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[00:02.83]Three Days to See
[00:05.34]Helen Keller  新东方 俞敏洪 编审  王强 录音
[00:06.22]歌词编辑 张琦
[00:08.63]All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. 
[00:15.85]Sometimes it was as long as a year; 
[00:19.27]sometimes as short as twenty-four hours. 
[00:22.88]But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. 
[00:32.17]I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, 
[00:35.46]not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited. 
[00:40.16]
[00:41.69]Such stories set us thinking, 
[00:44.21]wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. 
[00:48.47]What events, what experiences, 
[00:51.42]what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? 
[00:57.44]What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets? 
[01:02.80]
[01:03.78]Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. 
[01:11.11]Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. 
[01:15.71]We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, 
[01:19.64]and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost 
[01:23.25]when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. 
[01:31.02]There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of "Eat, drink, and be merry," 
[01:37.80]but most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death. 
[01:42.94]
[01:44.47]In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, 
[01:50.93]but almost always his sense of values is changed. 
[01:55.19]he becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. 
[02:01.31]It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, 
[02:05.69]in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do. 
[02:11.16]Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, 
[02:16.96]but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, 
[02:23.19]death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. 
[02:33.14]So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life. 
[02:39.49]
[02:41.24]The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. 
[02:47.90]Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. 
[02:55.45]Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. 
[03:03.44]But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. 
[03:12.30]Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. 
[03:20.39]It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, 
[03:25.97]of not being conscious of health until we are ill. 
[03:29.69]
[03:30.19]I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind 
[03:35.34]and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. 
[03:40.80]Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; 
[03:44.52]silence would tech him the joys of sound.

