学进去

   There were two men who lived next to each other. One of them was a retired teacher and the other was a businessman. Both of them had planted many plants in their gardens. The retired teacher seldom watered his plants and didn’t pay a lot of attention to them. But his neighbor was very careful with his plants and watered them often.

The retired teacher’s plants were small, but still looked okay, while the businessman’s plants were much bigger and greener. One night, there came a storm with a heavy rain and strong wind. The next morning, both of the neighbors came out to check in their gardens. The businessman saw that his plants had come out from the earth and were totally out of life. But the retired teacher’s plants nicely stood where they were.

The businessman was surprised. He went to consult (咨询) the retired teacher. “We both grew the same plants and I cared for my plants better than you did. How could your plants still be okay?”

The retired teacher smiled and said, “Because you gave your plants too much attention. You made it too easy for them to grow. I gave my plants just a little bit of water, so they had to grow deeper to absorb (吸收) more water. That is why my plants survived.”