在学习、工作或生活中，大家经常看到美文吧？美文重感性，长于抒情；杂文重知性，长于达意。想要学习写美文吗？以下是小编精心整理的英语经典美文，欢迎大家借鉴与参考，希望对大家有所帮助。
英语经典美文1
Alas, my love, ye do me wrong,To cast me off discurteously.
And I have loved you so long,Delighting in your company.
唉呀，亲爱的。你不该如此对我，无情的把我抛弃：
我爱你爱了那么久，在你身边快乐无比。
Greensleeves was all my joy,Greensleeves was my delight:
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,And who but lady greensleeves.
绿袖是我一切快乐，绿袖就是我的喜悦：
绿袖就是我心中的至爱，除了绿袖姑娘我谁也不爱。
I have been ready at your hand,To grant whatever your would crave.
I have both waged life and land,Your love and good will for to have.
纵然痛苦我也愿意承受，心甘情愿为你付出一切。
我以工作维生，有田有地，期冀蒙受你的爱情与青睐。
Thy smoke of silk, both fair and white,With gold embroidered gorgeously:
The petticoat of sendal right’
And thus I brought thee gladly.
洁白美丽的丝绸衣裳，美幻绝伦的金线绣花：
得体的'绸裙是我
欢欢喜喜买给你的礼物
Thy girdle of gold so red,With pearls bedecked sumptuously:
The like no other lasses had,And yet thou wouldst not love me.
红彤彤的金束腰，缀着名贵的珠子：
你的容貌艳压群芳：
而你不再爱我。
Greensleeves now farewell, adieu,God I pray to prosper thee:
For I am still thy lover true,Come once again and love me.
别了，绿袖，再会，我祝愿你幸福快乐：
我依然是你真挚的爱人，来吧，再爱我一次。
英语经典美文2
Father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarrelling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the faggot into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They each tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it.He next unclosed the faggot, and took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into their hands, on which they broke them easily. He then addressed them in these words: "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this faggot, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."
英语经典美文3
Time is like a river， the left bank is unable to forget the memories， right is worth grasp the youth， the middle of the fast flowing， is the sad young faint。 There are many good things， buttruly belong to own but not much。 See the courthouse blossom，honor or disgrace not Jing， hope heaven Yunjuanyunshu， has no intention to stay。 In this round the world， all can learn to use a normal heart to treat all around， is also a kind of realm！
中文：岁月就象一条河，左岸是无法忘却的回忆，右岸是值得把握的青春年华，中间飞快流淌的，是年轻隐隐的伤感。世间有许多美好的东西，但真正属于自己的却并不多。看庭前花开花落，荣辱不惊，望天上云卷云舒，去留无意。在这个纷绕的.世界里，能够学会用一颗平常的心去对待周围的一切，也是一种境界！
英语经典美文4
She had been shopping with her Mom in Wal—Mart。 She must have been 6 years old， this beautiful brown haired， freckle—faced image of innocence。 It was pouring outside。 The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters， so much in a hurry to hit the Earth， it has no time to flow down the spout。
她和妈妈刚在沃尔玛结束购物。这个天真的小女孩应该6岁大了，头发是美丽的棕色，脸上有雀斑。外面下着倾盆大雨。雨水溢满了檐槽，来不及排走，就迫不及待地涌涨上地面。
We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal—Mart。 We all waited， some patiently， others irritated， because nature messed up their hurried day。 I am always mesmerized by rainfall。 I get lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world。 Memories of running， splashing so carefree as a child come pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day。
我们都站在沃尔玛门口的遮篷下。大家都在等待，有人很耐心，有人很烦躁，因为老天在给他们本已忙碌的一天添乱。雨天总引起我的遐思。我出神地听着、看着老天冲刷洗涤这世界的污垢和尘埃，孩时无忧无虑地在雨中奔跑玩水的记忆汹涌而至，暂时缓解了我一天的焦虑。
Her voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in， “Mom， let's run through the rain。" she said。
小女孩甜美的声音打破了这令人昏昏欲睡的气氛，“妈妈，我们在雨里跑吧。”她说。
"What？" Mom asked。
“什么？”母亲问。
"Let's run through the rain！" She repeated。
“我们在雨里跑吧，”她重复。
"No， honey。 We'll wait until it slows down a bit。" Mom replied。
“不，亲爱的，我们等雨小一点再走。”母亲回答说。
This young child waited about another minute and repeated： "Mom， let's run through the rain。"
过了一会小女孩又说：“妈妈，我们跑出去吧。”
"We'll get soaked if we do。" Mom said。
“这样的话我们会湿透的。”母亲说。
"No， we won't， Mom。 That's not what you said this morning，" the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm。"
“不会的，妈妈。你今天早上不是这样说的。”小女孩一边说一边拉着母亲的手。
"This morning？ When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet？"
“今天早上？我什么时候说过我们淋雨不会湿啊？”
