经典英语美文阅读:对青春常在的感想
优美的文字于细微处传达出美感,并浸润着人们的心灵。通过英语美文,不仅能够感受语言之美,领悟语言之用,还能产生学习语言的兴趣。度过一段美好的时光,即感悟生活,触动心灵。下面学习啦小编为大家带来经典英语美文阅读,希望大家喜欢!
经典英语美文阅读:对青春常在的感想
No young man believes he shall ever die. It was a saying of my brother's, and a fine one. There is a feeling of Eternity in youth, which makes us amend for everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortal Gods. One half of time indeed is flown--the other half remains in store for us with all its countless treasures; for there is no line drawn, and we see no limit to our hopes and wishes. We make the coming age our own.
年轻人不相信自己会死。这是我哥哥的话,可算得一句妙语。青春有一种永生之感--它能弥补一切。人在青年时代好像一尊永生的神明。诚然,生命的一半已经消失,但蕴藏着不尽财富的另一半还有所保留,我们对它也抱着无穷的希望和幻想。未来的时代完全属于我们--
The vast, the unbounded prospect lies before us.
无限辽阔的远景在我们面前展现。
Death, old age, are words without a meaning, that pass by us like the idle air which we regard not. Others may have undergone, or may still be liable to them--we "bear a charmed life", which laughs to scorn all such sickly fancies. As in setting out on delightful journey, we strain our eager gaze forward.
死亡,老年,不过是空话,毫无意义;我们听了,只当耳边风,全不放在心上。这些事,别人也许经历过,或者可能要承受,但是我们自己,“在灵符护佑下度日”,对于诸如此类脆弱的念头,统统付之轻蔑的一笑。像是刚刚走上愉快的旅程,极目远眺--
Bidding the lovely scenes at distance hail!
向远方的美景欢呼!
And see no end to the landscape, new objects presenting themselves as we advance; so, in the commencement of life, we set no bounds to our inclinations, nor to the unrestricted opportunities of gratifying them. We have as yet found no obstacle, no disposition to flag; and it seems that we can go on so forever. We look round in a new world, full of life, and motion, and ceaseless progress; and feel in ourselves all the vigour and spirit to keep pace with it, and do not foresee from any present symptoms how we shall be left behind in the natural course of things, decline into old age, and drop into the grave. It is the simplicity, and as it were abstractedness to our feelings in youth, that (so to speak) identifies us with nature, and (our experience being slight and our passions strong) deludes us into a belief of being immortal like it. Our short-lives connection with existence we fondly flatter ourselves, is an indissoluble and lasting union--a honeymoon that knows neither coldness, jar, nor separation. As infants smile and sleep, we are rocked in the cradle of our wayward fancies, and lulled into security by the roar of the universe around us--we quaff the cup of life with eager haste without draining it, instead of which it only overflows the more--objects press around us, filling the mind with their magnitude and with the strong of desires that wait upon them, so that we have no room for the thoughts of death.
此时,但觉好风光应接不暇,而且,前程更有美不胜收的新鲜景致。在这生活的开端,我们听任自己的志趣驰聘,放手给它们一切满足的机会。到此时为止,我们还 没有碰上过什么障碍,也没有感觉到什么疲惫,因此觉得还可以一直这样向前走去,直到永远。我们看到四周一派新天地--生机盎然,变动不居,日新月异;我们 觉得自己活力充盈,精神饱满,可与宇宙并驾齐驱。而且,眼前也无任何迹象可以证明,在大自然的发展过程中,我们自己也会落伍,衰老,进入坟墓。由于年轻人 天真单纯,可以说是茫然无知,因而将自己跟大自然划上等号;并且,由于经验少而感情盛,误以为自己也能和大自然一样永世长存。我们一厢情愿,痴心妄想,竟 把自己在世上的暂时栖身,当作千古不变、万世长存的结合,好像没有冷淡、争执、离别的蜜月。像婴儿带着微笑入睡,我们躺在用自己编织成的摇篮里,让大千世 界的万籁之声催哄我们安然入梦;我们急切切,兴冲冲地畅饮生命之杯,怎么也不会饮干,反而好像永远是满满欲溢的;森罗万象纷至沓来,各种欲望随之而生,使 我们腾不出工夫去想死亡。
经典英语美文阅读:自由思想与心灵的作用
At the beginning of the World Series of 1947, I experienced a completely new emotion, when the National Anthem was played.This time, I thought, it is being played for me, as much as for anyone else. This is organized major league baseball, and I am standing here with all the others; and everything that takes place includes me.
1947年的世界职业棒球大赛开赛那天,当美国国歌奏响的那一刻,我产生了一种全新的情感。这一次,国歌是为我而奏,就像为其他人奏一样。我终于能和其他人一样,站在职业棒球大联盟球赛的赛场上,成为这一切的一部分。
About a year later, I went to Atlanta, Georgia, to play in an exhibition game. On the field, for the first time in Atlanta, there were Negroes and whites. Other Negroes, besides me. And I thought: What I have always believed has come to be.
