A Simple Gesture只是举手之劳

每个人都可以成为很伟大的人，因为任何人都很有用。你即使没有大学文凭或造不出一个合乎语法的句子，也可以发挥你的作用。只要有体谅的心、充满爱的灵魂足矣……

马丁．路瑟．金

一件微不足道的小事（也许你做这些事时并无意识），会改变一个人的命运……

Everybody can be great . . . because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb¹ agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace². A soul generated³ by love.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed that the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt⁴ down and helped the boy pick up the scattered⁵ articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden⁶. As they walked Mark discovered that the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend

They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both gradated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited⁷ senior⁸ year came, and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. "Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?" asked Bill. "You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit⁹ suicide¹⁰. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life."

重点词汇：

* trip：我们都知道trip的意思是“旅行”，是名词。而在这里，trip用作动词，表示“绊倒”的意思。

* article：article有很多意思，我们常见的是“文章”、“论文”、“报道”等。本文里，article表示“物件”的意思。另外，article还表示“货色”的意思，当它用来指人时，就含有贬义了。

* break up：break是“打碎”的意思。break up在这里表示“终止”、“破裂”的意思。指男孩子与女朋友断绝了关系。另外，break up还有一个很有趣的含义，表示“大笑”，是那种忍俊不禁、突然爆发出来的笑声。

* await：表示“等待”，此时与wait for同义。另外它还表示“降临到……身上”的意思，如：death awaits¹¹ all men的意思是“死亡将临到一切人”。 * locker ：“锁柜”、“可锁的衣物柜”的意思。

* mess：“凌乱状态”、“凌乱的一堆”等意思。在西方国家，如果有客到访，而房间正好比较凌乱时，要说一句excuse the mess，否则就是不礼貌的表现。

* store away：或store up，意思是“把……储存起来”、“储备”。 Bill准备自杀，所以偷偷攒了一些他妈妈的安眠药。看来，Bill早已下定了自杀的决心。但Mark 不经意的友善行为改变了Bill 的决定，他决定不自杀了。可见，生活中的一些事情对一些人来说无足轻重，另一方面却可以改变其他人的命运。让我们多做一些象这样我们称为 “举手之劳”的事吧！