曲直

What is the difference between painting and drawing？ Are you good at painting or drawing？

There was once a painter whose goal was to paint the most beautiful painting in the world. Day and night he painted to make his greatest work. He painted many paintings， but every time， he would throw away paintings that he thought were less than perfect.

At the same time， another painter who worked in the same studio（工作室） also painted many paintings. He tried his best to paint and rarely（很少）threw any paintings away. The first painter would sometimes walk by， looking at the second painter’s finished works， and laugh at them. “ No one will ever buy these paintings. They are worthless！” he would say.

The second painter would always answer， “ We’ll see.” And in time， the second painter sold nearly all of his works. People were happy with them， even if they were less than perfect.

The first painter never achieved what he wanted and finally gave up on his dream of perfection. He went home， penniless（身無分文）， having never sold any of his paintings.

There is a saying “Practice makes perfect”. It is used to say that people become better at something if they do it often. For example， if you want to be good writer， you should write every day.

But in fact， this saying is not always true. No one is perfect， and looking for perfection often ends in failure. But if we simply do our best and work hard， we can usually succeed in life.

難句解析：

He painted many paintings， but every time， he would throw away paintings that he thought were less than perfect. 他畫了很多畫，但每次都會(huì)扔掉那些他認(rèn)為不完美的畫。

（1） he would throw away paintings that he thought were less than perfect.是個(gè)含有定語從句的復(fù)合句，引導(dǎo)詞that 還可以用which來代替。

（2） less than在本句中意為“不夠”， 后接形容詞。如：

I think the young man was less than honest with us.我認(rèn)為那個(gè)年輕人對我們不夠誠實(shí)。

另外less than 還可以指在數(shù)量方面“不到;不足;少于”。如：

The woman sleeps less than five hours every night because of work.

由于工作，這位婦女每天晚上睡眠不足5個(gè)小時(shí)。

It is used to say that people become better at something if they do it often. 這是指，如果人們經(jīng)常做某件事，他們就會(huì)做得更好。

be used to do … 意為“被用來做某事”，to 為不定式符號，后跟動(dòng)詞原形，意思同be used for doing sth.相近。如：A pen is used to write. 鋼筆是用來寫字的。

辨析：be used to doing; used to do

be used to doing 意為“習(xí)慣于”，其中的to是介詞，其后要接名詞或動(dòng)詞-ing形式，可用于各種時(shí)態(tài)。如：I am used to getting up early. 我習(xí)慣早起。

used to do意為“過去常?！保?其中的to是不定式符號，其后只接動(dòng)詞原形。如：

He used to read books for an hour every day. 他過去常常每天讀一個(gè)小時(shí)的書。

跟蹤訓(xùn)練：

1. What did the first painter want to do？

A. Be better than the second painter.

B. Make lots of money from painting.

C. Collect the most paintings in the world.

D. Paint the greatest painting ever.

2. What did the second painter do？

A. He laughed at the first painter.

B. He threw away all of his paintings.

C.He made good use of his works.

D. He painted the greatest painting in the world.

3. What happened to the first painter in the end？

A. He sold all of his best paintings.

B. He sold no paintings and ended up poor.

C. He decided to chase a different dream.

D.He finally achieved what he wanted.

4. What opinion does the writer hold？

A. Practice will always make perfect.

B. Nobody can succeed all the time.

C. The process is more important than the result.

D. Perfection is not always possible， but that’s okay.

Keys： 1-4 DCBD