A mule fell into the farmer's well.The farmer heard his mule praying or whatever mules do when they fall into wells.After carefully assessing(considering) the situation,the farmer sympathized with(felt sorry for) the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving.Instead,he called his neighbors together ,told them what had happened,and enlisted(asked) them to help haul(pull;carry) dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery. Initially(At the beginning) the old mule was hysterical(crying madly)! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back,a thought struck him.It suddenly dawned on (awakened;enlightened) him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back,he would shake it off and step up! This he did,blow after blow."Shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up!He repeated to encourage himself.No matter how painful the blows,or how distressing(worrying) the situation seemed,the old mule fought panic and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up!" It wasn't long before the old mule ,battered and exhausted(beaten and tired),stepped triumphantly(successfully) over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him actually helped him... All depends on the manner in which he handled his adversity.翻譯：一頭騾子跌進(jìn)了農(nóng)夫的井里。農(nóng)夫聽到騾子哀嘶與掙扎的聲音。農(nóng)夫很同情這頭老騾子，但仔細(xì)掂量后，覺得不值得費(fèi)力解救這頭騾子，這口井也不值得可惜。于是他叫來鄰居們，告訴他們所發(fā)生的事，讓他們幫自己運(yùn)土把這頭老騾子埋在井里，以盡快解除它的痛苦。 開始，這頭騾子哀叫不已，但當(dāng)農(nóng)夫和鄰居們不停地把土鏟落到它的背上時(shí)，它突然冒出了一個(gè)念頭。它突然明白，每當(dāng)一鏟土落在它背上是，它可以把土抖落，使自己站高一點(diǎn)！ 老騾子這樣做了，一次又一次。它一遍又一遍地鼓勵(lì)自己：“抖落它，站起來！抖落它，站起來！抖落它，站起來！”不管身子被砸得多么疼，不管處境多么糟糕，老騾子忍痛不停地抖落身上的土，一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)地升上來。 沒多久，這頭疲憊不堪的老騾子成功地跨出井沿?？磥恚坪跻臇|西反而救了它的命…… 這完全取決于它對待厄運(yùn)的態(tài)度。