As the sun rose over the horizon, I went out to enjoy the beauty of the grassland scenery. On the way, I saw a pair of red flowers blooming. They had flat petals and were incredibly full of smiling beauty. Those independent flowers seemed very vibrant. Gazing at the flowers made me think of many things.

Dew like pearls shone on the grass brightly. Rays of sun offered happiness. I stood and stared at the beautiful flowers for a long time, enjoying the bright, pleasant sunshine. Butterflies and little bees were flying about. Then some naughty children with sticks came. One child swung his stick when he saw the flowers. Many petals fell to the earth, and with them, my heart fell too.

The next day, beside the road, the red flowers were brighter than the day before. The natural beauty made me gasp. It gave me an understanding of the energy of growing and youth and convinced me it couldn't be destroyed with a heartless stick. I wanted to be like the soul of a flower.

Then I saw an old woman and child coming along the road. When they reached the flowers the child quickly plucked one. I felt great horror and then heard the old woman say, "What beautiful flowers. Don't pick them." The next day, I couldn't see the flowers anymore. The grass and leaves on the ground were almost dried. I was in a world of great sorrow.

Six Famous Words

------William Lyon Phelps

"To be or not to be." Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be ---to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: "I think, therefore I am."

But the best definition of existence I ever saw was one written by another philosopher who said: "To be is to be in relations." If this is true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned---poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs---you are dead .

Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest---even more, a new accomplishment---you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy, the real pessimist is the person who has lost interest.

Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, new friends. What is supremely true of living objects is no less true of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your life be also. If your thoughts are confined only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow circumscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you are living in China; if you are interested in the characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly interesting people; if you listen intently to fine music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination.

To be or not to be---to live intensively and richly, or merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let us widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let us live!

"是活还是不活。”如果把《圣经》除外，这六个字便是整个世界文学中最有名的六个字了。这六个字是哈姆雷特一次喃喃自语时说的，而这六个字也就成了莎士比亚作品中最有名的几个字了，因为这里哈姆雷特不仅道出了他自己的心声，同时也代表一切有思想的男男女女。是活还是不活----是要生活还是不要生活，是要生活的丰满充实，兴致勃勃，还是只是生活的枯燥委琐，贫乏无味。一位哲人一次曾想弄清他自己是否是在活着，这个问题我们每个人也可不时的问问我们自己。这位哲学家对此的答案是:"我思故我在。”

　　但是关于生存我所见过的一条最好的定义却是另一位哲学家下的："生活即是联系。”如果这话不假的话，那么一个有生命者的联系越多，它也就越有生气。所谓要活的丰富充实也即是要扩大和加强我们的各种联系。不幸的是，我们往往会因为天性不够丰厚而容易陷入自己的成规旧套。试问除去我们的日常工作，我们的真正生活又有多少？如果你只是对你的日常工作才有兴趣，那你的生趣也就很有限了。至于在其他方面----比如诗歌、散文、音乐、美术、体育、无私的友谊、政治与国际事务，等等----你只是死人一个。

　　但反过来说，每当你获得一种新的兴趣----甚至一项新的造诣----你就增长了你的生活本领。一个能对许许多多事物都感兴趣的人是不可能总不愉快的，真正的悲观者只是那些丧失兴趣的人。

　　培根曾讲过，一个人失去朋友即是死亡。但是凭着交往，凭着新朋，我们就能获得再生。这条对于活人可谓千真万确的道理在一定程度上也完全适用于人的思想，它们也都是活的。你的思想所在，你的生命便也在那里。如果你的思想不出你的业务范围，不出你的物质利益，不出你所在城镇的狭隘圈子，那么你的一生便也只是多方受着局限的狭隘的一生。但是你对当前中国那里所发生的种种感到兴趣，那么你便可说也活在中国；如果你对一本佳妙小说中的人物感到兴趣，你便是活在一批极有趣的人物中间；如果你能全神贯注的听音乐，你就会超脱出你的周围环境而活在一个充满激情与想象的神奇世界之中。

　　是活还是不活----活的热烈活的丰富，还是只是简单存在，这就全在我们自己。但愿我们都能不断扩展和增强我们的各种联系。只要一天我们活着，就要一天是在活着。

As Gas Prices Rise, Teenagers’ Cruising Declines

Kevin Ballschmiede, 16, pined for his 1999 Dodge Ram — “my pride and joy” — the other night as he hung out in a parking lot in this town outside Chicago. Given that filling the 26-gallon tank can now cost more than $100, he had left it at home and caught a ride.

16岁的Kevin Ballschmiede渴望得到1999款道奇，“这是我的骄傲和趣所在。”某个晚上当他在芝加哥城外的这个小镇的一个停车场闲逛时，他说，现在要给这个26加仑的油箱加满油，得花费100多美元，他不得不把车停在家里而选择搭车。

From coast to coast, American teenagers appear to be driving less this summer. Police officers who keep watch on weekend cruising zones say fewer youths are spending their time driving around in circles, with more of them hanging out in parking lots, malls or movie theaters.

