最新英语短篇美文
美文的概念已经不限定于某种文体,或某类内容。下面就为大家收集了最新英语短篇美文。欢迎阅读!
篇一:最新英语短篇美文
Three Days to See
All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of
appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”. But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.
Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without
concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
译文:
假如给我三天光明(节选)
我们都读过震撼人心的故事,故事中的主人公只能再活一段很有限的时光,有时长达一年,有时却短至一日。但我们总是想要知道,注定要离世人的会选择如何度过自己最后的时光。当然,我说的是那些有选择权利的自由人,而不是那些活动范围受到严格限定的死囚。
这样的故事让我们思考,在类似的处境下,我们该做些什么?作为终有一死的人,在临终前的几个小时内我们应该做什么事,经历些什么或做哪些联想?回忆往昔,什么使我们开心快乐?什么又使我们悔恨不已?
有时我想,把每天都当作生命中的最后一天来边,也不失为一个极好的生活法则。这种态度会使人格外重视生命的价值。我们每天都应该以优雅的姿态,充沛的精力,抱着感
恩之心来生活。但当时间以无休止的日,月和年在我们面前流逝时,我们却常常没有了这种子感觉。当然,也有人奉行“吃,喝,享受”的享乐主义信条,但绝大多数人还是会受到即将到来的死亡的惩罚。
在故事中,将死的主人公通常都在最后一刻因突降的幸运而获救,但他的价值观通常都会改变,他变得更加理解生命的意义及其永恒的精神价值。我们常常注意到,那些生活在或曾经生活在死亡阴影下的人无论做什么都会感到幸福。
然而,我们中的大多数人都把生命看成是理所当然的。我们知道有一天我们必将面对死亡,但总认为那一天还在遥远的将来。当我们身强体健之时,死亡简直不可想象,我们很少考虑到它。日子多得好像没有尽头。因此我们一味忙于琐事,几乎意识不到我们对待生活的冷漠态度。
我担心同样的冷漠也存在于我们对自己官能和意识的运用上。只有聋子才理解听力的重要,只有盲人才明白视觉的可贵,这尤其适用于那些成年后才失去视力或听力之苦的人很少充分利用这些宝贵的能力。他们的.眼睛和耳朵模糊地感受着周围的景物与声音,心不在焉,也无所感激。这正好我们只有在失去后才懂得珍惜一样,我们只有在生病后才意识到健康的可贵。
我经常想,如果每个人在年轻的时候都有几天失时失聪,也不失为一件幸事。黑暗将使他更加感激光明,寂静将告诉他声音的美妙。
篇二:最新英语短篇美文
Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart, there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.
When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may
die young at 80.
译文:
青春
青春不是年华,而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝,而是深沉的意志,恢宏的想象,炙热的恋情;青春是生命的深泉在涌流。
青春气贯长虹,勇锐盖过怯弱,进取压倒苟安。如此锐气,二十后生而有之,六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加,并非垂老,理想丢弃,方堕暮年。
岁月悠悠,衰微只及肌肤;热忱抛却,颓废必致灵魂。忧烦,惶恐,丧失自信,定使心灵扭曲,意气如灰。
无论年届花甲,拟或二八芳龄,心中皆有生命之欢乐,奇迹之诱惑,孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线,只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号,你就青春永驻,风华常存。 、
一旦天线下降,锐气便被冰雪覆盖,玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生,即使年方二十,实已垂垂老矣;然则只要树起天线,捕捉乐观信号,你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。
篇三:最新英语短篇美文
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The faultfinder will find faults in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse.
The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means. Which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage.
Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends, Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
译文:
不论你的生活如何卑贱,你要面对它生活,不要躲避它,更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候,倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。
你要爱你的生活,尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里,你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。
夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上,像身在富户人家窗上一样光亮;在那门前,积雪同在早春融化。我只看到,一个从容的人,在哪里也像在皇宫中一样,生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人,我看,倒往往是过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很大,所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的,不靠城镇来支援他们;可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段来对付生活,他们是毫不超脱的,毋宁是不体面的。
视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧!不要找新的花样,无论是新的朋友或新的衣服,来麻烦你自己。找旧的,回到那里去。万物不变,是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉,但要保留你的思想。
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