The Road We Choose

The lives of most men are determined by their environment.They accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only with resignation①seek for 尋找；追求；探索 resignation 英 [rez?g'ne??(?)n] 美 [,r?z?ɡ'ne??n]n. 辭職；放棄；辭職書；順從but even with good will. They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly flivver②fl ivver 英 ['fl ?v?] 美 ['fl ?v?]n. 廉價小汽車；失敗 vi. 失敗；乘廉價小汽車that dashes in and out of the traffi c and speeds so jauntily③jauntily ['d??:ntili]adv. 洋洋得意地；活潑地；快活地across the open country.I respect them;they are good citizens, good husbands, and good fathers, and of course somebody has to pay the taxes; but I do not fi nd them exciting. I am fascinated by the men, few enough in all conscience, who take life in their own hands and seem to mould④mould 英 [m??ld] 美 vi. 發(fā)霉vt. 澆鑄；用泥土覆蓋 n. 模具；霉it to their own liking. It may be that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events we have the illusion ofi t. At a crossroad it does seem to us that we might go either to the right or the left and, the choice once made, it is diffi cult to see that the whole course of the world's history obliged us to take the turning we did.