题型:阅读理解 题类:常考题 难易度:普通
黑龙江省哈尔滨市第三中学2019届高三上学期英语期末考试试卷(含小段音频)
I was attending a party one night given in Sir Ross's honor; and during the dinner, the man sitting next to me told a humorous story based on the quotation(引语): “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”
The storyteller mentioned that the quotation was from the Bible. He was wrong. I knew that, and I knew it positively. There couldn't be the slightest doubt about it. And so, to get a feeling of importance and display my superiority, I appointed myself as an unwelcome committee of one to correct him. He stuck to his guns. “What? From Shakespeare? Impossible! Absurd! That quotation was from the Bible.” And he knew it.
The storyteller was sitting on my right; and Frank Gammond, an old friend of mine, was seated on my left. Mr. Gammond had devoted years to the study of Shakespeare. So the storyteller and I agreed to submit the question to Mr. Gammond. Mr. Gammond listened, kicked me under the table, and then said: “Dale, you are wrong. The gentleman is right. It is from the Bible.”
On our way home that night, I said to Mr. Gammond: “Frank, you knew that quotation was from Shakespeare.” “Yes, of course,” he replied, “Hamlet, Act Five, Scene Two. But we were guests at a happy time, my dear Dale. Why prove to a man he is wrong? Is that going to make him like you? Why not let him save his face? He didn't ask for your advice. He didn't want it. Why argue with him? Always avoid your sharp angle.” The man who said that taught me a lesson I'll never forget. I not only had made the storyteller uncomfortable, but also had put my friend in an embarrassing situation. How much better it would have been had I not become argumentative.
Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right. You can't win an argument. You can't because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.
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