英语散文短篇高中

阅读经典美文是拓宽思维、增长见识、丰富情感、涵养素质的最有效手段。我整理了高中英语美文，欢迎阅读!

肯尼迪总统就职演说摘录

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price，bear any burden,

告知诸国，不论是希望我们好或不好的国家，我们都会不惜任何代价，

meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.

承担任何重任，不辞艰辛地支持友邦，对抗敌国，以确保自由的存续与成功。

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends.

对于那些在文化上或精神上与我们同源的旧盟邦，我们保证会以挚友的忠贞来对待他们。

United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures.

我们若团结合作，则从事种种的合作计划几乎是无所不能。

Divided, there is little we can do, for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

但若分裂，我们将一筹莫展，因为如果我们自己由于意见分歧而分裂，便不敢面对强敌。

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free,

至于那些新兴国家，我们则欢迎他们加入自由国家的行列。

we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny.

我们誓言殖民统治结束后不会有更残酷的暴政来取代。

We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view.

我们并不期望这些新兴的国家会永远支持我们的观点。

But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom-and to remember that，

但是我们永远希望他们能固守属于自己的自由—而且也希望我们自己能永远记得，

in the past, those who foolishly sought to find power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

在过去，愚昧地试图骑着虎背仗势求权的人结果反入虎腹。

To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery,

对于那些居住在茅屋与村落里正奋力挣脱集体悲惨命运的另一半地球民族，

we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required.

只要他们需要，不管到何年何月，我们保证将尽全力帮助他们自救。

Increasing Confidence

Robert Stuberg

The world is changing rapidly and most people are very anxious about it. In fact, I think it might even be stronger and more accurate to say that most people are downright fearful of what they see going on around them.

Technological change and innovation are completely altering many aspects of our lives and it doesn’t stop there. Economic changes, social changes, scientific changes, political changes… the list is endless. However, the big question we all face is how are we going to respond to these changes?

While the specific answers about what to do take time and thought to uncover, the best way to approach the future and all of the changes it will bring can be summed up in one word: Confidence.

Personal confidence is one of the greatest assets we all possess. Certainly some people seem to have much more of it than others but I believe that confidence is a skill that we can all develop. In some ways, it is undoubtedly the most important skill we can develop.

With confidence, all things are within the realm of possibility. Without confidence, even the smallest challenges seem insurmountable.

What I find fascinating is that people with confidence always seem to end up on top. They seem to overcome the obstacles that stand in their way. It’s as if problems and challenges run from the person who has confidence.

I think what’s so difficult for most people is the belief that confidence has to be based on having a specific solution at hand but that’s just not true.

What we all respect and admire is the person who can stand up against overwhelming difficulties and persevere without an answer.

Here’s the secret that most people never get. Life’s challenges are no match for the person with unstoppable confidence. While the problems or challenges might seem too big to be overcome, the person with confidence always finds a way to win regardless of the circumstances.

Ultimately, life’s challenges run and hide from the person that maintains confidence.

This is hard lesson to learn. The problems of life seem so big and scary and we often think of ourselves as so small and fragile. But that’s not the way it is. That’s the illusion that most people by into, but it’s not the truth.

The truth is that we are bigger than anything that can ever happen to us in life. We have the power and ability to overcome any obstacle in our path. And the most important tool we possess is personal confidence, believing in your ability to overcome the current challenge just like we have done so many times in the past.

Whatever challenge is currently in your life, know that it’s there to help you grow and expand. Use the problems you encounter to help you build your personal confidence. Remember, you wouldn’t have the problem if you didn’t have the power to overcome it. Expanding your personal confidence will allow you to take on whatever you need to in order to fulfill your personal mission.

A Reporter Quotes His Sources

It’s rather difficult in these noisy, confusing, nerve-racking days to achieve the peace of mind in which to pause for a moment to reflect on what you believe in. There’s so little time and opportunity to give it much thought—though it is the thing we live by; and without it, without beliefs, human existence today would hardly be bearable.

