新年是下决心的时候，至少在大多数人的心里会编排出一份“应做什么”和“不应做什么”的令人生畏的单子。相同的决心以单调的规律年复一年地出现。我们决心每天早晨起得早些；吃得少些；多花点时间与孩子们一起做游戏；做大量的家务；对不喜欢的人友善一些；小心驾车；每天都要带着狗散步；等等。以往的经验告诉我们有些事是办不到的。如果我们烟瘾大，戒不掉，那是因为屡戒屡败，失去了信心。我们大多数人想自我完善却屡遭失败，这是因为我们的规划过于宏大，而又根本没有时间去实施。我们还犯有一个根本性的错误，即把我们的决心向大家宣布。这样一旦滑回到那些环的老习惯上去，我们在别人眼里会显得更加难堪。我深知这些问题，于是，今年我对自己的计划要严加保密，只给自己定下两项适中的任务：每天早上锻炼身体，每天晚上多看点书。新年除夕举办的一次通宵晚会，使我理直气壮地在新年头一天免去了这两项任务。这不，新年第二天，我全力以赴地照着去做了。

TheNew Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us couldcompile formidable lists of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. The same old favourites recuryear in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier eachmorning, eat less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand andone jobs about the house, be nice to people we don’t like, drive carefully, andtake the dog for a walk every day. Past experience has taught us that certainaccomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it isonly because we have so often experienced the frustration that results fromfailure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemesare too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make thefundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we lookeven more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of thesepitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. I limitedmyself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and toread more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year’s Eve provided me witha good excuse for not carrying on either of these new resolutions on the firstday of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task.

早锻炼一共只有11分钟，我打算在别人起床之前进行。这就要求我比平日早11分钟把自己从床上爬起来，这种自我约束是很艰苦的。不过开头两天我还是成功地蹑手蹑脚地来到楼下起居室，被谁也没发现。我在地毯上跳过来蹦过去，扭曲身子，摆出各种姿势，弄得浑身不舒服，然后坐到桌边吃早饭，一副筋疲力尽的样子。正是这副模样泄露了我的秘密。第二天早晨全家人结队来到起居室看我表演。这真叫人不好意思，但我心平气和地顶住了全家人的嘲笑和奚落。不久，大家对我习以为常了，而此时我的热情却减退了。我花在锻炼上的时间逐渐减少，慢慢地从11分钟减到了零。到了1月10日，我恢复了原来的作息时间。我辩解说，早晨少耗费精力锻炼，晚上下班回家看书时头脑更清醒些。有几天晚上，我极力摆脱了电视的诱惑，坐在自己房间里，两眼盯在书上。可是，有一天夜里，我感到又冷又孤单，便来到楼下坐在电视机前假装看书。这下我可完了，因为不一会儿，我就恢复了以前的坏习惯，在屏幕前打起瞌睡来。但我还没有放弃多看些书的决心。事实上，我刚买来一本叫《一分钟读一千字的诀窍》的书。也许这本书能解决我的问题，但我一直还没时间去看这本书！

Thedaily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early inthe morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to dragmyself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable.Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living room for two days beforeanyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the humanframe into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakfast table in anexhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the wholefamily trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but Ifended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and sooneverybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spentat exercise gradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes fell tozero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. I argued that ifI spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keepmy mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. Resisting the hypnotizingeffect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued toa book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and satin front of the television pretending to read. That proved to be my undoing,for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. Istill haven’t given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have justbought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it willsolve my problem, but I just haven’t had time to read it!