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（地质学家） and
loved to go on long walks to find stones to his collection in his spare time. We
often followed him.
One
day, we left early, and this time, our uncle had bought us backpacks to help
him carry the sample（样本）. 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 he also took some stones out from our
bags at times, but we thought maybe he had just found better samples than the
ones we already had.
When
we reached the house in the late afternoon, we were tired out. The backpacks
were so heavy that we gave a big sigh of relief 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, "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 wondered. "It is something
someone once did to me. You see, I listened to every word you said. And
whenever you complained about anyone or anything, I added a stone to your bags.
And whenever you talked about something with an attitude of gratitude（感恩） and positive（正面的） thinking, I took out a
stone. And now look at your backpacks."
We did. They were full.
"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.
