晨读英语美文100篇文本
[02:02.10]and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, [02:08.66]not, I repeat, from their own fault, [02:11.84]but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, [02:18.94]and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. [02:25.84]Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, [02:32.18]then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge [02:38.75]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 qualit ies 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 beaut iful 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
[00:00.00]星火书业 晨读英语美文 100 篇六级 [00:22.86]Passage 1. knowledge and Virtue [00:28.00]Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; [00:32.05]good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, [00:36.97]nor is largeness and justness of view faith. [00:41.35]Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, [00:46.05]gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. [00:54.15]Liberal Educat ion makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. [01:01.59]It is well to be a gentleman, [01:04.11]it is well to have a cult ivated intellect, a delicate taste, [01:09.14]a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, [01:13.19]a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life [01:17.24]—these are the connatural qualit ies of a large knowledge; [01:22.05]they are the objects of a University. [01:25.45]I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; [01:30.69]but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, [01:37.37]and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, [01:42.18]to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. [01:49.18]Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; [01:54.44]they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run;
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. [00:00.55]Passage 3. Three Passions I Have Lived for [00:05.91]Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: [00:14.00]the longing for love, the search for knowledge, [00:17.28]and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. [00:21.44]These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, [00:27.13]in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, [00:31.41]reaching to the very verge of despair. [00:34.36]I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy [00:39.17]—ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life [00:44.97]for a few hours for this joy. [00:47.70]I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness [00:52.19]—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness [00:57.46]looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. [01:04.12]I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, [01:10.02]in a mystic miniature, [01:11.89]the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. [01:17.90]This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, [01:23.92]this is what—at last—I.08]With equal passion I have sought knowledge. [01:32.12]I have wished to understand the hearts of men. [01:36.06]I have wished to know why the stars shine ... [01:40.44]A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. [01:45.37]Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. [01:53.35]But always pity brought me back to earth. [01:56.96]Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. [02:01.67]Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people [02:08.23]—a hated burden to their sons, [02:10.97]and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. [02:19.28]I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. [02:25.73]This has been my life. [02:28.36]I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again [02:32.52]if the chance were offered me. [00:01.43]Passage 4. A Little Girl [00:05.59]Sitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. [00:14.23]With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, [00:19.37]while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud [00:24.08]that hovered like a golden feather above her head. [00:28.56]The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her
【晨读英语美文100篇】晨读英语美文中英对照版
【晨读英语美文100篇】晨读英语美文中英对照版英语晨读365 116 Virtue 美德Sweet day,so cool,so calm,so bright! 甜美的白昼，如此凉爽、安宁、明媚！The bridal of the earth and sky- 天地间完美的匹配----- The dew shall weep thy fall to-night; 今宵的露珠儿将为你的消逝而落泪；For thou must die. 因为你必须离去。
Sweet rose,whose hue angry and brave, 美丽的玫瑰，色泽红润艳丽，Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, 令匆匆而过的人拭目而视，Thy root is ever in its grave, 你的根永远扎在坟墓里，And thou must die. 而你必须消逝。
Sweet spring,full of sweet days and roses, 美妙的春天，充满了美好的日子和芳香的玫瑰，A box where sweets compacted lie, 如一支芬芳满溢的盒子，My music shows ye have your closes, 我的音乐表明你们也有终止，And all must die, 万物都得消逝。
Only a sweet and virtuous soul, 唯有美好而正直的心灵，Like season'd timber,never gives; 犹如干燥备用的木料，永不走样；But though the whole world turn to coal, 纵然整个世界变为灰烬，Then chiefly lives. 它依然流光溢彩。
英语晨读365 115 Equipment 装备Figure it out for yourself, my lad. You have got all that the great have had: two arms, two legs, two hands, two eyes, and a brain to use if you'd be wise. With this equipment they all began, so start for the top and say" I can".Look them over the wise and the great. They take their food from a common plate. With similar knives and forks they use; with similar laces they tie their shoes. The world considers them brave and smart, but you know--- you have got all they had when they made their start.You can triumph and come to skill; you can be great if you only will. You are well equipped for the fight you choose you have arms and legs and brains to use. And people who have risen, great deeds to do started their lives with no more than you.You are the handicap you must face. You are the one who must choose your place. You must say where you want to go, and how much you will study the truth to know. God has equipped you for life, but he lets you decide what you want to be.The courage must come from the soul within; you must furnish the will to win. So figure it out for yourself, my lad; you were born with all the great have had; with your equipment they all began. Get hold of yourself and say" I can".你会发现，自己已经具备了所有伟人所拥有的：两条胳膊，两条腿，两只手，两只眼睛以及为你带来智慧的大脑。
晨读英语美文100篇 (2)
晨读英语美文100篇Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge 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, fromtheir 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 knowledgeand human reason to contend against those giants,Passage 2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging.But going too far is absolutely undesirable.A little exaggeration, however, does no harmwhen 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-confidenceand pursuepioneering 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 serenityindifferent 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 processso 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 editionthat 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 forThree 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 ofanguish,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 lifefor a few hours for this joy.I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousnesslooks 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 itagainif the chance were offered me.Passage 4. A Little GirlSitting 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 cloudthat 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 thosequivering, 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 IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events,it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bandswhich have connected them with another,and to assume among the powers of the earth,the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,a decent respect to the opinions of mankindrequires that they should declare the causes which impel them 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.