英语摘抄美文180

所谓美文,就是发表在报刊上的关于某篇课文的精美的赏析性短文或者教师自己撰写的此类文章。我精心收集了优秀英语美文，供大家欣赏学习!

Self-control is essential to happiness and usefulness. It is the master of all the virtues,andhas its root in self-respect. Let a man yield to his impulses and passions, and from thatmoment he gives up his moral freedom.

It is the self-discipline of a man that enables him to pursue success with superior diligenceand sobriety.Many of the great characters in history illustrate this trait. In ordinary life theapplication is the same.He who would lead must first command himself. The time of test iswhen everybody is excited or angry,then the well-balanced mind comes to the front.

There is a very special demand for the cultivation of his trait at present.The young men whorush into business with no good education or drill will do poor and feverish work.Endurance is amuch better test of character than act of heroism.

A fair amount of self-examination is good. Self-knowledge is a preface to self-control. Toomuch self-inspection leads to morbidness; too little conducts to careless and hasty action.There are two things which will surely strengthen our self-control. One is attention toconscience; the other is a spirit of good will.The man who would succeed in any greatundertaking must hold all his faculties under perfect control; they must be disciplined anddrilled until they quickly and cheerfully obey the will.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure,we look forward to a world founded uponfour essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in theworld.

The third is freedom from want - which, translated into world terms, means economicunderstandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peace time life for its inhabitants -everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear - which, translated into world terms, means a world widereduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will bein a position to commit an actof physical aggression against any neighbor - anywhere in theworld.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable inour own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so called neworder of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception - the moral order. A good society is ableto face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change - in a perpetualpeaceful revolution - a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changingconditions - without theconcentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order whichwe seek is the cooperation of freecountries, working together in a friendly civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free menand women;and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means thesupremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gainthose rights and keep them. Our strength is in our unityof purpose.

To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

While popular in the U.S., the April Fool’s Day tradition is even more prevalent in Europeancountries,such as France and Great Britain. Although the roots of the traditional trickings areunclear,the French andthe British both have claims on the origin of the celebration.

One theory holds that the first April Fool’s Day was on April 1 of the year when King of Franceinstituted the new calendar.This new system placed the day that had formerly been the firstday of a new year on April 1.Many people were reluctant to adjust to the new calandar andcontinued to celebrate New Year’s Day on what had become the first day of April.Thus, theybecome the first April fools.Others began to give gaggifts on the day to mock the foolishnessof thosewho continued to celebrate the new year on April 1.

An English story about the day, however, holds that it began sometime during the 1200s.Atthe time, King John of England was in the habit of making a road out of nearly every path hewalked regularly.The citizensof one particular farm village were aware of this.To avoid havingtheir green meadows and pastures disturbed with one of the king’s roads,they built a fencethat prevented the king from walking through their countryside.The king sent a group ofmessengers to inform the villagers that they must remove the barrier.Upon hearing that theking was planning to do this, however, the villagers developed a plan of their own.Whenthemessengers arrived, they found what appeared to be a community of lunatics,with peoplebehaving in a bizarre manner, throwing things and running around wildly.The messengers,alarmed at what they had found, reported to king John that these people were so mad as tobe beyond punishment.So, the villagers saved their farmland by tricking the King. In GreatBritain,tradition only allows April Fool’s tricks from midnightto noon on April 1. Those who try toplay tricks in the afternoon become the fools themselves.