，从小学到高三，我一直遥遥领先他，他一直跟我明争暗斗（一个男孩子哦，还一直是班长）就因为高考一次考的比我好，简直登上了人生的巅峰。按理说，我遭遇如此失败，应该很是灰心丧气，悲观失望。但是我没有，我随意选择了家门口一个专科学院的英语专业，所有的志愿全部填这个，连选都没选。我欣然地接受了这样的命运的安排。刚入大学我知道我跟他们的档次不一样，我闭着眼睛都能考第一。我只有一次上本科的机会，就是专升本。这个机会很难，一个学院能考上几个就了不起了。而且只有山东的3所师范大学接收。山东师大是最好的一个，在全省只招一个班，30个人。其次是曲阜师大和烟台师大。同学们都在疯狂地备考上晚自习的时候，我每天去做家教，教一个三年级的小孩。她妈妈后来让我每天晚上住在她家辅导她娃，直到去考试的那一天。然后同学们以为我天天做家教，学习都荒废了。就在这样的条件下，我以全省前十的成绩考上了山东师范大学（全省有几千名考生呢），她妈妈还不想放我走。我的4年大学生涯过得很开心快乐。宿舍的几个姐姐非常爱护我，我不想考研究生，大家还拖着我去考。兼职的过程中我研究生初试高分通过（成绩高到大家震惊）我不想去复试，姐姐们（家境都极好）非要资助我近千元，作为从山东到广州复试的路费。我的整个大学不但自己业余赚生活费和学费（每年几千块）每个学期拿奖学金，后来也轻松地考取了研究生。我想我那段大学的人生走的顺利的主要原因是：乐观。
Some psychologists believe that one’s state of mind has great influence over one’s social and intellectual performance, and the quality of life depends much on one’s attitude towards life. If this is the case, then can we consciously make our emotions work for us in a constructive way? The following passage provides a positive answer: by simply choosing optimism, we can lead a better life.
Choose Optimism
Rich DeVos
1 If you expect something to turn out bad, it probably will. Pessimism is seldom disappointed. But the same principle also works in reverse. If you expect good things to happen, they usually do! There seems to be a natural cause-and-effect relationship between optimism and success.
我妈妈是个乐观的人。因为家里是地主成分，我2个舅舅没办法娶媳妇，没人敢嫁。妈妈牺牲了自己的幸福，给二舅换了个媳妇。妈妈的婚姻非常的不幸福，我从小看他俩天天吵架，爸爸摔碗。是什么让妈妈支撑着走到今天，依然笑呵呵的？乐观，知足常乐。她是个特别知足的人。
2 Optimism and pessimism are with powerful forces, and each of us must choose which we want, so as to shapeour outlook and our expectations. There is enough good and bad in everyone’s life — ample sorrow and happiness, sufficient joy and pain — to find a rational basis for either optimism or pessimism. We can choose to laugh or cry, bless or curse. It’s our decision: From which perspective do we want to viewlife? Will we look up in hope or down in despair?
3 I believe in the upward look. I choose to highlightthe positive and slipright overthe negative. I am an optimist by choiceas much as by nature. Sure, I know that sorrow exists. I am in my 70’s now, and I’ve lived throughmore than one crisis.But when all is said and done, I find that the good in life is far greater and more important than the bad.
人生不如意十之八九，常想一二。我曾经翻译过这个作品。这就是乐观人的心态吧。
4 An optimistic attitude is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. The way you look at life will determine how you feel, how you perform, and how well you will get along with other people. Conversely, negative thoughts, attitudes, and expectations feed onthemselves; they become a self-fulfilling prophecy.Pessimism creates a sad and hopeless place where no one wants to live in.
大学四年，我最快乐的时候，看什么都是发光的，一切都是彩色的。感恩生活中的一切。那时候最穷，却最开心。现在想来，最开心的时候最穷，但是自由。心很自由，生活很自由，生活也很简单。
5 Years ago, I drove into a service station to get some gas. It was a beautiful day, and I was feeling great. As I walked into the station to pay for the gas, the attendant said to me, “How do you feel?” That seemed like an oddquestion, but I felt fine and told him so.“You don’t look well,” he replied. This took me completely by surprise. A little less confidently, I told him that I had never felt better. Without hesitation, he continued to tell me how bad I looked and that my skin appeared yellow.
