晨读英语美文100篇
晨读英语美文100篇
Passage 1. knowledge and Virtue
Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life —these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.
Passage 2. “Packing” a Person
A person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as
one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.
Passage 3. Three Passions I Have Lived for
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ...
A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
Passage 4. A Little Girl
Sitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing.
Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.
Passage 5 Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to as sume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which t he Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the o pinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel th em to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —Th at to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People t o alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall s eem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will di ctate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and tr ansient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are mo re disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by ab olishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of ab uses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to thro w off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Passage 6. A Tribute to the Dog
[00:06.08]The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy.
[00:13.42]His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful.
[00:20.31]Those who are nearest and dearest to us,
[00:23.59]those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name,
[00:27.64]may become traitors to their faith.
[00:30.70]The money that a man has he may lose.
[00:33.77]It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most.
[00:38.36]A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. [00:44.27]The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us
[00:51.05]may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.
[00:58.50]The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, [01:05.61]the one that never deserts him,
[01:08.45]the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.
[01:13.81]A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness.
[01:21.14]He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely,
[01:27.93]if only he may be near his master’s side.
[01:31.75]He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer;
[01:35.15]he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world.
[01:41.05]He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.
[01:46.42]When all other friends desert, he remains.
[01:50.13]When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces,
[01:54.62]he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. [02:00.53]If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless,
[02:07.09]the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, [02:12.12]to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies.
[02:16.18]And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace,
[02:22.08]and his body is laid away in the cold ground,
[02:25.69]no matter if all other friends pursue their way,
[02:29.52]there by the grave will the noble dog be found,
[02:33.35]his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, [02:39.70]faithful and true even in death.
[00:00.42]Passage 7. Knowledge and Progress
[00:03.71]Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?
[00:09.18]Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us
[00:14.76]and is becoming more and more manifest.
[00:17.49]Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intellige nce or morality,
[00:23.40]it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.
[00:28.11]Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individu al
[00:34.23]could be communicated to another by means of speech.
[00:37.85]With the invention of writing，a great advance was made,
[00:41.89]for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored.
[00:47.15]Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries:
[00:54.36]the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law,
[00:58.09]which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.
[01:01.37]All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,
[01:06.40]the tempo was suddenly raised.
[01:08.26]Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan.
[01:13.29]The trickle became a stream;
[01:16.14]the stream has now become a torrent.
[01:18.33]Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned t o practical account.
[01:24.89]What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced d evelopment of all man's nature,
[01:31.78]but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life.
[01:35.72]The problem now facing humanity is:
[01:39.00]What is going to be done with all this knowledge?
[01:41.85]As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon
[01:46.77]which can be used equally for good or evil.
[01:50.05]It is now being used indifferently for both.
[01:53.23]Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird
[01:56.95]than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, clos e at hand,
[02:01.87]surgeons use it to restore them?
[02:03.95]We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this tw ofold use of knowledge,
[02:10.29]with its ever-increasing power, continues.
[00:00.76]Passage 8. Address by Engels
[00:05.79]On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon,
[00:11.91]the greatest living thinker ceased to think.
[00:15.97]He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes,
[00:19.79]and when we came back we found him in his armchair,
[00:24.28]peacefully gone to sleep—but forever.
[00:27.89]An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proleta riat of Europe and America,
[00:35.77]and by historical science, in the death of this man.
[00:40.47]The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit
[00:45.51]will soon enough make itself felt.
[00:48.80]Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature,
[00:54.04]so Marx discovered the law of development of human history:
[00:59.51]the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,
[01:05.09]that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing,
[01:11.33]before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.;
[01:17.13]that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subs istence
[01:22.48]and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people
[01:28.06]or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state in stitutions,
[01:34.08]the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion,
[01:39.22]of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of whic h they must, therefore,
[01:45.36]be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.
[01:51.37]But that is not all.
[01:52.90]Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present -day capitalist mode of production
[02:01.00]and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created.
[02:05.81]The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem,
[02:11.28]in trying to solve which all previous investigations,
[02:15.66]of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping i n the dark.
[02:22.00]Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime.
[02:26.82]Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discov ery.
[02:32.95]But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigate d very many fields,
[02:40.17]none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathemati cs,
[02:46.29]he made independent discoveries.
[00:00.43]Passage 9. Relationship that Lasts
[00:05.46]If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it?
[00:12.04]I don’t think there’s any reason not to.
[00:15.31]We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment,
[00:19.04]whatever change may happen afterwards.
[00:21.76]As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing.
[00:27.56]Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasti ng love.
[00:33.15]I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.
[00:39.27]You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person.
[00:43.54]But love will change its composition with the passage of time.
[00:47.92]It will not remain the same.