从各个海边来看，今年夏天驾车的美国少年比往年少了。在一些美国少年周末常来驾车兜风地带站岗的警官说，开车的美国年轻人少了，他们中更多的人在停车场、购物中心或电影院打发时间。

The price spike in gasoline, to an average of $4.07 a gallon for regular unleaded, is so recent that government statistics do not yet capture the teenage-driving trend. But the figures show that overall demand for gasoline is dropping. In dozens of interviews, teenagers and their parents said the price of gasoline was forcing hard choices on them.

汽油价格飙升，普通不含铅汽油每加仑均价达到4.07美元，因此近来政府统计部门还没有捕捉到少年们的驾驶倾向。但数据显示，汽油的总体需求量在下降。很多被采访的少年和他们的父母说，油价正迫使他们做出艰难的选择。

To be sure, the number of teenage drivers nationwide was already on a downturn over the past decade, a trend fueled by tighter state laws governing the hours when teenagers can drive, higher insurance costs and a move away from school-sponsored driver’s education programs to more expensive private driving academies.

不可否认，在过去10年中，全国范围内，青少年驾车者人数呈下降趋势，这个趋势是由于国家法律对少年驾车者可驾驶时间更严格的限制、更高的保险费用和由学校主办的驾驶教育课程转变为更为昂贵的私人驾驶学院等因素引起的。

These days, teenagers who do have licenses are not only driving less, but they are also having to come up with their own gasoline money. Any long trip involving a group of teenagers is likely to involve careful negotiation over who pays. And some teenagers are realizing that gasoline prices have put their dream of owning a car out of reach.

这段时间，持有驾照的青少年不仅开车少了，他们还不得不要努挣足自己的汽油钱。每一次由几个年轻人组织的长途旅行都会对由谁来承担油钱进行仔细协商。一些青少年意识到汽油价格已经使他们拥有一辆汽车的梦想变得遥不可及。

Tim Chou, 19, an engineering student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, had to give up his gas-guzzling 1996 Nissan Quest.

19岁的Tim Chou, 是一名伊利诺斯州大学厄本那—香槟分校工程系的学生，他不得不放弃购买耗油的1996版尼桑贵士。

“My parents decided to donate my car to charity because they didn’t want to pay for the insurance and gas anymore,” Mr. Chou said. “I guess I’ll be doing a lot of car-pooling this summer.”

“我父母决定将我的车捐给慈善机构，因为他们不想再花钱买保险和汽油，”周先生说，“我想今年夏天我将要多参与拼车一族了。”

He was hanging out on a recent Friday night at a Starbucks with a group of his friends, and all of them said the price of gasoline, made worse by difficulty in finding summer jobs, was cramping their style.

最近一个星期五他和几个朋友在星巴克聚会时，他们都说汽油价格使暑假打工变得更难了，这改变了他们一贯的生活模式。

“I used to drive around and hang out here with my friends five nights a week last summer, but I just can’t afford to buy gas anymore,” said Elliot Lee, 19, another engineering student. Mr. Lee said that since arriving home in East Dundee, Ill., for the summer, he had withdrawn $100 from his savings account to pay for gasoline.

去年夏天我通常每周有五个晚上和朋友们在这里开车兜风和聚会，但我现在负担不起油费了。另一个工程学专业的19岁的Elliot Lee说,自从他回到伊利诺斯州东敦提的家度暑假以来,他已从他存款中支取了100美元用于购买汽油.

Perhaps the summer’s most visible change is occurring in the downtown strips of small towns where, for decades, cruising on Friday and Saturday nights has been a teenage rite of passage. It is a peculiarly American phenomenon — driving around in a big loop, listening to music, waving at one another and wasting gasoline.

或许今年夏天最显而易见的变化商业中心是附近的小镇,十多年来,一些青少年们星期五和星期六晚上都要在这里开车兜风,这已成为一个惯例.这也是一个特有的美国现象----他们围着一个大圈一边开车,一边听音乐,一边互相招手致意,浪费着汽油.

“We’re not cruising around anymore, with gas costing $4.50 a gallon,” said Ewelina Smosna, a recent graduate of Taft High School in Chicago, as she hung out the other night at the Streets of Woodfield, an outdoor mall in Schaumburg. “We just park the car and walk around.”

“我们不再绕圈兜风了,油价每加仑要4.5美元.” Ewelina Smosna说,她最过刚从芝加哥塔夫脱中学毕业.一天晚上她在一个位于伍德菲尔德Schaumburg的一条街上的一个室外购物中心逛街时说,”我们把车停下步行逛毛街.”

According to police officers in towns like Elkhart, Ind.; Grand Haven, Mich.; and Mount Pleasant, S.C., traffic has dropped markedly on cruise nights.

埃尔克哈特镇、大港、密歇和S.C.的愉悦山等镇的警察们说，现在（年轻人们开车）兜风晚上的车流量明显下降了。

“Teen cruising is way down from 2005, when it used to be bumper to bumper downtown,” said David Scott, a senior officer in Grand Haven, a popular resort town hugging the Lake Michigan shoreline. “Traffic downtown used to be so bad in the summer, you couldn’t drive faster than 10 miles an hour. Last Friday night, I didn’t even have to wait in line to get through a light.”

