英語經典美文
在學習、工作或生活中，大家經常看到美文吧？美文重感性，長于抒情；雜文重知性，長于達意。想要學習寫美文嗎？以下是小編精心整理的英語經典美文，歡迎大家借鑒與參考，希望對大家有所幫助。
英語經典美文1
Alas, my love, ye do me wrong,To cast me off discurteously.
And I have loved you so long,Delighting in your company.
唉呀，親愛的。你不該如此對我，無情的把我拋棄：
我愛你愛了那么久，在你身邊快樂無比。
Greensleeves was all my joy,Greensleeves was my delight:
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,And who but lady greensleeves.
綠袖是我一切快樂，綠袖就是我的喜悅：
綠袖就是我心中的至愛，除了綠袖姑娘我誰也不愛。
I have been ready at your hand,To grant whatever your would crave.
I have both waged life and land,Your love and good will for to have.
縱然痛苦我也愿意承受，心甘情愿為你付出一切。
我以工作維生，有田有地，期冀蒙受你的愛情與青睞。
Thy smoke of silk, both fair and white,With gold embroidered gorgeously:
The petticoat of sendal right’
And thus I brought thee gladly.
潔白美麗的`絲綢衣裳，美幻絕倫的金線繡花：
得體的綢裙是我
歡歡喜喜買給你的禮物
Thy girdle of gold so red,With pearls bedecked sumptuously:
The like no other lasses had,And yet thou wouldst not love me.
紅彤彤的金束腰，綴著名貴的珠子：
你的容貌艷壓群芳：
而你不再愛我。
Greensleeves now farewell, adieu,God I pray to prosper thee:
For I am still thy lover true,Come once again and love me.
別了，綠袖，再會，我祝愿你幸福快樂：
我依然是你真摯的愛人，來吧，再愛我一次。
英語經典美文2
Father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarrelling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the faggot into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They each tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it.He next unclosed the faggot, and took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into their hands, on which they broke them easily. He then addressed them in these words: "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this faggot, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."
英語經典美文3
Time is like a river， the left bank is unable to forget the memories， right is worth grasp the youth， the middle of the fast flowing， is the sad young faint。 There are many good things， buttruly belong to own but not much。 See the courthouse blossom，honor or disgrace not Jing， hope heaven Yunjuanyunshu， has no intention to stay。 In this round the world， all can learn to use a normal heart to treat all around， is also a kind of realm！
中文：歲月就象一條河，左岸是無法忘卻的回憶，右岸是值得把握的青春年華，中間飛快流淌的，是年輕隱隱的傷感。世間有許多美好的東西，但真正屬于自己的卻并不多。看庭前花開花落，榮辱不驚，望天上云卷云舒，去留無意。在這個紛繞的`世界里，能夠學會用一顆平常的心去對待周圍的一切，也是一種境界！
英語經典美文4
She had been shopping with her Mom in Wal—Mart。 She must have been 6 years old， this beautiful brown haired， freckle—faced image of innocence。 It was pouring outside。 The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters， so much in a hurry to hit the Earth， it has no time to flow down the spout。
她和媽媽剛在沃爾瑪結束購物。這個天真的小女孩應該6歲大了，頭發是美麗的棕色，臉上有雀斑。外面下著傾盆大雨。雨水溢滿了檐槽，來不及排走，就迫不及待地涌漲上地面。
We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal—Mart。 We all waited， some patiently， others irritated， because nature messed up their hurried day。 I am always mesmerized by rainfall。 I get lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world。 Memories of running， splashing so carefree as a child come pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day。
我們都站在沃爾瑪門口的遮篷下。大家都在等待，有人很耐心，有人很煩躁，因為老天在給他們本已忙碌的一天添亂。雨天總引起我的遐思。我出神地聽著、看著老天沖刷洗滌這世界的污垢和塵埃，孩時無憂無慮地在雨中奔跑玩水的記憶洶涌而至，暫時緩解了我一天的'焦慮。
Her voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in， “Mom， let's run through the rain。" she said。
小女孩甜美的聲音打破了這令人昏昏欲睡的氣氛，“媽媽，我們在雨里跑吧。”她說。
"What？" Mom asked。
“什么？”母親問。
"Let's run through the rain！" She repeated。
“我們在雨里跑吧，”她重復。
"No， honey。 We'll wait until it slows down a bit。" Mom replied。
“不，親愛的，我們等雨小一點再走。”母親回答說。
This young child waited about another minute and repeated： "Mom， let's run through the rain。"
過了一會小女孩又說：“媽媽，我們跑出去吧。”
"We'll get soaked if we do。" Mom said。
“這樣的話我們會濕透的。”母親說。
"No， we won't， Mom。 That's not what you said this morning，" the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm。"
“不會的，媽媽。你今天早上不是這樣說的。”小女孩一邊說一邊拉著母親的手。
"This morning？ When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet？"
“今天早上？我什么時候說過我們淋雨不會濕啊？”
"Don't you remember？ When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer， you said， If God can get us through this， he can get us through anything！"
“你不記得了嗎？你和爸爸談他的癌癥時，你不是說‘如果上帝讓我們闖過這一關，那我們就沒有什么過不去。’”
The entire crowd stopped dead silent。 I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain。 We all stood silently。 No one came or left in the next few minutes。 Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say。
人群一片寂靜。我發誓，除了雨聲，你什么都聽不到。我們都靜靜地站著。接下來的幾分鐘沒有一個人走動。母親停了一下，想著應該說些什么。
Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly。 Some might even ignore what was said。 But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life。 Time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith。 "Honey， you are absolutely right。 Let's run through the rain。 If get wet， well maybe we just needed washing。" Mom said。 Then off they ran。
有人也許會對此一笑了之，或者責備這孩子的不懂事，有人甚至不把她的話放在心上。但這卻是一個小孩子一生中需要被肯定的時候。若受到鼓舞，此時孩子單純的信任就會發展成為堅定的信念。“親愛的，你說得對，我們跑過去吧。如果淋濕了，那也許是因為我們的確需要沖洗一下了。”母親說。然后她們就沖出去了。
We all stood watching， smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and。 They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case。 They got soaked。 But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars。 And yes， I did。 I ran。 I got wet。 I needed washing。Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions， they can take away your money， and they can take away your health。 But no one can ever take away your precious memories。 So， don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories every day！
我們站在那里，笑著看她們飛快地跑過停著的汽車。她們把購物袋高舉過頭想擋擋雨，但還是濕透了。好幾個人像孩子般尖叫著，大笑著，也跟著沖了出去，奔向自己的車子。當然，我也這樣做了，跑了出去，淋濕了。我也需要接受洗禮。環境或其他人可以奪去你的物質財富，搶走你的金錢，帶走你的健康，但沒有人可以帶走你珍貴的回憶。因此，記得要抓緊時間，抓住機會每天都給自己留下一些回憶吧
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven。 I hope you still take the time to run through the rain。
世間萬物皆有自己的季節，做任何事情也有一個恰當的時機。希望你有機會在雨中狂奔一回。
英語經典美文5
All time is precious; but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any other portion of our existence. For those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our faculties and capacities. If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away unutilized, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. As we grow older, our power of acquisition gets blunted, so that the art or science which is not acquired in childhood or youth will never be acquired at all. Just as money laid out at interest doubles and trebles itself in time, so the precious hours of childhood . .
and youth, if properly used, will yield us incalculable advantages. "Every moment you lose" says Lord Chesterfield "is so much character and advantage lost; as on the other hand, every moment you now employ usefully is so much time wisely laid out at prodigious interest."
A proper employment of time is of great benefit to us from a moral point of view. Idleness is justly said to be the rust of the mind and an idle brain is said to be Satan's workshop. It is mostly when you do not know what to do with yourself that you do something ill or wrong. The mind of the idler preys upon itself. As Watt has said:
In works of labour or of skill
Let me be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do. (249 words (686 words)
By Robert William Service
英語經典美文6
Nature satisfies by its loveliness，and without any mixture of corporeal benefit.I see the spectacle of morning from the hilltop over against my house，from daybreak to sunrise，with emotions which an angel might share.The long slender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of crimson light.From the earth，as a shore， I look out into that silent sea.I seem to partake its rapid transformations;the active enchantment reaches my dust， and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind. How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day， and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.Te dawn is my Assyria;the sunset and moonrise my Paphos， and unimaginable realms of faerie;broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding;the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.
