美文欣赏：Application and Perseverance实践与坚持

考研英语来源：文都教育 2017-05-30　

The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities. The common life of every day, affords ample opportunities for acquiring experience of the best kind.

人生最大的收获往往是通过最简单的方法或对常识的准确应用而获得的。每一个平凡的日子都会为我们提供许多机会，并使我们的阅历有所增强。

Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the bestnavigators. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful,such as common sense, attention, application, and perseverance.

人们常常认为：机会是可遇而不可求的。而那些懂得细心观察生活的人往往会发现：机会总是更偏向于勤勉的人，正如海风与波浪经常会与航海家做伴一样。哪怕是在对人类事业的最高追求上，实践也是最有效的途径之一。当然，顽强的毅力也是必不可少的。

Genius may not be necessary, though even genius of the highest sort does not disdain the use of these ordinary qualities. The very greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of genius, and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the commoner sort. Some have even defined genius to be only common sense intensified. A distinguished teacher and president of a college spoke of it as the power of making ef forts. John Foster held it to be the power of lighting one's own fire.

天赋并不是获取成功的制胜法宝，即便是天才也同样会意识到常识的重要性。事实上，一些伟大人物往往是那些最不相信天赋的人。真正的智者和成功人士也并非在哪一方面特别出众，甚至他们曾被认为是缺少天赋的人。没错，他们之所以能够获得成功正是凭借着扎实的基本功，对基本常识的强化训练。一位校长兼优秀教师曾说过，他的成功源自不懈的努力。约翰•福斯特则把这种力量称之为“点燃生活的火焰”。

Newton's was unquestionably a mind of the very highest order, and yet, when asked by what means he had worked out his extraordinary discoveries, he modestly answered, "By always thinking unto them." At another time he thus expressed his method of study: "I keep the subject continually before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly by little and little into a full and clear light." It was in Newton's case, as in every other,only by diligent application and perseverance that his great reputation was achieved.

无可争议，牛顿的头脑是最高才智的头脑，但当我们问及他是通过什么方法取得了如此重大的发现时，他非常谦虚地答道：“全靠对那些问题不断地深思。”另一次，他这样表述他的研究方法：“我从未停止探索的脚步，当我看到第一缕曙光后，坚定的信念支持着我最终看到了清晰的世界。”正是通过勤奋和实践，牛顿才最终获得了不朽的名誉和伟大的成就。

Dalton,the chemist,repudiated the notion of his being "a genius," attributing everything which he had accomplished to simple industry and accumulation. John Hunter said of himself, "My mind is like a beehives; but full as it is of buzz and apparent confusion, it is yet full of order and regularity, and food collected with incessant industry from the choiceset stores of nature. "

英国化学家道尔顿对世人称他为“天才”的做法进行了批判。他认为自己之所以能获得成功完全凭借自身的不懈努力和对知识的不断积累。约翰•亨特也曾说过：“我的思想如同一个蜂箱，常常嗡嗡作响，甚至还会出现混乱，但通过不懈的努力，嗡嗡声已经消失了，蜜蜂们也都恢复了正常的秩序，而且还学会了如何从大自然的宝库中寻找食物。”

We have, indeed, but to glance at the biographies of great men to find that the most distinguished inventors, artists, thinkers, and workers of all kinds, owe their success, in a great measure, to theirindefatigable industry and application.

我们同样可以在诸多人物传记中看到：大多数杰出人物，无论是发明家、艺术家、思想家、工人，还是社会各界人士，都无一例外地将自己的成就归功于勤奋和实践。