Unit 6 Free Time Activities 闲暇活动 passage (1/4)

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burden-bearer 

Perhaps no order thing has such power to lift the poor out of his poverty, the wretched out of his misery, to make the burden-bearer forget his burden, the sick his suffering, as books. They are friends to the lonely, companions to the deserted, joy to the joyless, hope to the hopeless, good cheer to the disheartened, a helper to the helpless. They bring light into darkness, and sunshine into shadow. We may be poor, socially ostracized, shut out from all personal association with the great and the good, and yet be in the best society in the world, in books. The trent of may a life for good or ill, for success or failure, has been determined by a single book. The books which we read early in life are those which influence us most.