—That 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 to alter or to abolish it,and to institutenew Government,laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form,as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long establishedshould not be changed for light and transient causes;and accordingly all experience has shown,that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce themunder absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,to throw 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 Britainis 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 DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy.His son or daughter that he has rearedwith loving care may prove ungrateful.Those who are nearest and dearest to us,those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name,may become traitors to their faith.The money that a man has he may lose.It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most.A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action.The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with usmay be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world,the one that never deserts him,the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness.He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely,if only he may be near his master’s side.He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer;he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world.He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.When all other friends desert, he remains.When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces,he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens.If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless,the faithfuldog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him,to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies.And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace,and his body is laid away in the cold ground,no matter if all other friends pursue their way,there by the grave will the noble dog be found,his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness,faithful and true even in death.Passage 7. Knowledge and ProgressWhy does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around usand is becoming more and more manifest.Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality,it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individualcould be communicated to another by means of speech.With the invention of writing，a great advance was made,for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored.Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries:the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law,which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempowas suddenly raised.Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan.The trickle became a stream;the stream has now become a torrent.Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account.What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature,but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life.The problem now facing humanity is:What is going to be done with all this knowledge?As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weaponwhich can be used equally for good or evil.It is now being used indifferently for both.Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weirdthan that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand,surgeons use it to restore them?We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge,with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage 8. Address by EngelsOn the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon,the greatest living thinker ceased to think.He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes,and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever.An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by themilitant proletariat of Europe and America,and by historical science, in the death of this man.The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spiritwill soon enough make itself felt.Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature,so Marx discovered the law of development of human history:the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing,before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.;that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistenceand consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given peopleor during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions,the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion,of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore,be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.But that is not all.Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of productionand the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created.The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem,in trying to solve which all previous investigations,of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in thedark.Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime.Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery.But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields,none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics,he made independent discoveries.Passage 9. Relationship that LastsIf somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it?I don’t think there’s any reason not to.We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment,whatever change may happen afterwards.As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing.Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love.I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person.But love will change its composition with the passage of time.It will not remain the same.In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience,love will become something different to you.In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely.By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”.Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last.Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in asort of interdependence.We used to insist on the difference between love and liking.The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter.One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference.Liking is actually a sort of love.By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love.I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever.That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true.Passage 10. RushSwallows 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?I don’t 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.Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming;yet in between, how fast 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.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!You the wise, tell me,why should our days leave us, never to return?。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳道创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge 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 andcourteous 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 andhypocrisy, 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.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA 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 uniquequalities 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 thenatural 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.Passage3. 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. Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she wasgazing 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 otherfeatures, 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.Passage5 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 assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them 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, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That 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 becomesdestructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to 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 seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 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 throw 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 ofan absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He willkiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death. Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone nogeneral improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out,knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,thatmankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field,even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the differencebetween love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. Rush 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? I don’t 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 dropof 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. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast 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. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. Whathave 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! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun.A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink alittle, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow. Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with ajangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our TimesPeace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries andregions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-EsteemSelf-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective andproductive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel ofappreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is awoman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable. Freedom—it is today more than ever the most precious human possession. We—Sweden and the United States—we have it still. My country is young—but it greets you with a peculiar fellowship, you whose earth is ancient and free.。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳育创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge 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 wellto 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 heshows 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.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA 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.Passage3. 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.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting 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 hercomplexion, 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.Passage5 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 assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, thatthey are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That 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 to 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 seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 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 throw 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 Kingof 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.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has nofood to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing，a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to askourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of whichthey must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for t he belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition withthe passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. Rush 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? I don’t 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. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast 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 andheave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. 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! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes.These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow ofnight, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one towelcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our TimesPeace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armedconflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-Esteem Self-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem andself-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent undertheir direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given toan American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable.。
晨读英语美文100篇(完整资料).doc
此文档下载后即可编辑The road to successIt is well that young men should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate positions. Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a serious responsibility thrust upon them at the very threshold of their business lives sweeping out of the office.I notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, and our young men unfortunately miss that salutary branch of business education. But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. It does not hurt the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary. I was one of those sweepers myself.Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is “aim high”. I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm.Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive. Say to yourself, “my place is at the top”.Be king in your dreams. And there is the prime condition of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on the line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here, there, and everywhere.“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” is all wrong. I tell you to “put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.”Look round you and take notice, men who do that not often fail. It is easy to watch and carry too many baskets that break most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. One fault of the American businessman is lack of concentration.To summarize what I have said: aim for the highest; never enter a bar room; do not touch liquor, or if at all only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; make the firm’s interest yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket; expenditure always within revenue; lastly, be not impatient, for as Emerson says, “no one can cheat you out of ultimate succ ess but yourself.”When love beckons youWhen love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to our roots and shake them in their clinging to earth.But if, in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be you desires:To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.To know the pain of too much tenderness.To be wounded by your own understanding of love.And to bleed willingly and joyfully.To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest at noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy. To return home at eventide with gratitude.And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.If I rest, I rustThe significant inscription found on an old key-----“if I rest, I rust.”-----would be an excellent motto for those afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like he iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature ----- every department of human endeavor.Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the bust brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.Labor vanquishes all ----- not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.A wet Sunday in a country inn A wet。
励志晨读英语美文带翻译 晨读英语美文100篇带翻译优秀6篇
励志晨读英语美文带翻译晨读英语美文100篇带翻译优秀6篇英语晨读美文带翻译篇一Youth not a teme of lefe; et a state of mend; et not a matter of rosy cheeks, red leps and supple knees; et a matter of the well, a qualety of the emagenateon, a vegor of the emoteons; et the freshness of the deep sprengs of lefe.Youth means a temperamental predomenance of courage over temedety, of the appetete for adventure over the love of ease. Th often exts en a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserteng our edeals.Years may wrenkle the sken, but to geve up enthuseasm wrenkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-dtrust bows the heart and turns the speret back to dust.Whether 60 or 16, there en every human beeng’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfaeleng appetete for what’s next and the joy of the game of leveng. In the center of your heart and my heart, there a wereless stateon; so long as et receeves messages of beauty, hope, courage and power from man and from the enfenete, so long as you are young.When your aereals are down, and your speret covered weth snows of cynecm and the ece of pessemm, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aereals are up, to catch waves of optemm, there’s hope you may dee 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。
晨读英语美文100个