自然的悅人是因其可愛，不摻雜任何物欲之念。從我房屋前的.山頂，我觀看壯美的晨景，從拂曉一直到日出，如此情境或許天使亦有同感。絲絲柔云飄渺浮動，宛若魚兒暢游于霞光之海。從岸一般的大地上，我眺望平靜的云海。天色瞬息萬變，我也心神投入其中。云蒸霞蔚，逼我形骸，隨著拂曉的風，我感到激情充溢于胸。自然之功，竟以了了晨風微云，使我們心神入定!給我健康之軀，給我一天的時日，我就能夠享受帝王的威嚴與盛隆。晨曦是我的亞述古國;日落和明月是我夢想中怕弗仙境;正午是我感覺與理解中是英格蘭;夜晚是我神秘哲思與夢境的德意志。
英語經典美文7
From the window of my room, I could see a tall cotton-rose hibiscus. In spring, when green foliage was half hidden by mist, the tree looked very enchanting dotted with red blossom. This inspiring neighbor of mine often set my mind working. I gradually regarded it as my best friend.
從我的房間的窗子向外望去,可以看到一株高大的芙蓉樹.春日里,芙蓉樹在薄霧中若隱若現,紅花點點,樣子實在迷人.它總是賦予我靈感,讓我思如泉涌.時間久了,我竟把這菱蓉視為知已了.
Nevertheless, when I opened the window one morning, to my amazement, the tree was almost bare beyond recognition as a result of the storm ravages the night before. Struck by the plight, I was seized with a sadness at the thought “all the blossom is doomed to fall”. I could not help sighing with emotion: the course of life never runs smooth, for there are so many ups and downs, twists and turns. The vicissitudes of my life saw my beloved friends parting one after another. Isn’t it similar to the tree shedding its flowers in the wind?
然而,一天清晨,當我推開窗子時,愕然發現前夜的一場風雨已將它摧殘得落紅滿地.剎那間,我有一種"花開終有落"的悲涼感覺.這使我不由得發出一聲慨嘆:人生的旅途中,總是少不了種種羈絆,那些曲折的經歷總會伴隨著我們.曾經失去過的摯愛的朋友,生命的脆弱不正是像這隨風而逝的'花嗎?
This event faded from my memory as time went by. One day after I came home from the countryside, I found the room stuffy and casually opened the window. Something outside caught my eye and dazzled me. It was a plum tree all scarlet with blossom set off beautifully by the sunset. The surprise discovery overwhelmed me with pleasure. I wondered why I had no idea of some unyielding life sprouting over the fallen petals when I was grieving for the hibiscus.
隨著時間的流逝,我漸漸地把那天的感觸淡忘了,一次出差回來,感到屋內的空氣有些沉悶,于是我不經意的打開了窗,可就在那一瞬,我被眼前的景象驚呆了.窗外,一株李子樹開花了,火紅火紅的花朵,滿樹都是.在夕陽的映襯下,分外美麗.這意外讓我驚喜不已.沒想到當初自己只顧悲傷,卻沒發現那凄涼的背后,竟存在著如此堅強的靈魂.
When the last withered petal dropped, all the joyful admiration for the hibiscus sank into oblivion as if nothing was left, until the landscape was again ablaze with the red plum blossom to remind people of life’s alternation and continuance. Can’t it be said that life is actually a symphony, a harmonious composition of loss and gain.
是啊,當芙蓉的最后一片花瓣凋落之時,人們以往對它的贊許都已成為過眼去煙.可如今,李子樹卻成長起來了,那火紅的花兒正向人們昭示著生命的更迭與繁衍.誰能否認生命原本就是一場得失共存的交響音呢?
Standing by the window lost in thought for a long time, I realized that no scenery in the world remains unchanged. As long as you keep your heart basking in the sun, every dawn will present a fine prospect for you to unfold and the world will always be about new hopes.