“过去在各闹市区壮大的年轻人开车巡游队伍从2005年以来不断下降，”大港的一个资深警官David Scott说,大港是密歇里根湖岸边一个受人欢迎的度假胜地。“过去夏天闹市区的交通状况十分糟糕，时速甚至开不过10英里。上周五晚上，我过红绿灯时甚至不需要排队就通过了。”

Summer cruising appears to be ailing even in Modesto, Calif., a town immortalized in the film “American Graffiti.”

夏天兜风的现象在Modesto, Calif.也在走向衰弱，Modesto, Calif.因电影《美国风情画》而名垂千古。

“I think it’s a pretty good observation that there is much less cruising in town this summer, and it has a lot to do with the gas prices,” said Sgt. Tom Blake of the Modesto police. “The kids are parking their cars near McHenry Avenue and congregating at the Sonic drive-in, the McDonald’s and the Starbucks.”

“我认为今年夏天兜风一族的大幅减少这是一个相当好地现象，有很多事要做来应对油价上升。” Modesto 的一个警察Sgt. Tom Blake 说，“孩子们以把车泊在迈克享利大道附近，然后快速进入麦当劳和星巴克集合。”

Around the nation’s dinner tables, meanwhile, parents — many of them struggling to pay for their own gasoline — are having heart-to-heart talks with their teenagers.

围绕在国家餐桌旁边的，同时，还有父母们，他们中的许多人正为支付他们自己的油费而努力奋斗—他们正和他们十几岁的孩子进行推心置腹的谈话。

Lorraine Demuccio, an administrative assistant from Mount Pleasant, said gas prices prompted her to urge her 18-year-old daughter, Annalisa, to turn down a summer job as a nanny.

洛林德幕克，欢乐山度假区的一个行政助理说，油价上升使她要求她18岁的女儿安娜莉莎放弃了一个当保姆的暑期工作。

The job “would have meant driving at least 20 minutes a day, each way, and then she’d be driving the kids to the pool and the beach,” Ms. Demuccio said. “She ended up taking a job at a day care center that she can walk to.”

这个工作“意味着每天来回都要开车至少20分钟，然后还要开车带小孩们去游泳和海边，” 德幕克说“她找到了一份可以步行到达的日间护理工作从而结束了那份工作。”

Margie Passias, a single mother from Palatine, Ill., said she was scrambling to find extra cash to hand over with the car keys when her two teenage daughters, Athina, 18, and Paulina, 16, clamor to drive her Chevy Tracker.

帕拉汀的一位单身母亲玛吉帕斯尔斯说，当她两个十几岁的女儿，18岁的Athina和16岁的Paulina强烈要求开她的Chevy Tracke时.她时不时要挣些额外收入以补贴车用，

 “I sat the girls down on the living room couch one night and told them, ‘the only solution this summer is car-pooling,’ ” Ms. Passias recalled. “I told them not to drive on a regular basis, but I’m still giving them money for gas here and there. And with my financial situation, it is really hard.”

“某天晚上，我让女儿们在起居室沙发上坐下，告诉她们，今年夏天唯一的解决办法是拼车。” 帕斯尔斯回忆说，“我叫她们不要像往常那样用车，但是我还是时不时给钱她们买汽油，但是以我的财务状况，的确非常艰难。”

Catch the star that holds your destiny the one that forever twinkles in your heart .Always belive that your ultimate goal is attainable as long as you commit youself to it .The greatest gifts in life are not purchased but acquired through hard work and determination .You are capable of making your brightest dreams come true .Give your hopes everything you've got and you will catch the star that holds yours destiny.

Microsoft

The meaning of Bill Gates

Landov

WHEN Bill Gates helped to found Microsoft 33 years ago there was a company rule that no employees should work for a boss who wrote worse computer code than they did. Just five years later, with Microsoft choking on its own growth, Mr Gates hired a business manager, Steve Ballmer, who had cut his teeth at Procter & Gamble, which sells soap. The founder had chucked his coding rule out of the window.当比尔·盖茨在33年前和合伙人一起创办微软时，他定了一条公司章程就是：如果老板的编写的计算机语言不如员工的话，任何员工都不得在他的领导下工作。仅仅5年以后，当微软遭遇发展瓶颈之时，盖茨雇用了一位管理者，他就是Steve Ballmer，当时他刚刚在一家销售肥皂的Procter & Gamble公司崭露头脚。而微软的创始人盖茨也就将其制定的编程规则抛到了九霄云外。

本段词汇：cut one's teeth 长新牙的意思

In becoming the world’s richest man, Mr Gates’s unswerving self-belief has repeatedly been punctuated by that sort of pragmatism. But those qualities have never been on such public display as they were this week, when the outstanding businessman of his age stepped back from a life’s work.从创立微软到成为世界首富，比尔·盖茨一路走来，其间我们即感受到他不可动摇的自信，也屡屡看到在自信与现实冲突时，现实主义总是占了上峰。但是在这个星期，当这位杰出的商界奇人决定从他毕生的事业中引退之时，他的这些品质第一次在公众场合表现出来。