.晨读英语美文100篇Passage1.KnowledgeandVirtueKnowledgeisonething,virtueisanother;goodsenseisnotconscience,refinementisnothumility,norislargenessandjustness of view faith.Philosophy,however enlightened,however profound,gives no commandover the passions,no influential motives,no vivifying principles.LiberalEducationmakesnottheChristian,nottheCatholic,butthegentleman.Itiswelltobeagentleman,itiswelltohaveacultivatedintellect,adelicatetaste,acandid,equitable,dispassionate mind,a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct oflife—these are theconnatural qualities of alargeknowledge;they aretheobjects ofa amadvocating,Ishallillustrateandinsistuponthem;butstill,Irepeat,they are noguarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness,and they mayattach to the manof the world,to the profligate,to the heartless,pleasant,alas,andattractive as he shows whendecked outin by themselves,theydo but seemtobewhatthey are not;theylook like virtue atadistance,buttheyaredetectedbycloseobservers,andinthelongrun;andhenceitisthattheyarepopularly accusedof pretense andhypocrisy,not,Irepeat,from.their ownfault,but becausetheir professors andtheir admirerspersist in taking themfor whattheyare not,and are officiousin arrogating for them apraise to which they havenothegraniterockwithrazors,ormoorthevessel withathreadofsilk,thenmayyouhopewithsuchkeenand delicateinstrumentsashumanknowledgeandhumanreasonto contendagainstthosegiants,Passage2.“Packing”aPersonAperson,like acommodity,needs going toofar is absolutely little exaggeration,however, doesnoharmwhenit showstheperson's uniquequalities totheir displaypersonalcharminacasualandnaturalway,it is important for oneto have a clearknowledge ofmasterpackagerknowshowto integrate art andnaturewithout any traces of embellishment,so that the personsopackagedis nocommoditybutahumanbeing,lively andyoungperson,especially afemale,radiant withbeautyandfull oflife,hasallthefavorgrantedbyattempttomakeupwouldbeself-defeating.Youth,however,comesandgoesin amomentof forthemiddle-agedisprimarily to concealthe furrows ploughedby youstill enjoylife'sexuberance enough to retainself-confidenceandpursuepioneeringwork,youareuniqueinyournaturalqualities,and yourcharmandgracewillpeoplearebeautiful iftheirriveroflifehasbeen,throughplains,mountainsand jungles,running its course asit havereallylivedyour lifewhich now arrives at acomplacent stageofserenityindifferent to fameor is noneed t oresorttohair-dyeing；thesnow-cappedmountainisitselfa beautifulsceneofyourlookschangefromyoung tooldsynchronizingwiththenaturalageingprocesssoasto keepinharmonywith nature,forharmonyitself isbeauty,while theotherwayroundwillonlyendinbeintheelder'scompanyislikereadingathickbookofdeluxe editionthatfascinatesonesomuchastobereluctanttopart longasonefindswhereonestands,oneknowshowto packageoneself,justasacommodityestablishesitsbrandby therightpackaging.Passage3.ThreePassionsIHaveLivedforThreepassions,simplebutoverwhelminglystrong,havegoverned my life:the longingfor love,the search forknowledge,and unbearable pity for the suffering o fpassions,like greatwinds,haveblownmehitherand thither,in a wayward courseover a deepoceanofanguish,reachingtotheveryvergeofhavesoughtlove,first,becauseitbringsecstasy—ecstasysogreatthat Iwouldoftenhavesacrificedalltherestofmylifeforafewhoursforthishavesoughtit,next,becauseitrelievesloneliness—thatterriblelonelinessinwhichoneshiveringconsciousnesslooksovertherimofthew orldintothecoldunfathomablelifelesshavesoughtit,finally,becauseintheunionoflov eIhaveseen,inamysticminiature,the prefiguringvisionoftheheaventhatsaintsandpoetshaveiswhatIsought,andthoughitmi ghtseemtoogoodforhumanlife,thisiswhat—atlast—Ihaveequal passion I have sought have wished tounderstand thehearts of havewishedto knowwhythestarsshine...Alittleofthis,butnotmuch,Ihaveandknowledge,sofar astheywerepossible,ledupwardtowardthe alwayspity brought mebackto ofcries of pain reverberate in my in famine,victimstorturedbyoppressors,helplessoldpeople—ahatedburdentotheir sons,and the wholeworldofloneliness,poverty,andpainmakeamockeryofwhathumanlifeshouldlongtoalleviate theevil,butI cannot,andItoo hasbeenmy havefound it worthliving,andwouldgladlylive it ;.againifthechancewereofferedme.Passage4.ALittleGirlSittingonagrassygrave,beneathoneofthewindowsof thechurch,wasalittleherheadbentbackshewasgazingup at the skyandsinging,while oneof herlittle hands waspointing toatiny cloudthat hoveredlike agolden feather abovehersun,whichhadsuddenlybecomevery bright, shiningonherglossyhair,gaveitametallicluster,anditwasdifficult tosaywhatwasthe color,darkbronzeor completely absorbedwassheinwatching thecloudtowhichher strangesongorincantationseemedaddressed,thatshedidnot observemewhenI rose andwenttowards herhead,high upintheblue,alarkthatwassoaringtowardsthesamegauzycloud wassinging,asif in Islowly approachedthechild,I could seebyherforehead,whichinthesunshine seemedlikeaglobeofpearl,andespeciallybyhercomplexion,that sheuncommonlyeyes,whichatonemomentseemedblue-gray,at another violet,were shadedbylong black lashes,curvingbackwardinamostpeculiarway,andthesematchedin huehereyebrows,andthetressesthatweretossedabouthertender throat werequivering in the thisI didnottakeinatonce;foratfirstIcouldseenothingbutthosequivering,glittering,changeful eyes turned up into mytheotherfeatures,especiallythesensitivefull-lipped mouth,grewuponmeasI stood silently seemedtomeamoreperfectbeautythanhadevercometomein myloveliest dreamsof it wasnotherbeauty somuch asthelookshegavemethatfascinatedme,meltedme.Passage5DeclarationofIndependenceWhenintheCourseofhumanevents,itbecomesnecessary foronepeopletodissolvethepoliticalbandswhichhaveconnectedthemwith another,and toassumeamongthepowersofthe earth,theseparate andequal station towhichtheLawsofNatureandofNature'sGodentitlethem,adecent respecttotheopinionsofmankindrequiresthattheyshould declarethecauseswhichimpelthemtotheholdthese truths to be self-evident,that all menare createdequal,that they are endowedby their Creator with certain unalienableRights,thatamongtheseareLife,Libertyandthepursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted amongMen,deriving their just powersfromtheconsentofthegoverned,—Thatwheneverany Formof Governmentbecomesdestructive of theseends,it is theRight of the Peopletoalteror to abolishit,andtoinstitutenewGovernment,layingitsfoundationonsuchprinciplesand organizingitspowersinsuchform,astothemshallseemmostlikelyto effect their Safetyand Happiness.Prudence,indeed, willdictatethatGovernmentslongestablishedshouldnotbe changedforlightandtransientcauses;andaccordinglyall experience hasshown,that mankindaremoredisposedto suffer,whileevils are sufferable,than to right themselves byabolishingtheformstowhichtheyarewhena longtrainofabusesandusurpations,pursuinginvariablythe sameObject evinces adesign to reducethemunder absoluteDespotism,it istheir right,it is their duty,tothrow offsuchGovernment,andtoprovide newGuardsfor their future security.—SuchhasbeenthepatientsufferanceoftheseColonies;and suchisnowthenecessity whichconstrains themtoalter their formerSystemsofhistoryofthepresentKingof Great Britainis a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,allhavingindirectobjecttheestablishmentofanabsolute TyrannyovertheseStates.To provethis, let Facts besubmittedtoacandidworld.Passage6.ATributetotheDog Thebestfriendamanhasintheworldmayturnagainsthimandbecomehissonordaughterthat hehasreared ;.with loving caremayprove whoarenearest and dearesttous,thosewhomwetrustwithourhappinessandour goodname,maybecometraitorstotheirmoneythatamanhashe flies awayfromhim,perhapswhenheneeds itman’sreputationmaybesacrificedinamomentofill-considered people whoareproneto fall ontheirkneestodoushonorwhensuccessiswithusmaybethefirst tothrowthestoneofmalicewhenfailure settlesits cloud uponouroneabsolutely unselfish friend that mancanhaveinthisselfishworld,theonethatneverdesertshim,theonethat neverproves ungrateful or treacherous,ishisman’sdogstands byhimin prosperity andinpoverty,in health andinwill sleep onthecold ground,wherethe wintrywindsblowandthesnowdrives fiercely,ifonly hemaybenear hismaster’swillkissthehandthathasnofoodtooffer;he will lick thewoundsandsoresthat comefromencounterwith the roughnessof the willguard thesleep ofhispaupermasterasifhewereaallotherfriendsdesert,heriches takewingsandreputation falls topieces,heisasconstantinhisloveasthesuninitsjourneys throughthe fortunedrivesthe masterforth,anoutcastintheworld,friendlessandhomeless,thefaithfuldogasksnohigherprivilegethanthatofaccompanyinghim,toguardhimagainst danger,to fight against his whenthelastsceneofallcomes,anddeathtakesthemasterinitsembrace,andhis bodyis laid awayinthe cold ground,no matterifallotherfriendspursuetheirway,therebythegravewillthenoble dogbefound,his headbetweenhispaws,his eyessadbutopenin alert watchfulness,faithful andtrue evenin death.Passage7.KnowledgeandProgressWhydoestheidea of progress loomsolarge in the modernworld?Surely becauseprogress ofaparticular kind is actuallytaking place around usand is becoming more andmoremankindhasundergonenogeneral improvement inintelligence ormorality,it hasmadeextraordinary progress intheaccumulationofbegantoincreaseassoonasthe thoughts of oneindividualcould becommunicatedtoanotherbymeansoftheinventionofwriting，agreatadvancewasmade,forknowledgecouldthenbenotonlycommunicatedbut also madeeducation possible,andeducationinitsturnaddedtolibraries:thegrowthof knowledgefollowedakindofcompoundinterestlaw,whichwas greatlyenhancedbytheinventionofthiswascomparatively slowuntil,withthe comingof science,the tempowassuddenlyknowledgebegantobeaccumulatedaccording to asystematic trickle becameastream;thestream has nowbecomea torrent.Moreover,as soon as newknowledge is acquired,it is now turned to practicalis called“moderncivilization”is notthe resultof a balanced developmentof all man's nature,but ofaccumulatedknowledgeappliedtopracticalproblem nowfacinghumanityis:Whatisgoingtobedonewithallthisknowledge?Asis sooften pointed out,knowledgeis atwo-edgedweaponwhichcanbeusedequally