我上小学的时候，有一次剪了头发。去上学，走到教室门口，我班那个总靠零蛋的胖子同学说：丑死了。搞得我难过了一整天。人都要自卑了。后来我想，我天天考100，你天天考0蛋，我为什么要被你的话影响？
我那时候还穿表哥的衣服，自己臭美的不得了。我穿了一双别人送的小皮鞋，很开心，不过上面有个补丁。放学路上遇到一个很小的小孩，说了一句：破鞋破褂子。我瞬时间想找个地缝钻进去。这个小孩是我班一个男同学（曾经是我姐姐的同学，留级到我班）的妹妹。这么小一个孩子，居然可以这么恶毒。我美好的心情马上就被破坏了。难过了好久。
6 By the time I left the service station, I was feeling a little uneasy. About a block away, I pulled over to the side of the road to look at my face in the mirror. How did I feel? Did I look that bad? Was everything all right? By the time I got home, I was beginning to feel a little sick. Did I have a bad liver? Had I picked up some rare disease?
别人的负面的话，始终会对人造成困扰。这就是为什么要远离垃圾人。多接触正能量的人。
7 The next time I went into that gas station, feeling fine again, I figured outwhat had happened. The place had recently been painted a bright but disgustingyellow, and the light reflecting off the walls made everyone inside look as though they had hepatitis! I wondered how many other folks had reacted the way I did. I had let one short conversation with a total stranger change my attitude for an entire day. He told me I looked sick, and before long, I was actually feeling sick. That single negative observation had a profound effect on the way I felt and acted.
我们学校1教厕所的玻璃全部都是黄色的，所以，洗手间每次照镜子看到自己的脸都是蜡黄蜡黄的好可怕。当然我知道是镜子的缘故。但是有一次我姐姐来广州看我，上了一次那个洗手间，然后她对着镜子说：我脸色真难看。看她心情很不好。后来我给她解释了半天，她才好起来。
8 The only thing more powerful than negativism is a positive affirmation, a word of optimism and hope. One of the things I am most thankful for is the fact that I have grown up in a nation with a grand tradition of optimism. When a whole culture adopts an upward look, incredible things can be accomplished. When the world is seen as a hopeful, positive place, people are given the power to attempt and to achieve.
中国诗词大会里面的白云，TED里面的独臂无腿的小伙子，他们就是活生生地积极面对人生的例子。
9 Optimism doesn’t need to be naive. You can be an optimist and still recognize that problems exist and that some of them are not dealt with easily. But what a differenceoptimism makesin the attitude of the problem solver! For example, through the years I’ve heard some people say that the money spent on our space program has been wasted. “Instead of spending $455 million to put a man on the moon,” they say, “why not spend that money here on earth on the poverty problem?” But when you ask them exactly how they would spend that money to solve the poverty problem, most of them don’t have an answer. “Give me a solution,” I tell them, “and I’ll raise you the money.” Think in positive terms about how to address the issue rather than criticizing money spent on another program, such as America’s space program, which has resulted in many positive discoveries that have benefited mankind.
与其光知道抱怨，如果给出点建设性的意见。我认识的一个妈妈，每次给我打电话，都在抱怨自己的孩子不听话玩游戏早恋成绩下滑等等，而每次我都给她一些建设性意见，但是下次她再打电话，还是抱怨，从来听不到孩子的优点。而我提供的所有的建设性意见，她从来都是选择性忽略，自己也从来不改变，却要求孩子去改变。时间长了，我也被她的负能量搞的不胜其烦。当然，一个负能量的人，也许跟她小时候的教育或者家庭环境有一定关系，但你不能总是沉浸在自己小时候父母的过错里不出来吧。
10 Optimism draws our attention away from negativism and channelsit intopositive, constructive thinking. When you’re an optimist, you’re more concerned withproblem-solving than with useless fault-finding. In fact, without optimism, issues as big and ongoing as poverty have no hope of solution. It takes a dreamer — someone with hopelessly optimistic ideas, great persistence, and unlimited confidence — to tackle a problem that big. It’s your choice.
