Paulo Coelho

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza.“When he was a child,that man wanted to travel,too.But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside.When he's an old man,he's going to spend a month in Africa.He never realized that people are capable,at any time in their lives,of doing what they dream of.”

“He should have decided to become a shepherd,”the boy said.

“Well,he thought about that,” the old man said. “But bakers are more important people than shepherds.Bakers have homes,while shepherds sleep out in the open.Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds.”

The boy felt a pang（劇痛）in his heart,thinking about the merchant's daughter.There was surely a baker in her town.

The old man continued,“In the long run,what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own personal legends.”

The old man leafed through the book,and fell to reading a page he came to.The boy waited,and then interrupted the old man just as he himself had been interrupted.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because you are trying to realize your personal legend.And you are at the point where you're about to give it all up.”

“And that's when you always appear on the scene?”

“Not always in this way,but I always appear in one form or another.Sometimes I appear in the form of a solution,or a good idea.At other times,at a crucial moment,I make it easier for things to happen.There are other things I do,too,but most of the time people don't realize I've done them.”

1.What made the boy feel deeply painful during the conversation with the old man?Why?

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2.If you're the merchant's daughter,who would you prefer to marry,the little shepherd or the baker in your town?Why?

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