On Future-mindedness
Guidance for Reciting
“Preparedness ensures success，unpreparedness spells failure.”The importance of future-mindedness can find expression in this saying.
Aland developer takes his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets，rows of houses and a teeming metropolis. But his cousin looks around bewildered. All she sees is a forest.“Where are the beauties and improvements which you were to show me？”She asks. He's astonished she couldn't see them.“Where！Why，everywhere，”he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth，he has built them in his mind，and they are as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished.
The story illustrates a distinct American trait，future- mindedness：the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future；the ******* to feel unencumbered by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said，“Life for the American is always becoming，never being.”
Notes
1.bewildered [bi5wildEd] a. 困惑的
2.unencumbered [5Qnin5kQmbEd] a. 没有阻碍的（没有负担的）
前瞻意识
诵读导言
“凡事预则立，不预则废”。前瞻意识之重要性可见一斑。
一位土地开发商，带着表妹四处参观自己正在规划中的城镇，津津乐道地描述着宽广的大道、鳞次栉比的高楼和生机盎然的大都市。但表妹环顾四周而茫然。她看到的仅仅是一片树林：“你给我指的美景和大厦到底在哪儿呢？”开发商闻言大惊：“在哪儿？这不到处都是嘛？”尽管大厦还未破土动工，但他们在开发商的脑海里早已成形，而且真切得如同己造好竣工一样。
这个故事揭示了一种美国人特有的品性――前瞻意识：站在将来的高度看现在，自由地抛开历史羁绊而放眼将来。正如阿尔伯特？爱因斯坦所说：“美国人永远生活在将来而不是现在。”