我久久地佇立在窗前,深深感悟到,生命之中本沒有一成不變的風景,只要你的心永遠向著陽光,那么每一個清晨就會向你展現出一個等待著由你來開啟的美景.不管你正經歷著怎樣的風雨,請相信,這個世界總會帶給你新的希望.
英語經典美文8
自制
Self-control is essential to happiness and usefulness.
自制是快樂及有為不可或缺的部分。
It is the master of all the virtues, and has its root in self-respect.
它主宰所有的美德，并扎根于自尊。
Let a man yield to his impulses and passions, and from that moment he gives up his moralfreedom.
一個人若受到沖動、感情用事支配的話，從那一刻起他便放棄了他的道德自由。
It is the self-discipline of a man that enables him to pursue success with superior diligenceand sobriety.
自律使人能夠更加勤奮、更加冷靜地來追求成功。
Many of the great characters in history illustrate this trait.
歷史上許多偉人都展現了這樣的'特質。
In ordinary life the application is the same.
自律亦可同樣運用在日常生活中。
He who would lead must first command himself.
欲領導他人的人必須先統御自己。
The time of test is when everybody is excited or angry, then the well一balanced mind comes tothe front.
每個人激動生氣時，便是考驗的時刻，這時心平氣和的人便會出頭了。
There is a very special demand for the cultivation of this trait at present.
目前最需要培養這種特質了。
The young men who rush into business with no good education or drill will do poor andfeverish work.
沒有受過良好的教育或磨練便匆匆投入商場的小伙子，做起事來一定是差勁而毛躁。
Endurance is a much better test of character than act of heroism.
忍耐要比逞英雄更能考驗品德。
A fair amount of self-examination is good，Self-knowledge is a preface to self-control.
適度的自我檢討很不錯。若有自知之明方能自制。
Too much self-inspection leads to morbidness; too little conducts to careless and hastyaction.
不過過度的自我檢討會成為病態，檢討不足則又導致行事粗心草率。
There are two things which will surely strengthen our self-control.
有兩件事肯定會增強我們的自制力。
One is attention to conscience; the other is a spirit of good will.
其一是注重良知，其二是心懷善意。
The man who would succeed in any great undertaking must hold all his faculties under perfectcontrol;
若要實現任何偉大的抱負獲得成功就必須妥善掌控自己的才能;
they must be disciplined and drilled until they quickly and cheerfully obey the will.
他必須要先加以約束、磨練這些才能，它們方能迅速而又愉快地服從他的心意。
是
英語經典美文9
The word "discovery" literally means, uncovering something that's hidden from view. But what really happens is a change in the viewer. The familiar offers comfort few can resist, and fewer still want to disturb. But as relatively recent inventions such as the telescope and microscope have taught us, the unknown has many layers. Every truth has geological strata, and you can't have an orthodoxy without a heresy.
The moment a newborn opens its eyes, discovery begins. I learned this with a laugh one morning after delivering a calf. When it lifted up its fluffy head and looked at me, its eyes held the absolute bewilderment of the newly born. A moment before it had the even black nowhere of the womb, and suddenly its world was full of colour, movement and noise. I've never seen anything so shocked to be alive.
“發現”一詞，字面上是指揭開某種視線以外的隱藏的事物。不過其實是觀察者自身發生了變化。很少人能抗拒熟悉事物帶來的舒適，愿意擾亂這種舒適的人更少。然而，正如望遠鏡、顯微鏡這些較為近期的.發明所揭示給我們的，未知事物具有多種層次。每個事實都有地質層次，沒有異端也就無所謂正統。
新生兒睜開雙眼的那一刻起，發現也就開始了。我是在一天清晨給一頭小牛犢接生的時候突然意識到這一點的，不禁大笑。小牛仰起毛茸茸的腦袋看著我，目光中透出這個新生生命對世界的一無所知。片刻之前，它還呆在母體里某個黑暗而平靜的地方，突然，它的世界變得五光十色，變得活潑而喧鬧。我從未見過任何東西在獲得生命時是如此的驚異。
英語經典美文10
Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? - If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment?
燕子去了，有再來的時候；楊柳枯了，有再青的時候；桃花謝了，有再開的時候。但是，聰明的，你告訴我，我們的日子為什么一去不復返呢？——是有人偷了他們罷：那是誰？又藏在何處呢？是他們自己逃走了：現在又到了哪里呢？
I dont know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes.
我不知道他們給了我多少日子；但我的手確乎是漸漸空虛了。在默默里算著，八千多日子已經從我手中溜去；象針尖上一滴水滴在大海里，我的日子滴在時間的流里，沒有聲音也沒有影子。我不禁頭涔涔而淚潸潸了。
Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how swift is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus--the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh.
去的盡管去了，來的盡管來著，去來的中間，又怎樣的匆匆呢？早上我起來的時候，小屋里射進兩三方斜斜的太陽。太陽他有腳啊，輕輕悄悄地挪移了；我也茫茫然跟著旋轉。于是——洗手的時候，日子從水盆里過去；吃飯的時候，日子從飯碗里過去；默默時，便從凝然的雙眼前過去。我覺察他去的匆匆了，伸出手遮挽時，他又從遮挽著的手邊過去，天黑時，我躺在床上，他便伶伶俐俐地從我身邊垮過，從我腳邊飛去了。等我睜開眼和太陽再見，這算又溜走了一日。我掩著面嘆息。但是新來的'日子的影兒又開始在嘆息里閃過了。
What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing!
在逃去如飛的日子里，在千門萬戶的世界里的"我能做些什么呢？只有徘徊罷了，只有匆匆罷了；在八千多日的匆匆里，除徘徊外，又剩些什么呢？過去的日子如輕煙卻被微風吹散了，如薄霧，被初陽蒸融了；我留著些什么痕跡呢？我何曾留著象游絲樣的痕跡呢？我赤裸裸來到這世界，轉眼間也將赤裸裸地回去罷？但不能平的，為什么偏要白白走這一遭啊？
You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?
你聰明的，告訴我，我們的日子為什么一去不復返呢？
英語經典美文11
It’stwoo’clockintheafternoon.Thesunis shinning and it’s very hot. Nancy has to meet her mother at the train station. Now she’s walking in the street. There are no trees and she’s fat. So she feels very hot. But she doesn’t find a boy walking just behind her. And she meets a friend and says “hello” to him. “Who’s the boy behind you？” asks the man . Now she sees the boy. She is angry and asks, “Why are you walking behind me, boy?” “There’snoshadeinthestreet, you know.” answers the boy. “It’s cool behind you, I think.”
英語經典美文12
A cab driver taught me a million dollar lesson in customer satisfaction and expectation. Motivational speakers charge thousands of dollars to impart this kind of training to corporate executives and staff. It cost me a $12 taxi ride.
I had flown into Dallas for the sole purpose of calling on a client. Time was of the essence and my plan included a quick turnaround trip from and back to the airport. A spotless cab pulled up. The driver rushed to open the passenger door for me and made sure I was comfortably seated before he closed the door. As he got in the driver"s seat, he mentioned that the neatly folded Wall Street Journal next to me was for my use. He then showed me several tapes and asked me what type of music I would enjoy. Well! I looked around for a "Candid Camera!" Wouldn"t you? I could not believe the service I was receiving! I took the opportunity to say, "Obviously you take great pride in your work. You must have a story to tell."
"You bet," he replied, "I used to be in Corporate America. But I got tired of thinking my best would never be good enough. I decided to find my niche in life where I could feel proud of being the best I could be. I knew I would never be a rocket scientist, but I love driving cars, being of service and feeling like I have done a full day"s work and done it well. I evaluate my personal assets and… wham! I became a cab driver. One thing I know for sure, to be good in my business I could simply just meet the expectations of my passengers. But, to be great in my business, I have to exceed the customer"s expectations! I like both the sound and the return of being "great" better than just getting by on "average""
Did I tip him big time? You bet! Corporate America"s loss is the travelling folk"s friend!
