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每个人心中都有梦想。你的梦想有多大，世界就有多大。有的是人生大梦，是终其一生要达到的境界，通常与事业、志向有关；有的是生活小梦，在事业之外，渴望追寻人生的平衡。那么你的梦想是什么呢？你又是如何对待自己的梦想的？是动手去计划，去实践，还是只坐在那里做梦？请看本文主人公是如何对待自己的梦想的。
Larry Walters is among the relatively few who have actually turned their dreams into reality. His story is true, even though you may find it hard to believe.
Larry was a truck driver, but his lifelong dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. So, when he finally left the service, he had to satisfy himself with watching others fly the fighter jets that criss-crossed the skies over his backyard. As he sat there in his lawn chair, he dreamed about the magic of flying.
Then one day, Larry Walters got an idea. He went down to the local Army-Navy surplus1 store and bought a tank of helium2 and forty-five weather balloons. These were not your brightly colored party balloons, these were heavy-duty spheres3 measuring more than four feet across when fully inflated. Back in his yard, Larry used straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair, the kind you might have in your own back yard.
He anchored4 the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with helium. Then he packed some sandwiches and drinks and loaded a BB gun, figuring he could pop a few of those balloons when it was time to return to earth.
His preparations completed, Larry Walters sat in his chair and cut the anchoring cord. His plan was to lazily float up away, and then lazily back down to terra firma5. But, things didn’t quite work out that way.
When Larry cut the cord, he didn’t float lazily up—he shot up as if fired from a cannon! Nor did he go up a couple hundreds feet. He climbed and climbed, until he finally leveled off at eleven thousand feet! At that height, he could hardly risk deflating any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really experience flying! So, he stayed up there, sailing around for fourteen hours, totally at a loss as to how to get down. Eventually, Larry drifted into the approach corridor for Los Angeles International Airport. A Pan Am pilot radioed the tower about passing a guy on a lawn chair at eleven thousand feet ... with a gun on his lap.
LAX is right on the ocean, and you may know that at nightfall, the winds on the coast begin to change. So, as dusk fell, Larry began drifting out to sea.
At that point, the Navy dispatched6 a helicopter to rescue him. But, the rescue team had a hard time getting to him, because the draft from their propeller7 kept pushing his home-made contraption8 farther and farther away. Eventually, they were able to hover over him and drop a rescue line with which they gradually hauled him back to earth.
As soon as Larry hit the ground,he was arrested.
But as he was being led away in handcuffs, a television reporter called out to ask, “Mr Walters, why did you do it?”
Larry stopped, eyed the man for a moment and replied nonchalantly, “A man can’t just sit around.”
拉里·沃尔特斯是将梦想变为现实的少数人之一。他的故事是真实的，虽然你可能很难相信。
拉里是个卡车司机，但他的终生梦想却是飞行。高中毕业时，他参加了美国空军，希望成为一名飞行员。不幸的是，由于视力不佳，他没能如愿。因此，当他最后退役时，只能在后院里看着空中往来穿梭的喷气式战斗机聊以自慰。他常常坐在草坪椅上，想象着飞翔的美妙。
一天，拉里·沃尔特斯有了一个主意。他跑到当地的海军剩余物资供应处，买了一罐氦气和45只皮气球。它们可不是派对上五彩缤纷的气球，而是载重气球，充足气后足有四英尺多宽。拉里回到院子里，用绳子将气球系在草坪椅上。这种椅子你们自家后院里或许也有。
他将椅子固定在吉普车的保险杆上，然后给气球注入氦气，接着包好三明治和饮料，并将BB猎枪装满子弹，心想到时候打爆几个气球就可以返回地面了。
准备就绪，拉里·沃尔特斯坐在椅子上，割断了固定绳索。他本想慢悠悠地飘上一阵子，然后再慢悠悠地返回地面，谁知事与愿违。
拉里割断绳索时，并没有慢悠悠地飘上去，而是像个炮弹似的从大炮里射了上去！他也不是只升到几百英尺的高空，而是不断攀升，最后竟然到了11000英尺的高空！在这样的高空，他可不敢冒险放掉哪一个气球的氦气，害怕万一失去平衡，就真的要在空中飞了！因此，他一动不动地待在那里，整整漂浮了14个小时，完全不知道该如何着陆。最后，拉里漂到了通向洛杉矶国际机场的航道上。泛美航空公司一名飞行员向控制台报告有个男子经过，他坐在11000英尺高空中的一个草坪椅上……腿上还放着一把枪。
洛杉矶国际机场濒临海洋，你知道，黄昏时分海岸上的风向会变。所以，当夜幕降临的时候，拉里就向海中间飘去了。
为此，海军派遣一架直升飞机前来营救。但是救援队很难接近拉里，因为螺旋桨的气流总是将他自制的装置推得更远。最后，他们终于能盘旋在他的上方，抛下营救绳索，才将他慢慢拖回到地面。
拉里脚刚着地就被逮捕了。
当他带着手铐被带走时，一名电视台记者大声问：“沃尔特斯先生，你为什么要这样做？”
拉里停下脚步，看了这个人一会儿，若无其事地说：“是个男人，就不能只坐着。”
万学 摘译自 My Dreams
Larry Walters is among the relatively few who have actually turned their dreams into reality. His story is true, even though you may find it hard to believe.
