正文

Once there was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails（釘子） and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence.

從前，有個小男孩脾氣很糟糕。他的父親給了他一包釘子，告訴他只要發(fā)一次脾氣，就必須往籬笆上釘一顆釘子。

The first day the boy hammered 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily dwindled（變少） down.

小男孩光是第一天就往籬笆上釘了37顆釘子。接下來的幾周時間里，他學會了收斂自己的脾氣，于是，每天釘?shù)尼斪訑?shù)量開始減少起來。

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

他發(fā)現(xiàn)不發(fā)火比把釘子釘進籬笆要簡單些。

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and his father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

終于有一天，小男孩再也不發(fā)脾氣了。他把這個情況告訴了父親，父親建議他在接下來的每天里，只要有一次做到不發(fā)脾氣，就從籬笆上拔出一顆釘子。

The days passed and one day the young boy told his father that all the nails were gone.

日子一天天過去，有一天，小男孩告訴父親所有的釘子都已經(jīng)拔完了。

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. The fence would never be the same. “When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like those nails,” his father said.

父親拉著兒子的手，領他走到籬笆跟前。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)籬笆再也不是原來的模樣了。 “說氣話的時候，會在人心里留下一道傷疤。就像釘子把籬笆扎得千瘡百孔一樣。”父親說。

以《物種起源》(The Origin of Species)震動世界的英國生物學家、生物進化論奠基人查爾斯·羅伯特·達爾文(Charles Robert Darwin，1809—1882)說過：“脾氣暴躁是人類較為卑劣的天性之一，人要是發(fā)脾氣就等于在人類進步的階梯上倒退了一步?！?/strong>