世界英语美文

英语作为学习生涯中必不可少的课程，想学好真的不容易。我在此献上英语美文，希望大家喜欢。

英语经典美文欣赏

一切刚开始 We're Just Beginning

"We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite…”

“我们正在读一本书的第一章第一行，这本书的页数是无限的……”

I do not know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone.

我不知道是谁写的，可我很喜欢这句话，它提醒我们未来是由自己创造的。我们可以把神秘、不可知的未来塑造成我们想象中的任何模样，犹如雕刻家将未成形的石头刻成雕像。

We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.

我们每个人都像是农夫。洒下良种将有丰收，播下劣种或生满野草便将毁去收成。没有耕耘则会一无所获。

I want the future to be better than the past. I don't want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of our lives.

我希望未来比过去更加美好，希望未来不会沾染历史的错误与过失。我们都应举目向前，因我们的余生要用未来书写。

The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our business, if we only recognize them. We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.

往昔已逝，静如止水;我们无法再作改变。而前方的未来正生机勃勃;我们所做的每一件事都将会影响着它。只要我们认识到这些，无论是在家中还是在工作上，每天我们的面前都会展现出新的天地。在人类致力开拓的每一片领域上，我们正站在进步的起跑点。

英语美文欣赏

别让这个时代越来越冷漠 Don’t Make the era More and More Indifferent

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more but enjoy less.

我们这个时代在历史上的说法就是我们拥有更高的建筑，但是有更暴的脾气;我们拥有更宽阔的高速公路，却有更狭隘的观点;我们花费得更多，拥有得却更少;我们购买得更多却享受得更少。

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

我们的房子越来越大，家庭却越来越小;便利越来越多，时间却越来越少;学位越来越多，感觉却越来越少;知识越来越多，观点却越来越少;专家越来越多，问题也越来越多;药物越来越多，健康却越来越少。

We drink too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

我们喝得太多，花钱大手大脚，笑得太少，开车太快，易怒，熬夜，赖床，书读得越来越少，电视看得越来越多，却很少向上帝祈祷。

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, not life to years.

我们常常夸夸其谈，却很少付出爱心，且常常心中充满了仇恨。我们学会了如何谋生，而不知如何生活。我们延长了生命的期限，而不是生活的期限。

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve done larger things, but not better things.

我们登上了月球，并成功返回，却不能穿过街道去拜访新邻居。我们已经征服了太空，却征服不了自己的内心;我们的事业越做越大，但质量却没有提高。

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less.

我们清洁了空气，却污染了灵魂;我们分离了原子，却无法驱除我们的偏见;我们写得更多，学到的却更少;我们的计划更多，完成的却更少。

We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but, lower morals.

我们学会了奔跑，却忘记了如何等待;我们的收入越来越高，道德水平却越来越低。

We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; we’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.

我们制造了更多的计算机来存储更多的信息，制造了最多的副本，却减少了交流;我们开始渴望数量，但忽视了质量。

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but more broken homes.

这个时代有双收入，但也有了更高的离婚率;有更华丽的房屋，却有更多破碎的家庭。

These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. Where are we heading...?

这个时代有了快速旅游，免洗尿布，却抛弃了道德、一夜情、超重的身体，以及可以从快乐中走向静止和自杀的药物。我们将走向何方……?

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

如果我们明天就死掉，我们为之工作的公司可能会在一天内很轻易地找人代替我们的位置。但是当我们离开家人后，他们的余生将会在失落中度过。

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family an unwise investment indeed.

考虑一下吧，我们将自己的时间更多地投入到工作中，而放弃与家人在一起的时光，实在并非明智之举。

So what is the morale of the story?

那么这则故事的主旨是什么呢?

Don’t work too hard... and you know what’s the full word of family?

不要工作得太辛苦，你知道家的全称吗?

FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER, (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU.

家=爸爸妈妈，我爱你们。

英语经典美文欣赏

50%的希望 Fifty-percent Expectation

I believe in the "50-percent theory". Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they are worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.

