英語美文短篇經(jīng)典短文閱讀
英語美文短篇經(jīng)典短文閱讀
所謂美文,就是人類文化中最佳的文章。而閱讀英語美文能大大提高自身的英語閱讀能力,學習啦小編精心收集了短篇英語美文給大家,供大家欣賞學習!
短篇英語美文篇1
To be or not to be
Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. Theywere spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words inShakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking manand woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly,or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he wasalive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answeredit by saying: "I think, therefore am."
But the best definition of existence ever saw did another philosopher who said: "To be is to bein relations." If this true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To liveabundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunatelywe are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupationhow much are we alive? If you are interest-ed only in your regular occupation, you are aliveonly to that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures,sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead.
Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest--even more, a newaccomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a largevariety of subjects can remain unhappy; the real pessimist is the person who has lostinterest.
Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, newfriends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true of ideas, which are also alive.Where your thoughts are, there will your live be also. If your thoughts are confined only toyour business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle of the town in which youlive, then you live in a narrow cir-conscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on inChina, then you are living in China~ if you’re interested in the characters of a good novel, thenyou are living with those highly interesting people, if you listen intently to fine music, you areaway from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination.
To be or not to be--to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Letwiden and intensify our relations. While we live, let live!
生存還是毀滅
“生存還是毀滅。”如果把《圣經(jīng)》除外,這六個字便是整個世界文學中最有名的六個字了。這六個字是哈姆雷特一次喃喃自語時說的,而這六個字也就成了莎士比亞作品中最有名的幾個字了,因為這里哈姆雷特不僅道出了他自己的心聲,同時也代表了一切有思想的男男女女。是活還是不活——是要生活還是不要生活,是要生活得豐滿充實,興致勃勃,還是只是活得枯燥委瑣,貧乏無味。一位哲人一次曾想弄清他自己是否是在活著,這個問題我們每個人也大可不時地問問我們自己。這位哲學家對此的答案是: “我思故我在。”
但是關(guān)于生存我所見過的一條最好的定義卻是另一位哲學家下的:“生活即是聯(lián)系。”如果這話不假的話,那么一個有生命者的聯(lián)系越多,它也就越有生氣。所謂要活得豐富充實也即是要擴大和加強我們的各種聯(lián)系。不幸的是,我們往往會因為天性不夠豐厚而容易陷入自己的陳規(guī)舊套。試問除去我們的日常工作,我們的真正生活又有多少?如果你只是對你的日常工作才有興趣,那你的生趣也就很有限了。至于在其它事物方面,比如詩歌、散文、音樂、美術(shù)、體育、無私的友誼、政治與國際事務(wù),等等——你只是死人一個。
但反過來說,每當你獲得一種新的興趣——甚至一項新的造詣——你就增長了你的生活本領(lǐng)。一個能對許許多多事物都深感興趣的人是不可能總不愉快的,真正的悲觀者只能是那些喪失興趣的人。
培根曾講過,一個人失去朋友即是死亡。但是憑著交往,憑著新朋,我們就能獲得再生。這條對于活人可謂千真萬確的道理在一定程度上也完全適用于人的思想,它們也都是活的。你的思想所在,你的生命便也在那里。如果你的思想不出你的業(yè)務(wù)范圍,不出你的物質(zhì)利益,不出你所在城鎮(zhèn)的狹隘圈子,那么你的一生便也只是多方受著局限的狹隘的一生。但是如果你對當前中國那里所發(fā)生的種種感到興趣,那么你便可說也活在中國;如果你對一本佳妙小說中的人物感到興趣,你便是活在一批極有趣的人們中間;如果你能全神貫注地聽點好的音樂,你就會超脫出你的周圍環(huán)境而活在一個充滿激情與想象的神奇世界之中。
生存還是毀滅——活得熱烈活得豐富,還是只是簡單存在,這就全在我們自己。但愿我們都能不斷擴展和增強我們的各種聯(lián)系。只要一天我們活著,就要一天是在活著。
短篇英語美文篇2
An October Sunrise
I was up the next morning be fore the October sunrise, and away through the wild and the woodland. The rising of the sun was noble in the cold and warmth of it peeping down the spread of light, he raised his shoulder heavily over the edge of grey mountain and wavering length of upland. Beneath his gaze the dew-fogs dipped, and crept to crept to the hollow places; then stole away in line and column, holding skirts, and clinging subtly at the sheltering corners where rock hung over grassland, while the brave lines of the hills came forth, one beyond other gliding.
The woods arose in folds, like drapery of awakened mountains, stately with a depth of awe, and memory of the tempests. Autumn’s mellow hand was upon them, as they owned already, touched with gold and red and olive, and their joy towards the sun was less to a bridegroom than a father.
