晨读英语美文100篇 Passage 86 Three Days to See

[00:00.44]Passage 86 Three Days to See

[00:05.08]Most of us take life for granted.

[00:08.03]We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future.

[00:16.82]The days stretch out in an endless vista,

[00:20.58]so we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.

[00:27.76]The same lethargy characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses.

[00:34.43]Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight.

[00:42.24]I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf

[00:50.61]for a few days at some time during his early adult life.

[00:55.16]Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight;

[00:59.75]silence would teach him the joys of sound.

[01:03.16]When walking the woods, I, who cannot see,

[01:07.54]find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch.

[01:12.34]I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf.

[01:16.19]I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch,

[01:21.37]or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine.

[01:24.23]In the spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud

[01:30.03]—the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter’s sleep.

[01:35.52]I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower,

[01:39.47]and discover its remarkable convolutions;

[01:43.18]and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me.

[01:47.86]Occasionally, if I am very fortunate,

[01:51.36]I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.

[01:58.65]I am delighted to have the cool waters of a brook rush thought my open finger.

[02:06.10]To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is

[02:11.36]more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

[02:15.33]To me the pageant of seasons is a thrilling and unending drama,

[02:21.19]the action of which streams through my finger tips.

[02:25.12]If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch,

[02:29.37]how much more beauty must be revealed by sight.

[02:33.44]Suppose you set your mind to work on the problem of how you would use your own eyes

[02:40.47]if you had only three more days to see.

[02:43.55]If with the oncoming darkness of the third night you knew that the sun would never rise for you again,

[02:51.77]how would you spend those three precious intervening days?

[02:56.91]What would you most want to let your gaze rest upon?

[03:00.99]I, naturally, should want most to see the things

[03:06.00]which have become dear to me through my years of darkness.

[03:09.95]You, too, would want to let your eyes rest on the things that have become dear to you

[03:16.15]so that you could take the memory of them with you into the night that loomed before you.