"Don't you remember？ When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer， you said， If God can get us through this， he can get us through anything！"
“你不记得了吗？你和爸爸谈他的癌症时，你不是说‘如果上帝让我们闯过这一关，那我们就没有什么过不去。’”
The entire crowd stopped dead silent。 I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain。 We all stood silently。 No one came or left in the next few minutes。 Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say。
人群一片寂静。我发誓，除了雨声，你什么都听不到。我们都静静地站着。接下来的几分钟没有一个人走动。母亲停了一下，想着应该说些什么。
Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly。 Some might even ignore what was said。 But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life。 Time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith。 "Honey， you are absolutely right。 Let's run through the rain。 If get wet， well maybe we just needed washing。" Mom said。 Then off they ran。
有人也许会对此一笑了之，或者责备这孩子的不懂事，有人甚至不把她的话放在心上。但这却是一个小孩子一生中需要被肯定的时候。若受到鼓舞，此时孩子单纯的信任就会发展成为坚定的信念。“亲爱的，你说得对，我们跑过去吧。如果淋湿了，那也许是因为我们的'确需要冲洗一下了。”母亲说。然后她们就冲出去了。
We all stood watching， smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and。 They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case。 They got soaked。 But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars。 And yes， I did。 I ran。 I got wet。 I needed washing。Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions， they can take away your money， and they can take away your health。 But no one can ever take away your precious memories。 So， don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories every day！
我们站在那里，笑着看她们飞快地跑过停着的汽车。她们把购物袋高举过头想挡挡雨，但还是湿透了。好几个人像孩子般尖叫着，大笑着，也跟着冲了出去，奔向自己的车子。当然，我也这样做了，跑了出去，淋湿了。我也需要接受洗礼。环境或其他人可以夺去你的物质财富，抢走你的金钱，带走你的健康，但没有人可以带走你珍贵的回忆。因此，记得要抓紧时间，抓住机会每天都给自己留下一些回忆吧
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven。 I hope you still take the time to run through the rain。
世间万物皆有自己的季节，做任何事情也有一个恰当的时机。希望你有机会在雨中狂奔一回。
英语经典美文5
All time is precious; but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any other portion of our existence. For those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our faculties and capacities. If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away unutilized, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. As we grow older, our power of acquisition gets blunted, so that the art or science which is not acquired in childhood or youth will never be acquired at all. Just as money laid out at interest doubles and trebles itself in time, so the precious hours of childhood . .
and youth, if properly used, will yield us incalculable advantages. "Every moment you lose" says Lord Chesterfield "is so much character and advantage lost; as on the other hand, every moment you now employ usefully is so much time wisely laid out at prodigious interest."
A proper employment of time is of great benefit to us from a moral point of view. Idleness is justly said to be the rust of the mind and an idle brain is said to be Satan's workshop. It is mostly when you do not know what to do with yourself that you do something ill or wrong. The mind of the idler preys upon itself. As Watt has said:
In works of labour or of skill
Let me be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do. (249 words (686 words)
By Robert William Service
英语经典美文6
Nature satisfies by its loveliness，and without any mixture of corporeal benefit.I see the spectacle of morning from the hilltop over against my house，from daybreak to sunrise，with emotions which an angel might share.The long slender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of crimson light.From the earth，as a shore， I look out into that silent sea.I seem to partake its rapid transformations;the active enchantment reaches my dust， and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind. How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day， and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.Te dawn is my Assyria;the sunset and moonrise my Paphos， and unimaginable realms of faerie;broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding;the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.