我信奉“对半理论”。生活时而无比顺畅，时而倒霉透顶，好坏参半。我觉得生活就像来回晃动的钟摆。读懂生活的常态需要时间和阅历，也正是这样才练就了我面对未来荣辱不惊的生活态度。

Let's benchmark the parameters: Yes, I will die. I've dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale.

让我们掂量这些点点滴滴：是的，我注定会死去。我已经经历了双亲的仙逝，一位友人的亡故，一位敬爱的老板的离逝，还有心爱宠物的死亡。当中一些变故突如其来，直击眼前;有些却长期折磨，痛苦不堪。糟糕的事儿，它们驻留谷底。

Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person; having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son's baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he's swimming with the dogs, discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos.

当然生活也不乏熠熠光彩：坠入爱河缔结良缘;养育幼子身为人父，训练儿子的棒球队，当他和狗在水中嬉戏时，摇桨划船前瞻后顾，感受他如此强烈的同情心——即使对蜗牛也善待有加，发现他如此活跃的想像力——即使零散的积木也能堆出太空飞船。

But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50-percent theory.

但在它们发生期间有一片宽广的草坪，在那儿上演的各种好事坏事像耍杂技一样地翻新。这就是让我信服对半理论的原因。

One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal-- the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioner died,the well went dry, the marriage ended, the job lost, the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tune -- music I loathed. Only a surging Kansas CityRoyals team, bound for their first World Series, buoyed my spirits.

有一年春天，我在一片容易被淹的低洼地过早种下了玉米，邻居们都为此嘲笑我。一番心血付之东流让我懊恼不已。接着我生命中最难熬的酷暑来临了--热浪袭人，酿至旱灾。空调失灵，水井枯竭，婚姻破裂，惨遭失业，积蓄挥空。我正经历某个乡村调频描绘的情节，我讨厌这种音乐。只有一支人气攀升的堪萨斯皇家棒球队的小组因他们的第一次出征世界大赛团结起来使我精神振奋。

Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn't last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. They reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that I can thrive. The 50 percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals' recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest.

回想那个可怕的夏天，我不久就明白了所有的好事坏事不过是正负抵消。不顺心的境遇不会延宕过久。太平时光是我应得的，我要尽情享受。它们给我新的活力以应对突如其来的险境，并确保我再度辉煌。对半理论甚至帮我在我喜爱的皇家棒球队最近的低潮中看到希望——这是一块艰难行进的新手们耕耘的土地，播种了，假以时日我们就可以收获十月的金秋。

Oh, yeah, the corn crop? For that one blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat,withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed with corn -- fat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tip -- while my neighbors' fields yielded only brown, empty husks.

哦，对了，玉米收成?就那年炎热的夏天，庄稼地的湿度恰到好处，过早的种植使授粉避开酷热在顶梢干枯前完成，雨水稀少使地里长着的玉米免遭水灾。那年冬天，我的粮仓里堆满了玉米--饱满结实的玉米每株秆上结三个，每个玉米从底到顶端长满了玉米粒--而我的邻居们地里长出来的只是暗沉干瘪的壳。

Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought.

尽管过去播种的收获没有达到50%的期望，而且将来也可能是这样，我仍然要为经历旱季依然丰收的玉米而坚守阵地。

情景美文在思品教学中加以应用,能更有效地实现情感态度价值观目标。本文是经典的英语美文，希望对大家有帮助!

It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world: with out demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art wouldno longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions. The family would become superfluous as social unit, with all its former power for bringing about neurosis drained away, Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.

Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be!

There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and events now not all success, obviously, is worthesteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on one’s own. But even the most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity.

We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift.We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.

