每天分享一篇中英雙語閱讀，對英語口語的練習很有幫助，也是積累英語考試中寫作，翻譯素材的好資料，加油吧!

Success Is a Choice

成功是一種選擇

All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up everyday. If we expect that life won’t be perfect, we’ll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.

我們每個人都應該讓自己做好準備，迎接每天可以預見的挑戰和突如其來的挫折。假如我們相信生活并非十全十美， 我們就能夠避免因一時沖動而放棄追求。但是即使你足夠堅強并能夠在生活和工作的障礙重重的道路上挺進，有時候你也會遭遇逆境，它將會在背后給你狠狠一擊。

Whether it’s a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones, or some other traumatic event in your life these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.

不管是出現經濟損失，或是失去同輩及親人的尊敬，或是遭受其他的生活重創，這些巨大的挫折都會使你對自己產生懷疑， 并且想知道情況是否能夠好轉。

Adversity happens to all of us, and it happens all the time. Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it’s lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self-delusion.

我們每個人都可能遭遇困境，而且它時常發生，有些災禍不是即刻發生就是藏于角落以待時機。而忽視逆境則無異于徹頭徹尾的自我欺騙。

But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crashed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Moses was a stutterer, yet he was called on to be the voice of God. Abraham Lincoln overcomes a difficult childhood, depression, the death of two sons, and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably our greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.

但是你必須認識到，歷史上有許許多多的事例，都講述了克服重重困難之后才成為卓越不凡之人。而他們曾面對的困難如此之大，以至于足以輕易粉碎他們的意志，并讓他們流落于塵俗之中。摩西曾有口吃，但他后來卻成為傳播上帝福音的使者。亞伯拉罕·林肯戰勝了童年的艱難困苦、絕望沮喪、喪失兩子之痛以及內戰中紛至沓來的嘲弄，最終成為美國歷史上無可爭辯的最偉大的總統。海倫·凱勒從小就雙目失明，雙耳失聰，又是個啞巴，但她還是對世界產生了深刻彩響。而窗蘭克林·羅斯福則患有小兒麻痹癥。

There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances and were able to move ahead.

類似的例子不勝枚舉。這些人不僅大膽地直面逆境，而且從中學到了征服困境的寶貴經驗，然后能夠勇往直前。