Do Your Best Until The Very End

王秀鳳

做人善始善終，方能把握機遇；做人善始善終，方能得到他人認同；做人善始善終，方能領悟生命真諦——人生因善始善終而精彩。

If you had a chance to build a house for yourself， how would you design it？

Once， there was a carpenter （木匠） who was good at building houses. He had no other skills and his boss was very nice， so he worked for his boss one year after another. After 10 years of working for the same company， he finallygot fed up withit and decided to quit （辭職）. He wanted to try something new.

However， after hearing this， his boss asked him to help with one final job before he left the team. He asked him to build one final house. Although the carpenter didnt want to do this kind of work anymore， he still agreed. He built the house， but his heart wasnt in it. He used cheap materials （材料） and rushed to finish the job quickly. It turned out to be the worst house that he had ever built.

When he finished， his boss came to see him one last time. Seeing the house， he said nothing. He paid the worker for building the house. He then said， “I wanted to do something special for you to say thanks for your 10 years of hard work. You know， you have built so many beautiful and grand （宏偉的） houses for other people these years but not one for yourself ... so Im giving you this house as a gift.”

Surprised， the carpenter was speechless（無語的）. What a shame！ He had never thought his boss would give him such a big gift. If he knew he was building his own house， he would have done it much differently. He regretted （后悔） building his final house so poorly.

精彩譯文：

如果你有機會為自己建造一座房子，你會怎么設計？

從前，有個擅長建造房子的木匠。除了建房子他沒有其他的本事，而他的老板人很好，所以他能一年又一年地為老板打工。在同一家公司工作了10年后， 他終于受夠了，決定辭職。他想嘗試做一些新的工作。

然而，老板在聽到這個消息后，要求他在離開團隊之前幫助完成最后一項工作， 要求他建造最后一座房子。盡管木匠不想再做這份工作了，但他還是同意了。木匠心不在焉地建造了房子。他使用廉價的材料，匆匆忙忙地完成了工作。結果這是他建過質量最差的房子。

當木匠建完房子后老板來見他最后一面。老板看到那房子后，什么也沒說，并把工錢付給了工人。然后老板對木匠說：“我想為你做點特別的事情，感謝你10年來辛勤的付出。你知道， 這些年來你為他人建造了如此多的漂亮的房子，卻沒有一座是為你自己建的，所以我要把這座房子作為禮物送給你。”

木匠驚訝得說不出話來。真可惜！他從沒想過老板會給他這么大的禮物。如果他知道是在建自己的房子， 他就不會這樣做了。他后悔把最后一座房子建得這么糟糕。

跟蹤練習：

1. What does the underlined phrase “got fed up with” mean？

A. became angry with? ? B. became interested in

C. was tired of? ? ? ? ? D. ended up with

2. When the worker was doing his last job，__________.

A. he put all his heart into it? ? B. he didnt do his best

C. he didnt finish it? ? ? ? ? D. he built the best house ever

3. How might the boss feel after seeing the house？

A. Uninterested.? ? ? B. Bored.

C. Disappointed.? ? ? D. Ashamed.

4. What does the story teach us？

A. Do your work well from start to finish.

B. Never play tricks on your boss.

C. Well begun is half done.

D. No pain， no gain.

Keys： CBCA