本段词汇：punctuate被打断的意思

As Microsoft’s non-executive chairman, Mr Gates will devote most of his efforts to his charitable foundation, where he will pit himself against malaria and poverty, rather than Google and the Department of Justice. To choose such formidable new foes in the middle of your life takes bags of self-belief, but it is also pragmatic—and a little poignant. Mr Gates has revelled in the day-to-day details of running his firm. To let it all go is to acknowledge that his best work at Microsoft is behind him. It is to accept that the innovator’s curse is to be transitory.退休之后，盖茨将不再处理日常事务，但会担任董事会主席，他将致力于慈善事业，展开对虐疾和贫穷的斗争，而不是对谷歌和司法部的斗争。在人生的中年阶段选择这项困难重重的事业是盖茨自信的表现，但同时也是盖茨实用主义表现，也许还有一些无奈。盖茨对管理公司的日常事务曾经是那样的投入，那样的忘我，而彻底放手的决定实际上是承认了他对微软对精华、最具价值的贡献俱往矣，他现在必须接受任何创新者都如流星划过的事实。

As with many great innovations, Mr Gates’s vision has come to seem so obvious that it is hard to imagine the world any other way. Yet, early on, he grasped two things that were far from obvious at the time, and he grasped them more clearly and pursued them more fiercely than his rivals did at Commodore, MITS or even Apple.

盖茨的伟大创新众多，不过现在他的眼光所及也都是显而易见的发展趋势。然而，在此之前，他把握住了两件事情，这两件事情以当时的环境而论还是雾里看花，不甚明了的，他比他在Commodore, MITS 甚至是Apple的竞争者都看的准确，并且以比他们都义无反顾的精神去实现。

The first was that computing could be a high-volume, low-margin business. Until Microsoft came along, the big money was in maintaining a select family of very grand mainframes. Mr Gates realised that falling hardware costs, combined with the negligible expense of making extra copies of standard software, would turn the computer business on its head. Personal computers could be “on every desk and in every home”. Profit would come from selling a lot of them cheaply, not servicing a few at a great price. And the company that won a large market share at the start would prevail later on.第一件事情是计算机会成为一项薄利多销的业务。在微软进入此行业之前，计算机领域的利润和业务主要集中在维护一些特定顾客的大型主机上面。但盖茨却认识到硬件成本下降，同时制作更多的标准软件的成本可以忽略不计，这就足以使个人电脑进入寻常百姓家。利润来自于薄利多销，而不是为少数人高价服务。在起跑线上赢得大市场份额的公司将会在日后遥遥领先。

Mr Gates also realised that making hardware and writing software could be stronger as separate businesses. Even as firms like Apple clung on to both the computer operating system and the hardware—just as mainframe companies had—Microsoft and Intel, which designed the PC’s microprocessors, blew computing’s business model apart. Hardware and software companies innovated in an ecosystem that the Wintel duopoly tightly controlled and—in spite of the bugs and crashes—used to reap vast economies of scale and profits. When mighty IBM unwittingly granted Microsoft the right to sell its PC operating system to other hardware firms, it did not see that it was creating legions of rivals for itself. Mr Gates did.

盖茨也认识到将硬件制造和软件编程结合起来会取得一加一大于二的效应。当像APPLE这样的公司还在坚持发展计算机操作系统和硬件之时，当时很多主机公司都是这样的业务模式，微软和INTEL公司，他们当时致力于设计个人电脑的程序处理器就将计算机的这两个业务分开了。这样，硬件和软件公司就只能在微软的windows和intel共同打造的wintel垄断模式的生态环境中创新了，尽管有大大小小的毛病，wintel还是获得了大量的利润。当强大的IBM决定允许微软将其电脑操作系统出售给其它硬件公司时，IBM没有预料到他正在为自己树立一个强劲的竞争对手，但是这一切都在盖茨的预料之中。

The technology industry likes to sneer at Microsoft as a follower. And it is true that the company has time and again bought in or imitated the technology of others. That very first PC operating system was based on someone else’s code. But Mr Gates’s invention was as a businessman. His genius was to understand what he needed and work out how to obtain it, however long it took. In an industry in which visionaries are often sniffy about anyone else’s ideas, the readiness to go elsewhere proved a devastating advantage.可以业界对微软总是有点酸溜溜的不屑，他们认为微软不过是在模仿跟进别人的技术成果。确实，微软公司不止一次的购买或者模仿了其他人的技术成果。第一个个人电脑的操作系统就是以其他人的程序为基础的。但是盖茨的发明是作为一个商人的发明。他的过人之处就在于他清楚地知道自己需要什么，并且知道如何去实现，不论需要多少时间。在电脑业界，那些自认为有远见卓识的人都喜欢对别人的想法创意不屑一顾，他们轻易的将目光投向别处，而这最终证明既是优势，更是导致失败的诱因。

