新视野第一册读写教程课文-Unit10.docVIP

Unit 10 Section A Being Honest and Open My grandparents believed that you were either honest or you were not. There was no middle point. They had a simple saying hanging on their living-room wall: Life is like a field of newly fallen snow. Where I choose to walk every step will show. They didn’t have to talk about it; they demonstrated this truth by their life style. They understood instinctively that integrity involves having a personal standard of morality and boundaries that does not sell out to convenience and that is not relative to the situation at hand. Integrity is an inner compass for judging your behavior. Unfortunately, integrity is in short supply today — and getting scarcer. But it is the real bottom line in every area of society and a discipline we must demand of ourselves. A good test for this value is to apply what I call the Integrity Triangle; , which consists of three key principles: Stand firmly for your convictions when confronted with personal pressure. There’s a story told about a surgical nurse’s assistance during her first day on the medical team at a well-known hospital. She was responsible for ensuring that all surgical instruments and materials were accounted for during an operation. The nurse said to the surgeon, You’ve only removed 11 sponges, and we used 12. We need to find the last one. I removed them all, the surgeon assured her. We’ll close now. You can’t do that, sir, protested the nurse. Think of the patient. Smiling, the surgeon lifted his foot and showed the nurse the twelfth sponge. You’ll do just fine in this or any other hospital, he assured her. When you know you’re right, you can’t concede. Always give others credit that is rightfully theirs. Don’t be afraid of those who might have a better idea or who might even be more intelligent than you are. David Ogilvy, founder of the advertising firm Ogilvy Mather, clarified this point to his newly appointed office heads by sendin