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其实，上帝赋予每一个人的一切都是独一无二的，不论才华还是肤色。作者告诉我们：黑色是一种美丽，它无与伦比，因为那是上帝的礼物。
“I am black. When I look in the mirror,I see myself, but I am not ashamed [1] . God made me. He did not make us no badder than the rest of the folks [2] . The earth is black and all kinds of good things comes out of the earth. Trees and flowers and fruit and sweet potatoes and corn and all that keeps men alive comes right up out of the earth—good old black earth. Coal is black and it warms your house and cooks your food. The night is black, which has a moon,and a million stars, and is beautiful. Sleep is black which gives you rest, so you wake up feeling good. I am black. I feel very good this evening.”
“What is wrong with black?”
“我是黑色的。当我照镜子时我看到了自己的样子，但是我并没有自卑。上帝创造了我，他并没有有意把我造得比别人劣质。土壤是黑色的，很多优良的东西都是从土壤中培育出来的。树木和花草﹑水果﹑红薯﹑玉米以及所有能维持人类生命的东西都是从土壤——那些美好、古老、黑色的土壤中生长出来的。煤是黑色的，它可以温暖你的小屋，煮熟你的食物。夜是黑色的，在夜里有月亮和成千上万的星星，这都会让你感觉到美丽。睡眠是黑色的，它可以让你休息，以便在醒来时能感到精力旺盛。我是黑色的，今晚我感觉特别愉快。”
“黑究竟有什么错呢？”
blackmailed black market blackheart blacklist black magic black sheep Black Hand Society black power blackballed black jack
“Next, somebody got up a 1 on which you get if you don’t vote right.Then when lodges come into being, the folks they didn’t want in them got 2 .If you kept a skeleton in your closet, you might get 3 . And everything bad was black. When it came down to the unlucky ball on the pool table, the eight rock, they made it the blackball. So no wonder there ain’t no equal rights for the black man.”
“All you say is true about the odium attached to the word black,” I said, “You’ve even forgotten a few. For example, during the war if you bought something under the table, illegally, they say you were trading on the 4 . In Chicago, if you’re a gangster, the 5 may take you for a ride. And certainly if you don’t behave yourself, your family will say you’re a 6 . Then, if your mama burns a black candle to change family luck, they call it 7 .”
“接下来，有人会列出一个黑名单，如果你没有按照要求投票就会被拉入到这个黑名单里。然后当地方分会一旦形成，不愿意参与进来的民众就会被排斥。如果你有不可告人的秘密，你可能会被敲诈勒索。所有的坏事都会与‘黑’这个字相联系。谈到台球桌上的倒霉球，8 撞球，人们也把这个球制作成黑色（注：8球规则：在台球比赛中，先把 8 球撞到口袋里就意味着输掉了比赛）。所以黑人不能享有与白人同样的权利也不足为奇。”
我说：“‘黑’这个字被赋予令人憎恶的含义，关于这件事你说得都对，但是你还忘了一些。例如：在战争期间，如果你非法秘密购买一些东西，人们会说你是在黑市交易。在芝加哥，如果你是个流氓，黑手党可能会开车带你一程。当然，如果你行为不检点，你的家人会说你是害群之马。然后，如果你的妈妈点燃一根黑色的蜡烛以期改变家族的命运，人们会把这件事称为黑魔法。”
1.blacklist 2.blackballed 3.blackmailed 4.black market 5.Black Hand Society 6.black sheep 7.black magic
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As we all know, books, especially the classical, present the precious accumulation of wisdom and knowledge beyond the limitation of time or space, from which we can enjoy numerous anecdotes, get to know exotic culture and tradition, experience the legendary and miraculous life of our idols and make ourselves better men day by day.
Nevertheless, people, especially the young, seem to have stored those classical books merely on the shelf for an unbelievably long time, which can be attributed to various factors. On the one hand, modern people have to cope with the quick pace and unavoidable stress of their work or life; therefore, they can hardly devote time to reading books. On the other hand, people tend to be more material-oriented involving their social status, amount of wealth or prospects of getting promotion, which eclipse the important benefits from reading classical books.
To me, it is essential for most undergraduates to read certain classical books,especially the ones filled with life-long motivation and sagacious thoughts, which may not guarantee them short-term returns but will bring them far-reaching reward.
[1] ashamed: feeling shame or guilt 感到难为情的
[2] folk: people of a specified group or kind 人们