And look at what happened when Mr Gates’s pragmatism failed him. Within Microsoft, they feared Bill for his relentless intellect, his grasp of detail and his brutal intolerance of anyone whom he thought “dumb”. But the legal system doesn’t do fear, and in a filmed deposition, when Microsoft was had up for being anti-competitive, the hectoring, irascible Mr Gates, rocking slightly in his chair, came across as spoilt and arrogant. It was a rare public airing of the sense of brainy entitlement that emboldened Mr Gates to get the world to yield to his will. On those rare occasions when Microsoft’s fortunes depended upon Mr Gates yielding to the world instead, the pragmatic circuit-breaker would kick in. In the antitrust case it did not, and, as this newspaper argued at the time (see article), he was lucky that it did not lead to the break-up of his company.现在我们再来看一下盖茨的实用主义，他的实用主义既成就他的事业，也背叛了他的事业。在微软公司里，员工们都害怕盖茨，害怕他无休无止的点子，害怕他面面俱到的管理，害怕他对那些他认为愚笨的员工的零容忍态度。不过，美国的法律体系丝毫不管这些。在微软被认为是阻碍竞争时，盖茨在法庭作证，这段影像资料中，我们看到了一个盛气凌人、脾气暴躁的盖茨，他坐在椅子时，不时地摇晃一下，显得目中无人，好像被大众惯坏了。其实正是我们赋予他的智慧的桂冠使他敢于让整个世界屈服于他，这段影像资料也是一段对此十分难得的记录。在微软的发展历程中，微软也经历过需要盖茨服从世界大势才能继续生存的为数不多的时候，每一次盖茨都表现出他的实用主义的一面。但是在反垄断的问题上，盖茨说不了。当时的媒体则认为他的态度并没有导致公司的分裂是他的幸运。

Inevitability and temperament are two hallmarks of Gates the innovator. The third is the transience of all pioneers. The argument was brilliantly laid out by Clayton Christensen, of Harvard Business School. The perfecting of a technology by a well managed company catering to its best customers leaves it vulnerable to “disruption” by a cheaper, scrappier alternative that is good enough for everyone else. That could be a descrīption of Microsoft’s Office, which now does more than almost anybody could wish for—even as Google and others are offering free basic word-processors and spreadsheets online.时代造就盖茨和喜怒无常是盖茨这个创新者的两个重要标志。第三个标志就是所有时代先锋都必须面对的转瞬即逝。这是哈佛商学院的 Clayton Christensen所作的精彩评论。一个管理完备的公司，拥有无懈可击的技术，在服务于它们最忠实的顾客之时，却因为一个更便宜，更粗糙却可推广至大众的替代技术，而不得不停下它的脚步。这就是微软的office，现在他所囊括的比任何人希望的都多得多，即使现在谷歌和其它的后来者也在网上提供基本的免费的文字处理软件和电子制表软件。

Mr Gates was haunted by Mr Christensen’s insight—he even asked for his help to keep back the tide. Microsoft successfully extended Windows as an operating system for servers; it has moved into new areas, such as mobile devices and video games; and it has lavished billions of dollars on all sorts of research—without much to show for it. Despite all those efforts, the PC, Mr Gates’s obsession, has ended up as an internet terminal. The company still has everything to prove online (see article). Watching Microsoft in the company of Google and Facebook is a bit like watching your dad trying to be cool. Mr Christensen一针见血的评价也是盖茨挥之不去的困扰，他甚至要求Mr Christensen提供帮助力挽狂澜。微软成功地将WINDOWS打造成服务器的操作系统；微软也试图进入电脑游戏和移动通信等新的领域；微软也曾经在各种研究项目上一掷千金－尽管没有秀出成果。尽管微软付出了努力，尽管盖茨孜孜以求，但微软最后的定位仍然只是网络终端。微软想要在网络上证实自己的实力仍是路慢慢。看到微软在谷歌和facebook的天地中打拼，就仿佛看到自己的父亲竭力扮酷一样。

Mr Gates had the good fortune to be perfectly suited for his time—but he is less well-equipped for the collaborative and fragmented era of internet computing. This does not diminish his achievement. Nor, as some would have it, does his philanthropy necessarily magnify it. Whatever the corporate-social-responsibility gurus say, business is a force for good in itself: its most useful contribution to society is making profits and products. Philanthropy no more canonises the good businessman than it exculpates the bad. In spite of his flaws, Mr Gates is one of the good kind. Some great industrialists, like Henry Ford, stick around even as the world moves on and their powers fail. Mr Gates, pragmatic to the end, is leaving at the top.盖茨可以说生逢其时。不过在以合作和信息支离破碎的网络时代盖茨还是显得措手不及。但这他所取得的成就并不因此显得暗淡失色，而他致力于慈善事业的决定也不能够为他的成就增姿添彩。不论这位这位商界社会责任巨头说什么，商业自有自己永恒的规律：商业对社会最大的贡献就应该是盈利和生产产品。慈善现在既不能使好人显得神圣，也不会为坏人洗脱罪名。盖茨纵有许多缺点，仍是瑕不掩瑜。一些伟大的工业巨头如福特在世界大势向前，影响力式微之时，仍是欲走还留。盖茨坚持实用主义到最后，功成身退。

在一生中，我们与许多人擦肩而过，我们总是想着，下一个遇到的人会更适合我，却任时间流水一般静静地流过。要知道，爱是不需要比较的，陪伴一生的人只有一个。此刻，或许你一生的爱正在你的眼前徘徊，请不要再错过了。

　　 Once upon a time a teacher and his student lay down under the big tree near the big grass area. Then suddenly the student asked the teacher.

