名人小故事

彭定康的眼淚
星期天泰晤士報，有一篇關于彭定康(Chris Patten)的訪談。
記者訪問了香港的最后一位總督，以及他那美麗的小女兒艾麗斯。


彭定康：感性父親淚滿衫
彭定康現在是英國牛津大學的校長。
這是一篇關于父女情的柔情訪談，無關政治。
艾麗斯說，她的爸爸是個愛哭鬼。
這一家人都很感性，可是，彭定康更是性情中人，常常淚灑衣襟。
艾麗斯說，爸爸在香港的總督府里，有一個很大的書庫，他喜歡的詩集都藏在那里。有時候，爸爸拿出詩來讀，才沒讀多久，受到詩歌的感染，兩行熱淚，就簌簌而下了。
艾麗斯是演員。她十八歲那一年，爸爸去劍橋看她表演朱莉葉，坐在台下，見到女兒美麗如斯，感動莫名，不斷掉淚。（I sat there crying, completely overwhelmed, by her acting and prettiness.)
彭定康說，政治上的演講，他從不感到緊張。他享受在政壇上演講，喜愛的程度，甚至近乎虛榮。但是，看見女兒站在舞台上，他的心，就融化了。(With Alice, I’m reduced to jelly.)
艾麗斯回顧童年。她說，爸爸是個說故事高手。他老愛說故事給女兒聽。孩子們小時候，每年夏天，爸爸都還會把暑假生活寫成一個歌舞劇，和女兒們一起又唱歌又表演，其樂融融。
艾麗斯說，爸爸也是嚴父。他經常利用書信，向孩子們表達喜怒。大學二年級時，艾麗斯的考試成績非常糟，爸爸一氣之下，寫了一封信責備她，讓她羞愧之至。
艾麗斯深愛爸爸，她最不能承受的事，就是讓爸爸失望。(Disappointing him is absolutely the worst thing for me.)
彭定康說，你可以給孩子們最好的環境，但是，你不能去主宰他們未來的生命。
在訪談總結時，他套用了政治的一番話，做了一個類比。他說，智慧的開端，是當你意識到孩子們不是附屬你的殖民地，而是能夠和你抗衡的主權國。(The beginning of wisdom is the recognition that they’re not colonial dependencies but rival sovereignties.)

名人小故事^_^!!

Thomas Alva Edison






Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) recognized no power greater than Nature, and spent his life investigating the nature of Nature. His ability to concentrate may have been enhanced by a childhood accident. As he raced for a moving train where he sold newspapers, a conductor helped him aboard by grabbing him by his ears. The young Edison felt a snap inside his head that left him hearing impaired for life. He would secure well over a thousand patents for his inventions, but that story is well known. His truculent agnosticism is not generally known, but it resulted from his investigation into the alleged supernatural.




He had only three months of formal education in his entire life and that occurred when he was a young child. His Port Huron, Michigan schoolmaster told his mother the lad was just too thick to be educated. She snatched him from school and gave him a love of knowledge. He spent hundreds of hours at the Detroit Public Library while he had a daily seven-hour wait for his return train. He studied Thomas Paine's Age of Reason before he was 12, and said the "flash of enlightenment that shone from its pages" never left him.


Only after he had left for New York, and later New Jersey, did he speak about his investigations into the alleged supernatural. It caused a lot of commotion at the time. He called religion a "damned fake...Religion is all bunk...All bibles are man-made." His shareholders trembled every time he spoke about religion but he refused to be muzzled. When President McKinley issued a public prayer of thanks for victory in the Spanish American War, Edison claimed, "But the same God gave us yellow fever, and to be consistent, McKinley should have thanked him for that also."


His first wife, Mary Stilwell, died of typhoid when he was 38 and he ascribed the cause to Nature, not some god who decided to punch her ticket. He married Mina Miller a few years later and here his agnosticism met with resistance.(To be cont....)

本篇文章是敘述一個個名人的小故事
希拉里：有領導能力的小姑娘
伶牙俐齒？勇敢智慧？咄咄逼人？人們對希拉里的評價似乎總是褒貶不一，但有一點你無法否認，她絕對是世界第一流的女政治家。希拉里絲毫不比老公克林頓遜色，她不僅從小成績優秀，出類拔萃，還表現出了極強的領導和社交能力。
希拉里出生於芝加哥的一個中產階級家庭。4歲時的一件事鍛鍊了小希拉里堅強的意志和決斷力。當時，社區中有個霸道的小女孩總是欺負希拉里，希拉里很害怕，淚流滿面地向母親訴苦。母親告訴希拉里，如果遭到欺負，就一定要毫不畏懼地還擊。小希拉里按照媽媽說的話做了。此後，希拉里的領導才能日漸顯露，她身旁很快聚集了一大幫孩子。
曼德拉：從小就追求正義和理想
曼德拉是南非第一位黑人總統，他同南非種族隔離制度進行了幾十年不屈不撓的鬥爭，贏得了全世界人民的支持和喝彩。曼德拉的反抗精神、對正義和理想的追求在童年時期就已經露出端倪。
曼德拉出生在一個小村莊，9歲那年父親就去世了。從小曼德拉就經常目睹當地大酋長在解決部落爭端過程中被白人政府的法律所約束，他逐漸萌發了尋求正義和平等的理想。年齡大一些後，他多次領導同學抗議學校的白人法規，甚至因領導學生運動而被開除。在一次次的“鬥爭”中，曼德拉逐漸立下志願：要為南非的每一個黑人尋求真正的公正。
莫扎特：一個天資聰慧的神童
莫扎特被公認為音樂史上的神童，他很早就顯露出了在音樂方面的非凡天賦和卓越才能。從莫扎特的童年中，你能看到一個孩子對待音樂的積極心態，對藝術事業的執著追求。雖然不能人人皆為天才，但對廣大孩子來說，“神童莫扎特”絕對是具有傳奇色彩、又值得學習的好榜樣。
小時候，莫扎特常常走到鋼琴前面，按著琴鍵細聽，並努力彈出他曾經聽到過的音樂。一次，莫扎特的父親和朋友一起回家，看到4歲的莫扎特正坐在桌旁寫東西。父親問他在幹什麼，莫扎特說他正在寫鋼琴協奏曲。父親把五線譜紙拿過來一看，激動地流出了眼淚，他對朋友說：“你看，他寫的這些又正確又富有意義啊！”天資加上勤奮和用心，這就是神童莫扎特！
貝克漢姆：從“賭局”中領悟父親的良苦用心
有誰統計過，貝克漢姆在球場上到底吸引過多少人的目光？每當這位世界頂級球星的身影出現在球場，無數的尖叫聲立刻響遍全場，相機快門也閃個不停。小貝從3歲就開始踢球，儘管那時還是“玩”球多於“踢”球，但父親一直苦心栽培他，頑皮的他漸漸奠定了對足球事業的熱愛。
上小學時，小貝跟父親之間甚至還約定了一個“賭局”：如果小貝能站在禁區邊不助跑射門，每次把球踢中門柱，就能從父親那兒賺到50個便士。總是贏到零花錢的小貝很開心，直到長大成人後他才明白父親的良苦用心。