My Most Unforgettable Character
我 最 难 忘 的 人
She challenged us to succeed--and then showed us the way.
她激励我们要有所建树：并一直为我们指点迷津。
Mama's face was radiant with pride. I knew that everything we had achieved or would achieve was because of my parents. When we were young children, my mother, especially, was our mentor . Not until I became an adult did I realize how special she was.
妈妈脸上泛出自豪的光芒。我知道我们所取得的和将要取得的一切都要归功于我的父母。在我们小的时候，尤其是母亲，成了我们的启蒙老师。直到我长大后才认识到母亲是多么不平凡。
She was beautiful too. When a local photographer used her pictures in his monthly window display, she was flattered. Her favorite portrait showed her sitting by Lake Michigan, her hair windblown, her gaze reaching toward the horizon. My mother always used to say that when you died, God gave you back your "best self". She'd show us that picture and say, "This is what I'm going to look like in heaven."
母亲长得也很美。那时当地有位摄影师把她的照片放在一月一换的橱窗里展览，她心里美滋滋的。母亲最心爱的照片是她坐在密歇根湖畔照的，照片上，她的头发被风吹起，眼睛眺望着远方。母亲总说，一个人死后，上帝会归还他“他最美好的形象”。她会给我们看这张照片并说；“这就是日后我在天堂里的样子。”
"Think Big". My mother never studied books on parenting. Yet she knew how to raise children. She heightened our self-esteem and helped us reach our potential.
“胸怀大志” 母亲从没看过生儿育女方面的书籍，然而她懂得该如何教育子女。她激发我们的自尊心，并帮助我们发挥自己的潜能。
My mother wanted each of us to be somebody too. "Your challenge is to be everything you can. Mine is to help," she always said.
母亲也希望我们每个人将来都有所作为。她总是说：“对你们的要求就是将来要大有作为。而我则是帮你们去实现。”
自信
Some people are born with the belief that they are masters of their own lives. Others feel they are at the mercy of fate. NNG中国英语学习网
New research shows that part of those feelings are in the genes.
Psychologists have long known that people confident in their ability to control their destinies are more likely to adjust well to growing old than those who feel that they drift on the currents of fate.
Two researchers who questioned hundreds of Swedish twins report that such confidence, or lark of it, is partly genetic and partly drawn from experience.
They also found that the belief in blind luck-a conviction that coincidence plays a big role in life is something learned in life and has nothing to do with heredity.
The research was conducted at the Karolinska Institute-better known as the body that annually awards the Nobel Prize for medicine by Nancy Pedersen of the Institute and Margaret Gatz, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Their results were recently published in the United States in the Journal of Gerontology.
People who are confident of their ability to control their lives have an "internal locus of control,"and have a better chance of being well adjusted in their old age, said Pedersen.
An "external locus of control," believing that outside forces determine the course of life, has been linked to depression in latter years, she said.
"We are trying to understand what makes people different. What makes some people age gracefully and others have a more difficult time?" she said.
The study showed that while people have an inborn predilection toward independence and self-confidence, about 70 percent of this personality trait is affected by a person's environment and lifetime experiences.
有些人天生相信他们是自我生命的主宰，其他人则觉得他们受到命运的支配。
一项新的研究发现这些感觉部份来自基因。
心理学家早就知道有信心掌握自己命运的人比那些觉得自己是受命运摆布的人更能适应老化。
两位研究学家在询问了好几百对瑞典的双胞胎后报告说，这种信心，或是信心的缺乏，一部份是与基因有关，另一部份则是来自经验的累积。
他们同时发现，相信盲目运气的人--认为巧合在生命中扮演一个很重要的角色--是在生活过程中学习而来的，与遗传毫无关系。
这项研究是在卡洛林司卡机构里进行的。这个机构亦是每年颁赠诺贝尔医学奖的团体。该研究是由此机构的南西·皮德森与洛杉矶南加大的心理学教授玛格丽特·贾兹所主持，他们这项研究结果最近在美国老年学的期刊上登出。
皮德森说，对自己掌握生命的能力有信心的人有一种‘内在控制的基因位点’，比较能够适应老年期。
她说，相信外在力量决定生命之旅的‘外在控制的基因位点’与晚年沮丧的情绪有关。
她说：‘我们想了解人与人之间相异的原因是什么。是什么原因使有些人安然悠哉地步入晚年，而有些人则比较困难?’
这项研究显示，有人能够拥有天生的自信与独立，而百分之七十有这种个性的人，会受到环境与一生的经验所影响。
感恩的快乐
In our life, we have rarely expressed our gratitude to the one who’d lived those years with us. In fact, we don’t have to wait for anniversaries to thank the ones closet to us—the ones so easily overlooked. If I have learned anything about giving thanks, it is this: give it now! while your feeling of appreciation is alive and sincere, act on it. Saying thanks is such an easy way to add to the world’s happiness.
Saying thanks not only brightens someone else’s world, it brightens yours. If you’re feeling left out, unloved or unappreciated, try reaching out to others. It may be just the medicine you need.
Of course, there are times when you can’t express gratitude immediately. In that case don’t let embarrassment sink you into silence-speak up the first time you have the chance.
Once a young minister, Mark Brian, was sent to a remote parish of Kwakiutl Indians in British Columbia. The Indians, he had been told, did not have a word for thank you. But Brian soon found that these people had exceptional generosity. Instead of saying thanks, it is their custom to return every favor with a favor of their own, and every kindness with an equal or superior kindness. They do their thanks.
I wonder if we had no words in our vocabulary for thank you, would we do a better job of communicating our gratitude? Would we be more responsive, more sensitive, more caring?
Thankfulness sets in motion a chain reaction that transforms people all around us—including ourselves. For no one ever misunderstands the melody of a grateful heart. Its message is universal; its lyrics transcend all earthly barriers; its music touches the heavens.
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