英語美文賞析

　　優美的文字於細微處傳達出美感，並浸潤著人們的心靈。通過英語美文,不僅能夠感受語言之美,領悟語言之用，還能產生學習語言的興趣。度過一段美好的時光，即感悟生活，觸動心靈。下面是小編為大家帶來，希望大家喜歡!

　　英語美文：希臘人的回答

　　In trying to say what I really believe, I cannot recite one of the traditional creeds, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or the like. Most of us are born into one of them, and which it is depends simply on what country and what parents we come from. A great mystery surrounds us, in which the human mind can at best catch glimpses and express itself in metaphors.

　　For myself, I come on my mother’s side from a family of teachers, almost of schoolmarms, and grew up occasionally—accordingly—a good, obedient little boy who kept all the rules. On my father’s side, however, I came of a line of Irish rebels, always suspicious of authorities and deeply prejudiced in favor of the underdog.

　　I loved new ideas and poetry; so naturally in my teens, I fell deeply under the influence of Shelley. “Prometheus Unbound” was for some years to me almost a sacred book. Such poetry and such a religion, proclaiming a rejection of all the oppressors who misrule the world, all the superstitions that cripple man’s mind and prevent his going straight as the crow flies towards perfection. An illusion, of course. Perhaps I was rather slow in growing out of it.

　　The other main influence that has gone to forming my beliefs was that of ancient Greece. I could hardly have escaped it, having been a professor of Greek most of my life, from twenty-three to seventy. It got hold of me first, I suppose, by the charm of its poetry.

　　Then, it seemed to me that the great Greek thinkers were mostly facing the same problems as ourselves, but facing them more freely and frankly, not hampered by all the complexities and inherited conventions that confuse us today. They did sincerely and simply try to understand truth and justice and the good life.

　　Then, at last, in 1914 came the shock of the Great War, bringing for me, as for so many people, not any change of belief but a great change of focus.

　　The prevention of war became the thing that mattered most in the world. I took part in the founding of the League of Nations, and for thirty years now, I have been working in that cause, learning, I think, a good deal by the way.

　　It needed more than enthusiasm. It needed patience and experience and commonsense. It needed day by day far more knowledge than I possessed. But I found good guides and companions. I learned to think less of abstract principles and less still of party catchwords and slogans.

　　I have found among all parties, and all religions, men inspired by the great movement that leads toward peace, outward and inward. And I feel much truth in an old Greek philosopher’s saying: “The helping of man by man is God.”

　　英語美文：人類潛在的活力

　　What has been the most appealing part of the development of the American Dream? Well, to some of us, perhaps, the most dramatic phase of our development has been the ceaseless energy of the pioneers, the era of empire building, and, finally, the apotheosis of free enterprise, our industrial development. Others are thrilled by the capacity of the American people—normally peace loving and slow to anger—to organize in an all-out effort to resist threats to their freedom.

　　Yes, all of these things stir the imagination, but to me they are the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual vitality. Some of us came to this continent three centuries ago and take great pride in tradition. Others may have landed at the new international airport at Idlewild only yesterday. But nearly all of us came as fugitives from the tyrannies and hatreds of the old world.

　　I believe America has vitality because of a restless force we call “human endeavor.” It is this endeavor which has resulted in the lifting of averages and the spreading of opportunities.

　　It is based on the conviction that once an individual has a fair start, he or she can rise to great heights, regardless of circumstances of birth or racial origin. This is my conviction, and it is, in other words, a belief in the human spirit. It is for those who are strong to help the weak; for those who are sound in mind and body to help those afflicted; for those who live in the sunlight to dispel shadows wherever they lengthen.

　　To me, this is what life is all about. It is why I believe that when we decided upon a system of government-subsidized education, we passed an important milestone in our history; and that when we adopted public health programs to fight the ravages of disease, to reduce infant mortality, and even to afford prenatal care for expectant mothers, we were continuing along the road toward to the goals in which I believe.

　　I feel that we took another step towards a better world when we adopted Workman’s Compensation laws, Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and Aid to Dependent Children.

　　And I believe that we were doing even more to realize these goals when, awakening to the social evils of cheerless, unsanitary, unsafe tenements, we decided to tax ourselves in order to subsidize low-rent, public housing for persons of low income. I could not be true to my beliefs about my duty towards my fellow man if I did not work for these things. Some call our civilization a “Christian” civilization. Others call it “democracy”. When it succeeds, it is a little bit of both; and when it really works, we need not have fear of threats to our freedom.