Larry was a truck driver, but his lifelong dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. So, when he finally left the service, he had to satisfy himself with watching others fly the fighter jets that criss-crossed the skies over his backyard. As he sat there in his lawn chair, he dreamed about the magic of flying.
Then one day, Larry Walters got an idea. He went down to the local Army-Navy surplus1 store and bought a tank of helium2 and forty-five weather balloons. These were not your brightly colored party balloons, these were heavy-duty spheres3 measuring more than four feet across when fully inflated. Back in his yard, Larry used straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair, the kind you might have in your own back yard.
He anchored4 the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with helium. Then he packed some sandwiches and drinks and loaded a BB gun, figuring he could pop a few of those balloons when it was time to return to earth.
His preparations completed, Larry Walters sat in his chair and cut the anchoring cord. His plan was to lazily float up away, and then lazily back down to terra firma5. But, things didn’t quite work out that way.
When Larry cut the cord, he didn’t float lazily up—he shot up as if fired from a cannon! Nor did he go up a couple hundreds feet. He climbed and climbed, until he finally leveled off at eleven thousand feet! At that height, he could hardly risk deflating any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really experience flying! So, he stayed up there, sailing around for fourteen hours, totally at a loss as to how to get down. Eventually, Larry drifted into the approach corridor for Los Angeles International Airport. A Pan Am pilot radioed the tower about passing a guy on a lawn chair at eleven thousand feet ... with a gun on his lap.
LAX is right on the ocean, and you may know that at nightfall, the winds on the coast begin to change. So, as dusk fell, Larry began drifting out to sea.
At that point, the Navy dispatched6 a helicopter to rescue him. But, the rescue team had a hard time getting to him, because the draft from their propeller7 kept pushing his home-made contraption8 farther and farther away. Eventually, they were able to hover over him and drop a rescue line with which they gradually hauled him back to earth.
As soon as Larry hit the ground,he was arrested.
But as he was being led away in handcuffs, a television reporter called out to ask, “Mr Walters, why did you do it?”
Larry stopped, eyed the man for a moment and replied nonchalantly, “A man can’t just sit around.”
拉里·沃尔特斯是将梦想变为现实的少数人之一。他的故事是真实的，虽然你可能很难相信。
拉里是个卡车司机，但他的终生梦想却是飞行。高中毕业时，他参加了美国空军，希望成为一名飞行员。不幸的是，由于视力不佳，他没能如愿。因此，当他最后退役时，只能在后院里看着空中往来穿梭的喷气式战斗机聊以自慰。他常常坐在草坪椅上，想象着飞翔的美妙。
一天，拉里·沃尔特斯有了一个主意。他跑到当地的海军剩余物资供应处，买了一罐氦气和45只皮气球。它们可不是派对上五彩缤纷的气球，而是载重气球，充足气后足有四英尺多宽。拉里回到院子里，用绳子将气球系在草坪椅上。这种椅子你们自家后院里或许也有。
他将椅子固定在吉普车的保险杆上，然后给气球注入氦气，接着包好三明治和饮料，并将BB猎枪装满子弹，心想到时候打爆几个气球就可以返回地面了。
准备就绪，拉里·沃尔特斯坐在椅子上，割断了固定绳索。他本想慢悠悠地飘上一阵子，然后再慢悠悠地返回地面，谁知事与愿违。
拉里割断绳索时，并没有慢悠悠地飘上去，而是像个炮弹似的从大炮里射了上去！他也不是只升到几百英尺的高空，而是不断攀升，最后竟然到了11000英尺的高空！在这样的高空，他可不敢冒险放掉哪一个气球的氦气，害怕万一失去平衡，就真的要在空中飞了！因此，他一动不动地待在那里，整整漂浮了14个小时，完全不知道该如何着陆。最后，拉里漂到了通向洛杉矶国际机场的航道上。泛美航空公司一名飞行员向控制台报告有个男子经过，他坐在11000英尺高空中的一个草坪椅上……腿上还放着一把枪。
洛杉矶国际机场濒临海洋，你知道，黄昏时分海岸上的风向会变。所以，当夜幕降临的时候，拉里就向海中间飘去了。
为此，海军派遣一架直升飞机前来营救。但是救援队很难接近拉里，因为螺旋桨的气流总是将他自制的装置推得更远。最后，他们终于能盘旋在他的上方，抛下营救绳索，才将他慢慢拖回到地面。
拉里脚刚着地就被逮捕了。
当他带着手铐被带走时，一名电视台记者大声问：“沃尔特斯先生，你为什么要这样做？”
拉里停下脚步，看了这个人一会儿，若无其事地说：“是个男人，就不能只坐着。”
万学 摘译自 My Dreams