英语沙龙：鼓励创造奇迹

Encouragement Can Work Miracles

Someone said that encouragement is simply reminding a person

of the “shoulders” he’s standing¹ on,

the heritage he’s been given.

That’s what happened when a young man,

the son of a star baseball player,

was drafted by one of the minor-league teams.

Hard as he tried,

his first season was disappointing,

and by midseason he expected to be released any day.

The coaches were bewildered by his failure

because he possessed² all the characteristics of a superb athlete,

but he couldn’t seem to incorporate those advantages

into a coordinated³ effort.

He seemed to have become disconnected from his potential.

His future seemed darkest one day

when he had already stuck out his first time at bat.

Then he stepped up to the batter’s box again

and quickly ran up two strikes.

The catcher called a time-out

and ran to the pitcher’s mound⁴ for a conference.

While they were busy, the umpire,

standing behind the plate,

spoke⁵ casually⁶ to the boy.

Then play resumed, the next pitch was thrown —

and the young man knocked it out of the park.

That was the turning point.

From then on, he played the game with a new confidence and power

that quickly drew the attention of the parent team,

and he was called up to the majors.

On the day he was leaving for the city,

one of his coaches asked him what had caused such a turnaround.

The young man replied that it was the encouraging remark

the umpire had made that day

when his baseball career had seemed doomed⁷.

“He told me I reminded him of all the times

he had stood behind my dad in the batter’s box,”

the boy explained.

“He said I was holding the bat just the way Dad had held it.

And he told me,

‘I can see his genes⁸ in you;

you have your father’s arms.

After that, whenever I swung the bat,

I just imagined I was using Dad’s arms instead of my own.”

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

3 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

4 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

7 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。

8 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