“What is the most important thing
you’ve done in your life?”The question was put to me during a presentation I gave to a
group of lawyers.
The answer came to me in an instant. It’s
not the one I gave, because the situation was not right. As a lawyer in the
entertainment industry, I knew the audience wanted to hear some amusing stories
about my work with well-known people. but here’s
the true answer:
The most important thing I’ve ever done occurred on October
8,1990. I began the day playing tennis with an old friend I hadn’t seen for a while. Between points we talked about what had
been happening in each other’s lives. He and his wife had just
had a baby boy, who was keeping them up at night.
While we were playing, a car came screaming up the road toward the courts. It
was my friend’s father, who shouted to my
friend that his baby had stopped breathing and was being rushed to the
hospital. In a flash my friend was in the car and gone, disappearing in a cloud
of dust.
For a moment I just stood there, paralyzed(呆若木鸡).
Then I tried to figure out what I should do. Follow my friend to the hospital?
There was nothing I could accomplish there, I convinced myself. My friend’s son was in the care of doctors and nurses, and nothing I
could do or say would affect the outcome. Be there for moral support? Well,
maybe. But my friend and his wife both had large families, and I knew they’d be surrounded by relatives who would provide more than enough
comfort and support, whatever happened. All I could do at the hospital, I decided,
was to get in the way. Also, I had planned a full day with my family, who were
waiting for me to get home. So I decided to head back to my house and check in
my friend later.
As I started my car, I realized that my friend had left his truck and keys at
the courts. I now faced another problem. I couldn’t
leave the keys in the truck. So I decided to go to the hospital and give him
the keys.
When I arrived, I was directed to a room where my friend and his wife were
waiting. As I had thought, the room was filled with family members silently
watching my friend comfort his wife. I went in and stood by the door, trying to
decide what to do next. Soon a doctor appeared. He approached my friend and his
wife, and in a quiet voice told them that their son had died.
For a long time the two held each other and cried, unaware of the rest of us
standing around in pained silence. After they had calmed themselves, the doctor
suggested they spend a few moments with their son.
My friend and his wife stood up and walked past their families. When they
reached the door, my friend saw me standing in the corner. He came over and
hugged me and started to cry. My friend’s
wife hugged me, too, and said , “Thanks for being here.”
For the rest of that morning, I sat in the emergency room of that hospital and
watched my friend and his wife hold the body of their infant son, and say
goodbye.
It’s the most important thing I have ever done.
The experience taught me two lessons.
First: The most important thing I’ve ever done happened when I was
completely helpless. None of the things I had learned in university, in three
years of law school or in six years of legal practice were of any use in that
situation. Something terrible was happening to people I cared about, and I was
powerless to change the outcome. All I could do was standing by and watching it
happen. And yet it was critical that I do just that--- just be there when
someone needed me.
Second: The most important thing I’ve done almost didn’t happen because of things I had learned in classroom and
professional life. Law school taught me how to take a set of facts, break them
down and organized them. These skills are critical for lawyers. When people
come to us for help, they’re often stressed out and depend
on a lawyer to think logically. But while learning to think, I almost forget
how to feel. Today I have no doubt that I should have leapt into my car without
hesitation and followed my friend to the hospital.
From that one experience I learned that the most important thing in life isn’t the money you make, the status you attain or the honors you
achieve. The most important thing in life is the kids’ team you coach or the poem you write----or
the time when you’re just somebody’s friend.
1.When he was asked about the most
important thing he had done in life at a presentation, the author __________.
A
felt it was not an interesting
question
B.
thought for a while and spoke his mind
C.
gave an answer from a lawyer’s point of view
D.
didn’t give the real answer
2.When he saw his friend rush to
the hospital, the author could not decide whether to follow mainly because he
thought _________.
A.
He had to stay with his
family
B. His friend did not need his help.
C.
He would not be of much
help
D. the baby would be in the doctor’s care
3.What can we infer from the author’s description of the scene at the hospital?
A.
He found out that he was in the
way.
B.
He would have felt guilty if he had not been there.
C.
He regretted that he went too later.
D.
His friend would have felt better if he had not been there.
4.Which of the following is
conveyed in this story?
A.Family
and relatives can not take the place of friends.
B.More
people are a great comfort when one is in trouble.
C.It
is best to be here when someone needs you.
D.You
can certainly help a friend if you want to.
5.The author learned from his own
experience that_______.
A.what
is taught in school is usually of no use.
B.a
lawyer cannot learn much in classrooms
C.a
lawyer should know people’s feeling first
D.he
needs to be able to feel as well as think logically
6.The underlined sentence in the
last paragraph suggests that the author_______.
A.is
fond of writing poems
B.is
going to coach the kid’s team
C.is
determined to make friends with everybody
D.is
fully aware of the importance of being helpful to those in need
