美文欣赏

编者按:

我们在为事业奋斗时，总需要制定一定的目标；它就像海上的指向灯为我们引航指路。看不到这盏灯，我们前进的路程中就会觉得暗淡无光，分不清方向，甚至迷失。所以要让目标之光照亮你的眼睛。

Keep Your Goals in Sight

When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog. Her body was numb.She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours.

Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.

On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. Sharks cruised toward her lone figure, only to be driven away by rifle shots. Against the frigid grip of the sea, she struggled on—hour after hour— while millions watched on national television.

Alongside Florence in one of the boats, her mother and her trainer offered encouragement. They told her it wasn’t much farther. But all she could see was fog. They urged her not to quit. She never had . . . until then. With only a half mile to go, she asked to be pulled out.

Still thawing her chilled body several hours later, she told a reporter, "Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it." It was not fatigue or even the cold water that defeated her. It was the fog. She was unable to see her goal.

Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she swam with her faith intact and her goal clearly pictured in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land and this time she made it! Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, eclipsing the men’s record by two hours!

参考译文

莫让目标太遥远

佛罗伦斯·查德威克向前方望去，除了绵延无尽的大雾，她什么也看不到。她一直在游泳，已经游了几乎16个小时，身体都麻木了。
　　
在那之前，她已经是第一位从两个方向游过英吉利海峡的女子。现在，她已34岁，她的目标是要成为第一个从卡达琳纳岛游到加利福尼亚海岸的女子。
　　
1952年7月4日的那个早晨，大海就像一个冰浴盆，雾是那么浓，她甚至连救援她的船只都看不到。鲨鱼游向她孤单的身躯，只能靠来复枪来击退。她迎向冰冷的海水，努力向前游，就这样一小时一小时过去了；无数观众则坐在电视机前观看这一情景。
　　
在佛罗伦斯旁边的一艘船里，她母亲和她的教练不断地鼓励她。他们告诉她离海岸已经不远了，然而除雾以外，她却什么也看不到。他们激励她不要放弃，事实上，她一直在坚持，然而在距离目的地只有半英里的时候，她却要求，将她拖出水面。
　　
几个小时后，她一边暖着身体，一边对着记者说：“怎么说呢，我不是为自己找借口，但如果我能看见陆地的话，我会成功的。”瞧，在这次游泳中，击败她的不是劳累和冰冷的海水，而是雾。因为有雾，她根本看不到自己的目标。
　　
两个月后，她又试着游了一次。这一次，尽管雾还是那样浓，但她始终带着必胜的信念，头脑中始终有一个清楚的目标，她知道雾后面的某个地方就是陆地，这一次她成功了！佛罗伦斯·查德威克最终成为第一个游过卡达琳纳海峡的女子，并且以快两个小时的速度打破了男子游过该海峡的记录，这让男子记录黯然失色。