Along the coast of the vast Atlantic Ocean there lived an old man. Each day when the tide went out he would make his way along the beach for miles. Another man who lived not far away would occasionally watch as he disappeared into the distance and later notice that he had returned. The neighbor also noticed that, as he walked, the old man would often stoop down to lift something from the sand and then throw it away into the water.
One day, when the old man went down to the beach this neighbor followed to satisfy his curiosity and, sure enough, as he watched, the old man bent down and gently lifted something from the sand and threw it into the ocean. By the time the old man made his next stop the neighbor had come near enough to see that he was picking up a starfish which had been stranded by the retreating tide and would, of course, die of dehydration before the tide returned. As the old man turned to walk along the coast the neighbor called out with a degree of mockery in his voice, “Hey, old timer! What are you doing? This beach goes on for hundreds of miles, and thousands of starfish get washed up every day! Surely you don't think that throwing a few back is going to matter.”
The old man listened and paused for a moment, then held the starfish in his hand out toward his neighbor. “It matters to this on.”
【日积月累】
-stoop vi.俯身，弯腰
-stranded adj.搁浅的，处于困境的
-starfish n. 海星（一种海星纲的棘皮动物，典型特征是长有厚而带剌的身体，并生有五条辐射排列的腕）
-dehydration n. 脱水
-mockery n. 嘲笑，嘲弄
【参考译文】
对这只来说有意义
在广阔的大西洋海岸住着一位老人。每天当潮水退去后他都会沿着海岸线走上几英里，不远处住着另外一个人，他偶尔也会注视着这个老人消失在远处，然后又看着老人回来。邻居也发现，老人走着的时候会经常弯下腰从沙滩上拣起什么东西抛到海里。
一天，当老人又一次沿着海岸线走的时候，这个邻居跟在后面看老人到底在干什么来满足自己的好奇心。他看到老人弯下腰轻轻地从沙滩上拣起什么东西又扔进了大海。当老人再次停下来时，这个邻居走进一看，原来老人正在拣起一只被潮水冲到岸上的海星，当然，这只海星在潮水再次到来之前就会脱水而死。当老人沿海岸返回的时候，这个邻居用一种嘲弄的口吻叫住他：“嘿，老家伙！你在做什么？这个海滩有数百英里长，每天都会有成千上万只海星冲上岸！你不知道你扔一部分回去实在是没什么意义吗？”
老人听完停了一会，把手中的那只海星拿到邻居眼前说：“对这只来说有意义。”
【人生启迪】
有句俗语叫“莫以善小而不为”，有些时候我们总是因为善事太小而忽视，但是正所谓聚少成多，虽然老人每天只能将很小一部分的海星扔回海里，这对于成千上万只被冲上岸的海星来说是微乎其微，但是对于这些被扔回海里的海星来说，他们获得了重生，如果老人因为这样做没有意义就不做的话，那么连这一小部分的海星都无法获得重生。所以从现在开始，不要忽视身边的每一件小事，聚少成多，你能做到的其实很多！