As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these hugecreatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

　　当一名男子经过象群的时候，他突然停了下来。这群庞大生物被一根系在他们前腿的小绳子拴住了，他对此十分困惑。没有锁链，没有笼子。显然，任何时候大象们都可以挣脱束缚，然而，由于某种原因，她们并没有挣脱。

　　He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

　　他看到附近的训练员，问道，为什么这些动物只是站在那儿，却不尝试逃脱。“咳，”训练员说，“在它们很小的时候，我们用同样尺寸的绳子拴着它们，那个时候，这条绳子足够拴住它们了。随着它们渐渐长大，它们习惯性地认为自己无法挣脱。它们以为这条绳子依然可以束缚住自己，所以它们从不会尝试挣脱。”

　　The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

　　这名男子十分惊讶。这些动物本来随时都可以挣脱束缚，然而因为它们认为自己无法挣脱，所以它们就被困在了那里。

　　Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

　　就像这些大象，我们之中有多少人在生活中固守着一个观念，自己办不到某件事情，只是因为曾经失败过一次?

　　Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

　　失败是学习的一部分，生活中，我们永远都不应该放弃努力。

（编辑：何莹莹）