[00:50.43]In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased exper ience,
[00:56.34]love will become something different to you.
[00:59.51]In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely.
[01:05.64]By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”.
[01:10.67]Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last.
[01:15.92]Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end u p in a sort of interdependence.
[01:23.47]We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. [01:28.29]The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter.
[01:32.12]One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference.
[01:38.24]Liking is actually a sort of love.
[01:41.09]By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an eve rlasting love.
[01:47.43]I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever.
[01:52.46]That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true.
Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.
[00:00.97]Passage 10. Rush
[00:04.04]Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return;
[00:10.27]willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening;
[00:15.30]peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again.
[00:19.79]Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? [00:27.23]If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be?
[00:31.39]Where could he hide them?
[00:33.46]If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment?
[00:39.70]I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend,
[00:44.52]but I do feel my hands are getting empty.
[00:47.91]Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me.
[00:55.67]Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, [01:02.02]my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless.
[01:08.15]Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. [01:14.49]Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; [01:20.73]yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush?
[01:26.42]When I get up in the morning,
[01:28.83]the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs.
[01:35.72]The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively;
[01:42.07]and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution.
[01:45.67]Thus — the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands,
[01:51.59]wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal,
[01:54.87]and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. [02:01.21]I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back,
[02:07.34]but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands.
[02:11.17]In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way.
[02:20.03]The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone.
[02:27.58]I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh.
[02:32.17]But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh.
[02:37.21]What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? [02:43.77]Nothing but to hesitate, to rush.
[02:47.49]What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating?
[02:53.73]Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind,
[02:59.09]or evaporated as mist by the morning sun.
[03:02.60]What traces have I left behind me?
[03:06.10]Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all?
[03:10.25]I have come to the world, stark naked;
[03:13.97]am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness?
[03:19.11]It is not fair though:
[03:21.20]why should I have made such a trip for nothing!
[03:24.80]You the wise, tell me,
[03:26.77]why should our days leave us, never to return?
[00:00.33]Passage 11. A Summer Day
[00:03.72]One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun.
[00:09.08]A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern France
[00:15.43]than at any other time before or since.
[00:18.71]Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, [00:23.63]and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there.
[00:30.64]Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses,
[00:36.11]staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away.
[00:44.75]The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring
[00:50.11]were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes.
[00:53.50]These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.
[01:00.50]The universal stare made the eyes ache.
[01:04.55]Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed,
[01:08.60]it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist
[01:12.65]slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea,
[01:15.82]but it softened nowhere else.
[01:18.56]Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages,
[01:23.59]and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, [01:28.73]dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky.
[01:32.12]So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts,
[01:37.81]creeping slowly towards the interior;
[01:40.54]so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened;
[01:46.56]so did the exhausted laborers in the fields.
[01:50.06]Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare;
[01:54.23]except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls,
[01:59.26]and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle.
[02:04.29]The very dust was scorched brown,
[02:07.14]and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. [02:12.06]Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare.
[02:20.27]Grant it but a chink or a keyhole,
[02:23.55]and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.
[00:00.00]Passage 12. Night
[00:04.02]Night has fallen over the country.
[00:08.07]Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. [00:13.76]In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. [00:19.01]I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of
the summer wind.
[00:26.23]Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on th e billowy sea of grass.
[00:34.55]I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are ther e.
[00:40.13]Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles.
[00:44.61]The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge.
[00:49.43]Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighb oring sea.
[00:56.22]The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone.
[01:01.24]How different it is in the city!
[01:04.31]It is late, and the crowd is gone.
[01:07.04]You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the co ol,
[01:12.95]dewy night as if you folded her garments about you.
[01:16.89]Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. [01:22.91]The lamps are still burning up and down the long street.
[01:28.05]People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened,
[01:33.19]and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing,
[01:37.02]while a new one springs up behind the walker,
[01:40.41]and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill.
[01:45.23]The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang.
[01:50.26]There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again.
[01:59.56]And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night.
[02:05.24]The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcom e her.
[02:11.38]The moonlight is broken.
[02:13.56]It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets [02:19.04]—angular like blocks of white marble.
[00:01.21]Passage 13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our Times
[00:09.31]Peace and development are the themes of the times.
[00:13.35]People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind.
[00:22.06]A peaceful environment is indispensable for national,
[00:26.22]regional and even global development.
[00:29.50]Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of.
[00:35.96]This has been fully proved by both the past and the present.
[00:41.09]In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation.
[00:48.54]However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up,
[00:55.65]and tension still remains in some areas.
[00:59.37]All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned,
[01:05.06]and has also adversely affected the world economy.
[01:08.89]All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter
[01:16.01]and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, [01:20.72]and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace.