晨读英语美文60篇六级08

The 50-Percent Theory of Life

　I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they are worse. I believe life is a pendulum 1 swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.

　Let’s benchmark the parameters 2: Yes, I will die. I’ve dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing 3. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale. Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person; having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son’s baseball team, paddling around the creek 4 in the boat while he’s swimming with the dogs, discovering his compassion 5 so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails 6, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered 7 pile of Legos.

　But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the50-percent theory.One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined 8 at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal—the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioner died, the well went dry, the marriage ended, the job lost, the money gone. I was living lyrics 9 from a country tune—music I disliked. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team, bound for their first World Series, buoyed 10 my spirits.Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset 11 the bad. Worse than normal wouldn’t last long. I am owed and savor 12 the peaceful and happy times. They reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that I can thrive.

　The 50 percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals’ recent slump 13, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest. Oh, yeah, the corn crop? For that one blistering 14 summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination 15 before heat withered 16 the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing 17 corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed 18 with corn—fat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled with kernels 19 from heel to tip—while my neighbors’ fields yielded only brown, empty husks.

　Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought.