专心致志Single-hearted Devotion

Single-hearted Devotion（成语 专心致志 英文）

Now, playing chess as a skill is insignificant. But, if one does not give single-hearted devotion to it, it won’t be learned, just like any other skills.

Yi Qiu was known as an expert at the game throughout the land. Once he gave lessons on chess to two men. One of them was completely absorbed in his teaching, listening attentively to Yi Qiu while the other, who seemed to be listening, had his mind on something else. In fact, he was having a fancy that a swan was flying towards him and he had in his hands a bow and an arrow adorned with a long trailing silk tape, ready to shoot. As a result, though he was having the same lesson together with the first man, yet he turned our a much inferior pupil.

Should we say that the second man had a lower intelligence? No, that would not be true.The idiom means that pay full attention on something.



专心致志(chinese idioms)
从前有一个下棋能手名叫奕秋，他的棋艺非常高超。
　　奕秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。
　　结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。