The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. The same old favourites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity.
    新年通常是下决心的时候，大多数人至少都会在心里整出一份“应该做什么“和”不该做什么“的令人生畏的单子。相同的决心总是以单调的规律一年年出现。
    PS: year in year out, 年复一年

    We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don’t like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk everyday. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment.
    我们决心每天早晨起得更早，吃得更少，花更多时间陪孩子玩，做大量的家务，对我们不喜欢的人更友善，开车更小心，每天遛狗。过去的经验已经告诉我们这是很难达到的。
    PS: resolve to, 决心
    PS++: beyond attainment, 很难达到

    If we remain inverterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways.
    如果我们烟瘾大，戒不掉，也许只是因为我们屡戒屡败，以至于失去了信心。我们大多数都想自我完善但是屡遭失败，因为我们的想法过于模糊，我们没时间实现它们。我们也犯了一个根本性的错误，即把我们的决心向别人宣布，这样我们一旦滑回到以前的样子时，就会显得更加的狼狈。
    PS: carry out, 实现
    PS++: slip back into our bad old ways, 滑落到以前的坏习惯

    Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year’s Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task.
    我深知这些坑，今年我努力将计划保密，我只给自己限制两个基本的目标：每天早晨做晨练和每天晚上做阅读。今年的第一天，除夕夜的派对给了我一个不履行以上两个目标的理由，但第二天开始我就全力以赴地去做了。
    PS: keep one’s resolution to myself, 将决心保密

    The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into living room from two days before anyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition.
    晨练仅仅持续了11分钟，我打算在所有人起床之前去做这件事。这就要求我要足够自律，把我自己提前11分钟从床上拽起来，而这是挺难的事情。不过开头两天我还是成功地蹑手蹑脚地来到楼下客厅，没被人发现。我在地毯上跳来跳去，扭曲身子，摆出各种不舒服的姿势，然后坐到餐桌边吃早餐，非常疲倦。
    PS: drag oneself out of bed, 把某人从床上拉起来

    It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercises graduallty diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from.
    而这也暴露了我的秘密。第二天我全家人组队来看我的表演。这真叫人不好意思，但我心平气和地顶住了全家人地嘲笑和奚落，然后他们就习惯了。然而，我的热情却减退了。我在健身上花的时间逐渐减少。慢慢从11分钟减到了0。到1月10号为止，我回到了原点。
    PS: tend off, 回避、顶住

    I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read.
    我辩解说，我早晨少点锻炼时间，晚上阅读就更清醒。有几天晚上我极力摆脱了电视的诱惑，蹲在房间看了几天的书。然而在某天晚上，我觉得冷清且孤独，就下楼坐在电视前，假装阅读。

    That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. I still haven’t given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it will resolve my problem, but I just haven’t had time to read it!
    这下可麻烦了，我立马回到了糟糕的习惯，在屏幕前打起瞌睡来。我仍然没放弃阅读的决心。实际上，我刚买了本叫做《一目十行》的书。可能它能解决我的问题，但我还是没时间去看它！