是不是乐观者都是行动派呢？行动起来，改变别人之前，先改变自己。与其抱怨，不如马上行动。
选择乐观
里奇·德沃斯
1 假如你预料某事结局不妙，结果可能真会如此。悲观的想法很少落空。不过这个法则反过来也成立。假如你觉得会有好事发生，通常就会交上好运！乐观与成功之间似乎有一种天然的因果关系。
2 乐观和悲观都具有强大的力量，我们每个人必须选择其一，来塑造自己的前途和理想。每个人的生命中都有足够的幸运与不幸——丰富的哀伤和喜悦、充足的欢欣与痛苦——令我们找到或乐观或悲观的理由。我们可以选择哭或是笑、祝福或是诅咒。这完全取决于我们自己：用什么样的眼光去看待生活？是积极向上，还是垂头丧气？
3 我信守积极向上的态度。对积极的东西我浓墨重彩，对消极的东西则一笔带过。我是乐天派，既是天生如此，也因后天选择所致。诚然，我知道生命中会有伤痛。我已经七十多岁了，经历过不止一次的危机。但是，当一切尘埃落定，我发现生命中的美好远比丑恶多。
4 乐观的态度不是奢侈品，它是我们生活的必需品。你看待生活的方式将决定你的感受、你的表现，以及你与他人相处得怎样。反过来，悲观的想法、态度和期待也会自成因果：它们是能自我实现的预言。悲观会制造出无人愿往的黑暗之地。
5 多年前，我驱车去一个加油站加油。那天天气很好，我的心情也不错。当我走进加油站付油钱时，服务员问我：“你感觉怎样？”这问题有点古怪，不过，我感觉很好，于是便照实回答了他。“你脸色不好，”他回答。这话让我大吃一惊。我告诉他我的感觉从未像现在这么好，但已不像开始那么底气十足了，而他则毫无顾忌地继续大讲我的气色如何差，还说我肤色发黄。
6 在离开加油站的时候，我觉得有点心神不宁。驶出一个街区之后，我把车停在路旁，对着镜子看着自己的脸。我感觉如何？我的脸色那么差吗？一切都正常吗？等我回到家里，我已经开始觉得有点想吐。我的肝脏出了毛病吗？是不是染上了什么怪病？
7 再次光顾那个加油站时，我还是感觉很好，我弄明白了个中蹊跷。这个地方不久前把墙漆上了一种抢眼但又难看的黄色，墙面反射的光线使里面的每一个人看起来都像得了肝炎。不知道有多少人有过与我类似的反应。和一个根本不认识的人的一次短短对话竟然改变了我整整一天的心情。他说我面带病容，没过多久，我就真的觉得不舒服。那一句消极的话就大大影响了我的感觉和行为。
8 唯一比否定态度更有力量的是积极的肯定，充满乐观与希望的话语。最让我心存感激的一件事情，就是我生长的这个国度有着伟大的乐观主义传统。如果一种文化从整体上采取积极向上的态度，不可思议的事情也能变成现实。人们若把世界看作光明与希望之地，他们将被赋予努力进取和成就功业的力量。
9 乐观不意味着幼稚。在保持乐观的同时，你仍然能意识到问题的存在，意识到有些问题非常棘手。乐观带来的改变在于面对问题的态度。比方说，这些年我总是听到有人抱怨用于太空计划的钱是被白白浪费了。他们会说：“与其花4亿5千5百万美元把一个人送上月球，为什么不把这些钱用来解决地球上的贫穷问题呢？”但当你追问他们打算如何用这些钱来消除贫困时，大多数人又会无言以对。我对他们说：“告诉我一个解决办法，我会为你们筹到钱。”以积极的方式思考如何解决问题，而不是对花在别的项目上的金钱妄加挑剔。实际上，美国的太空计划带来了许多有价值的发现，全人类都从中受益。
10 乐观精神使我们的注意力从消极的否定态度转向积极的、建设性的思考。乐观主义者更关心如何解决问题，而不是毫无意义地怨天尤人。事实上，如果没有乐观精神，像贫穷这样严重而且现正存在的问题是无望解决的。解决这样的问题需要一个梦想家——一个拥有九死不悔的乐观、矢志不移的坚韧和无限信心的人。何去何从，由你决定。
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