中学生英语课外阅读:How to Be Generous

[1] The word \"gift\" has got dangerously devalued of late. Salesmen use so-called free gifts as bait and publicists use them as bribes; the wealthy can make \"gifts\" to their children, or to charities, with no more noble motive than saving tax. And anything labelled a gift shop, or catalogue, can generally be guaranteed to be full of curious, zany items like personalised solid silver back-scratchers and musical ashtrays, which are only classified as \"giftware\" because nobody in their senses would buy them to use themselves.

[2] We need to claim the word back this Christmas. We also need to claim back the word \"generous\": which too often gets used in the sense of over-large portions of food, hotel towels, the size of sheets, or women spilling out of their dresses. For generosity--the ability to make real gifts with modesty and love, expecting nothing back--is one of the things which most make us human. You do not find pigs or lions giving one another thoughtful little presents, do you? Monkeys, apparently, offer one another fleas at times, but not in any provable spirit of kindliness. We should honour generosity more than we do.

[3] Perhaps it has become suspect because of the tales of over-the-top generosity sometimes told in gossip about the very rich. The late Christina Onassis giving her daughter a personal zoo and a flock of sheep with their own shepherd, for instance; assorted tycoons flying their guests halfway round the world for birthday parties where there is an emerald bracelet or cufflinks on every place-setting; wealthy men paying off old girlfriends with houses, yachts and Ferraris. In this context, generosity has come to mean that you hurl money around like a drunken sailor. And there is always the suspicion that, like the sailor, you are doing it just to prove that you can afford it. That is not giving: that is showing off.

[4] But the real thing, when you meet it, is magical, and as a quality it belongs equally to rich and poor. Sometimes the poor--like the widow in the Bible who gave her mite--are best at it. Travellers in remote parts, from Poland to Peru, come home with stories of bread, shelter, even beds shared without question with the stranger on the peasant principle that \"A guest in the house is God in the house\". Nearer home, I loved the stories collected in memory of Katie Sullivan, the 23-year-old mental home care assistant who was murdered last year. Particularly the one about the day she was walking to the pub, and lagged behind, and her student friends caught a glimpse of her emptying her whole purse into a tramp's hands when she thought they weren't looking. Later in the pub they teased her about not drinking, trying to make her admit what she had done; but she steadfastly pretended she didn't want a drink.

[1]“礼物”一词近来已被危险地贬值了。推销员用所谓的免费赠品作为诱饵，公关人员用它们来行贿;富人们可以制造“礼物”送给他们的子女或捐给慈善团体，这与避免上税一样都没有什么高尚的动机。标有礼品店或礼品目录的任何东西通常可以保证入目全是奇异的、滑稽的物品，如个人用纯银痒痒挠和音乐烟灰缸----因为精神正常的人都不会买来自用，所以它们只好被划归为“礼品”。

[2]今年圣诞节我们需要还这个词本来的面目。我们也需要还“慷慨”这个同本来的面目，因为这个词在食品、宾馆毛巾、床单大小或胖得快要撑破衣裳的女人的绝大部分意思上用得太泛太滥了。慷慨----即出于谦恭和爱心赠送真正意义的礼物而不期望任何回报的能力----是最使我们人之所以为人的一个方面。你没有发现猪或狮子彼此赠送亲切的小礼品吧?猴子似乎有时互相帮助捉跳蚤，但是这并不在任何可以证明的善意的范畴内。与现在所做的相比，我们应该对慷慨表示更多的敬意。

[3]由于有时在闲聊中谈及的有关非常富有的人过度慷慨的故事，或许它已变得令人怀疑。例如，已故的克里斯蒂娜·奥纳西斯送给她的女儿一座私人动物园和配有牧羊人的一群羊;某些大亨们派飞机飞越半个地球去接客人来参加他们的生日宴会，并在每人的餐具处放上一只祖母绿手镯或一付袖扣;富翁们用房子、游艇和法拉利跑车来堵住旧日女友的嘴。在这种情况下，慷慨已变了味，无异于你像一个喝得烂醉的水手，向周围的人大把大把地扔钱。因此，那样做总是令人怀疑你不过是为了证明你花得起。那不是给予，是炫耀。

[4]而当你遇上真正的慷慨时，它有着不可思议的魅力，作为一种品质，无论贫富，都一样拥有它。有时穷人----就像《圣经》中那个给小钱的寡妇----在这一点上做得更好。从波兰到秘鲁，在远方旅行的人回家时都会有这样的经历----所经之处的人们本着“家中客即上帝”的农民原则，毫无问题地与异乡人共享面包、小屋甚至床铺。在家乡一带，我喜欢的是为纪念去年被人谋杀、年仅23岁的家庭心理治疗助理凯蒂·沙利文而收集的故事。尤其是其中的一则故事:有一天她去酒吧，走在了大家的后面，她的学友们瞥见她把钱包里的钱全倒进一个流浪者的手里，当时她以为他们都没有注意。后来他们在酒吧中取笑她不喝酒，试图让她承认她所做的一切;但是她坚定地假装她并不想喝酒。

文章来源：《中学生英语》 网址: http://www.zxsyyzz.cn/zonghexinwen/2020/1017/631.html