My own view of life, like everyone else’s, is conditioned by personal experience. In my own case, there were two experiences, in particular, which helped to shape my beliefs: years of life and work under a totalitarian regime, and a glimpse of war.

Living in a totalitarian land taught me to value highly—and fiercely—the very things the dictators denied: tolerance, respect for others and, above all, the freedom of the human spirit.

A glimpse of war filled me with wonder not only at man’s courage and capacity for self-sacrifice, but at his stubborn, marvelous will to preserve, to endure, to prevail—amidst the most incredible savagery and suffering. When you saw people—civilians—who where bombed out, or who, worse, had been hounded in the concentration camps or worked to a frazzle in the slave-labor gangs—when you saw them come out of these ordeals of horror and torture, still intact as human beings, with a will to go on, with a faith still in themselves, in their fellow man, and in God, you realized that man was indestructible. You appreciated, too, that despite the corruption and cruelty of life, man somehow managed to retain great virtues: love, honor, courage, self-sacrifice, compassion.

It filled you with a certain pride just to be a member of the human race. It renewed your belief in your fellow men.

Of course, there are many days (in this Age of Anxiety) when a human being feels awfully low and discouraged. I myself find consolation at such moments by two means: trying to develop a sense of history, and renewing the quest for inner life.

I go back, for example, to reading Plutarch. He reminds you that even in the golden days of Greece and Rome, from which so much that is splendid in our own civilization derives, there was a great deal of what we find so loathsome in life today: war, strife, corruption, treason, double-crossing, intolerance, tyranny, rabble-rousing. Reading history thus gives you perspective. It enables you to see your troubles relatively. You don’t take them so seriously then.

Finally, I find that most true happiness comes from one’s inner life; from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation. And self-discipline. One must be honest with oneself, and that’s not easy. (You have to have patience and understanding. And, when you can, seek God.)

But the reward of having an inner life, which no outside storm or evil turn of fortune can touch, is, it seems to me, a very great one.

引导学生走近美文,使他们成为美文的崇拜者和得益者,听取 哇 声一片,这正是我们教者的责任,也是当代教育所期待的。我整理了高中优秀英语美文，欢迎阅读!

林肯盖茨堡演讲词

Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,

八十七年前，我们的祖先在这块大陆上建立了个新国家，

conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

这个国家是以自由为理念，并致力于人生而平等的主张。

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation，or any nation so conceived and so dedicated，can long endure.

现在我们投身于这场伟大的内战。这个内战在考验这个新国家或是任何一个有相同理念、致力于相同主张的国家能否长久存在。

We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

我们相会于这场战争的伟大战场上。

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

我们来到这里，将这战场上的小块土地奉献给那些为国家生存而捐躯的人，以作为他们最后安息之地。

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

我们这样做是十分适当的，也是应该的。

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow-this ground.

但就广义而言，我们却无法奉献这块土地，无法把这块土地变得神圣，

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

因为在此奋战过的勇者，不论是生是死，都已经将这块土地变得如此神圣，以致我们薄弱的力量实不能再对它有所扬抑。

The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

我们现在在这里所说的话，世人是不太注意的，过不久都会忘记，但这些勇者在此曾有的表现世人将水远铭记在心。

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

我们活着的人，应该在这块土地上献身于那些曾被努力推进却尚未完成的工作。

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us:

我们实在应该献身于这些勇者所遗留给我们的眼前这个伟大任务:

that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion;

这些光荣过世的先烈们曾为国家大业奉献到底，而我们则应秉承他们的奉献精神，更加全力以赴;

that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;

我们决意不计这些先烈白白牺牲;

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom;

在上帝的庇佑之下，自由将在我国重生，

and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

而这个民有、民治、民享的政府将永存于世。

自制

Self-control is essential to happiness and usefulness.