for goodor is nowbeing usedindifferently for anyspectacle,for instance,be more grimly weirdthan that ofgunners usingscience toshattermen'sbodieswhile,closeathand,surgeonsuseittorestore them?Wehavetoaskourselves very seriously whatwillhappen if this twofold use ofknowledge,with itsever-increasingpower,continues.Passage8.AddressbyEngelsOn the14th of March,at a quarter to three in theafternoon,thegreatestlivingthinkerceasedtohadbeenleft alone for scarcelytwominutes,and whenwecamebackwefoundhiminhisarmchair,peacefullygonetosleep—but immeasurablelosshasbeensustainedbothbythemilitantproletariatofEuropeandAmerica,andbyhistorical science,inthedeathofthisgapthathasbeenleft bythedepartureofthismightyspiritwillsoonenoughmake itselfasDarwindiscoveredthelawofdevelopmentoforganic nature,so Marxdiscovered thelawofdevelopment ofhumanhistory:the simple fact,hithertoconcealed byanovergrowthofideology,thatmankindmustfirstofalleat,drink,haveshelter andclothing,before it canpursuepolitics,science,art,religion,etc.;that therefore theproduction of theimmediatematerialmeansofsubsistenceandconsequentlythedegreeof economicdevelopmentattained byagivenpeopleorduringagivenepochformthefoundationuponwhichthestateinstitutions,the legal conceptions,art,andeventheideasonreligion,of the people concernedhavebeenevolved,andin the lightofwhichtheymust,therefore,beexplained,insteadofvice versa,ashadhitherto beenthethatis notalsodiscoveredthespeciallawofmotiongoverningthepresent-day capitalist modeof productionand the bourgeoissociety that this modeofproduction has discoveryofsurplus value suddenly threwlight onthe problem,in tryingtosolvewhichallpreviousinvestigations,ofbothbourgeois economists and socialist critics,hadbeengroping in the ;.dark.Two such discoveries would be enough for one themantowhomitisgrantedtomakeevenonein every single field which Marx investigated—andheinvestigatedverymanyfields,noneofthemsuperficially—in every field,even in that ofmathematics,he made independent9.Relationship that LastsIf somebodytellsyou,“I’ll love you for ever,”willyoubelieve it?Idon’tthink there’sanyreasonnot are ready to believe such commitment at themoment,whateverchangemayhappen forthebelief inaneverlastinglove,that’sanotheryoumaybeaskedwhetherthereissuchathingasaneverlasting’d answer Ibelieve init,butaneverlasting love isnotmayunswervinglylove orbeloved byalovewillchangeitscompositionwiththepassageof willnotremainthethecourseofyourgrowthandasa result of your increased experience,love willbecomesomethingdifferenttothebeginningyoubelieveda ferventloveforapersoncouldlastandby,however,“fervent”gavewayto“prosaic”.Precisely becauseofthischangeitbecamepossibleforlovetowhatwasmeantbyan everlastinglovewouldeventuallyendupina;.. sortofusedtoinsistonthedifferencebetweenloveandformerseemedmuchmorebeautif ulthanthe day,however,itturnsout there’sreallynoneedtomakesuchisactuallyasortofthesametoken,theeverlastinginterdependenceisactuallyaneverlastingwishIcouldbelievetherewassomebodywhowouldlovemefor’s,asweallknow,tooromantictobetrue.Passage10.RushSwallows may have gone,but there is a time ofreturn;willow trees mayhavedied back,but there is atime ofregreening;peach blossomsmayhavefallen,but they willbloomagain.Now,youthewise,tellme,whyshould ourdaysleave us, nevertoreturn?Iftheyhadbeenstolenbysomeone,whocoulditbe?Wherecouldhehidethem?Iftheyhadmadetheescape themselves,thenwherecouldtheystayatthemoment?Idon’tknowhowmanydaysIhavebeengiventospend,butIdofeel myhandsaregettingstocksilently,Ifindthatmorethan eight thousand dayshave already slid awayfromadropofwaterfromthepoint ofaneedle disappearing intotheocean,mydaysaredrippingintothestreamoftime, soundless,sweatis starting onmyforehead, ;..andtears welling upinmythat havegonehavegoneforgood,thosetocomekeepcoming;yetinbetween,howfast istheshift,insucharush?WhenIgetupinthemorning,theslanting sunmarksits presenceinmysmall roomin twoor threesunhasfeet,look,heistreading on,lightly andfurtively;and I amcaught,blankly,inhis—thedayflowsawaythrough the sink whenI washmyhands,wears offinthebowlwhenIeatmymeal,andpassesawaybeforemyday-dreaminggazeasreflectincanfeelhishastenow,soIreachoutmyhandstoholdhimback,buthekeeps flowingpastmywithholdingtheevening,asIlieinbed,hestrides overmybody,glides pastmyfeet,in his agile momentI openmyeyesandmeetthe sunagain,onewhole dayhasburymyfaceinmyhandsandheavea thenewdaybeginstoflashpastinthecanIdo,inthis bustling world,with my days flying in their escape?Nothing butto hesitate,to haveIbeendoing inthateight-thousand-dayrush,apartfromhesitating?Those bygonedayshavebeendispersedassmokebyalightwind,or evaporatedasmistbythemorningtraceshaveIleftbehindme?HaveI ever left behindanygossamertraces at all?Ihavecometothe world,stark naked;amIto goback,in ablink,;..inthesamestarknakedness?Itisnotfairthough:whyshouldIhavemadesuchatripfornothing!Youthewise,tellme,whyshouldourdaysleaveus,nevertoreturn?;.。
晨读英语美文100篇
晨读英语美文100篇My Perfect HouseMy house is perfect.By great good fortune I have found a housekeeper no less to my mind,a low-voiced, light-footed woman of discreet age, strong and deft enough to render me all the service I require,and not afraid of loneliness.She rises very early.By my breakfast-time there remains little to be done under the roof save dressing of meals. Very rarely do I hear even a clink of crockery; never the closing of a door or window.Oh, blessed silence!My house is perfect.Just large enough to allow the grace of order in domestic circumstance;just that superfluity of inner space, to lack which is to be less than at one's ease.The fabric is sound; the work in wood and plaster tells of a more leisurely and a more honest age than ours.The stairs do not creak under my step; I am attacked by no unkindly draught;I can open or close a window without muscle-ache.As to such trifles as the color and device of wall-paper, I confess my indifference;be the walls only plain, and I am satisfied.The first thing in one's home is comfort;let beauty of detail be added if one has the means, the patience, the eye.To me, this little book-room is beautiful, and chiefly because it is home.Through the greater part of life I was homeless.Many places have I lived, some which my soul disliked, and some which pleased me well;but never till now with that sense of security which makes a home.At any moment I might have been driven forth by evil accident, by disturbing necessity.For all that time did I say within myself:Some day, perchance, I shall have a home;yet the "perchance" had more and more of emphasis as life went on,and at the moment when fate was secretly smiling on me, I had all but abandoned hope.I have my home at last.This house is mine on a lease of a score of years.So long I certainly shall not live;but, if I did, even so long should I have the money to pay my rent and buy my food.I am no cosmopolite.Were I to think that I should die away from England, the thought would be dreadful to me. And in England, this is the place of my choice; this is my home.Blood, Toil, Sweat and TearsIn this crisis I think I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today,and I hope that any of my friends and colleagues or former colleagues who are affected by the political reconstructionwill make all allowances for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act.I say to the House as I said to Ministers who have joined this government,I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, sweat and tears.We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea and air.War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us,and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and unpleasant catalogue of human crime.That is our policy.You ask, what is our aim?I can answer in one word.It is victory. Victory at all costs—victory in spite of all terrors—victory,however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.Let that be realized.No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for,no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages,that mankind shall move forward toward his goal.I take up my task in light heart and hope.I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men.I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say,“Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”On Going a JourneyOne of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey:but I like to go by myself.I can enjoy society in a room;but out of doors, nature is company enough for me.I am then never less alone than when alone.