词汇提示

1.phrasing 措辞

2.omit 删减

3.prose 白话

4.flawless 完美无瑕

5.ceasing 中止

6.procedures 程序

7.apparent 明显的

8.discernment 洞察力

9.prayer 祈祷

原文

It Could Be a Whole Lot Better

As I was sitting in the reading room at the library, a man got up and left commenting, it could be a whole lot better.

I wasn't sure whether he was referring to the reading room, the world he was reading about, or something else.

I replied without thinking, “that's always true and always false”.

What I meant was that it was always possible to make little changes to improve things, but it isn't clear ahead of time that these changes will make a big overall improvement in a library in the world, or in anything else.

Years ago, literary critics used to examine great writers very closely to find bad phrasing or ungrammatical sentences.

They look at a play by Shakespeare and identify lines that they didn't think were very good.

Sometimes they would suggest that these lines were added by another writer, or that Shakespeare had written this part quickly without much consideration.

Sometimes they would omit or improve on the lines.

It is doubtful that any of Shakespeare's plays were actually improved by these critics.

An entire play needs high points and low points, poetry and prose.

The whole thing is greater than its individual parts, and changing a couple of these parts may not improve the whole thing.

It is the same in many other areas-music, athletics, scholarship, and probably everyday living.

It's not always the singer or musician who is flawless that we admire most.

Sometimes it is the person whose performance is not perfect, but who puts a special energy, feeling or enthusiasm into their work that we admire.

It is true that little things can sometimes add up to a big difference.

Changing a bad habit can make a difference in your life and in the lives of the people around you.

Giving up smoking, for example, or ceasing to criticize a family member, can make an important difference.

Sometimes, however, we are only looking at the symptoms of a larger problem.

For example, nearly everyone would agree that giving up smoking is a good idea.

But if our smoking is related to emotional problems or stress in our lives, then giving up smoking may make us feel even worse.

It may be necessary to deal with the root problem.

It can happen too, that being always on the lookout for ways to improve things may become a problem in itself.

“Perfectionism” means never being satisfied with things as they are, especially if we're always criticizing people around us for not being good enough.

This can become a bad thing.

A popular saying in North America is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

This is a warning to people who feel that their role or position involves making continuous changes in policies, procedures, products or personnel.

Sometimes the drive for change can be more of a personality problem than a genuine concern to make things better.

Real problems are often clearly apparent.

Problems like world hunger, personality conflicts, policies that don't work, poor levels of service, bad manners and all kinds of troubles are hard to ignore.

They are also difficult to resolve.

Perhaps that's one reason why some people identify things as problems which are of concern to hardly anyone except themselves.

Yes, we can make the world and the reading room better, but we can also make them worse.

It takes a lot of discernments and usually some experience, to know how to make a particular thing better.

There are so many things that could use improvement that it is difficult to know where to start.

This too requires some thought, not to mention prayer and study.

We can start by asking whether the thing we see is a problem is also a problem for other people.

If it isn't, then maybe our energy and attention might be better employed elsewhere.

翻译

本来可以更好的

当我坐在图书馆的阅览室里时，一个男人站起来离开，评论说，它本可以更好得多。
我不确定他指的是阅览室，他所读到的世界，还是别的什么。
我不假思索地回答说:“这句话总是对的，也总是错的。”
我的意思是，做一些小的改变来改善事情总是可能的，但这些改变是否会对世界上的图书馆或其他任何东西产生巨大的整体改善，在此之前是不清楚的。
多年前，文学评论家曾经非常仔细地检查伟大的作家，以发现糟糕的措辞或不合语法的句子。
他们看着莎士比亚的戏剧，找出他们认为不太好的台词。
有时他们会说，这些台词是另一个作家加的，或者莎士比亚没有仔细考虑就很快写下了这部分。
有时他们会省略或改进这些句子。
这些评论家是否真的改进了莎士比亚的戏剧，这是值得怀疑的。
整部戏需要高潮和低谷，需要诗歌和散文。
整体大于其个别部分，改变其中几个部分可能不会改善整体。
在许多其他领域——音乐、体育、学术，也许还有日常生活——也是如此。
我们最钦佩的并不总是完美无瑕的歌手或音乐家。
有时，我们钦佩的是那些表现不完美，但在工作中倾注了特殊精力、感情或热情的人。
的确，有时候一些小事情积少成多，就会产生很大的不同。
改掉一个坏习惯会对你的生活和你周围人的生活产生影响。
例如，戒烟，或停止批评家庭成员，都能起到重要的作用。
然而，有时我们只是看到了一个更大问题的症状。
例如，几乎每个人都会同意戒烟是一个好主意。
但如果吸烟与我们生活中的情绪问题或压力有关，那么戒烟可能会让我们感觉更糟。
也许有必要从根本上解决问题。
它也可能发生，总是在寻找改善事物的方法本身可能成为一个问题。
“完美主义”意味着永远不满足于事物的现状，尤其是如果我们总是批评周围的人不够好。
这可能会变成一件坏事。
在北美有一句流行的谚语:“如果它没坏，就不要修它。”
这是对那些觉得自己的角色或职位需要不断改变政策、程序、产品或人员的人的警告。
有时，改变的动力更多的是一种性格问题，而不是真正想让事情变得更好。
真正的问题往往是显而易见的。
世界饥饿、性格冲突、政策不力、服务水平低下、不礼貌以及各种各样的麻烦都是很难忽视的。
这些问题也很难解决。
也许这就是为什么有些人认为除了他们自己之外几乎没有人关心的问题的原因之一。
是的，我们可以让世界和阅览室变得更好，但我们也可以让它们变得更糟。
这需要很多的洞察力，通常还需要一些经验，才能知道如何把一件事情做得更好。
有太多的事情需要改进，以至于很难知道从哪里开始。
这也需要一些思考，更不用说祈祷和学习了。
我们可以先问自己，我们看到的问题对其他人来说是否也是问题。
如果不是，那么也许我们的精力和注意力可以更好地用于其他地方。

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Level 4-Day 54.It Could Be a Whole Lot Better