怎樣令顧客滿意，達到他們的期望，一個出租車司機給我上了寶貴的一課。換了是一些給公司行政人員和員工作培訓的講師，可能要收取上萬的課酬才會傳授這等經驗。而我呢，只花了12美元的出租車費就學到了。
之前我為了見一個客戶飛了一趟達拉斯，時間就是生命，按照行程計劃，我馬上又折返回到了機場。一輛一塵不染的'出租車停在面前。司機隨即替我開車門，確定我穩穩妥妥地坐好后才把門關上。坐進駕駛室時，他不忘提醒我，旁邊疊得整整齊齊的《華爾街日報》是給我看的。接著，他拿了幾盤帶子出來，問我喜歡什么類型的音樂。哇塞!我到處張望，看偷拍鏡頭究竟藏在哪里。碰到這樣的情形，你也會有這個反應吧?我簡直不敢相信會享受到這般服務!我趁機和他聊了起來：“看得出你很以自己的工作為豪，這里頭一定有什么故事吧。”
“你說中了，”他答道，“我以前也是美國商界一員，但是我已經厭倦了怎么努力也達不到別人定下的目標這種生活。我決定要為我的人生創造屬于自己的新天地，在那里我可以為自己的最佳表現而感到自豪。我知道我永遠也不會成為一個火箭科學家，但是喜歡開車，喜歡為別人服務，喜歡感覺完成一整天的工作而且把事情做好。算了一下手頭的資產后，我就當起出租車司機了。我很清楚要干好這一行，需要做的僅僅就是滿足乘客的期望。但是我要做出不一般的成績，我的服務就要超出顧客的期望!我不要以一般服務混日子，我喜歡聽到顧客對我優良服務的贊賞和為此得到的回報。”
我有沒有爽快給他小費?當然有!奔波各地的我就這樣和這個美國商界流失的一大人才成了朋友。
英語經典美文13
29. The Enchantment of Creeks (1)
Nearly everybody has a creek in his past, a confiding waterway that rose in the spring of youth.…….
My creek wound between Grandfather's apricot orchard and a neighbor's hillside pasture. It banks were shaded by cottonwoods and redwood trees and a thick tangle of blackberries and wild grapevines. On hot summer days the quiet water flowed clear and cold over gravel bars where I fished for trout.
Nothing historic ever happens in these recollected creeks. But their persistence in memory suggests that creeks are bigger than they seem, more a part of our hearts and minds than mighty rivers.
Creek time is measured in the lives of strange creatures, in sandflecked caddis worms under the rocks, sudden gossamer clouds of mayflies in the afternoon, or minnows of darting like silvers of inspiration into the dimness of creek fate. Mysteries float in creeks' riffles, crawl over their pebbled bottoms and slink under the roots of trees.
While rivers are heavy with sophistication and sediment, creeks are clear, innocent, boisterous, full of dream and promise. A child can wade across them without a parent's cautions. You can go it along, jig for crayfish, swing from ropes along the bank. Creeks belong to childhood, drawing you into the wider world, teaching you the curve of the earth. (214 words)
英語經典美文14
E. M. Forster was a member of the Bloomsbury Group—writers, artists, and philosophers living in London who helped shape the modernist movement of the first half of this century. Forster was born in London, but was raised in the countryside of Herforshire. While studying at King’s College, Cambridge, he became deeply interested in cultures other than his own and later traveled widely. In 1912 he sailed with two friends to India where his observations and experiences provided him with the materials from which he later created his highly acclaimed novel A Passage to India (1924), the book to which he refers in the first paragraph of “My Wood.” His fiction often dealt with the effects of social conventions on the natural course of human relationships. Forster’s other major novels are Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), A Room With a View (1908), Howards End (1910), Maurice (1914). Forster acquired a well-deserved reputation as a social and literary critic, as well as a short story writer.
“My Wood” is part of Forster’s 1936 Essay, Abinger Harvest. In this essay, Forster explains the effects produced by owning property. With wit and humor, Forster suggests that purchasing land may not bring the uncomplicated happiness we might expect.
A few years ago I wrote a book which dealt in part with the difficulties of the English in India. Feeling that they would have had no difficulties in India themselves, the Americans read the book freely. The more they read it the better it made them feel, and a cheque to the author was the result. I bought a wood with the cheque. It is not a large wood—it contains scarcely any trees, and it is intersected, blast it, by a public footpath. Still, it is the first property that I have owned, so it is right that other people should participate in my shame, and should ask themselves in accents that will vary in horror, this very important question: What is the effect of property upon the character? Don’t let’s touch economics; the effect of private ownership upon the community as a whole is another question—a more important question, perhaps, but another one. Let’s keep to psychology. If you own things, what’s their effect on you? What’s the effect on me of my wood?