自然的悦人是因其可爱，不掺杂任何物欲之念。从我房屋前的山顶，我观看壮美的晨景，从拂晓一直到日出，如此情境或许天使亦有同感。丝丝柔云飘渺浮动，宛若鱼儿畅游于霞光之海。从岸一般的`大地上，我眺望平静的云海。天色瞬息万变，我也心神投入其中。云蒸霞蔚，逼我形骸，随着拂晓的风，我感到激情充溢于胸。自然之功，竟以了了晨风微云，使我们心神入定!给我健康之躯，给我一天的时日，我就能够享受帝王的威严与盛隆。晨曦是我的亚述古国;日落和明月是我梦想中怕弗仙境;正午是我感觉与理解中是英格兰;夜晚是我神秘哲思与梦境的德意志。
英语经典美文7
From the window of my room, I could see a tall cotton-rose hibiscus. In spring, when green foliage was half hidden by mist, the tree looked very enchanting dotted with red blossom. This inspiring neighbor of mine often set my mind working. I gradually regarded it as my best friend.
从我的房间的窗子向外望去,可以看到一株高大的芙蓉树.春日里,芙蓉树在薄雾中若隐若现,红花点点,样子实在迷人.它总是赋予我灵感,让我思如泉涌.时间久了,我竟把这菱蓉视为知已了.
Nevertheless, when I opened the window one morning, to my amazement, the tree was almost bare beyond recognition as a result of the storm ravages the night before. Struck by the plight, I was seized with a sadness at the thought “all the blossom is doomed to fall”. I could not help sighing with emotion: the course of life never runs smooth, for there are so many ups and downs, twists and turns. The vicissitudes of my life saw my beloved friends parting one after another. Isn’t it similar to the tree shedding its flowers in the wind?
然而,一天清晨,当我推开窗子时,愕然发现前夜的一场风雨已将它摧残得落红满地.刹那间,我有一种"花开终有落"的悲凉感觉.这使我不由得发出一声慨叹:人生的旅途中,总是少不了种种羁绊,那些曲折的经历总会伴随着我们.曾经失去过的挚爱的朋友,生命的脆弱不正是像这随风而逝的花吗?
This event faded from my memory as time went by. One day after I came home from the countryside, I found the room stuffy and casually opened the window. Something outside caught my eye and dazzled me. It was a plum tree all scarlet with blossom set off beautifully by the sunset. The surprise discovery overwhelmed me with pleasure. I wondered why I had no idea of some unyielding life sprouting over the fallen petals when I was grieving for the hibiscus.
随着时间的流逝,我渐渐地把那天的感触淡忘了,一次出差回来,感到屋内的空气有些沉闷,于是我不经意的打开了窗,可就在那一瞬,我被眼前的景象惊呆了.窗外,一株李子树开花了,火红火红的花朵,满树都是.在夕阳的映衬下,分外美丽.这意外让我惊喜不已.没想到当初自己只顾悲伤,却没发现那凄凉的背后,竟存在着如此坚强的灵魂.
When the last withered petal dropped, all the joyful admiration for the hibiscus sank into oblivion as if nothing was left, until the landscape was again ablaze with the red plum blossom to remind people of life’s alternation and continuance. Can’t it be said that life is actually a symphony, a harmonious composition of loss and gain.
是啊,当芙蓉的`最后一片花瓣凋落之时,人们以往对它的赞许都已成为过眼去烟.可如今,李子树却成长起来了,那火红的花儿正向人们昭示着生命的更迭与繁衍.谁能否认生命原本就是一场得失共存的交响音呢?
Standing by the window lost in thought for a long time, I realized that no scenery in the world remains unchanged. As long as you keep your heart basking in the sun, every dawn will present a fine prospect for you to unfold and the world will always be about new hopes.
我久久地伫立在窗前,深深感悟到,生命之中本没有一成不变的风景,只要你的心永远向着阳光,那么每一个清晨就会向你展现出一个等待着由你来开启的美景.不管你正经历着怎样的风雨,请相信,这个世界总会带给你新的希望.
英语经典美文8
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。
是
英语经典美文9
The word "discovery" literally means, uncovering something that's hidden from view. But what really happens is a change in the viewer. The familiar offers comfort few can resist, and fewer still want to disturb. But as relatively recent inventions such as the telescope and microscope have taught us, the unknown has many layers. Every truth has geological strata, and you can't have an orthodoxy without a heresy.
The moment a newborn opens its eyes, discovery begins. I learned this with a laugh one morning after delivering a calf. When it lifted up its fluffy head and looked at me, its eyes held the absolute bewilderment of the newly born. A moment before it had the even black nowhere of the womb, and suddenly its world was full of colour, movement and noise. I've never seen anything so shocked to be alive.
“发现”一词，字面上是指揭开某种视线以外的隐藏的事物。不过其实是观察者自身发生了变化。很少人能抗拒熟悉事物带来的舒适，愿意扰乱这种舒适的人更少。然而，正如望远镜、显微镜这些较为近期的发明所揭示给我们的，未知事物具有多种层次。每个事实都有地质层次，没有异端也就无所谓正统。
新生儿睁开双眼的'那一刻起，发现也就开始了。我是在一天清晨给一头小牛犊接生的时候突然意识到这一点的，不禁大笑。小牛仰起毛茸茸的脑袋看着我，目光中透出这个新生生命对世界的一无所知。片刻之前，它还呆在母体里某个黑暗而平静的地方，突然，它的世界变得五光十色，变得活泼而喧闹。我从未见过任何东西在获得生命时是如此的惊异。
英语经典美文10
Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? - If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment?
燕子去了，有再来的时候；杨柳枯了，有再青的时候；桃花谢了，有再开的时候。但是，聪明的，你告诉我，我们的日子为什么一去不复返呢？——是有人偷了他们罢：那是谁？又藏在何处呢？是他们自己逃走了：现在又到了哪里呢？
I dont know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes.
我不知道他们给了我多少日子；但我的手确乎是渐渐空虚了。在默默里算着，八千多日子已经从我手中溜去；象针尖上一滴水滴在大海里，我的日子滴在时间的流里，没有声音也没有影子。我不禁头涔涔而泪潸潸了。
Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how swift is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus--the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh.
去的尽管去了，来的尽管来着，去来的'中间，又怎样的匆匆呢？早上我起来的时候，小屋里射进两三方斜斜的太阳。太阳他有脚啊，轻轻悄悄地挪移了；我也茫茫然跟着旋转。于是——洗手的时候，日子从水盆里过去；吃饭的时候，日子从饭碗里过去；默默时，便从凝然的双眼前过去。我觉察他去的匆匆了，伸出手遮挽时，他又从遮挽着的手边过去，天黑时，我躺在床上，他便伶伶俐俐地从我身边垮过，从我脚边飞去了。等我睁开眼和太阳再见，这算又溜走了一日。我掩着面叹息。但是新来的日子的影儿又开始在叹息里闪过了。
What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing!
在逃去如飞的日子里，在千门万户的世界里的"我能做些什么呢？只有徘徊罢了，只有匆匆罢了；在八千多日的匆匆里，除徘徊外，又剩些什么呢？过去的日子如轻烟却被微风吹散了，如薄雾，被初阳蒸融了；我留着些什么痕迹呢？我何曾留着象游丝样的痕迹呢？我赤裸裸来到这世界，转眼间也将赤裸裸地回去罢？但不能平的，为什么偏要白白走这一遭啊？
You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?
你聪明的，告诉我，我们的日子为什么一去不复返呢？
英语经典美文11
It’stwoo’clockintheafternoon.Thesunis shinning and it’s very hot. Nancy has to meet her mother at the train station. Now she’s walking in the street. There are no trees and she’s fat. So she feels very hot. But she doesn’t find a boy walking just behind her. And she meets a friend and says “hello” to him. “Who’s the boy behind you？” asks the man . Now she sees the boy. She is angry and asks, “Why are you walking behind me, boy?” “There’snoshadeinthestreet, you know.” answers the boy. “It’s cool behind you, I think.”
英语经典美文12
A cab driver taught me a million dollar lesson in customer satisfaction and expectation. Motivational speakers charge thousands of dollars to impart this kind of training to corporate executives and staff. It cost me a $12 taxi ride.
I had flown into Dallas for the sole purpose of calling on a client. Time was of the essence and my plan included a quick turnaround trip from and back to the airport. A spotless cab pulled up. The driver rushed to open the passenger door for me and made sure I was comfortably seated before he closed the door. As he got in the driver"s seat, he mentioned that the neatly folded Wall Street Journal next to me was for my use. He then showed me several tapes and asked me what type of music I would enjoy. Well! I looked around for a "Candid Camera!" Wouldn"t you? I could not believe the service I was receiving! I took the opportunity to say, "Obviously you take great pride in your work. You must have a story to tell."