“The fields his study, nature was his book.”I cannot see the wit of walking and talking at the same time.When I am in the country I wish to vegetate like the country.I am not for criticizing hedges and black cattle.I go out for town in order to forget the town and all that is in it.There are those who for this purpose go to watering places,and carry the metropolis with them.I like more space and fewer obstacles.I like solitude, when I give myself up to it, for the sake of solitude; nor do I ask for“a friend in my retreat, whom I may whisper solitude is sweet.”The soul of journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do, just as one pleases.We go a journey chiefly to be free of all obstacles and all inconveniences;to leave ourselves behind, much more to get rid of others.It is because I want a little breathing space to ponder on indifferent matters, where contemplation“May plume her feathers and let grow her w ings,that in the various bustle of resort were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired.”I absent myself from the town for a while, without feeling at a loss the moment I am left by myself.Instead of a friend in a post chaise or in a carriage, to exchange good things with,and vary the same stale topics over again, for once let me have a time free from manners. Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet,a winding road before me, and the three hours' march to dinner—and then to thinking!It is hard if I cannot start some game on these lone heaths.I laugh, I run, I leap, I sing for joy!From the point of yonder rolling cloud I plunge into my past being,and revel there as the sun-burnt Indian plunges headlong into the wavethat wafts him to his native shore.Then long-forgotten things like “sunken wrack and sumless treasuries,”burst upon my eager sight, and I begin to feel, think, and be myself again.Instead of an awkward silence, broken by attempts at wit or dull commonplaces,mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is perfect eloquence.The Folly of AnxietyHalf the people on our streets look as though life was a sorry business.It is hard to find a happy looking man or woman.Worry is the cause of their woebegone appearance.Worry makes the wrinkles; worry cuts the deep, down-glancing lines on the face;worry is the worst disease of our modern times.Care is contagious; it is hard work being cheerful at a funeral,and it is a good deal harder to keep the frown from your facewhen you are in the throng of the worry worn ones.Yet, we have no right to be dispensers of gloom;no matter how heavy our loads may seem to be we have no right to throw their burden on others nor even to cast the shadow of them on other hearts.Anxiety is instability. Fret steals away force.He who dreads tomorrow trembles today.Worry is weakness.The successful men may be always wide-awake, but they never worry.Fret and fear are like fine sand, thrown into life's delicate mechanism;they cause more than half the friction; they steal half the power.Cheer is strength.Nothing is so well done as that which is done heartily,and nothing is so heartily done as that which is done happily.Be happy, is an injunction not impossible of fulfillment.Pleasure may be an accident; but happiness comes in definite ways.It is the casting out of our foolish fears that we may have room for a few of our common joys. It is the telling our worries to wait until we get through appreciating our blessings.Take a deep breath, raise your chest, lift your eyes from the ground,look up and think how many things you have for which to be grateful,and you will find a smile growing where one may long have been unknown.Take the right kind of thought—for to take no thought would be sin—but take the calm, unanxious thought of your business, your duties, your difficulties,your disappointments and all the things that once have caused you fear,and you will find yourself laughing at most of them.A Word for AutumnLast night the waiter put the celery on with the cheese,and I knew that summer was indeed dead.Other signs of autumn there may be—the reddening leaf, the chill in the early-morning air, the misty evenings—but none of these comes home to me so truly.There may be cool mornings in July;in a year of drought the leaves may change before their time;it is only with the first celery that summer is over.I knew all along that it would not last.Even in April I was saying that winter would soon be here.Yet somehow it had begun to seem possible lately that a miracle might happen,that summer might drift on and on through the months—a final upheaval to crown a wonderful year.The celery settled that.Last night with the celery autumn came into its own.A week ago I grieved for the dying summer.I wondered how I could possibly bear the waiting—the eight long months till May.In vain to comfort myself with the thought thatI could get through more work in the winter undistracted by thoughts of cricket grounds and country houses.In vain, equally, to tell myself that I could stay in bed later in the mornings.Even the thought of after-breakfast pipes in front of the fire left me cold.But now, suddenly, I am reconciled to autumn.I see quite clearly that all good things must come to an end.The summer has been splendid, but it has lasted long enough.This morning I welcomed the chill in the air;this morning I viewed the falling leaves with cheerfulness;and this morning I said to myself, “Why, of course, I’ll have celery for lunch.”There is a crispness about celery that is of the essence of October.It is as fresh and clean as a rainy day after a spell of heat.It crackles pleasantly in the mouth.Moreover it is excellent, I am told, for the complexion.One is always hearing of things which are good for the complexion,but there is no doubt that celery stands high on the list.After the burns and freckles of summer one is in need of something.How good that celery should be there at one’s elbow.Searching for a Win-Win SolutionRecently I have had a dilemma I'm trying to resolve, a weekend in the near futurewhere I have conflicting demands and values, and need to be in two places at the same time.I have agonized over this decision because my intuition is not giving me a clear answerand I haven't felt that there was a win-win solution.If I do one thing, I'm letting down a bunch of people.If I do the other, I'm also missing the mark.Either way I feel like a loser, not a winner.This morning I got an e-mail that directly addresses this dilemma:A Thinking TestYou are driving along on a wild, stormy night.You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:1. An old lady who is sick and about to die.2. An old friend who once saved your life.3. The perfect man or woman you have been dreaming about.Which one would you choose to pick up, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your car?The candidate who was hired simply answered:"I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital.I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams."Sometimes, we gain more if we are able togive up our stubborn thought limitations and think outside the box.If, like me, you are looking at a decision that makes you feel forced to choose between plan A or plan B,and neither plan by itself seems like the right decision,stretch your mind to consider plans C or D,to a third option that solves the problem in a whole new way.Believe that there is a solution you haven't yet thought of,which will enable you to feel good about your choice, and then search for what it is.You are not always the victim in life;most of the time you are the victor looking at the situation from the wrong view!The view is yours to choose.We Walk on the MoonDistinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with a great sense of pride as an Americanand with humility as a human being that I say to you todaywhat no men have been privileged to say before: “We walk on the moon.”But the footprints at Tranquility Base belong to more than the crew of Apollo Ⅱ.They were put there by hundreds of thousands of people across this country,people in the government, industry and universities,the teams and crews that preceded us, all who strived throughout the years with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.Those footprints belong to the American people and you, the representatives,who accept and support, inevitable challenge of the moon.And, since we came in peace for all mankind those footprints belong also to all people of the world.As the moon shines impartially on all those looking up from our spinning earthso do we hope the benefits of space exploration will be spread equallywith a harmonizing influence to all mankind.Scientific exploration implies investigating the unknown.The result can never be wholly anticipated.Charles Lindberg said, “Scientific accomplishment is a path, not an end;a path leading to and disappearing in mystery.”Our steps in space have been a symbol of this country's way of lifeas we open our doors and windows to the world to view our successes and failuresand