Along the coast of the vast Atlantic ocean there lived an old man. Each day when the tide went out he would make his way along the beach for miles. Another man who lived not far away would occasionally watch as he vanished into the distance and later notice that he had returned. The neighbor also noticed that， as he walked， the old man would often stop to lift something from the sand and then toss it away into the water.

One day， when the old man went down to the beach this neighbor followed to satisfy his curiosity and， sure enough， as he watched， the old man bent down and gently lifted something from the sand and threw it into the ocean. By the time the old man made his next stop the neighbor had come near enough to see that he was picking up a starfish which had been stranded by the retreating tide and would， of course， die of dehydration before the tide returned. As the old man turned to return from the ocean the neighbor called out with a degree of mockery in his voice， \"Hey， old timer！ What are you doing？ This beach goes on for hundreds of miles， and thousands of starfish get washed up every day！ Surely you don’t think that throwing a few back is going to matter.\"

The old man listened and paused for a moment， then held the starfish in his hand out toward his neighbor， “It matters to this one.”

在廣闊的大西洋海岸住著一位老人。每天當(dāng)潮水退去后他都會(huì)沿著海岸線走上很遠(yuǎn)。老人居所不遠(yuǎn)處住著另外一個(gè)人，他偶爾也會(huì)注視著這個(gè)老人消失在遠(yuǎn)處，然后又看著老人回來(lái)。這個(gè)鄰居發(fā)現(xiàn)，老人邊走還會(huì)時(shí)不時(shí)邊彎下腰，從沙灘上揀起什么東西再拋到海里。

一天，為了滿(mǎn)足自己的好奇心，當(dāng)老人又一次沿著海岸線走的時(shí)候，這個(gè)鄰居跟在了老人身后。當(dāng)然，他看到了老人彎下腰輕輕地從沙灘上揀起什么東西，又扔進(jìn)了大海。在老人再次停下來(lái)時(shí)鄰居走上前，只見(jiàn)老人正在揀起一只被潮水沖到岸上的海星。這只海星如待在岸上，在海潮再次到來(lái)之前會(huì)脫水而死。當(dāng)老人往回走，鄰居用嘲弄的口吻叫住他：“嘿，老家伙！你在干什么？這個(gè)海灘有幾百英里長(zhǎng)，每天都會(huì)有成千上萬(wàn)只海星沖上岸！你不知道你這樣做實(shí)在是沒(méi)什么意義嗎？”

老人聽(tīng)完停了一會(huì)，把手中的那只海星拿到鄰居眼前說(shuō)：“對(duì)這只來(lái)說(shuō)有意義?！?/p>