第50课

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The New Year is a time for resolutions.

新年是制定决心的时候。

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Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'.

至少在心理上，我们大多数人都能列出一长串“该做”和“不该做”的事情。

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The same old favourites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity.

那些老掉牙的旧习惯年复一年地以单调的规律重现。

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We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less,

我们下决心每天早起，少吃，

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find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house,

抽出更多时间陪孩子们玩，做成千上万件家务，

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be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day.

对不喜欢的人和善，小心驾驶，以及每天遛狗。

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Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment.

过去的经验告诉我们，有些成就是无法实现的。

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If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure.

如果我们仍是老烟枪，那只是因为我们屡次体验了失败带来的挫折感。

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Most of us fail in our efforts at sel-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out.

Most of us fail in our efforts at sel-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out.

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We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody

我们还犯了一个根本性的错误，那就是向所有人宣布我们的决心，

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so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways.

这样当我们故态复萌时，就会显得更加愚蠢。

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Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself.

意识到这些陷阱，今年我试图把我的决心藏在心里。

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I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to read more of an evening.

我只限制自己两个适度的抱负：每天早上做体育锻炼，晚上多读书。

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An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year,

新年前夜的通宵派对给了我一个很好的借口，让我在新年第一天没有执行这两项新决心，

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but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task.

但在第二天，我勤奋地投入到这项任务中。

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The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up.

每天的锻炼只持续11分钟，我打算在大家起床之前一大早做。

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The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed 11 minutes earlier than usual was considerable.

要比平时早11分钟把自己从床上拽起来，需要的自律性是相当大的。

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Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living room for two days before anyone found me out.

尽管如此，我还是设法偷偷溜到客厅里去了两天，才被人发现。

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After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions,

在地毯上跳来跳去，把身体扭曲成不舒服的姿势之后，

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I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition.

我筋疲力尽地坐到早餐桌旁。

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It was this that betrayed me.

就是这个把我出卖了。

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The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance.

第二天早上，全家人都跑进来观看表演。

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That was really unsettling but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea.

这确实让人不安，但我还是好脾气地抵挡住了家人的嘲讽和揶揄，很快大家就习惯了。

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However, my enthusiasm waned.

然而，我的热情消退了。

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The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished.

我花在锻炼上的时间逐渐减少。

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Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero.

渐渐地，那11分钟变成了零。

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By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from.

到了1月10日，我又回到了起点。

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I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning,

我辩解说，如果早上少花点时间在锻炼上把自己搞得精疲力尽，

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I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work.

那么我下班回家时，头脑会更清醒，可以用来阅读。

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Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television,

抵制住电视的催眠作用，

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I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book.

有几个晚上，我坐在房间里，眼睛紧盯着一本书。

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One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read.

然而，有一天晚上，我感到又冷又寂寞，于是下楼坐在电视机前假装看书。

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That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen.

那被证明是我的失败，因为我很快又回到了在屏幕前打瞌睡的旧习惯。

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I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading.

我还没有放弃多读书的决心。

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In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute.

事实上，我刚买了一本名为《如何一分钟阅读一千字》的书。

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Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!

也许它能解决我的问题，但我就是没时间读它！