Every country has great and respectable people. They teach us about battle, glory and failure in life.

　　"Know yourself." Socrates, who we all know, was held in contempt by many people. But he wanted to know a lot of things. Even now, he is respected by people.

　　"The future is in the dark." The prophet 'Homer' always worried about the future, so his hair all turned white. After a while, his eyes went blind. But he is always remembered as the greatest prophet of history. Great men have always been produced continuously.

　　"Have mercy on me. Please give me a penny" The great poet Camoniz was a beggar when he was young. But he has a magnificentmonument of his own. If no one had given him money, he would have died from hunger.

　　There is another man to talk about. He stayed in prison for a long time. "I am not crazy!" He is the one who invented steam power, but he could not be recognized as a great man in his days. People said that he was crazy. The great inventor, Salomon Deco ended his life in a mental institution.

　　"I have found a new continent." Famous Columbus found the new Continent, but he got arrested and died in chains.

　　"Someday, you will find out about the new continent." He died in chains, but now he is very famous for his discovery of the American Continent.

　　"The earth goes around the sun." Galileo knew the earth circles the sun, but he suffered from blindness and deafness.

　　"Still, the earth goes around the sun." He told people the earth travels around the sun even though it got him in trouble. Everything has a painful thorny path. Tolerate and stand firm no matter what comes your way. The mere pain of the moment will turn into glory.

　　單詞注釋：

　　Thornyadj. 痛苦的;多刺的;令人苦惱的

　　例句：We have touched a thorny difficult problem.

　　我們碰到了一個棘手的難題。

　　prophet n. 先知;提倡者;預(yù)言者

　　例句：He was considered a seer and a prophet.

　　他被看成一個先知和預(yù)言家。

　　magnificent adj. 壯麗的;華麗的;高尚的;宏偉的

　　例句：A beautiful tall tree stood there, on which hung the most magnificent pears.

　　花園里有一棵很漂亮的大梨樹，樹上結(jié)滿了成熟的梨。