高中三年级 · 阅读系列
Lesson 58 · The Promise We Revised
文体：我们修改的承诺 · 朗读音轨 58
先听一遍
听听垃圾统计范围变更后，班级如何更正声明。
展开英文短文，再悬停查词
Our class had promised to reduce waste at the school festival. We counted bags after the first day and celebrated a smaller total than last year. Then the cleaning staff explained that some bins had been moved outside our counting area. We had measured a boundary, not the entire festival.
We apologized for the early announcement and revised our method. The next day, we counted all agreed locations with staff and noted where visitors had brought their own containers. The result was still encouraging in some areas, but less dramatic than our first claim. We published both counts and explained the difference.
A classmate worried that correcting ourselves would make supporters lose trust. Some people did ask difficult questions. Others thanked us for showing the method. We changed next year's promise from “cut waste in half” to testing specific changes and reporting what each measure captured.
A promise becomes stronger when it can survive a correction. We had not kept every word of the first slogan. We had kept the responsibility behind it.
读懂了什么？
读完后，试着用一句话说出本文的主要意思，并从原文找出支持它的一句话。
查看中文译文
班上承诺减少校庆垃圾。第一天后，我们数了垃圾袋，发现比去年少，便高兴地宣布成果。后来清洁人员说明，有些垃圾桶移出了我们的统计范围。我们测到的只是一个区域，不是整个校庆。
我们为过早宣布道歉，修改统计方法。第二天，大家与工作人员一起清点约定的所有地点，也记下访客哪里使用了自带容器。有些地方的结果仍令人鼓舞，却没有初次声明那样惊人。我们公布两次统计结果，并解释差别。
一位同学担心，主动更正会使支持者失去信任。的确有人提出难答的问题，也有人感谢我们公开方法。我们把明年的承诺从“垃圾减半”改成测试具体改变，并报告每项测量涵盖什么。
承诺能经受更正，才更有力量。我们没有保住初版口号的每个字，却守住了它背后的责任。
本课重点词语
以下是本课重点词语的中文讲解；英文正文中有虚线的单词可悬停查看词义和发音。
- promised
- 承诺；减少活动垃圾。
- waste
- 垃圾；统计袋数。
- celebrated
- 庆祝；初期结论过早。
- boundary
- 边界；只数了部分区域。
- entire
- 整个；原统计并未覆盖。
- announcement
- 声明；班级公开更正。
- method
- 方法；第二天重新确定。
- encouraging
- 令人鼓舞的；部分成果仍成立。
- supporters
- 支持者；有人提出疑问。
- correction
- 更正；让承诺更可靠。
背景知识
初次统计漏掉移到范围外的垃圾桶；班级与清洁人员重定边界，公开两个数字及方法差别。