In the first place, it makes me feel heavy. Property does have this effect. Property produces men of weight, and it was a man of weight who failed to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. He was not wicked, that unfortunate millionaire in the parable, he was only stout; he stuck out in front not to mention behind, and as he wedged himself this way and that in the crystalline entrance and bruised his well-fed flanks, he saw beneath him a comparatively slim camel passing through the eye of a needle and being woven into the rob of God.[1] The Gospels all through couple stoutness and slowness. They point out what is perfectly obvious, yet seldom realized: that if you have a lot of things you cannot move about a lot; that furniture requires dusting, dusters require servants, servants require insurance stamps, and the whole tangle of them makes you think twice before you accept an invitation to dinner or go for a bathe in the Jordan. Sometimes the Gospels proceed further and say with Tolstoy that property is sinful; they approach the difficult ground of asceticism here, where I cannot follow them. But as to the immediate effects of property on people, they just show straightforward logic. It produces men of weight. Men of weight cannot, by definition, move like the lightning from the East unto the West, and the ascent of a fourteen-stone bishop into a pulpit is thus the exact antithesis of the coming of the Son of Man.[2] My wood makes me feel heavy.
In the second place, it makes me feel it ought to be larger.
The other day I heard a twig snap in it. I was annoyed at first, for I thought that someone was blackberrying, and depreciating the value of the undergrowth. On coming nearer, I saw it was not a man who had trodden on the twig and snapped it, but a bird, and I felt pleased. My bird. The bird was not equally pleased. Ignoring the relation between us, it took fright as soon as it saw the shape of my face, and flew straight over the boundary hedge into a field, the property of Mrs. Henessy, where it sat down with a loud squawk. It had become Mrs. Henessy’s bird. Something seemed grossly amiss here, something that would not have occurred had the wood been larger. I could not afford to buy Mrs. Henessy out, I dared not murder her, and limitations of this sort beset me on every side. Ahab[3] did not want that vineyard—he only needed it to round off his property, preparatory to plotting a new curve—and all the land around my wood has become necessary to me in order to round off the wood. A boundary protects. But—poor little thing—the boundary ought in its turn to be protected. Noises on the edge of it. Children throw stones. A little more and then a little more, until we reach the sea. Happy Canute.[4] Happier Alexander![5] And after all, why should even the world be the limit of possession? A rocket containing a Union Jack, will, it is hoped, be shortly fired at the moon. Mars. Sirius. Beyond which… But these immensities ended by saddening me. I could not suppose that my wood was the destined nucleus of universal dominion—it is so very small and contains no mineral wealth beyond the blackberries. Nor was I comforted when Mrs. Henessy’s bird took alarm for the second time and flew clean away from us all, under the belief that it belonged to itself.
In the third place, property makes its owner feel that he ought to do something to it. Yet he isn’t sure what. A restlessness comes over him, a vague sense that he has a personality to express—the same sense which, without any vagueness, leads the artist to an act of creation. Sometimes I think I will cut down such trees as remain in the wood, at other times I want to fill up the gaps between them with new trees. Both impulses are pretentious and empty. They are not honest movements towards money-making or beauty. They spring from a foolish desire to express myself and form an inability to enjoy what I have got. Creation, property, enjoyment form sinister trinity in the human mind. Creation, property, enjoyment are both very, very good, yet they are often unattainable without a material basis, and at such moments property pushes itself in as a substitute, saying, “Accept me instead—I’m good enough for all three.” It is not enough. It is, as Shakespeare said of lust, “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame”: it is “Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.” Yet we don’t know how to shun it. It is forced on us by our economic system as the alternative to starvation. It is also forced on us by an internal defect in the soul, by the feeling that in property may lie the germs of self-development and of exquisite or heroic deeds. Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality properly; they are still entangled with the desire for ownership, where (in the words of Dante) “Possession is one with loss.”
And this brings us to our fourth and final point: the blackberries.
