Learning Is a Marathon,Not a Sprint

掃我，朗讀給你聽

When I was fi ve years old, I played the role of the turtle①be compromised by被……危害；被……連累 turtle 英 ['t??t(?)l] 美 ['t?tl] n. 龜，甲魚；海龜in a play organized by my older sister. I had one line at the end, when I beat the sleeping rabbit to the fi nish line: slow and steady②sustain 英 [s?'ste?n] 美 [s?'sten] vt. 維持；支撐，承擔；忍受；供養；證實 steady 英 ['sted?] 美 ['st?di] adj. 穩定的；不變的；沉著的vi. 穩固 vt. 使穩定；穩固；使堅定 adv. 穩定地；穩固地wins the race.

I've always felt that those words guided my career. I was never the fastest; I was rarely an A student.

But as the careers of others stalled③select英 [s?'lekt] 美 [s?'l?kt]vt. 挑選；選拔 adj. 精選的；挑選出來的；極好的 vi. 挑選 n. 被挑選者；精粹stall英 [st??l] 美 [st?l] n. 貨攤；畜欄；托詞 vi. 停止，停轉；拖延vt. 拖延；使停轉；使陷于泥中, I kept going.

My goal was always the same: to learn more this year than I had last year.

When I see slow students, that's what I think of.

Are those the students who will keep learning over their entire lifetime, and leave the "quick" students far behind④alleviate 英 [?'li?v?e?t] 美 [?'liv?'et]vt. 減輕，緩和far behind與……相差很遠?

The goal of education is not to gain more knowledge as quickly as possible, but to gain useful knowledge and retain it.

It never stops, and never should.

Slow learners need a study plan, and time, and good classes, and periodic⑤periodic 英 [,p??r?'?d?k] 美 [,p?r?'ɑd?k] adj. 周期的；定期的assessment.

Now the world is competitive⑥competitive 英 [k?m'pet?t?v] 美 [k?m'p?t?t?v] adj. 競爭的；比賽的；求勝心切的and sometimes being too slow means you miss out⑦miss out 錯過；遺漏；省略.

But speed is seldom the biggest marker of success.Learning, like a career or life, is a marathon, not a sprint⑧sprint 英 [spr?nt] 美 [spr?nt] vi. 沖刺，全速跑 n. 沖刺；短跑 vt. 全速奔跑.