自制是快乐及有为不可或缺的部分。

It is the master of all the virtues, and has its root in self-respect.

它主宰所有的美德，并扎根于自尊。

Let a man yield to his impulses and passions, and from that moment he gives up his moralfreedom.

一个人若受到冲动、感情用事支配的话，从那一刻起他便放弃了他的道德自由。

It is the self-discipline of a man that enables him to pursue success with superior diligenceand sobriety.

自律使人能够更加勤奋、更加冷静地来追求成功。

Many of the great characters in history illustrate this trait.

历史上许多伟人都展现了这样的特质。

In ordinary life the application is the same.

自律亦可同样运用在日常生活中。

He who would lead must first command himself.

欲领导他人的人必须先统御自己。

The time of test is when everybody is excited or angry, then the well一balanced mind comes tothe front.

每个人激动生气时，便是考验的时刻，这时心平气和的人便会出头了。

There is a very special demand for the cultivation of this trait at present.

目前最需要培养这种特质了。

The young men who rush into business with no good education or drill will do poor andfeverish work.

没有受过良好的教育或磨练便匆匆投入商场的小伙子，做起事来一定是差劲而毛躁。

Endurance is a much better test of character than act of heroism.

忍耐要比逞英雄更能考验品德。

A fair amount of self-examination is good，Self-knowledge is a preface to self-control.

适度的自我检讨很不错。若有自知之明方能自制。

Too much self-inspection leads to morbidness; too little conducts to careless and hastyaction.

不过过度的自我检讨会成为病态，检讨不足则又导致行事粗心草率。

There are two things which will surely strengthen our self-control.

有两件事肯定会增强我们的自制力。

One is attention to conscience; the other is a spirit of good will.

其一是注重良知，其二是心怀善意。

The man who would succeed in any great undertaking must hold all his faculties under perfectcontrol;

若要实现任何伟大的抱负获得成功就必须妥善掌控自己的才能;

they must be disciplined and drilled until they quickly and cheerfully obey the will.

他必须要先加以约束、磨练这些才能，它们方能迅速而又愉快地服从他的心意。

青春

Youth is not just a stage of life; it is a state of mind.

青春不只是人生的一个阶段;它是一种心境。

It is not a matter of rosy cheeks，red lips and supple knees;

它不是指红润的脸颊、红色的嘴唇和柔软弯曲的膝盖;

it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination，a vigor of the emotions.

而是指意志力、丰富的想象力、充沛的感情。

It is the freshness of the deep spring of life.

它是生命深泉之清新。

Youth means the predominance over of courage over timidity, of adventure over the love ofease.

青春意味着勇气胜过胆怯，冒险犯难胜过贪图安逸。

This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy of twenty.

六十岁的人往往要比二十岁的小伙子更持有这种精神。

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.

没有人只因活了若干年而变老。

We grow old by deserting our ideals.

我们变老是因为我们抛弃了自己的理想。

Years may wrinkle the skin，but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

岁月可以使皮肤产生皱纹，但是放弃热诚则会消蚀灵魂。

Worry，doubt，self-distrust，fear and despair - these bow the head and turn the growingspirit back to dust.

忧虑、怀疑、缺乏自信、恐惧和绝望—这些都会让我们垂头丧气，而且会让成长的精神化为乌有。

Whether sixty or sixteen，there is in every numan being's heart the love of wonder,

每个人不管是六十岁或是十六岁，心中都有一股好奇心，

the sweet amazement of the stars and the starlike things, the undaunted challenge ofevents，

对星星及星状的东西会产生一种欢喜之情，不畏任何挑战，

the unfailing childlike appetite for what-next and the joy of the game of living.

对未知的事物有着一种像孩子般永不冷却的热望，以及游戏人生的喜悦之情。

You are as young as your faith，as old as your doubt, as young as your self-confidence,

你有信心、自信和希望时，就会年轻;

as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

而你若怀疑、恐惧和绝望时，就会衰老。