一个缺乏抱负的世界将会怎样，这不难想象。或许，这将是一个更为友善的世界：没有渴求，没有磨擦，没有失望。人们将有时间进行反思。他们所从事的工作将不是为了他们自身，而是为了整个集体。竞争永远不会介入;冲突将被消除。人们的紧张关系将成为过往云烟。创造的重压将得以终结。艺术将不再惹人费神，其功能将纯粹为了庆典。作为社会单位的家庭及其所带来精神伤痛也将荡然无存，人的寿命将会更长，因为由激烈拼争引起的心脏病和中风所导致的死亡将越来越少。焦虑将会消失。时光流逝，抱负却早已远离人心。

啊，长此以往人生将变得多么乏味无聊!

有一种盛行的观点认为，成功是一种神话，因此抱负亦属虚幻。这是不是说实际上并不丰在成功?成就本身就是一场空?与诸多运动和事件的力量相比，男男女女的努力显得微不足?显然，并非所有的成功都值得景仰，也并非所有的抱负都值得追求。对值得和不值得的选择，一个人自然而然很快就能学会。但即使是最为愤世嫉俗的人暗地里也承认，成功确实存在，成就的意义举足轻重，而把世上男男女女的所作所为说成是徒劳无功才是真正的无稽之谈。认为成功不存在的观点很可能造成混乱。这种观点的本意是一笔勾销所有提高能力的动机，求取业绩的兴趣和对子孙后代的关注。

我们无法选择出生，无法选择父母，无法选择出生的历史时期与国家，或是成长的周遭环境。我们大多数人都无法选择死亡，无法选择死亡的时间或条件。但是在这些无法选择之中，我们的确可以选择自己的生活方式：是勇敢无畏还是胆小怯懦，是光明磊落还是厚颜无耻，是目标坚定还是随波逐流。我们决定生活中哪些至关重要，哪些微不足道。我们决定，用以显示我们自身重要性的，不是我们做了什么，就是我们拒绝做些什么。但是不论世界对我们所做的选择和决定有多么漠不关心，这些选择和决定终究是我们自己做出的。我们决定，我们选择。而当我们决定和选择时，我们的生活便得以形成。最终构筑我们命运的就是抱负之所在。

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; butit is no lessa magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must in spiteof personal consequences，in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures and that is thebasis of all human morality.

To be courageous…requires no exceptional qualifications，no magic formula，no specialcombination of time，place and circumstance.It is an opportunity that sooner or later ispresented to us all. Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests ofcourage.In whatever arena of life one may meet the challengeof courage，whatever may bethe sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience，the loss of his friends，his fortune，hiscontentment， even the esteem of his fellow men，each man must decide for himself thecourse he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient，they canteach，they can offer hope，they can provide inspiration.But they cannot supply courageitself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I thought like a child; when I became and adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

就算我能说万人的方言和天使的话语，但如果没有爱，我不过就如鸣锣一般;就算我有预知未来的能力，就算我精通各种知识和奥秘，就算我有坚定的信念，但如果没有爱，我就什么都算不上;就算我拿所有的财物周济穷人，就算我能做出舍己为人的壮举，但如果没有爱，我仍将一无所有。

爱是一种忍耐，爱是一种友善;爱不是嫉妒，不是自大，不是鲁莽，不是固执己见，不是轻易发怒。爱意味着憎恶不义，赞赏真理;爱意味着包容一切，相信一切，对生活充满希望，并能忍受生活中的一切。

爱是永无止境的，但又是有尽头的;就像知识一样，必将归于乌有。我们现在搜掌握的知识很有限，当我们掌握了完整的知识时，有限的知识必将归于乌有。当我还是一个孩子的时候，我像孩子一样说话，像孩子一样思考问题，像孩子一样推理;但我一旦成年，就不再像孩子一样了。现阶段，我们很多时候好像是从镜子里观看事物，对很多事物都看不清，但有朝一日我们会直面这些事物。现阶段，我知道的东西很有限，但有朝一日我会懂得一切。如今，常存在人们心中的东西有三样：信念、希望和爱，而其中爱是最重要的!