16、My friend's grandfather came to America from Eastern Europe. After being processed (移民入境检查) at Ellis Island, he went into a cafeteria in Lower Manhattan to get something to eat. He sat down at a table and waited for someone to take his order. But nobody came to him. Later a woman with a plate full of food sat down opposite him and told him how a cafeteria worked.
“Start out at the end,” she said. “Just go along the line and pick out what you want. At the other end he'll tell you how much you have to pay.”
“I soon learned that's how everything works in America,” the grandfather told my friend. “Life is like a cafeteria here. You can get anything you want only if you are willing to pay the money. You can even get success, but you'll never get it if you wait for someone to bring it to you. You have to get up and get it yourself.”