"You bet," he replied, "I used to be in Corporate America. But I got tired of thinking my best would never be good enough. I decided to find my niche in life where I could feel proud of being the best I could be. I knew I would never be a rocket scientist, but I love driving cars, being of service and feeling like I have done a full day"s work and done it well. I evaluate my personal assets and… wham! I became a cab driver. One thing I know for sure, to be good in my business I could simply just meet the expectations of my passengers. But, to be great in my business, I have to exceed the customer"s expectations! I like both the sound and the return of being "great" better than just getting by on "average""
Did I tip him big time? You bet! Corporate America"s loss is the travelling folk"s friend!
怎样令顾客满意，达到他们的期望，一个出租车司机给我上了宝贵的一课。换了是一些给公司行政人员和员工作培训的讲师，可能要收取上万的课酬才会传授这等经验。而我呢，只花了12美元的出租车费就学到了。
之前我为了见一个客户飞了一趟达拉斯，时间就是生命，按照行程计划，我马上又折返回到了机场。一辆一尘不染的出租车停在面前。司机随即替我开车门，确定我稳稳妥妥地坐好后才把门关上。坐进驾驶室时，他不忘提醒我，旁边叠得整整齐齐的《华尔街日报》是给我看的。接着，他拿了几盘带子出来，问我喜欢什么类型的音乐。哇塞!我到处张望，看偷拍镜头究竟藏在哪里。碰到这样的情形，你也会有这个反应吧?我简直不敢相信会享受到这般服务!我趁机和他聊了起来：“看得出你很以自己的工作为豪，这里头一定有什么故事吧。”
“你说中了，”他答道，“我以前也是美国商界一员，但是我已经厌倦了怎么努力也达不到别人定下的目标这种生活。我决定要为我的人生创造属于自己的新天地，在那里我可以为自己的.最佳表现而感到自豪。我知道我永远也不会成为一个火箭科学家，但是喜欢开车，喜欢为别人服务，喜欢感觉完成一整天的工作而且把事情做好。算了一下手头的资产后，我就当起出租车司机了。我很清楚要干好这一行，需要做的仅仅就是满足乘客的期望。但是我要做出不一般的成绩，我的服务就要超出顾客的期望!我不要以一般服务混日子，我喜欢听到顾客对我优良服务的赞赏和为此得到的回报。”
我有没有爽快给他小费?当然有!奔波各地的我就这样和这个美国商界流失的一大人才成了朋友。
英语经典美文13
29. The Enchantment of Creeks (1)
Nearly everybody has a creek in his past, a confiding waterway that rose in the spring of youth.…….
My creek wound between Grandfather's apricot orchard and a neighbor's hillside pasture. It banks were shaded by cottonwoods and redwood trees and a thick tangle of blackberries and wild grapevines. On hot summer days the quiet water flowed clear and cold over gravel bars where I fished for trout.
Nothing historic ever happens in these recollected creeks. But their persistence in memory suggests that creeks are bigger than they seem, more a part of our hearts and minds than mighty rivers.
Creek time is measured in the lives of strange creatures, in sandflecked caddis worms under the rocks, sudden gossamer clouds of mayflies in the afternoon, or minnows of darting like silvers of inspiration into the dimness of creek fate. Mysteries float in creeks' riffles, crawl over their pebbled bottoms and slink under the roots of trees.
While rivers are heavy with sophistication and sediment, creeks are clear, innocent, boisterous, full of dream and promise. A child can wade across them without a parent's cautions. You can go it along, jig for crayfish, swing from ropes along the bank. Creeks belong to childhood, drawing you into the wider world, teaching you the curve of the earth. (214 words)
英语经典美文14
E. M. Forster was a member of the Bloomsbury Group—writers, artists, and philosophers living in London who helped shape the modernist movement of the first half of this century. Forster was born in London, but was raised in the countryside of Herforshire. While studying at King’s College, Cambridge, he became deeply interested in cultures other than his own and later traveled widely. In 1912 he sailed with two friends to India where his observations and experiences provided him with the materials from which he later created his highly acclaimed novel A Passage to India (1924), the book to which he refers in the first paragraph of “My Wood.” His fiction often dealt with the effects of social conventions on the natural course of human relationships. Forster’s other major novels are Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), A Room With a View (1908), Howards End (1910), Maurice (1914). Forster acquired a well-deserved reputation as a social and literary critic, as well as a short story writer.
“My Wood” is part of Forster’s 1936 Essay, Abinger Harvest. In this essay, Forster explains the effects produced by owning property. With wit and humor, Forster suggests that purchasing land may not bring the uncomplicated happiness we might expect.
