Nobody Has To Be Perfect

曲直

What is the difference between painting and drawing？ Are you good at painting or drawing？

There was once a painter whose goal was to paint the most beautiful painting in the world. Day and night he painted to make his greatest work. He painted many paintings， but every time， he would throw away paintings that he thought were less than perfect.

At the same time， another painter who worked in the same studio（工作室） also painted many paintings. He tried his best to paint and rarely（很少）threw any paintings away. The first painter would sometimes walk by， looking at the second painter’s finished works， and laugh at them. “ No one will ever buy these paintings. They are worthless！” he would say.

The second painter would always answer， “ We’ll see.” And in time， the second painter sold nearly all of his works. People were happy with them， even if they were less than perfect.

The first painter never achieved what he wanted and finally gave up on his dream of perfection. He went home， penniless（身無分文）， having never sold any of his paintings.

There is a saying “Practice makes perfect”. It is used to say that people become better at something if they do it often. For example， if you want to be good writer， you should write every day.

But in fact， this saying is not always true. No one is perfect， and looking for perfection often ends in failure. But if we simply do our best and work hard， we can usually succeed in life.

难句解析：

He painted many paintings， but every time， he would throw away paintings that he thought were less than perfect. 他画了很多画，但每次都会扔掉那些他认为不完美的画。

（1） he would throw away paintings that he thought were less than perfect.是个含有定语从句的复合句，引导词that 还可以用which来代替。

（2） less than在本句中意为“不够”， 后接形容词。如：

I think the young man was less than honest with us.我认为那个年轻人对我们不够诚实。

另外less than 还可以指在数量方面“不到;不足;少于”。如：

The woman sleeps less than five hours every night because of work.

由于工作，这位妇女每天晚上睡眠不足5个小时。

It is used to say that people become better at something if they do it often. 这是指，如果人们经常做某件事，他们就会做得更好。

be used to do … 意为“被用来做某事”，to 为不定式符号，后跟动词原形，意思同be used for doing sth.相近。如：A pen is used to write. 钢笔是用来写字的。

辨析：be used to doing; used to do

be used to doing 意为“习惯于”，其中的to是介词，其后要接名词或动词-ing形式，可用于各种时态。如：I am used to getting up early. 我习惯早起。

used to do意为“过去常常”， 其中的to是不定式符号，其后只接动词原形。如：

He used to read books for an hour every day. 他过去常常每天读一个小时的书。

跟蹤训练：

1. What did the first painter want to do？

A. Be better than the second painter.

B. Make lots of money from painting.

C. Collect the most paintings in the world.

D. Paint the greatest painting ever.

2. What did the second painter do？

A. He laughed at the first painter.

B. He threw away all of his paintings.

C.He made good use of his works.

D. He painted the greatest painting in the world.

3. What happened to the first painter in the end？

A. He sold all of his best paintings.

B. He sold no paintings and ended up poor.

C. He decided to chase a different dream.

D.He finally achieved what he wanted.

4. What opinion does the writer hold？

A. Practice will always make perfect.

B. Nobody can succeed all the time.

C. The process is more important than the result.

D. Perfection is not always possible， but that’s okay.

Keys： 1-4 DCBD