美麗心靈晨讀英語美文48: Fear of Six Inches 六英尺的恐懼
48 Fear of Six Inches
48 六英尺的恐懼
A man walking in the night slipped from a rock. Mraid that he would fall down thousands of feet, because he knew that place was a very deep valley, he took hold of a branch that was hanging over the rock. In the night all he could see was a bottomless abyss. He shouted, his own shout reflected back-there was nobody to hear.
一個(gè)人在趕夜路時(shí)，突然從巖石上跌了下去，嚇得他趕緊抓住了巖石上的樹枝，因?yàn)樗肋@一帶有個(gè)深谷，一不小心就會(huì)跌入上千英尺的深淵。一晚上，他唯一能看到的就是深不見底的峽谷。他，大呼救命，但又聽到了自己的回音——沒有人能聽到他呼救。
You can imagine that man and his whole night of scare. Every moment there was death, his hands were becoming cold, he was losing his grip... and as the sun came out, he looked down and he laughed. There was no abyss. Just six inches down there was a rock. He could have rested the whole night, slept well -the rock was big enough -but the whole night was a nightmare.
你可以想象一下他的處境和整晚的恐懼。死神隨時(shí)都可能降臨。他的手開始發(fā)涼，漸漸地抓不住了…當(dāng)太陽(yáng)升起的時(shí)候，他朝下看了看，笑了。下面壓根就沒有什么深淵。在他下方六英尺的地方有一塊大石頭。巖石那么大，他本可以在那兒休息一個(gè)晚上，美關(guān)的睡上一覺，但昨晚他卻在夢(mèng)魔中度過。
Fear is only six inches deep. Now it is up to you whether you want to go on cling to the branch and turn your life into a nightmare, or whether you would love to leave the branch and stand on your feet.
恐懼只是六英尺的距離而已。接下來，到了你做決定的時(shí)候了:你是想要繼續(xù)抓著樹枝過夢(mèng)魔一般的生活，還是更喜歡把手從樹枝上松開，雙腳著地?
注釋：
abyss: n. 深淵;深邃，無底洞
例句：The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss.因融化的雪水而高漲的急流瀉入一個(gè)巨大的深淵之中。
nightmare：n. 惡夢(mèng);夢(mèng)魘般的經(jīng)歷
例句：The years in prison were a nightmare.
數(shù)年的鐵窗生涯是一場(chǎng)噩夢(mèng)。
cling to：依靠;依附;緊握不放
例句：As the result of a medical accident she was sightless, suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger,frustration and self-pity. All she had to cling to was her husband Mark.
一起醫(yī)療事故奪去了她的視力，她頓時(shí)陷入黑暗之中，內(nèi)心充滿憤怒、沮喪，還有顧影自憐，而她可以依靠的只有她的丈夫馬克了。
