英语美文短篇经典短文阅读
英语美文短篇经典短文阅读
所谓美文,就是人类文化中最佳的文章。而阅读英语美文能大大提高自身的英语阅读能力,学习啦小编精心收集了短篇英语美文给大家,供大家欣赏学习!
短篇英语美文篇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!
生存还是毁灭
“生存还是毁灭。”如果把《圣经》除外,这六个字便是整个世界文学中最有名的六个字了。这六个字是哈姆雷特一次喃喃自语时说的,而这六个字也就成了莎士比亚作品中最有名的几个字了,因为这里哈姆雷特不仅道出了他自己的心声,同时也代表了一切有思想的男男女女。是活还是不活——是要生活还是不要生活,是要生活得丰满充实,兴致勃勃,还是只是活得枯燥委琐,贫乏无味。一位哲人一次曾想弄清他自己是否是在活着,这个问题我们每个人也大可不时地问问我们自己。这位哲学家对此的答案是: “我思故我在。”
但是关于生存我所见过的一条最好的定义却是另一位哲学家下的:“生活即是联系。”如果这话不假的话,那么一个有生命者的联系越多,它也就越有生气。所谓要活得丰富充实也即是要扩大和加强我们的各种联系。不幸的是,我们往往会因为天性不够丰厚而容易陷入自己的陈规旧套。试问除去我们的日常工作,我们的真正生活又有多少?如果你只是对你的日常工作才有兴趣,那你的生趣也就很有限了。至于在其它事物方面,比如诗歌、散文、音乐、美术、体育、无私的友谊、政治与国际事务,等等——你只是死人一个。
但反过来说,每当你获得一种新的兴趣——甚至一项新的造诣——你就增长了你的生活本领。一个能对许许多多事物都深感兴趣的人是不可能总不愉快的,真正的悲观者只能是那些丧失兴趣的人。
培根曾讲过,一个人失去朋友即是死亡。但是凭着交往,凭着新朋,我们就能获得再生。这条对于活人可谓千真万确的道理在一定程度上也完全适用于人的思想,它们也都是活的。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业务范围,不出你的物质利益,不出你所在城镇的狭隘圈子,那么你的一生便也只是多方受着局限的狭隘的一生。但是如果你对当前中国那里所发生的种种感到兴趣,那么你便可说也活在中国;如果你对一本佳妙小说中的人物感到兴趣,你便是活在一批极有趣的人们中间;如果你能全神贯注地听点好的音乐,你就会超脱出你的周围环境而活在一个充满激情与想象的神奇世界之中。
生存还是毁灭——活得热烈活得丰富,还是只是简单存在,这就全在我们自己。但愿我们都能不断扩展和增强我们的各种联系。只要一天我们活着,就要一天是在活着。
短篇英语美文篇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,在十月的太阳升起之前,我已经起身并穿过了旷野和丛林。十月的清晨乍寒还暖,日出的景象非常壮观。透过一片晨曦,朝日从朦胧的山冈和起伏连绵的高地过际,沉重地抬起肩头。在它的逼视下,蒙蒙的雾气向下沉降,落到洼地里去,接着一丝丝一缕缕地悄悄飘散,而在草地之上悬岩之下的那些隐秘角落里,雾气却还不愿散去,同时群山的雄姿接二连三地显现出来。
森林也层层叠叠地显现,宛若刚刚苏醒的山峦的斗篷,端庄威严,并带着狂风暴雨的回忆。秋天成熟的手已经在抚摸这些山林,因为它们的颜色已经改变,染上了金黄,丹红和橄榄绿。它们对朝日所怀的一片喜悦,像是要奉献给一个新郎,更像是要奉献给一位父亲。
然而,在树林那流动的景色逝去之前,欢悦的晨光突然跃出了峰峦和山谷,光线所及,把照到的地方和周围的森林分别染成青色,紫色,琥珀色和富丽的红玫瑰色。光线照到哪里,那里就如同一幅幕布被掀开。而所有的一切都同样在驱散恐惧和黑暗的魔影;所有的一切都展开希望的翅膀,向前习翔,并大声宣告:“上帝在这里!”于是生命和欢乐从每一个蜷伏的洞穴里信心十足地欣然跃出;一切花朵,蓓蕾和鸟雀都感到了生命和欢乐而抖动起来;上帝的凝视汇合成温柔的恩泽。
也许,那永恒的晨光就会这样降临人间,那时不再有险崖沟壑,不再有峰峦山谷,也不再有浩瀚无际的海洋;万物都将踊跃升腾,在造物主慈爱的光芒中生辉,因为太阳已经升起。
短篇英语美文篇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.
微尘与栋梁
让人奇怪的是,和别人的过错比起来,我们自身的过错往往不是那样的可恶。我想,其原因应该是我们知晓一切导致自己犯错的情况,因此能够设法谅解自己的错误,而别人的错误却不能谅解。我们对自己的缺点不甚关注,即便是深陷困境而不得不正视它们的时候,我们也会很容易就宽恕自己。据我所知,我们这样做是正确的。缺点是我们自身的一部分,我们必须接纳自己的好和坏。
但是当我们评判别人的时候,情况就不同了。我们不是通过真实的自我来评判别人,而是用一种自我形象来评判,这种自我形象完全摒弃了在任何世人眼中会伤害到自己的虚荣或者体面的东西。举一个小例子来说:当觉察到别人说谎时,我们是多么地蔑视他啊!但是,谁能够说自从未说过谎?可能还不止一百次呢。
人和人之间没什么大的差别。他们皆是伟大与渺小,善良与邪恶,高尚与低俗的混合体。有的人性格比较坚毅,机会也比较多,因而达个或那个方面,能够更自由地发挥自己的禀赋,但是人类的潜能却都是相同的。至于我自己,我认为自己并不比大多数人更好或者更差,但是我知道,假如我记下我生命中每一次举动和每一个掠过我脑海的想法的话,世界就会将我视为一个邪恶的怪物。每个人都会有这样的怪念头,这样的认识应当能够启发我们宽容自己,也宽容他人。同时,假如因此我们得以用幽默的态度看待他人,即使是天下最优秀最令人尊敬的人,而且假如我们也因此不把自己看得过于重要,那是很有裨益的。
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