The silvery-grey sky grumbled1 relentlessly2. Dark clouds hid the sun. Thesound of emptiness was disrupted3 by the loud boom of thunder. Puddles4 beganemitting5 a loud sound as the rainfall became heavier. The roofs of the carsbounced6 loudly with spray7. The cold， icy rain fell on Geeta’shead， but she ran across the slippery8 path. The harsh rainobliterated9 the crystal10 reflection of the sky and turned itinto chaos.

銀灰色的天空無情地轟隆著。烏云遮住了太陽。空曠的聲音被隆隆的雷聲打斷了。隨著雨越來越大，水坑開始發(fā)出巨大的聲音。汽車的車頂被濺起的水撞得砰砰作響。冰冷的雨落在吉塔的頭上，但她還是跑過了濕滑的小路。瓢潑大雨摧毀了天空清澈的倒影，攪得一片混沌。

Geeta ran into the restaurant and silently thanked heavens when she realizedthat a table in the corner was empty. The restaurant was full. Geeta looked around atthe busy tables. An old couple was eating side by side， bent over their meals. Agroup of young women in their thirties were collapsing11 with helpless giggles as awoman dining alone nearby looked on and frowned12. Businessmen in their grey suitswere discussing what seemed to be a confidential13 matter. A family and theirteenage children were laughing and talking with each other. The noise level was high.The lighting was dim14 and the air was thick with the pleasant smells of so manydifferent foods. She was starting to feel claustrophobic15， but the hunger was toooverpowering and so， she remained seated.

吉塔跑進(jìn)餐廳，發(fā)現(xiàn)角落里的一張桌子空著，便默默地感謝上帝。餐廳已經(jīng)客滿了。吉塔環(huán)顧四周繁忙的餐桌。一對老年夫婦并排坐著，彎腰吃飯。一群三十多歲的年輕女性正無奈地笑得前仰后合，旁邊一位獨(dú)自用餐的女士看著她們，皺起了眉頭。穿著灰色西裝的商業(yè)人士正在討論一件似乎是機(jī)密的事情。有一家人和他們十幾歲的孩子們在一起有說有笑。噪音指數(shù)很高。燈光昏暗，空氣中彌漫著許多不同食物的香味。她開始感到幽閉恐懼，但饑餓感太強(qiáng)了，所以她還是一直坐著。

She sat in one of the two chairs and ordered a pasta and cookies. An oldshabbily16 dressed woman， looking a little lost， asked her whether she could sit inthe chair opposite hers as it was the only empty one. Geeta nodded. While waitingfor the food to arrive， Geeta noticed that the old woman was only drinking waterand did not order anything else. She found it strange， but did not say anything. Inabout two minutes， a waiter arrived with the food and set it down on the table.Geeta who was too hungry started eating the pasta immediately.She was almost done with it， when she noticed the old womaneating a cookie. She was annoyed， but considered the fact thatwoman was old and ignored it. However， the old woman didn’tseem to be finished with the cookies. She ate cookie aftercookie and infuriated17 at this， Geeta grabbed the paper bagand ate the last two cookies. The old woman then smiled atGeeta and started reaching towards the coffee slowly.

她坐在兩張椅子中的一張上，點(diǎn)了一份意大利面和餅干。一位衣著寒酸的老婦人看起來有點(diǎn)失落，問她是否可以坐在她對面的椅子上，因?yàn)檫@是唯一的空椅子。吉塔點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭。在等待食物到來時，吉塔注意到老婦人只喝水，沒有點(diǎn)任何其他東西。她覺得這很奇怪，但什么也沒有說。大約兩分鐘后，一名服務(wù)員端來了食物，并把它放在桌子上。餓極了的吉塔立刻開始吃意大利面?？斐酝甑臅r候，她注意到老婦人在嚼餅干。她很生氣，但考慮到這個婦人年事已高，便沒有理會。然而，這位老婦人吃起餅干來似乎沒完沒了。她吃了一塊又一塊的餅干。吉塔被激怒了，她抓起紙袋吃掉了最后兩塊餅干。然后老婦人對吉塔笑了笑，開始慢慢把手伸向咖啡。