as we share with all nations our discovery.The Saturn, Columbia, and Eagle and the Extravehicular Mobility Unit have proved to Neil, Mike and me that this nation can produce equipment of the highest quality and dependability. This should give all of us hope and inspiration to overcome some of the more difficult problems here on earth.The Apollo lesson is that national goals can be met where there is a strong enough will to do so. The first step on the moon was a step toward our sister planets and ultimately toward the stars. “A small step for a man,” was a statement of a fact,“a giant leap for mankind,” is a hope for future.What this country does with the lessons of Apollo apply to domestic problems,and what we do in further space exploration programs will determinejust how giant a leap we have taken.Thank you.Nonviolent and Noncooperation MovementsIn my opinion, the Indian struggle for freedom bears in its consequencesnot only upon India and England but upon the whole world.It contains one-fifth of the human race.It represents one of the most ancient civilizations.It has traditions handed down from tens of thousands of years,some of which, to the astonishment of the world, remain intact.No doubt the damages of time have affected the purity of that civilizationas they have that of many other cultures and many institutions.If India is to revive the glory of her ancient past,she can only do so when she attains her freedom.The reason for the struggle having drawn the attention of the world I knowdoes not lie in the fact that we Indians are fighting for our liberty,but in the fact the means adopted by us for attaining that liberty are unique and,as far as history shows us, have not been adopted by any other people of whom we have any record.The means adopted are not violence,not bloodshed,not diplomacy as one understands it nowadays,but they are purely and simply truth and nonviolence.No wonder that the attention of the world is directed toward this attemptto lead a successful bloodless revolution.Hitherto,nations have fought in the manner of the brute.They have wreaked vengeance upon those whom they have considered to be their enemies. We find in searching national anthems adopted by great nationsthat they contain curse upon the so-called enemy.They have vowed destruction and have not hesitated to take the name of Godand seek divine assistance for the destruction of the enemy.We in India have endeavored to reverse the process.We feel that the law that governs brute creation is not the law that should guide the human race. That law is inconsistent with human dignity.I, personally,would wait, if need be,for ages rather than seek to attain the freedom of my country through bloody means.I feel in the innermost of my heart,after a political career extending over an unbroken period of close upon thirty-five years,that the world is sick unto death of blood spilling.The world is seeking a way out, and I flatter myself with the belief thatperhaps it will be the privilege of ancient land of Indiato show the way out to the hungering world.Old Friends, Good FriendsMore than 30 years ago, when I took my first job in New York City,I found myself working with a number of young women.Some I got to know just in passing, but others gradually became my friends.Today, six of these women remain an important part of my life.They are more than simply friends, more even than close friends.They are old friends, as indispensable as sunshine and more dear to me than ever.These people share a long-standing history with me.In fact, old friends are a lot like promises.They put reliability into the uncertainty of lifeand establish a reassuring link between the past, present,and future.The attachment between friends who have known each other for many years is bound to be complex.On occasion we are exceedingly close, and at other times one or both of us invariably step back. Ebb and flow. Thick and thin.How smoothly and gently we negotiate these hills and valleyshas everything to do with how well the friendship ages.Sometimes events intervene in a way that requires us to rework the term of a relationship.A friend starts a seco nd career, let’s say, and suddenly has less free time.Another remarries,adding someone new to the equation.Talk honestly and listen to each other to find out if the other’s needs are being met. Renegotiating pays full tribute to life’s inevitable changesand says that we deem our friendships worthy of preserving.Old friends are familiar with the layers of our lives.They have been there in the gloom and the glory.Even so, there’s always room to know more about another person.Of course, self-disclosure can make even old friends more vulnerable, so go slowly: Confiding can open new doors, but only if we knock first.Time is the prime commodity between old friends—by this I mean the time spent doing things together.Whether it’s face to face over a cup of coffee,side by side while jogging, ear to ear over the phone, or via email and letters,don’t let too much time go by without sharing your thoughts with each other.Motherly and Fatherly LoveMotherly love by its very nature is unconditional.Mother loves the newborn infant because it is her child,not because the child has fulfilled any specific condition,or lived up to any specific expectation.Unconditional love corresponds in one of the deepest longings,not only of the child, but of every human being;on the other hand, to be loved because of one’s merit, because one deserves it, always leaves doubt;maybe I did not please the person whom I want to love me,maybe this or that—there is always a fear that love could disappear.Furthermore,“deserved” love easily leaves a bitter feeling that one is not loved for oneself,that one is loved only because one pleases,that one is, in the last analysis, not loved at all but used.No wonder that we all cling to the longing for motherly love,as children and also as adults.The relationship to father is quite different.Mother is the home we come from, she is nature, soil, the ocean;father does not represent any such natural home.He has little connection with the child in the first years of its life,and his importance for the child in this early period cannot be compared with that of mother. But while father does not represent the natural world,he represents the other pole of human existence;the world of thought,of man-made things, of law and order, of discipline, of travel and adventure. Father is the one who teaches the child, who shows him the road into the world.Fatherly love is conditional love.Its principle is “I love you because you fulfill my expectations,because you do your duty,because yo u are like me.”In conditional fatherly love we find, as with unconditional motherly love,a negative and a positive aspect.The negative aspect is the very fact that fatherly love has to be deserved,that it can be lost if one does not do to what is expected.In the nature of fatherly love lies the fact that obedience becomes the main virtue,that disobedience is the main sin—and its punishment the withdrawal of fatherly love.The positive side is equally important.Since his love is conditional, I can do something to acquire it, I can work for it;his love is not outside of my control as motherly love is.Three Days to SeeMost of us take life for granted.We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future.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 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.