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Lesson 50 New Year resolutions 新年的决心 The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most ofus could compile formidable lists of dos and donts. The sameold favourites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve toget up earlier each morning, eat less, find more time to play with thechildren, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people wedont like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. Pastexperience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. Ifwe remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experiencedthe frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts atself-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have timeto carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing ourresolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip backinto our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keepmy resolutions to myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to dophysical exercises every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-nightparty on New Years Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying oneither of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, but on thesecond, I applied myself assiduously to the task. The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to dothem early in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-disciplinerequired to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual wasconsiderable. Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living-room fortwo days before anyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet andtwisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at thebreakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The nextmorning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was reallyunsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredlyand soon everybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The timeI spent at exercise gradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutesfell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. I arguedthat if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, Iwould keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. Resisting thehypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with myeyes glued to a book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I wentdownstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. That provedto be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off infront of the screen. I still havent given up my resolution to do more reading.In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words aMinute. Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just havent had time to readit! | 
