There are situations in life which are beyond one. The sensible manrealises this, and slides out of such situations, admitting imselfbeaten. Others try to grapple with them, but it never does any good.

　　When affairs get into a real tangle¹, it is best to sit still and letthem straighten themselves out. Or, if one does not do that, simply tothink no more about them. This is Philosophy. The true philosopher isthe man who says "All right," and goes to sleep in his arm-chair.

　　One's attitude towards Life's Little Difficulties should be that ofthe gentleman in the fable², who sat down on an acorn³ one day, andhappened to doze⁴. The warmth of his body caused the acorn togerminate, and it grew so rapidly that, when he awoke, he foundhimself sitting in the fork of an oak, sixty feet from the ground. Hethought he would go home, but, finding this impossible, he altered hisplans. "Well, well," he said, "if I cannot compel circumstances to mywill, I can at least adapt my will to circumstances. I decide toremain here." Which he did, and had a not unpleasant time. The oaklacked some of the comforts of home, but the air was splendid and theview excellent.

　　To-day's Great Thought for Young Readers. Imitate this man.

　　Bob should have done so, but he had not the necessary amount ofphilosophy. He still clung to the idea that he and Burgess, incouncil, might find some way of making things right for everybody.

　　Though, at the moment, he did not see how eleven caps were to bedivided amongst twelve candidates in such a way that each should haveone.

　　And Burgess, consulted on the point, confessed to the same inabilityto solve the problem. It took Bob at least a quarter of an hour to getthe facts of the case into the captain's head, but at last Burgessgrasped the idea of the thing. At which period he remarked that it wasa rum business.

　　"Very rum," Bob agreed. "Still, what you say doesn't help us out much,seeing that the point is, what's to be done?""Why do anything?"Burgess was a philosopher, and took the line of least resistance, likethe man in the oak-tree.

　　"But I must do something," said Bob. "Can't you see how rotten it isfor me?""I don't see why. It's not your fault. Very sporting of your brotherand all that, of course, though I'm blowed if I'd have done it myself;but why should you do anything? You're all right. Your brother stoodout of the team to let you in it, and here you _are_, in it.

点击收听单词发音  

1 tangle
n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱
参考例句：
I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。 If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

2 fable
n.寓言；童话；神话
参考例句：
The fable is given on the next page. 这篇寓言登在下一页上。 He had some motive in telling this fable. 他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

3 acorn
n.橡实，橡子
参考例句：
The oak is implicit in the acorn.橡树孕育于橡子之中。 The tree grew from a small acorn.橡树从一粒小橡子生长而来。

4 doze
v.打瞌睡；n.打盹，假寐
参考例句：
He likes to have a doze after lunch.他喜欢午饭后打个盹。 While the adults doze,the young play.大人们在打瞌睡，而孩子们在玩耍。

5 grumble
vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声
参考例句：
I don't want to hear another grumble from you.我不愿再听到你的抱怨。 He could do nothing but grumble over the situation.他除了埋怨局势之外别无他法。

6 grumbling
adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的
参考例句：
She's always grumbling to me about how badly she's treated at work. 她总是向我抱怨她在工作中如何受亏待。 We didn't hear any grumbling about the food. 我们没听到过对食物的抱怨。

7 theatrical
adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的
参考例句：
The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。 She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

8 perfectly
adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地
参考例句：
The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。 Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

9 espied
v.看到( espy的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
One day a youth espied her as he was hunting.She saw him and recognized him as her own son, mow grown a young man. 一日，她被一个正在行猎的小伙子看见了，她认出来这个猎手原来是自己的儿子，现在已长成为一个翩翩的少年。 来自《简明英汉词典》 In a little while he espied the two giants. 一会儿就看见了那两个巨人。 来自辞典例句

10 flannels
法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 )
参考例句：
Erik had been seen in flannels and an imitation Panama hat. 人们看到埃里克身穿法兰绒裤，头戴仿制巴拿马草帽。 He is wearing flannels and a blue jacket. 他穿着一条法兰绒裤子和一件蓝夹克。

11 surmounted
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上
参考例句：
She was well aware of the difficulties that had to be surmounted. 她很清楚必须克服哪些困难。 I think most of these obstacles can be surmounted. 我认为这些障碍大多数都是可以克服的。

12 lessened
减少的，减弱的
参考例句：
Listening to the speech through an interpreter lessened its impact somewhat. 演讲辞通过翻译的嘴说出来，多少削弱了演讲的力量。 The flight to suburbia lessened the number of middle-class families living within the city. 随着迁往郊外的风行，住在城内的中产家庭减少了。

13 bust
vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部
参考例句：
I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。 She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

14 libretto
n.歌剧剧本，歌曲歌词
参考例句：
The printed libretto was handsomely got up.这本印刷的歌剧剧本装帧得很美观。 On the other hand,perhaps there is something to be said for the convenience of downloading a libretto in one's own home rather than looking for it in a library or book store.但是反过来看，或许尤为重要的是如果网

15 degenerating
衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的现在分词 )
参考例句：
He denied that some young people today were degenerating. 他否认现在某些青年在堕落。 Young people of today are not degenerating. 今天的青年并没有在变坏。

16 pebble
n.卵石，小圆石
参考例句：
The bird mistook the pebble for egg and tried to hatch it.这只鸟错把卵石当蛋，想去孵它。 The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。

17 risky
adj.有风险的，冒险的
参考例句：
It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。 He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。