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.When walking the woods, I, who cannot see,find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch.I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf.I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch,or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine.In the spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud—the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter’s sleep.I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower,and discover its remarkable convolutions;and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me.Occasionally, if I am very fortunate,I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.I am delighted to have the cool waters of a brook rush thought my open finger.To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass ismore welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.To me the pageant of seasons is a thrilling and unending drama,the action of which streams through my finger tips.If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch,how much more beauty must be revealed by sight.Suppose you set your mind to work on the problem of how you would use your own eyesif you had only three more days to see.If with the oncoming darkness of the third night you knew that the sun would never rise for you again,how would you spend those three precious intervening days?What would you most want to let your gaze rest upon?I, naturally, should want most to see the thingswhich have become dear to me through my years of darkness.You, too, would want to let your eyes rest on the things that have become dear to youso that you could take the memory of them with you into the night that loomed before you.A Grain of SandHere is a story.A participant in the long-distance race got his shoes filled with sand when he was crossing a beach.He had to stop to get the sand out hastily before he resumed running.Unfortunately a grain of sand remained rubbing the sole and became increasingly tellingso that each step meant a twinge of pain.Reluctant to halt and get rid of the sand，he continued to run in spite of the pain until he could stand no more.He dropped out of the contest just a few yards from the finishing line.As he managed to get out of the shoe painfully，he was surprised to find the cause of his lasting torment was only a grain of sand.It seems that the greatest obstacle on one’s way forward may not be a high mountain or a deep valleybut a grain of sand that is hardly visible.To avoid blame on a minor fault one may tell a lie.That adds a burden to a heavy heart and weighs it down.In the days to come he will have to fabricate one falsehood after anotherto cover the lie he told and the fault he committed.Thus he will never be able to free himself from lingering anxiety, worry and regret,to the ignorance that all his sufferings originate in only a grain of sand—the first lie he told.It’s Never Too Late to ChangeAge is no criterion when it comes to changing your life.In fact, it might be just the opposite.The older we get, the more we must change.Change is what keeps us fresh and innovative.Change is what keeps us from getting stale and stuck in a rut.Change is what keeps us young.This is not easy.When we are young it's easy to change and experiment with different things.The older we get the more set in our ways we become.We've found out what our comfort level is, and we all want to stay in it.We don't want to be risk takers anymore, because risk frightens us,and simply not changing seems so easy.We must fight through this.We must look fear straight in the eye and take it on.We must tell ourselves that we have too much talent, too much wisdom,too much value not to change.I believe that Jim, who is on my staff,is one of the best assistant coaches in the country.But I almost didn't hire him three years agobecause I thought that psychologically he was too "old,"that he had lost the drive and passion that an assistant coach needs.Three years ago he was forty, and I thoughthe might have spent too many Saturday afternoons at the country club,that he wasn't going to get in the trenches anymore,like the younger assistant coaches do.But Jim told me that he couldn't wait to get down in the trenches again.So I hired him, and he's been an integral part of our success.There is a conventional wisdom in coaching that once you've been a head coachyou can't enthusiastically go back to being an assistant againand still have the same passion as before.Jim didn't buy into that.He didn't let his "old age" get in his way.He was ready when opportunity came calling.He reestablished a work ethic second to none with the eagerness of a person right out of college. And I'm thankful for what he did,because he played such an essential role in our championship season.This is what we all must do.We must realize that it's never too late to begin making changesthat can transform our life.Why I Want a WifeI belong to that classification of people known as wives.I am A Wife. And, not altogether incidentally,I am a mother.Not too long ago a male friend of mine appeared on the scene fresh from a recent divorce.He had one child, who is, of course, with his ex-wife.He is looking for another wife.As I thought about him while I was ironing one evening,it suddenly occurred to me that I, too, would like to have a wife.Why do I want a wife?I would like to go back to school so that I can become econmically independent,support myself, and if need be,support those dependent upon me.I want a wife who will work and send me to school.And while I am going to school I want a wife to take care of my children.I want a wife who take care of my physical needs.I want a wife who will keep my house clean.I want a wife who cooks the meals, a wife who is a good cook.I want a wife who will plan the menus, do the necessary grocery shopping,prepare the meals, serve them pleasantly, and then do the cleaning up while I do my studying.I want a wife who will care for me when I am sickand sympathize with my pain and loss of time from school.I want a wife who will n ot bother me with rambling complaints about a wife’s duties.But I want a wife who will listen to mewhen I feel the need to explain a rather difficult point I have come across in my course of studies. And I want a wife who will type my papers for me when I have written them.When I am through with school and have a job,I want my wife to quit working and remain at homeso that my wife can more fully and completely take care of a wife’s duties.If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have,I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one.Naturally, I will expect a fresh, new life;my wife will take the children and be solely responsible for them so that I am left free.My god, who wouldn’t want a wi fe?。
星火书业 晨读英语美文100篇六级前十篇中英翻译版
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级前十篇中英翻译版Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge 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 knowledgeand human reason to contend against those giants,知识是一回事，美德是另一回事。
晨读英语美文100篇
晨读英语美文100篇Passage 1. knowledge and VirtueKnowledge 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 PersonA 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 asone 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 forThree 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 GirlSitting 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 IndependenceWhen 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 ofthe 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.[01:25.64]Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people.[01:32.64]There are still in this world a few interest groups,[01:36.81]which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. [01:41.95]This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times.[01:48.40]An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted[01:54.63]only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development,[02:00.77]to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment[02:07.00]and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation.[02:13.67]I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people[02:20.57]and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity[02:26.48]of all nations and regions.[00:01.21]Passage 14. Self-Esteem[00:05.69]Self-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect[00:12.36]—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges [00:17.28]and are worthy of happiness.[00:19.58]Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself.[00:23.85]Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects;[00:27.79]it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth.[00:33.80]It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect.[00:38.73]It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. [00:44.75]Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. [00:50.66]All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong[00:57.33]—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood.[01:01.71]This is where the critical voice gets started.[01:05.21]Everyone has a critical inner voice.[01:08.05]People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice.[01:13.96]Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives[01:18.78]—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies[01:27.97]—are dependent on our level of self-esteem.[01:31.03]The more we have, the better we deal with things.[01:34.09]Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, [01:39.35]they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive,[01:44.05]and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways.[01:50.51]People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable,[01:56.85]and they care about themselves and other people.[02:00.03]They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down [02:04.94]or by patronizing less competent people.[02:08.66]Our background largely determines what we will become in personality。