文本

By all appearances, my choice of careers seemed to have worked out. After two terms during which I labored in the minority, Democrats had gained control of the state senate, and I had subsequently passed a slew of bills, from reforms of the Illinois death penalty system to an expansion of the state’s health program for kids. I had continued to teach at the University of Chicago Law School, a job I enjoyed, and was frequently invited to speak around town. I had preserved my independence, my good name, and my marriage, all of which, statistically speaking, had been placed at risk the moment I set foot in the state capital.
But the years had also taken their toll. Some of it was just a function of my getting older, I suppose, for if you are paying attention, each successive year will make you more intimately acquainted with all of your flaws—the blind spots, the recurring habits of thought that may be genetic or may be environmental, but that will almost certainly worsen with time, as surely as the hitch in your walk turns to pain in your hip. In me, one of those flaws had proven to be a chronic restlessness; an inability to appreciate, no matter how well things were going, those blessings that were right there in front of me. It’s a flaw that is endemic to modern life, I think—endemic, too, in the American character.
重点词汇
by all appearance: 从外表推断；就所知推断，就所知而言；显然，看来

labor
1. 劳动，干活：
They labour assiduously for the benefit of future generations.
他们为造福于后代而勤奋地劳动。
2. 努力(争取)；苦干：
to labour for the peace of the world
为争取世界和平而努力
to labour at a mathematical problem
努力解决一道数学题
3. 为…所苦恼；为…而吃苦头；为…迷惑，受…蒙蔽：
The couple have been labouring under housing difficulties for several years.
这对夫妇几年来一直为住房困难所困扰。
4. 费力地缓缓前进；艰难地行进：
The climbers laboured up the hillside.
爬山者吃力地缓缓爬上山坡。

take a heavy toll (on sb/sth)/take its toll (on sb/sth): to have a bad effect on sb/sth; to cause a lot of damage, deaths, suffering, etc 产生恶果，造成巨大损失
Illness had taken a heavy toll on her.
疾病对她的身体造成极大的损害。
The recession is taking its toll on the housing markets.
经济衰退使住房市场遭受着巨大的损失。