A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox . He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox.
The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With a little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy, and the rock was very large.) When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn't roll it up and over the little wall.
Determined, the little boy shoved , pushed, and pried , but every time he thought he had made some progress the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, and shoved; but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers.
Finally he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy's father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy's father. Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had available?” Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!” “No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn't use all the strength you had. You didn't ask me.” With that the father reached down, picked up the rock and removed it from the sandbox.
一个小男孩周六早上在沙箱里玩儿。他带着自己的一盒子小汽车、小卡车、塑料桶，还有一个磨得亮闪闪的红塑料铲子。在软沙子上面修路挖隧道的时候，他发现沙箱里面有块大石头。
小男孩绕着石头挖，终于把它从沙土里挖了出来。他稍费了点儿劲儿，用脚推啊推，把石头往沙箱外面推。(他年龄非常小，可石头却非常大。)小男孩把石头推到沙箱边缘的时候，他发现推不上去，翻不过箱壁这道小墙。
小男孩意志坚决，又是推又是撬的，但是每次他觉得推上去一些的时候，石头一倾斜，就又掉回沙箱里。小男孩咕哝着、挣扎着，推啊推啊，换来的却只是石头滚回箱里，砸到他胖乎乎的手指头。
终于，他沮丧的眼泪夺眶而出。从这一幕展开的时候起，父亲一直就在客厅窗边看着。小男孩落泪的瞬间，有个大大的影子罩住了他和沙箱。是他的父亲。父亲用坚定的语气轻声说：“儿子，你为什么不动用手边所有的力量呢？”小男孩感到很受挫，哽咽地回答：“我用了呀，爸爸，我用了！我用尽了自己所有的力气！”“不，儿子，”父亲亲切地纠正他：“你没有动用到所有力量。你就没有向我求助呀。”说完，父亲低下身来，捡起石头，把它从沙箱里拿了出来。
-sandbox [ˈsændbɒks] n. 沙箱
-dislodge [dɪsˈlɒdʒ] v. 移走
-nudge [nʌdʒ] v. (用肘)轻推
-shove [ʃʌv] v. 推
-pry [praɪ] v. 撬动
如果说拼尽一己之力是“尽力”的内涵，那么合理动用身边的资源便是它的外延。