　　"Teacher, I'm confused, how do we find our soul mate? Can you please help me?"

　　Silent for a few seconds, the teacher then answered, "Well, it's a pretty hard and an easy question."

　　The teacher continued, "Look that way, there is a lot of grass, why don't you walk there? Please don't walk backwards, just walk straight ahead. On your way, try to find a blade of beautiful grass and pick it up and then give it to me. But just one."

　　The student said, "Well, OK then... wait for me..." and walked straight ahead to the grassy field.

　　A few minutes later the student came back.

　　The teacher asked, "Well, I don't see a beautiful blade of grass in your hand."

　　The student said, "On my journey, I found quite a few beautiful blade of grass, but I thought that I would find a better one, so I didn't pick it. But I didn't realize that I was at the end of the field, and I hadn't picked any because you told me not to go back, so I didn't go back."

　　The teacher said, "That's what will happen in real life."

　　What is the message of this story?

　　In the story, grass is the people around you, the beautiful blade of grass is the people that attract you and the grassy field is time.

　　In looking for your soul mate, please don't always compare and hope that there will be a better one. By doing that, you'll waste your lifetime, cause remember "Time Never Goes Back".

          --------on-the-road

      It is 5:30 sharp in the early morning, and now after the morning sports exercise, I am roaming along the paths in the garden of the school.

      The mist and the haze are blowing gently and quietly, and the air is extremely fresh. It's a fresh and light morning, just like the Chinese name "bright morning". "Bright" is the most excelently sweet word for the very moment.

      Far from the pool comes the ceaseless and untiring crying of happy frogs. After a night of rainfall, their pool is flooded with rainwater. They have suffered a lot for several weeks when their pool is drained for crops irrigation. Here and now, they are greatly overjoyed about the timely rain. The pool, their lovely home, is entirely full to the brim.

      Along the avenue, the bloomy Chinese roses are elegantly blooming. Petals of no anguish are seen under the bush after the night rain. Perhaps they are willing to care for the mother bush.

      Birds are singing sweetly and agreeably in the leaves of the wet branches. Rainwater, not dewdrops, also brings good states of mind. The mood of the little birds affects and infects my mood in the early early summer morning. Thousands of thanks to you, sweet-voice birds!

      The  far and gray east is still dawn, and the sun is still behind the distant hills. Perhaps it is climbing upwards, and joyfully singing, for the fresh air and bright roads after the rain.

      Nature is perfectly pretty and elegant, especially in the deep and silent summer. It brushes everything, the sky, the air, the trees, the flowers, the paths, the avenues, and the roads. Nature brushes the school garden, the singing voices of the birds, and the whole morning. Of course Nature freshens my spirit up like everything else.

      Good morning, early morning! Enjoy a fresh start of the whole day! Good morning, July 2nd! Enjoy a fresh full day!

      08-07-02 6:30 

AP

AFTER 217 years, the Supreme Court appears finally to have settled one of the most hotly disputed questions in American constitutional law: who has the right to pack heat? The second amendment says: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The odd punctuation makes it unclear what this means. Can anyone own a gun, or only those who serve in a militia?经过217年，最高法院似乎使美国宪法条款中最具争议的问题之一得到了最终的解决,这个问题就是到底是谁有权力携带枪支。第二修正案中规定：一支管理完善的部队对自由国家安全是必不可少的，人民拥有武器和携带武器的权力不容侵犯。这句话中的标点符号令人费解，是不是任何人拥有枪支呢？还是只有军人可以拥有枪支呢？

On June 26th, five of the nine justices ruled that the right to bear arms is an individual right. In DC v Heller, they struck down a near-total ban on handgun ownership in Washington, DC. But they allowed for some restrictions on gun ownership. States or cities may still continue to prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons, and “dangerous and unusual weapons” may still be barred. 6月26日，9个大法官中的5个做出判决认为拥有携带枪支是一项个人权利。在DC v Heller一案中，他们实际上是推翻了在华盛顿执行的对手枪拥有权的全面禁令。各州和各城市仍可继续禁止携带隐蔽武器，危险的和非常规的武器也是被禁止的。

“Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia for the majority. “That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”“不容置疑的是一些人认为第二修正案已经过时了，因为在我们美国社会中现在军队已经是国家的骄傲，训练有素的警察保障了我们的个人安全，而枪支暴力已经成为一个严重的问题，”法官Antonin Scalia 对大众这样写道，“这可能会引起争议，但不需争议的是宣布第二修正案过时失效不是最高法院的职责。”

Gun-lovers are guardedly jubilant. More lawsuits challenging gun-control laws are now likely. The toughest such laws tend to be in cities, where liberals far outnumber hunters and gun curbs are broadly popular. Some of these will probably fall foul of the new precedent. Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta, bleakly predicts that litigation will divert resources from fighting crime.

枪支爱好者现在十分庆幸。可以预见将会有更多的挑战枪支控制法的官司出现。枪支控制法最严格的地方都在城市，因为城市里的自由主义者远远超过了猎人，并且控制枪支在城市是比较受欢迎的一种观点。还有很多违背先例的事件会发生。亚特兰大市市长Shirley Franklin悲观的指出这些诉讼案将会把有限的资源从打击犯罪方面转移。

Advocates of gun control, who credit tough gun laws with helping to reduce the murder rate in many American cities, are distraught. They must now try to figure out how to craft curbs that could pass constitutional muster, but it is not entirely clear what these might be.