A few years ago I wrote a book which dealt in part with the difficulties of the English in India. Feeling that they would have had no difficulties in India themselves, the Americans read the book freely. The more they read it the better it made them feel, and a cheque to the author was the result. I bought a wood with the cheque. It is not a large wood—it contains scarcely any trees, and it is intersected, blast it, by a public footpath. Still, it is the first property that I have owned, so it is right that other people should participate in my shame, and should ask themselves in accents that will vary in horror, this very important question: What is the effect of property upon the character? Don’t let’s touch economics; the effect of private ownership upon the community as a whole is another question—a more important question, perhaps, but another one. Let’s keep to psychology. If you own things, what’s their effect on you? What’s the effect on me of my wood?
In the first place, it makes me feel heavy. Property does have this effect. Property produces men of weight, and it was a man of weight who failed to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. He was not wicked, that unfortunate millionaire in the parable, he was only stout; he stuck out in front not to mention behind, and as he wedged himself this way and that in the crystalline entrance and bruised his well-fed flanks, he saw beneath him a comparatively slim camel passing through the eye of a needle and being woven into the rob of God.[1] The Gospels all through couple stoutness and slowness. They point out what is perfectly obvious, yet seldom realized: that if you have a lot of things you cannot move about a lot; that furniture requires dusting, dusters require servants, servants require insurance stamps, and the whole tangle of them makes you think twice before you accept an invitation to dinner or go for a bathe in the Jordan. Sometimes the Gospels proceed further and say with Tolstoy that property is sinful; they approach the difficult ground of asceticism here, where I cannot follow them. But as to the immediate effects of property on people, they just show straightforward logic. It produces men of weight. Men of weight cannot, by definition, move like the lightning from the East unto the West, and the ascent of a fourteen-stone bishop into a pulpit is thus the exact antithesis of the coming of the Son of Man.[2] My wood makes me feel heavy.
In the second place, it makes me feel it ought to be larger.
The other day I heard a twig snap in it. I was annoyed at first, for I thought that someone was blackberrying, and depreciating the value of the undergrowth. On coming nearer, I saw it was not a man who had trodden on the twig and snapped it, but a bird, and I felt pleased. My bird. The bird was not equally pleased. Ignoring the relation between us, it took fright as soon as it saw the shape of my face, and flew straight over the boundary hedge into a field, the property of Mrs. Henessy, where it sat down with a loud squawk. It had become Mrs. Henessy’s bird. Something seemed grossly amiss here, something that would not have occurred had the wood been larger. I could not afford to buy Mrs. Henessy out, I dared not murder her, and limitations of this sort beset me on every side. Ahab[3] did not want that vineyard—he only needed it to round off his property, preparatory to plotting a new curve—and all the land around my wood has become necessary to me in order to round off the wood. A boundary protects. But—poor little thing—the boundary ought in its turn to be protected. Noises on the edge of it. Children throw stones. A little more and then a little more, until we reach the sea. Happy Canute.[4] Happier Alexander![5] And after all, why should even the world be the limit of possession? A rocket containing a Union Jack, will, it is hoped, be shortly fired at the moon. Mars. Sirius. Beyond which… But these immensities ended by saddening me. I could not suppose that my wood was the destined nucleus of universal dominion—it is so very small and contains no mineral wealth beyond the blackberries. Nor was I comforted when Mrs. Henessy’s bird took alarm for the second time and flew clean away from us all, under the belief that it belonged to itself.
In the third place, property makes its owner feel that he ought to do something to it. Yet he isn’t sure what. A restlessness comes over him, a vague sense that he has a personality to express—the same sense which, without any vagueness, leads the artist to an act of creation. Sometimes I think I will cut down such trees as remain in the wood, at other times I want to fill up the gaps between them with new trees. Both impulses are pretentious and empty. They are not honest movements towards money-making or beauty. They spring from a foolish desire to express myself and form an inability to enjoy what I have got. Creation, property, enjoyment form sinister trinity in the human mind. Creation, property, enjoyment are both very, very good, yet they are often unattainable without a material basis, and at such moments property pushes itself in as a substitute, saying, “Accept me instead—I’m good enough for all three.” It is not enough. It is, as Shakespeare said of lust, “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame”: it is “Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.” Yet we don’t know how to shun it. It is forced on us by our economic system as the alternative to starvation. It is also forced on us by an internal defect in the soul, by the feeling that in property may lie the germs of self-development and of exquisite or heroic deeds. Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality properly; they are still entangled with the desire for ownership, where (in the words of Dante) “Possession is one with loss.”