Yet before the floating impress of the woods could clear it self, suddenly the gladsome light leaped over hill and valley, casting amber, blue, and purple, and a tint of rich red rose; according to the scene they lit on, and the curtain flung around; yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven hoof of darkness, all on the wings of hope advancing, and proclaiming, “God is here!” then life and joy sprang reassured from every crouching hollow; every flower, and bud and bird had a fluttering sense of them; and all the flashing of God’s gaze merged into soft beneficence.
So, perhaps, shall break upon us that eternal morning, when crag and chasm shall be no more, neither hill and valley, nor great unvintaged ocean; but all things shall arise, and shine in the light of the Father’s countenance, because itself is risen.
十月的日出
第二天凌晨,在十月的太陽升起之前,我已經(jīng)起身并穿過了曠野和叢林。十月的清晨乍寒還暖,日出的景象非常壯觀。透過一片晨曦,朝日從朦朧的山岡和起伏連綿的高地過際,沉重地抬起肩頭。在它的逼視下,蒙蒙的霧氣向下沉降,落到洼地里去,接著一絲絲一縷縷地悄悄飄散,而在草地之上懸?guī)r之下的那些隱秘角落里,霧氣卻還不愿散去,同時群山的雄姿接二連三地顯現(xiàn)出來。
森林也層層疊疊地顯現(xiàn),宛若剛剛蘇醒的山巒的斗篷,端莊威嚴,并帶著狂風暴雨的回憶。秋天成熟的手已經(jīng)在撫摸這些山林,因為它們的顏色已經(jīng)改變,染上了金黃,丹紅和橄欖綠。它們對朝日所懷的一片喜悅,像是要奉獻給一個新郎,更像是要奉獻給一位父親。
然而,在樹林那流動的景色逝去之前,歡悅的晨光突然躍出了峰巒和山谷,光線所及,把照到的地方和周圍的森林分別染成青色,紫色,琥珀色和富麗的紅玫瑰色。光線照到哪里,那里就如同一幅幕布被掀開。而所有的一切都同樣在驅(qū)散恐懼和黑暗的魔影;所有的一切都展開希望的翅膀,向前習翔,并大聲宣告:“上帝在這里!”于是生命和歡樂從每一個蜷伏的洞穴里信心十足地欣然躍出;一切花朵,蓓蕾和鳥雀都感到了生命和歡樂而抖動起來;上帝的凝視匯合成溫柔的恩澤。
也許,那永恒的晨光就會這樣降臨人間,那時不再有險崖溝壑,不再有峰巒山谷,也不再有浩瀚無際的海洋;萬物都將踴躍升騰,在造物主慈愛的光芒中生輝,因為太陽已經(jīng)升起。
短篇英語美文篇3
On Motes and Beams
It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what we cannot excuse in others. We turn our attention away from our own defects, and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them, find it easy to condone them. For all I know we are right to do this; they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in ourselves together.
But when we come to judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves fro which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world. To take a trivial instance: how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie; but who can say that he has never told not one, but a hundred?
There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have more strength of character, or more opportunity, and so in one direction or another give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same. For my part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows, even the most eminent and respectable, with humor, and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.
微塵與棟梁
讓人奇怪的是,和別人的過錯比起來,我們自身的過錯往往不是那樣的可惡。我想,其原因應(yīng)該是我們知曉一切導致自己犯錯的情況,因此能夠設(shè)法諒解自己的錯誤,而別人的錯誤卻不能諒解。我們對自己的缺點不甚關(guān)注,即便是深陷困境而不得不正視它們的時候,我們也會很容易就寬恕自己。據(jù)我所知,我們這樣做是正確的。缺點是我們自身的一部分,我們必須接納自己的好和壞。
但是當我們評判別人的時候,情況就不同了。我們不是通過真實的自我來評判別人,而是用一種自我形象來評判,這種自我形象完全摒棄了在任何世人眼中會傷害到自己的虛榮或者體面的東西。舉一個小例子來說:當覺察到別人說謊時,我們是多么地蔑視他啊!但是,誰能夠說自從未說過謊?可能還不止一百次呢。
人和人之間沒什么大的差別。他們皆是偉大與渺小,善良與邪惡,高尚與低俗的混合體。有的人性格比較堅毅,機會也比較多,因而達個或那個方面,能夠更自由地發(fā)揮自己的稟賦,但是人類的潛能卻都是相同的。至于我自己,我認為自己并不比大多數(shù)人更好或者更差,但是我知道,假如我記下我生命中每一次舉動和每一個掠過我腦海的想法的話,世界就會將我視為一個邪惡的怪物。每個人都會有這樣的怪念頭,這樣的認識應(yīng)當能夠啟發(fā)我們寬容自己,也寬容他人。同時,假如因此我們得以用幽默的態(tài)度看待他人,即使是天下最優(yōu)秀最令人尊敬的人,而且假如我們也因此不把自己看得過于重要,那是很有裨益的。
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