"Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?"
The usual laughter followed, and people stirred (喧闹) to go.
Papaderos held up his hand and 1 the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was 2 and seeing from my eyes that I was.
"I will answer your question."
Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he 3out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.
And what he said went like this:
"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a 4 village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a 5. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.
I tried to 6 all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one, and, by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could 7 light into dark places where the sun would never 8-in deep holes and crevices (裂缝) and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.
I kept the little mirror, and, as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor (暗喻) for 9 I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light-truth, 10, knowledge-is there, and it will shine in many dark places 11 if I reflect it.
I am a fragment (碎片) of a mirror whose whole design and 12 I do not know. 13, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world-into the black places in the hearts of men-and change some things in some people. Perhaps 14 may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the 15 of my life."
