美国著名发明家爱迪生上小学不到三个月,就被公认为“糊涂虫”、“低能儿”、“智商有障碍”。不得已,母亲只得把他接回家中自己教育。但是,母亲并不认为爱迪生是个低能儿。在母亲的教育下,爱迪生不仅爱上了读书,而且喜欢做各种实验。后来,在一次实验中,爱迪生不幸成为了聋子。但是,他一直记得母亲的教诲:“牛顿和瓦特在学校都算不上是优秀的学生,可是他们并不灰心,仍然继续不断地努力,终于发明了对人类有用的东西。只要你好好用功,妈妈相信,你也可以发明东西。” 成功后的爱迪生说:“我记得我一点都不能与学校相处,我在班里成绩最差。当老师叫我笨蛋时,母亲来到学校为我极力辩护,就从那时,我决定要给她争脸面,不辜负她对我的盼望。她实在是真正理解我的人。”...
这是一个不起眼的地方。在退潮期间,褐色的泥浆被晒干后龟裂成一片片小方块,一眼看去,整个泥滩像被铺上一层砖瓦,给人一种怪异的感觉。泥滩上那条向远处的大海流淌的溪水已不再像一条小溪,只剩下一条沟,几乎是条裂缝,沟底汪着一小滩死水。潮水一来,这条沟又会被灌满。沟有两条倾斜的侧岸,上面的泥浆与其他地方的泥浆干的过程不一样,那里的泥片干得很彻底,焦干焦干的,像漂过白似的。看上去像黑白相间的拼图。这里就像任何一个货港,是一条工业化的风景线:大型停车场、金属保安栏网、头戴安全帽的人们、巨大的载货车在货物的重压下哼哼。坐落在坚实基础上的钢铁巨臂向大海伸去,去迎接货轮上的货物。起重架无声地转动,将货物抓起放下。铁路边上是一座座煤山,长长的货车丁丁当当地缓缓驶过,形成了背景的一部分。巨大的圆形仓库的两侧是白色的现代样式的办公楼,形成了背景的另一部分。空气中弥漫着一种永不消散的石油化...
SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF WISTERIA LODGEby Sir Arthur Conan Doyle1. The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott EcclesI find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy day,towards the end of March in the year 1892. Holmes had received atelegram while we sat at our lunch, and he had scribbled a reply. Hemade no remark, but the matter remained in his thoughts, for hestood in front of the fire afterwards with a thoughtful face,...
How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Dayby Arnold BennettPREFACE TO THIS EDITIONThis preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be,should be read at the end of the book.I have received a large amount of correspondence concerning thissmall work, and many reviews of itsome of them nearly as longas the book itselfhave been printed. But scarcely any of thecomment has been adverse. Some people have objected to afrivolity of tone; but as the tone is not, in my opinion, at all...
Nada the Lilyby H. Rider HaggardDEDICATIONSompseu:For I will call you by the name that for fifty years has been honouredby every tribe between Zambesi and Cape Agulbas,I greet you!Sompseu, my father, I have written a book that tells of men andmatters of which you know the most of any who still look upon thelight; therefore, I set your name within that book and, such as it is,I offer it to you.If you knew not Chaka, you and he have seen the same suns shine, you...
Honore de Balzacby Albert Keim and Louis LumetTranslated from the French by FREDERIC TABER COOPERGENERAL NOTEOf all the books perhaps the one best designed for training the mind and forming the character is "Plutarch." The lives of great men are object-lessons. They teach effort, devotion, industry, heroism and sacrifice.Even one who confines his reading solely to biographies of thinkers, writers, inventors, poets of the spirit or poets of science, will in a short time have acquired an understa
第四章 我只等一有机会便一刀两断。正好,一天晚上,由于妈妈第二天去贡布雷,她的一个姨妈病危,她去那里准备料理后事,留下我,正如外祖母所愿,我可以享用大海的空气,我已明确告诉母亲,我的决心已下,决不反悔,不娶阿尔贝蒂娜为妻,下次再也不与她见面了。我很高兴,在母亲动身前夕,能说这几句话,让她感到满意。她并不对我隐瞒,她听了的确极为满意。我还要当面与阿尔贝蒂娜讲清楚。我同她一起从拉斯普利埃回来,老主雇们一个个下了车,有的在衣冠圣马尔斯站下,有的在紫杉圣皮埃尔站下,另一些人在东锡埃尔下,我感到格外的高兴,故意冷落她,现在车厢里只剩下我们俩,我横下决心与她摊牌。再说,实际上,在巴尔贝克的年轻姑娘中,我所爱的那个姑娘是安德烈,虽然此时她与她的女友们都不在,但她即将回来(我喜欢同所有姑娘在一起,因为每一个姑娘,在我看来,如同第一天那样,都有别人身上某种精华的东西,仿佛属...
Epilogue IChapter 1SEVEN YEARS had passed by. The storm-tossed, historic ocean of Europe was subsiding within its shores. It seemed to have grown calm; but the mysterious forces moving humanity (mysterious, because the laws controlling their action are unknown to us) were still at work.Although the surface of the ocean of history seemed motionless, the movement of humanity was as uninterrupted as the flow of time. Various series of groups of men were joining together and separating; the causes
PHOCION402?-317 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenDEMADES, the orator, when in the height of the power which heobtained at Athens, by advising the state in the interest of Antipaterand the Macedonians, being necessitated to write and speak many thingsbelow the dignity, and contrary to the character, of the city, waswont to excuse himself by saying he steered only the shipwrecks of the...
A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READYA MILLIONAIRE OFROUGH-AND-READYby BRET HARTE1- Page 2-A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READYPROLOGUEThere was no mistake this time: he had struck gold at last!It had lain there before him a moment agoa misshapen piece ofbrown-stained quartz, interspersed with dull yellow metal; yielding...
Phantasmagoria and Other PoemsPHANTASMAGORIACANTO I - The TrystyngONE winter night, at half-past nine,Cold, tired, and cross, and muddy,I had come home, too late to dine,And supper, with cigars and wine,Was waiting in the study.There was a strangeness in the room,And Something white and wavyWas standing near me in the gloom -I took it for the carpet-broomLeft by that careless slavey.But presently the Thing began...