英语故事:如果是你,你愿意放弃什么?

The Salwens’ initiative hasn’t gone entirely smoothly. Hannah promptly won over her parents, but her younger brother, Joe, was (reassuringly) a red-blooded American boy to whom it wasn’t intuitively obvious that life would improve by moving into a smaller house and giving money to poor people. Outvoted and outmaneuvered, Joe gamely went along.

萨文一家的行动其实也不是一帆风顺的。汉娜说服了父母，但她的弟弟乔伊是一个血气方刚的美国男孩，他始终不相信自己搬进小房子、把大把钞票送给穷人会改善生活。最后通过家庭民主投票，以及父母姐姐的一番劝说，乔伊也只好硬着头皮与家人站在了同一战线上。

The Salwens also are troubled that some people are reacting negatively to their project, seeing them as sanctimonious showoffs. Or that people are protesting giving to Ghana when there are so many needy Americans.

萨文一家当然也有别的、来自外界的烦恼。有些人对于他们的计划不以为然，认为他们只是在伪善地作秀。还有些人则抗议他们将财产资助给加纳，而不是同样有许多穷人的美国本土。

Still, they have inspired some converts. The people who sold the Salwens their new home were so impressed that they committed $100,000 to the project. And one of Hannah’s closest friends, Blaise, pledged half of her baby-sitting savings to an environmental charity.

尽管反对声音并不少，但他们还是启示了很多人。将小房子卖给萨文一家的房东被他们的行为所感染，于是也慷慨的捐了10万美元给这个项目。而汉娜最好的朋友布莱斯则将她打工当保姆所赚的钱一半捐给了一个环境保护机构。

In writing the book, the Salwens say, the aim wasn’t actually to get people to sell their houses. They realize that few people are quite that nutty. Rather, the aim was to encourage people to step off the treadmill of accumulation, to define themselves by what they give as well as by what they possess.

萨文父女说，写这本书的目的不是真的要我们都去卖房子，他们知道很少有人像他们那么疯狂。书的出版旨在劝诫人们不要永无止尽地积累财富，鼓励人们以一种新的方式给自己定位，不光要看你有什么，还要看你给别人什么。

“No one expects anyone to sell a house,” said Hannah, now a high school junior who hopes to become a nurse. “That’s kind of a ridiculous thing to do. For us, the house was just something we could live without. It was too big for us. Everyone has too much of something, whether it’s time, talent or treasure. Everyone does have their own half, you just have to find it.”

汉娜现在已经步入高中并梦想着当一名护士，她说：“没人会求别人去卖房子，这种事情太过荒唐。对我们来说，大房子只是我们生活中可以放弃的一样东西，我们没有必要拥有那么多空间。我觉得每个人都会有些东西富余，不管是时间、天赋还是财富。每个人都可以找到自己可以放弃的那一半，只要耐心寻找，就一定能找到。”