枪支控制的倡议者们一直认为是严格的枪支控制法才使得美国很多城市的谋杀率降低，他们现在感到忧心忡忡。他们现在需要做的是想办法让枪支控制通过违宪审查，但如今到底该怎么办还不明朗。

The Supreme Court made two other rulings this week that delighted conservatives. It slashed by $2 billion the punitive damages that Exxon must pay for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska 19 years ago, setting a precedent that could curb future pluck-a-number-out-of-thin-air awards. And it threw out a law that freed incumbent politicians from many campaign spending restrictions if challenged by a rich opponent.

最高法院本周还有两项判决令保守人士兴奋不已。一项是Exxon因19年前阿拉斯加的原油泄露事故而必须付给Exxon Valdez 惩罚性破坏赔偿费，最高法院将其金额减少了20亿美元，这也立了一个先例就是对以后随口说说的金额可以大幅减少。第二项判决是对保护现任统治者如果受到一个富裕竞争者挑战可以免收竞选经费花销限制的法律是一个否定。

But it is the gun ruling that will send out the most ripples. Nationally, gun rights are popular, but so are modest restrictions on them, such as background checks to weed out criminals and crazy people, and waiting periods to allow angry people time to calm down. These sorts of restrictions, however, should remain safe from challenge, despite this week’s ruling. 不过，“一石激起千层浪”的还是枪支控制问题的裁决。在美国，人们普遍承认拥有枪支的权利，同时人们也是支持对拥有枪支实行温和的限制措施，比如在购买枪支时要经过背景检查，这样罪犯和精神不正常者就不能拥有，还有愤怒人士必须在平静下来之后才能购买枪支。这些限制措施，应该是不受到本周判决的挑战的。

If the decision reassures law-abiding gun owners that their weapons are safe, it could help Barack Obama, since those gun-owners will feel safe to be swayed by other things they might like about him, such as universal health insurance. But if it reminds them that big-city liberals want to grab their guns, that could hurt him badly. Reporters will pester him about whether he agrees with the decision, and which gun restrictions, exactly, he supports. 如果这个决定令守法的枪支拥有者确信他们的武器是安全的，这对奥巴马是有利的，因为枪支拥有者会感到因为奥巴马具有的某些素质而改变他们的立场是安全的，就比如普遍覆盖的健康保险。但如果这令他们想到大城市中的自由主义者会收缴他们的枪支，将对他们是一个极大的伤害。记者们会不断追问到底奥巴马支不支持这个决定，以及他到底支持什么样的枪支控制条例。

Gun owners are disproportionately (though by no means entirely) white, southern and rural—a group Mr Obama has trouble appealing to. Bill Clinton found it hard enough in the 1990s, despite his charm and similar background. On the stump, he defended his proposal to ban assault weapons by pointing out that you don’t need an Uzi to hunt deer. “I never saw a deer in a Kevlar vest,” he would joke.

枪支拥有者在美国虽然不都是但绝大多数都是白人，生活在南方，生活在农村地区的人，这一群人也是奥巴马很难打动的人群。比尔·克林顿在1990年代也遇到同样的困难，尽管他也和这些枪支拥有者有着相似的背景，并且风度翩翩。在他的巡回演说中，他指出人们不需要一支UZI来打一支鹿，他还开玩笑的说，我从来没有在Kevlar vest看到过鹿。这样来为自己禁止进攻性武器的立场辩护。

Mr Obama finds it tougher to strike the right note with rural whites. Face to face, he is persuasive—he won plenty of votes in rural Illinois when running for the Senate. But this is a national race, and he cannot meet more than a tiny fraction of voters in person. So it is easy for his opponents to paint him as a condescending liberal.

奥巴马发现要打动乡村地区白人选民的心比较困难一些。面对面的来说，他是很有说服力的，在竞选参议员时，他在Illinois州的乡村地区拿到了不少选票。但这次是全国性大选，他能够面对面接触到的选民只有很少的一部分，所以他的反对者要将他描绘成傲慢的自由主义者是很容易的事情。

John McCain, Mr Obama’s opponent, is hardly the gun lobby’s darling. Heretically for a Republican, he favours background checks for those who buy guns at gun shows. But the National Rifle Association (NRA), the main gun lobby, vastly prefers him to Mr Obama. He made a point of going to the NRA’s annual convention last month, where he spoke movingly of a 74-year-old woman who defended her home from a marauder who threatened to set fire to her garage. 奥巴马的对手麦凯恩显然也不能是主张拥有枪支的院外游说集团青睐的人物。不过在共和党内他仍是一个异端，因为他主张对那些在枪支秀上购买枪支的人进行背景核查。不过全国枪支协会，美国主要的枪支拥有者院外游说集团，在奥巴马和麦凯恩之间仍倾向于选择麦凯恩。麦凯恩在上个月参加该协会的年会时发表了一个演讲，他在演讲中动情的讲到一个74岁的妇女是如何对抗一个威胁要防火焚烧车库的暴徒保卫自己家园的故事。

An American’s individual right to bear arms may now be secure. But the NRA still frets that lawsuits blaming gun-makers for the actions of criminals who use their products could bankrupt the industry. The vote-scaring slogans practically write themselves. Read my lips: no new guns!

