优秀的英文短文

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.

朗诵是朗诵者运用恰当的语言表达技巧,并借助于体态语言及音乐等艺术手段把书面文字语言作品转化为有声语言的一种艺术表演形式。我精心收集了优秀的英语朗诵短文，供大家欣赏学习!

Acountry maid was walking along with a can of milk uponher head, when she fell into the following train ofreflections.The money for which I shall sell this milk willenable me to increase my stock of eggs to three hundred.一个村姑头上顶着一罐牛奶在路上行走。走着走着，她的脑子里浮现出一连串的幻想：我卖了这罐牛奶后，用这笔钱买鸡蛋，这样我有的鸡蛋可以增加到300个

These eggs, allowing for what may prove addle, and whatmay be destroyed by vermin, will produce at least twohundred and fifty chickens用这300个鸡蛋孵小鸡，就算有坏的、生虫的，至少也能孵出250只小鸡。

The chickens will be fit to carry to market just at the timewhen poultry is always dear;so that by the new year Icannot fail of having money enough to purchase a newgown.等小鸡长大后，正好能赶上卖个好市价;那么到了新年，我就能有钱买一件新晚装。

Green - let me consider - yes, green becomes mycomplexion best, and green it shall be.买一件绿色的------让我好好想想------对，绿色与我的肤色最相衬。

In this dress I will go to the fair, where all young fellows willstrive to have me for a partner;我穿上这件衣服去赶集，所有的年轻小伙子都会抢着邀请我做舞伴;

but no - I shall refuse every one of them, and with adisdainful toss turn from them."

但是不行------我要轻蔑地把头一扬，转身过去不理他们，让他们人人都碰个钉子。

Transported with this idea, she could not forbear actingwith her head the thought that passed in her mind, whendown came the can of milk!她想得得意忘形，情不自禁地把头一扬，刹那间，牛奶罐跌了下来!

And all her imaginary happiness vanished in a moment她幻想的一切幸福瞬间破灭了。

A man and his girlfriend were married. It was a largecelebration.一个男人和他的女朋友结婚，举行了一场盛大的结婚庆典。

All of their friends and family came to see the lovelyceremony and to partake of the festivities andcelebrations. All had a wonderful time.所有的朋友和家人都来到结婚典礼上参加欢宴和庆祝活动。大家都过得很开心。

The bride was gorgeous in her white wedding gown andthe groom was very dashing in his black tuxedo.Everyone could tell that the love they had for each otherwas true.穿着白色婚纱的新娘漂亮迷人，穿着黑色礼服的新郎英俊潇洒。每个人都能看出他们彼此的爱是真诚的。

A few months later, the wife came to the husband with aproposal, "I read in a magazine, a while ago, about howwe can strengthen our marriage," she offered. "Each ofus will write a list of the things that we find a bitannoying with the other person. Then, we can talkabout how we can fix them together and make our liveshappier together."几个月后，妻子走近丈夫提议说：“我刚才在杂志上看到一篇文章，说的是怎样巩固婚姻。”她说：“我们两个人都各自把对方的小毛病列在一张纸上，然后我们商量一下怎样解决，以便使我们的生活更幸福。”

The husband agreed. So each of them went to aseparate room in the house and thought of the thingsthat annoyed them about the other. They thoughtabout this question for the rest of the day and wrotedown what they came up with.丈夫同意了。于是他们各自走向不同的房间去想对方的缺点。那一天余下的时间里，他们都在思考这个问题，并且把他们想到的都写下来。

The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decidedthat they would go over their lists.第二天早上，吃早饭的时候，他们决定谈谈彼此的缺点。

"I'll start," offered the wife. She took out her list. It hadmany items on it, enough to fill 3 pages. In fact, as shestarted reading the list of the little annoyances, shenoticed that tears were starting to appear in herhusband's eyes.“我先开始吧。”妻子说。她拿出她的单子，上面列举了很多条，事实上，足足写满了三页。当她开始念的时候，她注意到丈夫眼里含着泪花。

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Nothing," the husbandreplied, "keep reading your list."“怎么啦?”她问。“没什么，”丈夫答道，“继续念吧。”

The wife continued to read until she had read all threepages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on thetable and folded her hands over the top of it.妻子又接着念。整整三页都念完之后她把单子整齐地放在桌上，两手交叉放在上面。

"Now, you read your list and then we'll talk about thethings on both of our lists," she said happily.

“现在该你念了，然后我们谈谈所列举的缺点。”她高兴地说。

Quietly the husband stated, "I don't have anything onmy list. I think that you are perfect the way that you are.I don't want you to change anything for me. You arelovely and wonderful and I wouldn't want to try andchange anything about you."丈夫平静地说：“我什么也没写，我觉得像你这样就很完美了，我不想让你为我改变什么。你很可爱迷人，我不想让你改变。”

The story goes that two friends were walking throughthe desert. During some point of the journey they hadan argument, and one friend slapped the other one inthe face.话说两个好朋友正在穿越一个沙漠。途中他们忽然争吵了起来，其中一个一巴掌扇在另外一个人的脸上。

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without sayinganything, he wrote in the sand: "Today my best friendslapped me in the face."被扇的那个人受了伤害，但他一句话也没有说，只是在沙子上写道：“今天我最要好的朋友打了我一个耳光。”

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, wherethey decided to take a bath. The one who had beenslapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, butthe friend saved him.他们继续走下去，后来发现了一片绿洲，他们于是决定洗个澡。先前被打的那个人这时不小心陷入了一个泥潭里面，差点被淹死了，幸运的是他的朋友把他给救了出来。

After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote ona stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."他苏醒过来后，立刻在一块石头上写道：“今天我最要好的朋友救了我一命。”

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friendasked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand andnow you write on a stone. Why?"扇过他耳光又救过他性命的朋友于是问他说：“我打了你之后你在沙子上写字，而现在你却在石头上写，为什么呢?”

The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us weshould write it down in the sand where winds offorgiveness can erase it away. But when someone doessomething good for us, we must engrave it in a stonewhere no wind can ever erase it."写字的那个人回答说：“当我们被别人伤害了之后，我们应该把它写在沙子上，那样，宽容的风就很快就会将其抹去，但当我们受到别人的帮助之后，我们必须将它刻在石头上，那样，风就不会轻易把它磨灭。”

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TOCARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN THE STONE.学会将你所受到的伤害写在沙子上，把别人给你的帮助记在石头上。

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, anhour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but anentire life to forget them.人们常说发掘一个特别的人需要一分钟，欣赏一个人需要一个小时，爱上一个人需要一整天，但忘记一个人却需要你一生的时间。

Send this phrase to the people you'll never forget. It's ashort message to let them know that you'll never forgetthem.将这句话发给你永远不会忘怀的人吧，让他们知道你将永远把他们放在心上。