正文
The situation seemed hopeless.
一切都没什么希望了。
From the first day he entered my junior-high classroom, Willard P. Franklin existed in his own world, shutting out his classmates and me, his teacher.
自从威拉德·P.富兰克林进入我教的初中班的第一天起，他就不与其他同学交往，也不和我——他的老师——打交道，完全生活在自己的世界里。
My attempts at establishing a friendly relationship with him were met with complete indifference. Even a“Good morning, Willard” received only an inaudible（听不见的） grunt（咕哝）. I could see that his classmates fared no better. Willard was strictly a loner who seemed to have no desire or need to break his barrier of silence.
我想和他建立友好的关系，但完全遭到了他的漠视。甚至当你和他说“早上好，威拉德”的时候，回应你的也只是一声听不见的咕哝。我看得出来，他对班里的同学们也好不到哪里去。威拉德就是一个独行侠，他似乎没有打破沉默的愿望或需要。
Shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, we received word of the annual Christmas collection of money for the less fortunate people（穷人） in our school district（地方）.
感恩节假期结束后不久，我收到通知，要为所在学区的穷人进行每年一度的捐款。
“Christmas is a season of giving,” I told my students. “There are a few students in the school who might not have a happy holiday season. By contributing to our Christmas collection, you will help buy food, clothing and toys for these needy people. We start the collection tomorrow.”
“圣诞节是一个奉献的季节。”我对学生们说，“学校里有几个学生可能过不上一个快乐的假期。通过圣诞募捐，你们就可以让那些需要帮助的人买到食物、衣服和玩具。我们明天开始募捐。”
When I called for the contributions the next day, I discovered that almost everyone had forgotten. Except for Willard P. Franklin. The boy dug deep into his pants pockets as he strolled up to my desk. Carefully, he dropped two quarters into the small container（容器）.
第二天，当我要求学生们捐款时，我发现几乎所有人都忘记了，除了威拉德·P.富兰克林。他一边向我的桌子走来，一边伸手从裤子口袋里掏东西，然后小心翼翼地把两枚25美分的硬币丢进了募捐箱。
“I don’t need milk for lunch,” he mumbled（咕哝着）. For a moment, just a moment, he smiled. Then he turned and walked back to his desk.
“我吃午饭的时候，不需要喝牛奶。”他咕哝着说。就在那一瞬间，就那么一小会儿工夫，他笑了。接着，他转身走回他的课桌。
That night, after school, I took our meager（微薄的） contributions to the school principal. I couldn’t help sharing the incident that had taken place.
那天晚上放学后，我把我们班微薄的捐款交给了校长，我忍不住和校长说了威拉德捐款的事。
“I may be wrong, but I believe Willard might be getting ready to become a part of the world around him,” I told the principal.
我跟校长说：“我可能错了，但我相信威拉德可能正准备成为他周围世界的一部分。”
“Yes, I believe it sounds hopeful,” he nodded. “And I have a hunch（预感） we might do well to have him share a bit of his world with us. I just received a list of the poor families in our school who most need help through the Christmas collection. Here, take a look at it.”
“是的，我相信可能性很大。”校长点头说道，“我有一种预感，我们或许可以做得好一点，这样他就会让我们更多地了解他的世界。我刚收到一份名单，上面列出了我们学校里最需要通过圣诞募捐获得帮助的贫困家庭。你看看吧。”
As I gazed down to read, I discovered Willard P. Franklin and his family were the top names on the list.
我低头仔细一看，发现威拉德·P.富兰克林一家排在这份名单的最前面。
一个人的品格和贫富无关。
我是阁香书院，如果你喜欢看我的英语文章，想看更多的英语文章的话，欢迎关注我，让我们一起学习英语，一起进步吧！
网友评论