您好!欢迎访问每日学习网! 字典 词典 诗词
首页 英语 英语美文欣赏:论慷慨

英语美文欣赏:论慷慨

时间:2024-07-19 23:10:21 来源:网络 作者:mrcsb 人气:
【导读】:How to Be Generous论慷慨[1] The word "gift" has got dangerously devalued of late. Salesmen use so-called free gifts as bait and publicists use them as bribes; t...

How to Be Generous

论慷慨

[1] The word "gift" has got dangerously devalued of late. Salesmen use so-called free gifts as bait and publicists use them as bribes; the wealthy can make "gifts" to their children, or to charities, with no more noble motive than saving tax. And anything labelled a gift shop, or catalogue, can generally be guaranteed to be full of curious, zany items like personalised solid silver back-scratchers and musical ashtrays, which are only classified as "giftware" because nobody in their senses would buy them to use themselves.

[2] We need to claim the word back this Christmas. We also need to claim back the word "generous": which too often gets used in the sense of over-large portions of food, hotel towels, the size of sheets, or women spilling out of their dresses. For generosity--the ability to make real gifts with modesty and love, expecting nothing back--is one of the things which most make us human. You do not find pigs or lions giving one another thoughtful little presents, do you? Monkeys, apparently, offer one another fleas at times, but not in any provable spirit of kindliness. We should honour generosity more than we do.

[3] Perhaps it has become suspect because of the tales of over-the-top generosity sometimes told in gossip about the very rich. The late Christina Onassis giving her daughter a personal zoo and a flock of sheep with their own shepherd, for instance; assorted tycoons flying their guests halfway round the world for birthday parties where there is an emerald bracelet or cufflinks on every place-setting; wealthy men paying off old girlfriends with houses, yachts and Ferraris. In this context, generosity has come to mean that you hurl money around like a drunken sailor. And there is always the suspicion that, like the sailor, you are doing it just to prove that you can afford it. That is not giving: that is showing off.

[4] But the real thing, when you meet it, is magical, and as a quality it belongs equally to rich and poor. Sometimes the poor--like the widow in the Bible who gave her mite--are best at it. Travellers in remote parts, from Poland to Peru, come home with stories of bread, shelter, even beds shared without question with the stranger on the peasant principle that "A guest in the house is God in the house". Nearer home, I loved the stories collected in memory of Katie Sullivan, the 23-year-old mental home care assistant who was murdered last year. Particularly the one about the day she was walking to the pub, and lagged behind, and her student friends caught a glimpse of her emptying her whole purse into a tramp's hands when she thought they weren't looking. Later in the pub they teased her about not drinking, trying to make her admit what she had done; but she steadfastly pretended she didn't want a drink.

文章标签:
    英语学习,英语阅读
相关推荐
  • 2024国民音乐教育大会 音乐教育迎来“ai时光”
    2024国民音乐教育大会 音乐教育迎来“ai时光”

    2024国民音乐教育大会昨天在华东师范大学开幕,大会以“音乐教育‘ai’时光”为主题,围绕音乐教育核心议题,整合各界资源,直面当今音乐教育全产业链面临的形势与问题,深入研究、交流音乐教育的理念、内容、方法与途径。...

  • 出国留学咨询什么?
    出国留学咨询什么?

    出国留学咨询包括:留学费用、留学签证、留学申请、语言能力、文化差异等多个方面的留学咨询问题,只有了解了出国留学流程以后,我们才能够清楚的如何申请留学。以下具体介绍下出国留学咨询什么?...

  • 北京关于调整自学考试相关课程考试安排及教材信息的通知
    北京关于调整自学考试相关课程考试安排及教材信息的通知

    根据教育部教育考试院《关于调整高等教育自学考试“设计概论”等4门课程2024年10月考试安排的通知》(教考函字〔2024〕43号)精神及相关主考学校意见,决定对相关课程考试安排及推荐教材做如下调整:...

  • 北京2024年高考招生录取政策
    北京2024年高考招生录取政策

    为做好我市2024年普通高等学校(以下简称高校)招生工作,根据《教育部关于做好2024年普通高校招生工作的通知》(教学〔2024〕2号)等有关文件精神,结合本市情况,作如下规定。...

版权声明:

1、本文系会员投稿或转载自网络,版权归原作者所有,旨在传递信息,不代表看本站的观点和立场;

2、本站仅提供信息展示,不承担相关法律责任;

3、若侵犯您的版权或隐私,请联系本站管理员删除。

高考 自考 留学 英语 字典 词典 成语 古诗 造句 作文 地图