CHALLENGES
Human beings enjoy challenges. Many of them like physical challenges. They ask themselves questions like this: How fast can I run? How high can I climb? How deep can I dive? How far can I swim? How long can I hold my breath? How much can I lift? How high can I jump? Because people enjoy challenges, they like to play sports and watch other people play sports. They like climbing, running, diving, swimming, lifting, jumping, and so on. Every four years, millions of people all over the world enjoy the international sports competition called the Olympics. People also enjoy the excitement of climbing mountains or of riding in a boat on a river that is moving very quickly or of racing in a car around a track.
Why do people enjoy these challenges? There are probably many reasons. One is curiosity. Another is the personal feeling of success, of achievement. And nowadays, for some people, it is a business.
There are challenges that are not physical challenges. There are social and intellectual challenges, too. Leonardo Da Vinci, who lived in Italy during the fifteenth century, enjoyed every possible challenge. He was an artist and painted the well-known picture, the Mona Lisa. He was an inventor who invented a device to let people breathe under water. He was a scientist, and he learned a great deal about human anatomy.
Another kind of challenge faced the Egyptians between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago when they decided to build the first Pyramid. People are not sure why they built this pyramid, but it must have been important. They used six million tons of rock. Four hundred thousand men worked for twenty years to build it.
So, for thousands of years, people have accepted challenges. Today we still have many challenges before us. Medical science faces the challenge of conquering the many diseases which still attack human beings. Engineers and planners must build new cities and new kinds of transportation. Scientists must develop new forms of energy. And many of us are interested in the challenge of space. We live in an age of challenges.
挑戰
人類願意接受挑戰。很多人喜愛體力上的挑戰。他們自問諸如此類的問題：我能跑多快？我能登多高？我能潛多深？我能遊多遠？我能屏息多長時間？我能舉起多重的東西？我能跳多高？因為人們喜歡挑戰，他們就喜愛參加體育運動，也喜歡觀看他人比賽。他們喜歡登山、賽跑、潛水、游泳、舉重及跳高等。每四年，世界上千百萬人就會欣賞一次被稱為奧林匹克的世界性大賽。從登山中，從在湍急的河流裡揚帆蕩槳中以及從競技車賽中人們獲得刺激。
人們為什麼從挑戰中得到樂趣呢？可能有許多原因。一是好奇，另一個是出於個人的成功感，成就感。而現在對某些人來說卻成了買賣。
有些挑戰並不是針對體力的，還有社會的和智能方面的挑戰。里奧納多·達·芬奇生活在十五世紀的意大利，他喜歡各種可能的挑戰。他是一名藝術家，畫出了著名的油畫 “蒙娜麗莎”；他是一個發明家，發明了讓人能在水下呼吸的裝置；他還是一位科學家，對人體解剖學也頗有研究。
四千到五千年之前，埃及人建造第一座金字塔時面臨著另外一種挑戰。現在人們不能肯定他們建造這一金字塔的原因，但在當時一定是很重要的。他們共用了六百萬噸石頭。四十萬人花二十年時間才建成了這座金字塔。
因此千萬年來人們一直在接受著挑戰。當前我們也仍然面臨著許多挑戰。醫學界面臨著征服那些侵害人體的多種疾病的挑戰；工程師與設計師必須建設出新型的城市，製造出新型的交通工具；科學家必須開發出新型能源。我們很多人還對來自太空的挑戰深感興趣。我們生活在一個充滿挑戰的時代。
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