大约一年以后,我参加了在乔治亚州首府亚特兰大举办的一次棒球表演赛。这是亚特兰大的赛场上第一次同时出现白人和黑人运动员。除我之外,还有其他黑人选手。那一刻,我一直坚守的信念终于实现了。
And what is it that I have always believed? First, that imperfections are human. But that wherever human beings were given room to breathe and time to think, those imperfections would disappear, no matter how slowly. I do not believe that we have found or even approached perfection. That is not necessarily in the scheme of human events. Handicaps, stumbling blocks, prejudices — all of these are imperfect. Yet, they have to be reckoned with because they are in the scheme of human events.
我一直坚守的信念是什么呢?首先,我知道人类不可避免会有缺陷。但只要人类有一息尚存,只要人类还能思考,这些缺陷一定会逐渐消失,无论过程会多么漫长。我 并不认为我们已经到达或正在接近完美无缺的境界。完美无缺的境界并非人类社会不可或缺的一部分。有些缺陷,例如残疾、障碍和偏见,在人类社会中都存在,也 就需要我们勇敢地去面对。
Whatever obstacles I found made me fight all the harder. But it would have been impossible for me to fight at all, except that I was sustained by the personal and deep-rooted belief that my fight had a chance. It had a chance because it took place in a free society. Not once was I forced to face and fight an immovable object. Not once was the situation so cast-iron rigid that I had no chance at all. Free minds and human hearts were at work all around me; and so there was the probability of improvement. I look at my children now, and know that I must still prepare them to meet obstacles and prejudices.
我一路上遇到的阻碍都促使我更加努力地去抗争、去奋斗。然而,如果不是我内心深处坚信我的奋斗有希望,我就根本无法坚持。我的奋斗有希望,因为这是一个自 由的社会。在这里,我不止一次遇到过无法逾越的障碍,也不止一次经历过令人绝望的境况。但那时,思想与心灵的自由便能起作用,让我摆脱困境。如今我看着自 己的孩子们,我知道我仍需要他们准备面对困难与歧视。
But I can tell them, too, that they will never face some of these prejudices because other people have gone before them. And to myself I can say that, because progress is unalterable, many of today's dogmas will have vanished by the time they grow into adults. I can say to my children: There is a chance for you. No guarantee, but a chance.And this chance has come to be, because there is nothing static with free people. There is no Middle Ages logic so strong that it can stop the human tide from flowing forward. I do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe — and with every fiber in me — that what I was able to attain came to be because we put behind us (no matter how slowly) the dogmas of the past: to discover the truth of today; and perhaps find the greatness of tomorrow.
然而,我可以告诉他们,正因为前人的努力奋斗,他们今后不必再经受我们现在承受的某些偏见。我也告诉自己,社会进步是必然的,当我的孩子们长大成人时,现 在社会上的许多教条一定会消失。因此,我可以告诉我的孩子们:你们有希望——我不敢保证什么,但肯定有希望。有自由思想的人决不会停滞不前,所以你们有希 望。再也没有中世纪强大荒谬的逻辑能阻挡人类历史的潮流滚滚向前。我并不认为从事任何职业的任何人都能排除一切障碍获得成功——这样的完美不现实。但我的 确有一条坚定不疑的信念——我现在所做到的一切是因为我们能够抛开从前的教条(无论多么缓慢),能探寻当下的真理,也许还能发现未来的美好。
I believe in the human race. I believe in the warm heart. I believe in man's integrity. I believe in the goodness of a free society. And I believe that the society can remain good only as long as we are willing to fight for it — and to fight against whatever imperfections may exist.My fight was against the barriers that kept Negroes out of baseball. This was the area where I found imperfection, and where I was best able to fight. And I fought because I knew it was not doomed to be a losing fight. It couldn't be a losing fight-not when it took place in a free society. And in the largest sense, I believe that what I did was done for me — that it was my faith in God that sustained me in my fight. And that what was done for me must and will be done for others.
我相信人类。我相信热诚的心。我相信人们的正直与诚实。我相信自由社会中的美德。我相信只要我们愿意为之奋斗,愿意与所存在的缺陷抗争到底,这个社会就能永远美好。棒球比赛将黑人拒之门外就是人类社会的一种缺陷。既然我有这个能力,我就要和这种现象抗争到底。我抗争,因为我知道这场战斗并非注定以失败告终。这场战斗不会失败——在一个自由社会中这场战斗不可能失败。大而言之,我所做到的一切都市上苍的眷顾——正是我对上帝的信仰支撑着我,给我抗争的勇气。我相信被眷顾的不仅仅是我一个人,而应是、也将是我们所有人。