And this brings us to our fourth and final point: the blackberries.
Blacberries are not plentiful in this meagre grove, but they are easily seen from the public footpath which traverses it, and all too easily gathered. Foxgloves, too—people will pull up the foxgloves, and ladies of an educational tendency even grub for toadstools to show them on the Monday in class. Other ladies, less educated, roll down the bracken in the arms of their gentlemen friends. There is paper, there are tins. Pray, does my wood belong to me or doesn’t it? And, if it does, should I not own it best by allowing no one else to walk there? There is a wood near Lyme Regis, also cursed by a public footpath, where the owner has not hesitated on this point. He had built high stone walls each side of the path, and has spanned it by bridges, so that the public circulate like termites while he gorges on the blackberries unseen. He really does own his wood, this able chap. Dives in Hell did pretty well, but the gulf dividing him from Lazarus[6] could be traversed by vision, and nothing traverses it here. And perhaps I shall come to this in time. I shall wall in and fence out until I really taste the sweets of property. Enormously stout, endlessly avaricious, pseudo-creative, intensely selfish, I shall weave upon my forehead the quadruple crown of possession until those nasty Bolshies come and take it off again and thrust me aside into the outer darkness.
Questions for Comprehension and Consideration
1. What are the four effects Forster describes as resulting from his purchase of the wood? Explain briefly some of the details Forster uses to explain each of these four effects.
2. In the opening section of the essay, Forster describes the response of Americans to a book he wrote. Why does he emphasize the reaction of Americans? What relationship does the opening paragraph have to the rest of the essay?
3. Forster uses many allusions (references to works or events outside the essay itself) to explain his ideas. Research several of these allusions and explain how these contribute to the central idea of the essay. (For example, in the second paragraph Forster refers to the Gospel of Matthew, 19:24, and to Leo Tolstoy’s views on property.)
4. In the fifth paragraph, Forster begins with specific examples from his own wood and his response to it and ends with generalizations. As he moves from the concrete to the abstract, his tone changes. Analyze the change in tone and explain how Froster uses personal 阿experience as a way to exemplify his general thesis concerning the effects of ownership.
5. In this essay, Forster uses his own experience with ownership to generalize about society’s materialism. Do you consider yourself materialistic? In what ways? Do you consider it a positive or negative trait in yourself or others? Think of something you have purchased after wanting it for a long time. In an essay explain the two or three main ways in which owning this item has affected your life.
[1] See Matthew, XIX, 23-24. (Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
[2] Son of Man Jesus Christ
[3] See 1 Kings, XXI, 1-8. (Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spririt so vexed that you eat no food?” And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it; and he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ” And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city.
[4] Canute (Cnut) (c. 995—1035) King of England, Denmark and Norway. He invaded Scotland in about 1027, and conquered Norway in 1028. His emire broke up after his death.
[5] Alexander III of Macedon (356-323B.C.) the Great king
[6] See Luke XVI, 19-28 (“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ ”)
英语经典美文15
If you ask me something about my happiest time, I'll answer like this.
如果你问我什么时候最快乐，我会说这样回答。
I don't know exactly about my happiest time, because every day I'm living is the happiest time for me. I always keep a good mood. Every day I'm happy at work. When I'm at work, I always do my best, so my boss is satisfied with me. I get on well with my colleagues as well, since I'm always willing to help them. No wonder I have so many friends. That is to say, I am happy when I am working.
我不知道确切的最快乐的时光，因为我活着的每一天都是我最快乐的'时光。我总是保持一个好心情。我每天都很快乐的工作。在我工作的时候，我总是努力做到最好，所以我的老板对我很满意。我和同事相处得很好，因为我总是愿意帮助他们。难怪我有很多的朋友。也就是说，当我工作的时候我很高兴。
What's more, my best friends Phillip and Oscar always speak English with me. Every time, they bring me a very big surprise. They help me a lot. Thanks to their help, my oral English is getting better and better. I don't know how to appreciate them. Keeping learning makes me happy, too.
而且，我最好的朋友菲利普和奥斯卡总是和我说英语。每次他们都让我大吃一惊。他们帮了我很多。由于他们的帮助，我的英语口语变得越来越好了。我不知道如何感谢他们。不断的学习也让我很开心。
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