[佳句赏析]你现在说什么也没用了。

　　Whatever you say is of no use now.

　　The Universal Dragon

　　Dragons can be friendly or fierce, they can bring good luck or cause death and destruction, but one thing is sure - people talk about them almost everywhere in the world. For a creature that doesn't actually exist, that's quite something.

　　In Chinese culture, dragons are generous and wise, although they can be unpredictable. The dragon was closely connected to the royal family: the emperor's robes have a symbol of a gold dragon with five claws. Other members of the royal family were allowed to wear dragon symbols, too, but with fewer claws and of a different colour. According to popular belief, if you were born in the year of the dragon, you are intelligent, brave, and a natural leader.

　　But in the west, dragons had a different reputation. The very first text in English, the Anglo­Saxon poem Beowulf, tells the story of a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, who fights and kills a dangerous dragon but is himself killed in the fight. However, across the border in Wales, the red dragon which appears on the Welsh flag is a positive symbol, indicating strength and a sense of national identity.

　　Why should the dragon have a different character in different parts of the world? Some experts believe it is due to the animals the myths grew out of. In the west, the idea of the dragon probably came from the snake - an animal which people hated and were afraid of.

　　But in China, the idea of the dragon may have come from the alligator - a shy animal which lives in rivers, but which is usually only seen when there is plenty of water - a good sign for agriculture. So the Chinese dragon was a bringer of good fortune.,世界上的龙

　　龙可以是友好的也可以是凶猛的，他们可以带来好运也可以带来死亡和毁坏，但是有一件事是确定的--几乎世界各地的人都在谈论它们。对于一种实际上并不存在的生物，那是非同寻常的。

　　在中国文化里，龙是慷慨和聪慧的，尽管它们也许是变化莫测的。龙跟皇室家族是紧密联系在一起的：黄袍上有一个五爪金龙的标志。皇室其他成员也被允许穿着带有龙的标志的服装，但是龙爪要少，颜色也不同。人们普遍相信，如果你出生在龙年，你就会聪明、勇敢，并且是天生的领袖。

　　但在西方，龙的名声就不同了。最早的英文文本是盎格鲁·撒克逊的诗《贝奥武夫》，它讲述了这样一个故事：一位斯堪的纳维亚的英雄贝奥武夫与一条凶恶的龙战斗并杀死了它，但英雄自己也死于战斗中。然而，仅仅跨越一条国界，在威尔士国旗上的红龙却是正面意义的象征，它象征着力量与民族认同感。

　　为什么龙在世界上不同的地区有不同的特点？一些专家认为这是由于衍生出神话的动物的原因。在西方，龙的概念可能是来自于蛇--这种人们既憎恨又害怕的动物。

　　然而在中国，龙的概念可能是从短吻鳄--一种生活在河里的害羞的动物衍生而来的，但它通常只有在水源充沛的时候才能见得到--这对农业来说是个好兆头。因此中国的龙是可以给人们带来好运的使者。

　　1．If you can adapt to something, you can change in order to make the situation better. (P55)

如果你能对某事适应，你可以改变以使情况更好。