经典英语美文摘抄欣赏
随着英语的国际化越来越广泛,我国的英语学习者也逐年激增,各大英语学习网站也推出英语美文的赏析和阅读。学习啦小编分享经典英语美文，希望可以帮助大家!
经典英语美文：Smile 微笑
Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other―it doesn’t matter who it is―and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.
Many Americans are familiar with The Little Prince, a wonderful book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is a whimsical(古怪的) and fabulous book and works as a children’s story as well as a thought-provoking(刺激的) adult fable. Far fewer are aware of Saint-Exupery’s other writings, novels and short stories.
Saint-Exupery was a fighter pilot who fought against the Nazis and was killed in action. Before World War II, he fought in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. He wrote a fascinating story based on that experience entitled The Smile. It is this story which I'd like to share with you now. It isn't clear whether or not he meant this to be autobiographical or fiction. I choose to believe it to be the former.
He said that he was captured by the enemy and thrown into a jail cell. He was sure that from the contemptuous(轻蔑的，侮辱的) looks and rough treatment he received from his jailers he would be executed the next day. From here, I’ll tell the story as I remember it in my own words.
"I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous and distraught(发狂的) . I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had taken those.
“I looked through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. After all, one does not make eye contact with a thing, a corpse. I called out to him 'Have you got a light?' He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.
"As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently(不注意地) locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don’t know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn’t want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.
"I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension, too. 'Do you have kids?' he asked.
"'Yes, here, here.' I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for(摸索) the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I'd never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too.
Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out. Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.
My life was saved by a smile.
Yes, the smile―the unaffected(自然的，真挚的) , unplanned, natural connection between people. I tell this story in my work because I’d like people to consider that underneath all the layers we construct to protect ourselves, our dignity, our titles, our degrees, our status and our need to be seen in certain ways―underneath all that, remains the authentic(真实的) , essential self. I’m not afraid to call it the soul. I really believe that if that part of you and that part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn’t be enemies. We couldn’t have hate or envy or fear. I sadly conclude that all those other layers, which we so carefully construct through our lives, distance and insulate(隔离，使孤立) us from truly contacting others. Saint-Exupery’s story speaks of that magic moment when two souls recognize each other.
I’ve had just a few moments like that. Falling in love is one example. And looking at a baby. Why do we smile when we see a baby? Perhaps it’s because we see someone without all the defensive layers, someone whose smile for us we know to be fully genuine and without guile(狡猾，诡计) . And that baby-soul inside us smiles wistfully(渴望地) in recognition.
经典英语美文：The goodness of life
Though there is much to be concerned about, there is far, far more for which to be thankful. Though life's goodness can at times be overshadowed(使失色) , it is never outweighed.
For every single act that is senselessly destructive, there are thousands more small, quiet acts of love, kindness and compassion(同情，怜悯) . For every person who seeks to hurt, there are many, many more who devote their lives to helping and to healing.
There is goodness to life that cannot be denied.
In the most magnificent vistas(远景，展望) and in the smallest details, look closely, for that goodness always comes shining through.
There is no limit to the goodness of life. It grows more abundant with each new encounter. The more you experience and appreciate the goodness of life, the more there is to be lived.
Even when the cold winds blow and the world seems to be covered in foggy(有雾的，模糊的) shadows, the goodness of life lives on. Open your eyes, open your heart, and you will see that goodness is everywhere.
Though the goodness of life seems at times to suffer setbacks, it always endures. For in the darkest moment it becomes vividly clear that life is a priceless treasure. And so the goodness of life is made even stronger by the very things that would oppose it.
Time and time again when you feared it was gone forever you found that the goodness of life was really only a moment away. Around the next corner, inside every moment, the goodness of life is there to surprise and delight you.
Take a moment to let the goodness of life touch your spirit and calm your thoughts. Then, share your good fortune with another. For the goodness of life grows more and more magnificent each time it is given away.
Though the problems constantly scream for attention and the conflicts appear to rage ever stronger, the goodness of life grows stronger still, quietly, peacefully, with more purpose and meaning than ever before.
经典英语美文：When we were girls
We lived on the banks of the Tennessee River, and we owned the summers when we were girls. We ran wild through humid(潮湿的) summer days that never ended but only melted one into the other. We floated down rivers of weekdays with no school, no rules , no parents, and no constructs other than our fantasies. We were good girls, my sister and I. We had nothing to rebel against. This was just life as we knew it, and we knew the summers to be long and to be ours.
The road that ran past our house was a one-lane rural route. Every morning, after our parents had gone to work, I' d wait for the mail lady to pull up to our box. Some days I would put enough change for a few stamps into a mason jar(玻璃罐) lid and l eave it in the mailbox. I hated bothering mail lady with this transaction, which made her job take longer. But I liked that she knew that someone in our house sent letters into the outside world.
I liked walking to the mailbox in my bare feet and leaving footprints on the dewy(带露水的) grass. I imagined that feeling the wetness on the bottom of my feet made me a poet. I had never read poetry, outside of some Emily Dickinson. But I imagined th at people who knew of such things would walk to their mailboxes through the morning dew in their bare feet.
We planned our weddings with the help of Barbie dolls and the tiny purple wild flowers growing in our side yard. We became scientists and tested concoctions(混合，调和) of milk, orange juice, and mouthwash(漱口水) . We ate handfuls of bittersweet(苦乐参半的) chocolate chips and licked peanut butter off spoons. When we ran out of sweets to eat, we snitched sugary Flintstones vitamins out of the medicine cabinet. We became masters of the Kraft macaroni and cheese lunch, and we dutifully called our mother at work three times a day to give her updates on our adventures. But don't call too often or speak too loudly or whine too much, we told ourselves, or else they'll get an noyed and she'll get fired and the summers will end.
We shaped our days the way we chose, far from the prying eyes of adults. We found our dad's Playboys and charged the neighborhood boys money to look at them. We made crank calls around the county, telling people they had won a new car. "What kind?" they' d ask. "Red," we' d always say. We put on our mom's old prom dresses, complete with gloves and hats, and sang backup to the C.W. McCall song Convoy, " which we' d found on our dad's turntable.
We went on hikes into the woods behind our house, crawling under barbed wire fences and through tangled undergrowth. Heat and humidity found their way throught he leaves to our flushed faces. We waded in streams that we were always surprised to come across. We walked past cars and auto parts that had been abandoned in the woods, far from any road. We' d reach the tree line and come out unexpectedly into a cow pasture(草地，牧场) . We' d perch on the gate or stretch out on the large flat limes tone outcrop that marked the end of the Woods Behind Our House.
One day a thunderstorm blew up along the Tennessee River. It was one of those storms that make the day go dark and the humidity disappear. First it was still and quiet. There was electricity in the air and then the sharp crispness of a summer day being blown wide open as the winds rushed in. We threw open11 all the doors and windows. We found the classical radio station from two towns away and turned up the bass and cranked up the speakers. We let the wind blow in and churn our summer day around. We let the music we were only vaguely familiar with roar throu gh the house. And we twirled. We twirled in the living room in the wind and in the music. We twirled and we im agined that we were poets and dancers and scientists and spring brides.
We twirled and imagined that if we could let everything --- the thunder, the storm, the wind , the world --- into that house in the banks of the Tennessee River, we could live in our summer dreams forever. When we were girls.
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