唯美英語小短文

　　對於初中生來講，英語閱讀能力是英語學習過程中一種較高的能力水平要求。小編精心收集了，供大家欣賞學習!

　　篇1

　　Lighthouses

　　The first navigational lights in the New World were probably lanterns hung at harbor entrances.The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little BrewsterIsland at the entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by "light dues" levied on ships,the original beacon was blown up in 1776. By then there were only a dozen or so truelighthouses in the colonies. Little over a century later, there were 700 lighthouses.

　　The first light erected on the West Coast in the 1850's featured the same basic New Englanddesign: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In NewEngland and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles. Sincemost stations in the Northeast were built on rocky eminences, enormous towers were not therule. Some were made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some stood on pilings orstilts; some were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through theFlorida Keys, the coast was low and sandy. It was often necessary to build tall towers there -massive structures like the majestic Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, lighthouse, which was lit in1870. At 190 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country.

　　Notwithstanding differences in appearance and construction, most American lighthousesshared several features: a light, living quarters and sometimes a bell ***or later, a foghorn***.Theyalso had something else in common: a keeper and, usually, the keeper's family. The keeper'sessential task was trimming the lantern wick in order to maintain a steady,bright flame. Theearliest keepers came from every walk of life -they were seamen,farmers, mechanics, roughmill hands - and appointments were often handed out by local customs commissioners aspolitical plums. After the administration of lighthouses was taken over in 1852 by the UnitedStates Lighthouse Board, an agency of the Treasury Department,the keeper corps graduallybecame highly professional.

　　篇2

　　First Inaugural Address

　　We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning; signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

　　In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

　　Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation”, a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

　　Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

　　In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility. I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

　　And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

　　My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

　　Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.

　　譯文：

　　就職演講***節選***

　　今天我們慶祝的不是政黨的勝利，而是自由的勝利。這象徵著一個結束，也象徵著一個開端;意味著延續也意味看變革。因為我已在你們和全能的上帝面前，宣讀了我們的先輩在170多年前擬定的莊嚴誓言。

　　公民們，我們方針的最終成敗與其說掌握在我手中，不如說掌握在你們手中。自從合眾國建立以來，每一代美國人都曾受到召喚去證明他們對國家的忠誠。響應召喚而獻身的美國青年的墳墓遍及全球。

　　現在，號角已再次吹響---不是召喚我們拿起武器，雖然我們需要武器;不是召喚我們去作戰，雖然我們嚴陣以待。它召喚我們為迎接黎明而肩負起漫長鬥爭的重任，年復一年，從希望中得到歡樂，在磨難中保持耐性，對付人類共同的敵人---專制、社團、疾病和戰爭本身。

　　為反對這些敵人，確保人類更為豐裕的生活，我們能夠組成一個包括東西南北各方的全球大聯盟嗎?你們願意參加這一歷史性的努力嗎?

　　在漫長的世界歷史中，只有少數幾代人在自由處於最危急的時刻被賦予保衛自由的責任。我不會推卸這一責任，我歡迎這一責任。我不相信我們中間有人想同其他人或其他時代的人交換位置。我們為這一努力所奉獻的精力、信念和忠誠，將照亮我們的國家和所有為國效勞的人，而這火焰發出的光芒定能照亮全世界。

　　因此，美國同胞們，不要問國家能為你們做些什麼、而要問你們能為國家做些什麼。

　　全世界的公民們，不要問美國將為你們做些計人，而要問我們共同能為人類的自由做些什麼。

　　最後，不論你們是美國公民還是其他國家的公民，你們應要求我們獻出我們同樣要求於你們的高度力量和犧牲。問心無愧是我們唯一可靠的獎賞，歷史是我們行動的最終裁判，讓我們走向前去，引導我們所熱愛的國家。我們祈求上帝的福佑和幫助，但我們知道，確切地說，上帝在塵世的工作必定是我們自己的工作。

　　篇3

　　Gettysburg Address

　　Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

　　Now, we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

　　But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us---that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

　　譯文：

　　在葛底斯堡的演說

　　87年前，我們的先輩們在這個大陸上創立了一個新國家，它孕育於自由之中，奉行一切人生來平等的原則。現在我們正從事一場偉大的內戰，以考驗這個國家，或者任何一個孕育於自由和奉行上述原則的國家是否能夠長久存在下去。我們在這場戰爭中的一個偉大戰場上集會。烈士們為使這個國家能夠生存下去而獻出了自己的生命，我們來到這裡，是要把這個戰場的一部分奉獻給他們作為最後安息之所。我們這樣做是完全應該而且是非常恰當的。

　　但是，從更廣泛的意義上來說，這塊土地我們不能夠奉獻，不能夠聖化，不能夠神化。那些曾在這裡戰鬥過的勇士們，活著的和去世的，已經把這塊土地聖化了，這遠不是我們微薄的力量所能增減的。我們今天在這裡所說的話，全世界不大會注意，也不會長久地記住，但勇士們在這裡所做過的事，全世界卻永遠不會忘記。毋寧說，倒是我們這些還活著的人，應該在這裡把自己奉獻於勇士們已經如此崇高地向前推進但尚未完成的事業。倒是我們應該在這裡把自己奉獻於仍然留在我們面前的偉大任務——我們要從這些光榮的死者身上汲取更多的獻身精神，來完成他們已經完全徹底為之獻身的事業;我們要在這裡下定最大的決心，不讓這些死者白白犧牲;我們要使國家在上帝福佑下得到自由的新生，要使這個民有、民治、民享的政府永世長存。