英文欣赏：勇敢面对挑战
【小编寄语】
社会充满着不公平现象，别试着去改造它，只能去适应它，因为你管不了它，所有的人不会在意你的自尊，他们只在乎你的成就，在你还没有成绩之前，切勿过分的强调自尊，因为你越强调你的自尊，形式就越会对你不利。 你也许只是个中学毕业，通常不会成为CEO，直到你把CEO职位拿到手为止，此时所有人才不会介意你当初只是个初中生。 当你陷入困境时，不要抱怨，你只能默默的吸取经验教训，你要悄悄的振作起来，重新的找回激情。
I believe that what we often call survival skills is simply creativity at work.
When I think about how my mother fed all seven of us, making us think that every day was a “different meal,” I still appreciate how much a creative cook can do with a single potato.
And it wasn’t just in the kitchen. She would flip her old Singer sewing machine upright, study pictures in books and magazines, then make ethnic versions of those same dolls and stuffed animals to sell at church fundraisers. Without a TV in the house to distract us, we made the dolls come to life, filling the hollow fabric sleeves one fistful of cotton at a time.
My mother made her own clothes, all my sisters’ prom and wedding dresses. I always knew when she was making something, because she would be singing or humming. She sang all the way through her home correspondence courses in floral design and interior decorating. She made being creative as normal as breathing and encouraged our participation by telling us that “idle hands and minds were the devil’s workshop.”
I believe that happy children are those given the freedom to be expressive, to discover, to create their own “refrigerator door” masterpieces. I remember mixing tempera paints with powdered detergent and painting the Baskin-Robbins windows every Christmas season. Not for money, but for all the ice cream I could eat. And every time I saw people look up at the window and smile I knew I was getting the best part of the deal.
I believe that the highest quality of life is full of art and creative expression and that all people deserve it. I believe in a broad definition of what art is and who artists are: Barbers, cooks, auto detailers, janitors and gardeners have as much right to claims of artistry as designers, architects, painters and sculptors. Every day, our streets and school buses become art galleries in the form of perfectly spiked hair, zigzagging cornrows and dizzying shoelace artistry.
My first collection of art was a milk crate full of comic books. I survived the projects and my teenage years inspired by my favorite character, the Black Panther, who had only his mind and no superpowers, and Luke Cage, the thick-skinned inner-city Hero for Hire. By the time my “bookish” reputation and thick glasses became a target for the neighborhood bullies, I responded by composing juvenile, but truly “heroic” rhyming couplets in my head.
Ever since high school, words have continued to serve as my first weapon of choice and my salvation. Many of life’s challenges need creative solutions. I believe creativity — in all its many forms — can change the way we think and operate. Celebrating the creativity around us helps maintain our sanity and keeps us happy.
Frank X Walker is Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University. He coined the word “Affrilachian” to describe African-Americans living in Appalachia, and he helped found a group of Affrilachian poets. Walker is the author of three collections of poetry and was awarded a prestigious Lannan Literary Fellowship in 2005.
1.survival n. 生存，幸存者
如：Does our only hope of survival lie in disarmament?
我们求生的唯一希望就在於裁军吗?
Let’s hope for his survival.
希望他能活下来。
2.creative adj. 创造性的
如：The school encourages free expression in art, drama and creative writing.
学校鼓励师生在艺术、 戏剧和文学创作上自由发挥。
He combines creative imagination and true scholarship.
他同时具有创造性想象力和真正的治学谨严学风。
3.prom 舞会
如：The junior class; the junior prom.
三年级生的班级; 大学三年级生举办的舞会
Juliet and Susan were talking about the prom, and Joan threw in that she was going with Fred.
朱丽叶与苏珊正谈论舞会，琼插嘴说她要跟弗雷德一起去。
(可可英语版权所有,未经允许请勿转载)
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