Do Your Best Until The Very End

王秀凤

做人善始善终，方能把握机遇；做人善始善终，方能得到他人认同；做人善始善终，方能领悟生命真諦——人生因善始善终而精彩。

If you had a chance to build a house for yourself， how would you design it？

Once， there was a carpenter （木匠） who was good at building houses. He had no other skills and his boss was very nice， so he worked for his boss one year after another. After 10 years of working for the same company， he finallygot fed up withit and decided to quit （辞职）. He wanted to try something new.

However， after hearing this， his boss asked him to help with one final job before he left the team. He asked him to build one final house. Although the carpenter didnt want to do this kind of work anymore， he still agreed. He built the house， but his heart wasnt in it. He used cheap materials （材料） and rushed to finish the job quickly. It turned out to be the worst house that he had ever built.

When he finished， his boss came to see him one last time. Seeing the house， he said nothing. He paid the worker for building the house. He then said， “I wanted to do something special for you to say thanks for your 10 years of hard work. You know， you have built so many beautiful and grand （宏伟的） houses for other people these years but not one for yourself ... so Im giving you this house as a gift.”

Surprised， the carpenter was speechless（无语的）. What a shame！ He had never thought his boss would give him such a big gift. If he knew he was building his own house， he would have done it much differently. He regretted （后悔） building his final house so poorly.

精彩译文：

如果你有机会为自己建造一座房子，你会怎么设计？

从前，有个擅长建造房子的木匠。除了建房子他没有其他的本事，而他的老板人很好，所以他能一年又一年地为老板打工。在同一家公司工作了10年后， 他终于受够了，决定辞职。他想尝试做一些新的工作。

然而，老板在听到这个消息后，要求他在离开团队之前帮助完成最后一项工作， 要求他建造最后一座房子。尽管木匠不想再做这份工作了，但他还是同意了。木匠心不在焉地建造了房子。他使用廉价的材料，匆匆忙忙地完成了工作。结果这是他建过质量最差的房子。

当木匠建完房子后老板来见他最后一面。老板看到那房子后，什么也没说，并把工钱付给了工人。然后老板对木匠说：“我想为你做点特别的事情，感谢你10年来辛勤的付出。你知道， 这些年来你为他人建造了如此多的漂亮的房子，却没有一座是为你自己建的，所以我要把这座房子作为礼物送给你。”

木匠惊讶得说不出话来。真可惜！他从没想过老板会给他这么大的礼物。如果他知道是在建自己的房子， 他就不会这样做了。他后悔把最后一座房子建得这么糟糕。

跟踪练习：

1. What does the underlined phrase “got fed up with” mean？

A. became angry with    B. became interested in

C. was tired of          D. ended up with

2. When the worker was doing his last job，__________.

A. he put all his heart into it    B. he didnt do his best

C. he didnt finish it          D. he built the best house ever

3. How might the boss feel after seeing the house？

A. Uninterested.      B. Bored.

C. Disappointed.      D. Ashamed.

4. What does the story teach us？

A. Do your work well from start to finish.

B. Never play tricks on your boss.

C. Well begun is half done.

D. No pain， no gain.

Keys： CBCA