Geeta jerked18 the woman’s hand away， gulping19 the coffee in one sip20， andwent to the counter to pay the bill. The restaurant staff told her， “Ma’am， we areterribly sorry for the delay in your order. It will take two more minutes. There arecustomers who have ordered before you and we have to serve them first.”Confused，Geeta said， “No， the order already arrived at my table. It is table 20.”The waitresssaid， “Ma’am， but that was for the old woman. She ordered a long time back. Twokids wanted to sit together， so she asked them to sit at her table and instead sat atyours.”Geeta was embarrassed， frozen to the spot. She felt upset. She couldn’tbelieve it had happened. She rushed to the table to apologize， but the woman was notthere. Apparently， she had gone outside with her daughter. Geeta walked out of therestaurant and into the rain. As she scanned21 the crowd， she suddenly realized thatshe could see no sign of her. She started to move， her eyes darting22 more wildlywith each passing second， hoping to find the woman. Then when she realized thatthere wasn’t a single way to find the old woman and seek her forgiveness， she wasextremely disappointed.

吉塔猛地推開婦人的手，一口氣灌下了咖啡，然后走到柜臺結(jié)賬。餐廳工作人員告訴她：“女士，我們對您的訂單延誤感到非常抱歉。您的餐點(diǎn)還需要兩分鐘時間。有些顧客在您之前點(diǎn)了菜，我們必須先為他們服務(wù)。”吉塔困惑地說：“不，我點(diǎn)的餐已經(jīng)到了我的桌子上。是20 號桌。”女服務(wù)員說，“女士，但那是給那位老婦人的。她早就點(diǎn)好了。有兩個孩子想坐在一起，所以她讓他們坐在她的桌子那兒，而她自己則坐到您這桌?！奔軐擂?，愣在了原地。她很沮喪。她簡直不敢相信竟然發(fā)生了這樣的事情。她沖到桌子前道歉，但那個婦人已經(jīng)不在那兒了。顯然，她和女兒離開了。吉塔走出餐廳，走進(jìn)雨中。當(dāng)她掃視人群時，她突然意識到自己看不到她的身影。她開始動起來，眼睛一秒比一秒瘋狂地掃視著，希望能找到那個婦人。然后，當(dāng)她意識到?jīng)]有任何方法可以找到這位老婦人并尋求她的原諒時，她感到無比失望。

She walked back into the restaurant and sat down at the table. Her food arrived.She took a long look at it. And this time， she thought to herself， “For just a fewcookies， I got angry and irritated23 the old woman. But such was her patience thatinstead of scolding24 me， she simply smiled and bore with me. If only， I had not beenso short-tempered and instead politely asked her for an explanation then I would haverealized that it wasn’t my order. Instead， I started judging her and came to theconclusion that she was an irritating old woman who was ruining25 my day. But shewasn’t anything like me. She had probably realized that I was hungry and let me eatthe food， she had paid for. Oh！ How all of us see and believeonly what we want to.”

她走回餐廳，在餐桌旁坐了下來。她的食物到了。她盯了它很久。這一次，她心想：“就為了幾塊餅干，我就生氣了，還惹惱了老婦人。但她如此有耐心，不但沒有責(zé)備我，反而微笑著忍受我。如果我沒有那么暴躁，而是禮貌地請她解釋一下，我就會意識到這不是我點(diǎn)的餐。然而，我開始對她評頭論足，得出的結(jié)論是，她是一個煩人的老婦人，毀了我的一天。但她一點(diǎn)也不像我。她可能意識到我餓了，就讓我吃她付錢買的食物。哦！我們所有人怎么都只看到和相信我們想看到和相信的?！?/p>

（英語原文選自：kidsworldfun.com）