A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord said to the man, “Come, I will show you hell.” They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was skinny, desperate and starving. Each held a spoon that could reach the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arms that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible.

“Come, now I will show you heaven.” The Lord said after a while. They entered another room, similar to the first—the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handle spoons. But there everyone was happy, healthy and satisfied.

“I don’t understand,” said the man. “Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room and everything was the same?” The Lord smiled. “Ah, it is simple,” he said. “Here they have learned to feed each other.”

【日积月累】

stew n. 炖肉(或菜) v. 炖，焖

We had beef stew for lunch. 中饭我们吃了炖牛肉。

The meat needs to stew for several hours. 这肉得炖几个钟头。

注意：汉语说“炖牛肉”“焖羊肉”，用英语表示分别是beef stew和mutton stew，也可以是stewed beef和stewed mutton——前一表达中的stew为名词，它受beef和mutton的修饰，表明是什么样的炖肉;后一表达中的stewed为动词stew的过去分词，在此表示被动意义，指被炖过的什么肉。

desperate adj. 极需要的;绝望的

I’m desperate to see her. 我很想见到她。

He was desperate when he lost all his money. 当他丢了所有的钱时，他绝望了。

miserable adj. 痛苦的;悲惨的

The girl felt so miserable that she wanted to cry. 这姑娘感到那样痛苦，她简直想哭。

【参考译文】

天堂和地狱的真正差别

一个人在和上帝谈论天堂和地狱。上帝对这个人说：“来，我带你去地狱看看。”他们走进一个房间，里面有一群人围坐在一锅炖肉旁边。每个人都面黄肌瘦，绝望无助，饥肠辘辘。他们各持一个能够着汤锅的长勺，但是每个勺柄都远比他们的手臂还长，所以他们没法把炖肉送到自己嘴里去。这样的煎熬十分可怕。

过了一会儿，上帝说：“来，现在我带你去天堂看看。”他们走到另一间房，和第一间房间一样，里面都有一锅炖肉，一群人，手里都拿着长柄勺。但是每个人都健康快乐，心满意足。

那个人说：“我不懂，为什么两个房间里东西都是一样的，这里的人却这么开心，而那边的人那么悲惨。”上帝笑了。他说：“啊，这很简单，这里的人学会了彼此喂食。”

【人生启迪】天堂的人们互助互爱，地狱的人们自私自利，而处于两者之间的人间，既有“自扫门前雪”的人，亦有努力付出不计回报的人。在生活中，如果你想让自己身处的环境犹如天堂，请你毫不吝啬地伸出你的手，这样他人快乐，你也快乐!