美国个人携带武器的权利现在是安全了，但是美国枪支协会仍然忧心一些指责枪支制造者导致了使用他们武器的犯罪行为的官司可能是枪支制造业危如累卵。那些威胁选票的口号其实是他们自己的写照：

The vote-scaring slogans practically write themselves. Read my lips: no new guns! 此句不太懂

The second stage of construction for China's biggest hydropower project -- the Gezhouba project on the Changjiang River -- has gone into full swing.

Gezhouba is the first dam on the Changjiang. When completed, it will be 2,600 metres long.

The project has been divided into stages. The first stage, the eastern section which is 1,600 metres, was completed last year.

The second stage includes the 1,000-metre-long western section of the dam, and installing 14 generating units with a total designed capacity of 1.75 million kilowatts, a lock big enough for 10,000-ton class ships, a sand scouring gate capable of discharging 20,000 cubic metres per second and a silt discharging dyke.

At present, the cofferdams to protect the western dam construction site have been completed and 10 million cubic metres of water have been pumped out of that part of the river that is hemmed in by the cofferdams. Diggings has begun in the pebble-strewn river bed. And some parts have been dug as deep as 30 metres. The power plant and ship lock along the western section are scheduled to begin operations in 1986.

This is an article about Gezhouba project. I have tried to translate. But there are some difficulties that I came across.I hope that you can come to discuss and translate it. Thank you!

位于长江之上的葛洲坝工程是中国第一大水利水电工程。其二期工程已全面启动。

葛洲坝是长江第一大坝。全长2，600米。

葛洲坝工程分为两期。去年完工的一期工程也就是东边部分，全长1，600米。

二期工程包含修建1，000米长的大坝的西部， 总装机容量为175万千瓦的14台机组的安装____________________________

目前， 用于保护西部大坝的围堰的建设业已完工。从围堰截流的河流一千万立方米水_______一些地方挖的有30米深.据规划西部的电厂和船闸于1986年开始实施.　　

Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.

营养学家兼作家Jonny Bowden列出了人们应当吃而没吃的数种健康食品的清单。这些食品中有些是他最喜欢的，如马齿苋，番石榴、枸杞果，这些东西在一些普通的食品店不一定能买得到。我请这位《地球上最有利健康的150种食物》的作者Bowden博士在他所列的清单上添加一些好吃又容易买到—并不常出现在我们购物车上的食物。下面是他的建议。

1.            Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.

1、甜菜：把甜菜看作红菠菜，Bowden博士说，因为它们富含叶酸和具有抗癌作用的叶红素。

吃法：将新鲜的甜菜切碎做成沙拉生吃，加热会使其抗养化功能。

2.          Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.

2、卷心菜：所含的营养成分如一种叫索芬的化学药品---一种能增强抗癌作用的酶。

吃法：亚洲人喜欢做成沙拉或作为脆口的汉堡包和三明治的配料来吃。

3.           Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.

3、唐莴苣：一种叶类蔬菜，含有防止眼睛老化的类胡萝卜素。

How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.

吃法：切开用橄榄油炒熟吃。

4.          Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.

4、肉桂：帮助控制血糖和胆固醇。

吃法：在咖啡或燕麦片中加入少量。

5.           Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants.
How to eat: Just drink it.

5、石榴汁：可以降低血压，含有抗氧化成份。

吃法：直接饮用。

6.          Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants.
How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.

6、李子干：它们是真正的西梅干，富含抗癌的抗氧化成份。

 吃法：包在意大利火腿中烤着吃。

7.           Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.

How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.

7、          南瓜子：这是南瓜中最有营养的部分，含镁，富含有降低早逝风险的矿物质。
吃法：烤熟作为零食，或撒在沙拉中。

88               Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.'’ They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.

8、         沙丁鱼：Bowden称他是“罐头中的健康食品”，他们的欧米加-3，含钙，不含汞。还含有铁、镁元素。

   吃法：选择用橄榄油或沙丁鱼油包裹的那种，直接吃、混着沙拉吃、烤着吃，或者捣碎拌芥末和洋葱吃。

9           Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,'’ it has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.

9、黄姜：是“香料中的超级明星”，有抗炎症和抗癌成分。

  吃法：用来炒鸡蛋或与各种蔬菜混吃。

10、             Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.

10、冰冻越桔：虽然冰冻会降低蔬菜水果的营养。但冰冻越桔一年四季都可吃到，而且不会坏掉。经动物实验，它有助提高记忆力。

吃法：与酸奶或者巧克力豆奶混吃，或拌在杏仁末中。

11、           Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.

You can find more details and recipes on the Men’s Health Web site, which published the original version of the list last year.

11、罐头南瓜：这是一种低卡路里蔬菜，富含纤维质和增强免疫力的维生素A，只会给你增加少量热量。

吃法：与黄油、桂肉和肉豆蔻。