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One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.1 Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish the assignment2, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate3 sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday, she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. “Really?” she heard whispers. “I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!” and,“I didn’t know others liked me so much,” were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t matter. The exercise had accomplished4 its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on...
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. The church was packed with5 his friends. As she stood before the coffin, one of his friends came up6 to her.“Were you Mark’s math teacher?” he asked. She nodded: “yes.” Then he said: “Mark talked about you a lot.”
After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates went together to a luncheon7. Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
“We want to show you something,” his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket, “They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.”
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times.8 The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him. “Thank you so much for doing that,”Mark’s mother said. “As you can see, Mark treasured it.”
All of Mark’s former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, “I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.” Chuck’s wife said,“Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.”
“I have mine too,” Marilyn said. “It’s in my diary.” Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group.9“I carry this with me at all times,” Vicki said and without batting an eyelash10, she continued: “I think we all saved our lists.” That’s when the teacher finally sat down and cried.
单词卡片
1. sheet: （常指长方形的）一张（纸）；space: （词间或行间的）空白。
2. assignment: （分派的）任务，（指定的）作业。
3. separate: 独立的，单独的。
4. accomplish: 达到（目的）。
5. be packed with: 挤满的，塞满的。
6. come up: （为了攀谈等）走上前来。
7. luncheon: （与其他人共进的较正式的）午餐会，宴客午餐。
8. billfold: 〈美〉皮夹；worn: 磨损的，破旧的；tape: 贴上胶带；fold: 翻折，折叠。
9. pocketbook: 〈美〉（女用）手提包，皮包； frazzled: 〈口〉磨损了的。
10. without batting an eyelash: 〈口〉连眼睛也不眨一眨，镇定自若。
有一天，一位老师让她的学生们把教室里其他同学的名字都列在两页纸上，并在每个名字之间留出空儿。随后，她让他们尽可能想出班上每个同学的最大优点，并记录下来。
这堂课剩下的时间都用来完成这项任务了，当学生们离开教室时，每人都上交了答卷。那个周六，老师把每个学生的名字分别写在一页页独立的纸上，并把其他所有人对该学生的评价列举出来。
到了周一，她发给每个学生各自相应的列表。没过多久，全班同学都露出了笑容。“真的吗？”她听到了窃窃私语。大家的评论大致如此：“我从不知道自己能对什么人有这样的意义！”和“我不知道其他人会这么喜欢我。”
再也没有人在课堂上提起过那些答卷。她也从不曾知道他们是否会在课后或与父母在一起时讨论它们，但这并不重要了。练习已达到目的。学生们自己很愉快，而且彼此也相处融洽。那一班的学生继续（在生活中）前进……
几年后，一名学生在越南被害。他的老师前来参加这名特殊学生的葬礼。教堂里挤满了他的朋友。当她站在棺材前时，其中的一个朋友朝她走来。“你就是马克的数学老师吗？”他问。她点头说：“是的。”接着他说：“马克经常会谈起你。”
葬礼之后，马克以前的大多数同学一起去参加午餐会。马克的父母也在那儿，很明显，他们是在等着跟他的老师说话。
“我们想给你看样东西，”他的父亲边说边从自己的口袋里拿出一个钱包，“他们在马克被害时从他身上发现了这个。我们觉得你或许能认出它来。”
打开那个皮夹，他小心地取出两张磨损的纸来，它们明显是被贴过了胶条并折叠了很多次。老师不用看就知道这些纸正是她把马克的每个同学说的有关他所有优点列出来的那份答卷。“非常感谢你做的这些，”马克的母亲说，“就如你所看到的，马克很珍惜它。”
马克以前所有的同班同学都开始聚集在周围。查利怯怯地笑着说：“我仍旧保存着我的列表。它就在我家书桌的第一个抽屉里。”查克的妻子说：“查克让我把他的那份放在我们的结婚相册里。”
“我也保留着我的呢，”玛丽莲说，“它就在我的日记本里。”随后，薇姬，另一位同班同学，把手伸到自己的手提包里，拿出钱夹，给大家看她那张磨损了的旧列表。“我随时都带着这个，”薇姬说道；接着她又泰然自若地继续说：“我想我们大家都保存着自己的那份列表。”就在此时，老师终于坐了下来，失声痛哭。