阅读理解
When
my brother and I were children, we spent a few weeks each summer in the
countryside with our uncle. He was a geologist
and loved to go on long walks to find stones to add to his collection at the
university. More often than not, we followed him.
One
day, we left early and this time, our uncle gave us two backpacks. "You
can help me carry the samples（样本）," he
explained.
Sure,
why not? The whole day, we walked around the countryside, and every now and
then, our uncle put stones in our bags. We were a bit surprised that sometimes
he also took some stones out from our bags, but thought he had just found
better samples.
We
reached the house in the late afternoon. The backpacks were so heavy that we
were really tired out when we put them on the ground. Yet our uncle's backpack
was half-empty.
"Why
did you give us so many stones?" we asked. "I didn't. You did, "he
said, waiting for a while before continuing." You did not know it, but I
made you go through a little attitude（态度） test
today."
"What
do you mean an attitude test?" we wanted to know.
"It
is something someone once did to me. You see, I listened to every word you
said. And whenever you complained（抱怨） about
anyone or anything, I added a stone to your bags. And whenever you talked about
something in an attitude of positive thinking, I took out a stone. And now look
at your backpacks." We did. They were full. "I hope you remember this
little attitude test. You see, your negative（负面的） thoughts
are like stones. You carry them in your mind just like those stones in a backpack.
The more negative thoughts you have, the heavier your mind is. So look at those
bags and start paying attention to what you say and how you say things."
This
little lesson was one of the most important I ever had. And I remember my uncle
with great love for teaching us one of the most important lessons in life-the
power of attitude.
