A man sat at an underground station in Washington, D.C., and started to play the violin. It was a cold day in January. He played six Bach(巴赫)pieces for about 45 minutes. It was rush hour and thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and the first person, a middle-aged man, noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed down and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
After a minute, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a young woman threw the money in the box and continued to walk. Then another few minutes went by and someone stood against the wall to listen to him, but the young man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
During the musician's performance, only six people stopped and stayed for a while, twenty gave him money but continued to walk. When he finished playing, no one applauded(鼓掌). No one knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing in the underground station was organized by The Washington Post(《华盛顿邮报》)as part of a social experiment. One of the conclusions from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music, how many other things are we missing?