By John Bradly

Woodchoppers and Iron Horse had not yet greatly damaged the beau—ty of ib setting．A boy could go to the pond and lie on his back againstthe seat of a boat．1azily drifting from shore to shore while the loons divedand the swallows dipped around him．Thoreau loved to recall such sunnyhours and summer days“when idleness was the most attractive and pro-duetive business．”

I too was once a boy in love with a pond．rich in sunny hours andsummer days．Sun and summer are still what they always were，but theboy and the pond changed．The boy．who is now a man．no longer findsmuch time for idle drifting．The pond has been annexed by a great city．The swamps where herons once hunted are now drained and filled withhouses．The bay where water lilies quietly floated is now a harbor for mo—tor boats．In short．everything that the boy loved no longer exists——exceptin the man’s memory of it．

Some people insist that only today and tomorrow matter．But howmuch poorer we would be if we really lived by that rule! So much ofwhat we do today is frivolous and futile and soon forgotten．So much of what we hope to do tomorrow never happens．

The past is the bank in which we store

our most valuable possession：the memoriesthat give meaning and depth to our life

當(dāng)時湖畔的美麗景致尚未遭到伐木者和火車的破壞。小男孩可以蕩漾湖中，仰臥在小舟上，在河里任意漂蕩，身邊是鳥兒戲水，燕子翻飛。梭羅喜歡回憶那樣的艷陽和夏日時光，那時的悠閑是最迷人、最富余的。

我也曾是熱愛湖塘的小男孩，擁有無數(shù)的艷陽和夏日時光。如今，艷陽與夏日依然如故，而昔日的男孩已長大成人，不再有時間泛舟湖上。湖塘已經(jīng)被大城市吞沒；曾有蒼鷺覓食的沼澤，如今已枯竭殆盡，上面蓋滿了房屋；曾有睡蓮靜靜漂浮的湖灣，如今成了摩托艇的避風(fēng)港。一句話，男孩所熱愛的一切已不復(fù)存在，只是留在了已長成的男人的記憶中。

有人認為只有現(xiàn)在、未來才是重要的。但如果我們真的只有現(xiàn)在和未來，將是何等可憐：因為我們現(xiàn)在做的許多事都是不足道的，徒勞的，很快被遺忘的，我們將來想做的許多事也將永遠不會發(fā)生。

過去猶如銀行，我們把最珍貴的財產(chǎn)——那賦予生活以意義和深度的記憶存在其中。

趣味成語

Once in a blue moon：千載難逢的

通常我們見到月亮都是白色的，相信你沒有見過藍色的月亮吧！因此用“once in a blue moon”這個詞組表示發(fā)生的事件的罕見和千載難逢。

I shall always remenber the time I shook hands with the queen.such things happen only once in a blue moon！

這個慣用語直譯為“白色的謊言”，白色代表結(jié)潔，因此whitelie指“不會造成傷害的謊言?！币话闳苏f這種謊言，多出于善意，想令當(dāng)事人覺得好過些或為了避免某些損失。

The doctor knew that James wsa very ill. However to make himfeel better， he told him lie that he would recover soon．

小幽默

Is this Purchase Necessary?

I was lining up at a check-out counter in a supermarker Awoman in front lf me look for her credit card When she took the card out， a piece of paper fluttered to my feet.

As I picked it up and handed it to her， I saw the words on it；

“Alice，is this purchace absolutely necessary?Bill.”