Blacberries are not plentiful in this meagre grove, but they are easily seen from the public footpath which traverses it, and all too easily gathered. Foxgloves, too—people will pull up the foxgloves, and ladies of an educational tendency even grub for toadstools to show them on the Monday in class. Other ladies, less educated, roll down the bracken in the arms of their gentlemen friends. There is paper, there are tins. Pray, does my wood belong to me or doesn’t it? And, if it does, should I not own it best by allowing no one else to walk there? There is a wood near Lyme Regis, also cursed by a public footpath, where the owner has not hesitated on this point. He had built high stone walls each side of the path, and has spanned it by bridges, so that the public circulate like termites while he gorges on the blackberries unseen. He really does own his wood, this able chap. Dives in Hell did pretty well, but the gulf dividing him from Lazarus[6] could be traversed by vision, and nothing traverses it here. And perhaps I shall come to this in time. I shall wall in and fence out until I really taste the sweets of property. Enormously stout, endlessly avaricious, pseudo-creative, intensely selfish, I shall weave upon my forehead the quadruple crown of possession until those nasty Bolshies come and take it off again and thrust me aside into the outer darkness.
Questions for Comprehension and Consideration
1. What are the four effects Forster describes as resulting from his purchase of the wood? Explain briefly some of the details Forster uses to explain each of these four effects.
2. In the opening section of the essay, Forster describes the response of Americans to a book he wrote. Why does he emphasize the reaction of Americans? What relationship does the opening paragraph have to the rest of the essay?
3. Forster uses many allusions (references to works or events outside the essay itself) to explain his ideas. Research several of these allusions and explain how these contribute to the central idea of the essay. (For example, in the second paragraph Forster refers to the Gospel of Matthew, 19:24, and to Leo Tolstoy’s views on property.)
4. In the fifth paragraph, Forster begins with specific examples from his own wood and his response to it and ends with generalizations. As he moves from the concrete to the abstract, his tone changes. Analyze the change in tone and explain how Froster uses personal 阿experience as a way to exemplify his general thesis concerning the effects of ownership.
5. In this essay, Forster uses his own experience with ownership to generalize about society’s materialism. Do you consider yourself materialistic? In what ways? Do you consider it a positive or negative trait in yourself or others? Think of something you have purchased after wanting it for a long time. In an essay explain the two or three main ways in which owning this item has affected your life.
[1] See Matthew, XIX, 23-24. (Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
[2] Son of Man Jesus Christ
[3] See 1 Kings, XXI, 1-8. (Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spririt so vexed that you eat no food?” And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it; and he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ” And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city.
[4] Canute (Cnut) (c. 995—1035) King of England, Denmark and Norway. He invaded Scotland in about 1027, and conquered Norway in 1028. His emire broke up after his death.
[5] Alexander III of Macedon (356-323B.C.) the Great king
[6] See Luke XVI, 19-28 (“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ ”)
英語經典美文15
If you ask me something about my happiest time, I'll answer like this.
如果你問我什么時候最快樂，我會說這樣回答。
I don't know exactly about my happiest time, because every day I'm living is the happiest time for me. I always keep a good mood. Every day I'm happy at work. When I'm at work, I always do my best, so my boss is satisfied with me. I get on well with my colleagues as well, since I'm always willing to help them. No wonder I have so many friends. That is to say, I am happy when I am working.
我不知道確切的最快樂的時光，因為我活著的每一天都是我最快樂的時光。我總是保持一個好心情。我每天都很快樂的工作。在我工作的時候，我總是努力做到最好，所以我的老板對我很滿意。我和同事相處得很好，因為我總是愿意幫助他們。難怪我有很多的'朋友。也就是說，當我工作的時候我很高興。
What's more, my best friends Phillip and Oscar always speak English with me. Every time, they bring me a very big surprise. They help me a lot. Thanks to their help, my oral English is getting better and better. I don't know how to appreciate them. Keeping learning makes me happy, too.
而且，我最好的朋友菲利普和奧斯卡總是和我說英語。每次他們都讓我大吃一驚。他們幫了我很多。由于他們的幫助，我的英語口語變得越來越好了。我不知道如何感謝他們。不斷的學習也讓我很開心。
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