值得背誦的新東方英語美文

　　隨著國際間交流的頻繁以及全球化趨勢的發展,英語的重要性得到了社會的普遍認可。在此背景下,英語培訓機構特別是新東方英語教育機構得到了迅猛的發展。下面是小編帶來的，歡迎閱讀!

　　篇一

　　Giving Life Meaning

　　Have you thought about what you want people to say about you after you’re gone? Can you hear the voice saying, “He was a great man.” Or “She really will be missed.” What else do they say?

　　One of the strangest phenomena of life is to engage in a work that will last long after death. Isn’t that a lot like investing all your money so that future generations can bare interest on it? Perhaps, yet if you look deep in your own heart, you’ll find something drives you to make this kind of contribution---something drives every human being to find a purpose that lives on after death.

　　Do you hope to memorialize your name? Have a name that is whispered with reverent awe? Do you hope to have your face carved upon 50 ft of granite rock? Is the answer really that simple? Is the purpose of lifetime contribution an ego-driven desire for a mortal being to have an immortal name or is it something more?

　　A child alive today will die tomorrow. A baby that had the potential to be the next Einstein will die from complication is at birth. The circumstances of life are not set in stone. We are not all meant to live life through to old age. We’ve grown to perceive life3 as a full cycle with a certain number of years in between. If all of those years aren’t lived out, it’s a tragedy. A tragedy because a human’s potential was never realized. A tragedy because a spark was snuffed out before it ever became a flame.

　　By virtue of inhabiting a body we accept these risks. We expose our mortal flesh to the laws of the physical environment around us. The trade off isn’t so bad when you think about it. The problem comes when we construct mortal fantasies of what life should be like. When life doesn’t conform to our fantasy we grow upset, frustrated, or depressed.

　　We are alive; let us live. We have the ability to experience; let us experience. We have the ability to learn; let us learn. The meaning of life can be grasped in a moment. A moment so brief it often evades our perception.

　　What meaning stands behind the dramatic unfolding of life? What single truth can we grasp and hang onto for dear life when all other truths around us seem to fade with time?

　　These moments are strung together in a series we call events. These events are strung together in a series we call life. When we seize the moment and bend it according to our will, a will driven by the spirit deep inside us, then we have discovered the meaning of life, a meaning for us that shall go on long after we depart this Earth.

　　譯文：

　　給生命以意義

　　你有沒有想過，你希望人們在你死後怎樣評論你?你能否聽到這樣的說，“他是個偉大的人”或“人們的確會懷念她”，他們還會說些什麼?

　　人生最奇異的現象之一就是，你從事的事業在你死後仍將長久存在。這和你用所的錢進行投資以便後人能從中獲益不是如出一轍嗎?也許，如果你審視自己的內心深處，你就會發現促使你做出這種貢獻的驅動力-一種驅使每個人尋找在自己死後仍能繼續存在的事業的驅動力。

　　你希望自己的名字被人記住嗎?你希望別人提起你的名字時心懷敬畏嗎?你希望自己的面容被雕刻在50英尺高的花崗岩上嗎?答案真的那麼簡單嗎?貢獻一生的目的難道終將一死之人想要獲得不朽名聲的自我鞭策的慾望?抑或是其他更偉大的事物?

　　今天活著的孩子明天就會死去。一個有可能成為下一個愛因斯坦的嬰兒會死於出生併發症。生命的情形並不是固定不變的。我們並沒有註定都要活到老年。我們已經認識到，生命是一個週期，其時間長度是特定的。如果這些時間沒有被充分利用，那就是個悲劇，因為人的潛能還未實現，因為火花還沒形成火焰就被補滅。

　　由於存在於肉體之中，所以我們接受這些風險。我們使易朽的肉體服從周圍物理環境的法則。你仔細想一想就會發現，這種交易並不是那麼糟糕。當我們幻想生命應該如何時，問題就來了。當生命和我們的幻想不一致時，我們就變得煩惱，無奈或沮喪。

　　我們活著，那我們就要活得精彩;我們有能力體驗，那我們就要體驗人生甘苦;我們有能力學習，那我們就要在學海徜徉。生命的意義可以在一瞬間抓住-一個經常被我們忽略的短暫瞬間。

　　當生命戲劇般地一幕幕拉開時，其中隱含的意義是什麼?當我們周圍所有其他都似乎隨著時間而消逝時，我們能夠掌握哪個真理並依靠它來生活呢?

　　這些瞬間串聯在一起，我們稱之為事件。這些事件串聯絡在一起， 我們稱之為生活。當我們抓住那個瞬間並按照我們的意志來改變它-這意志受到我們內心深處的精神的驅使，我們就發現了生命的意義-這意義將在我們離開地球之後長久存在。

　　篇二

　　Solitude

　　I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can :see the folks,:” and recreate, and, as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and :the blues:; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.

　　Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post-office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications. Consider the girls in a factory---never alone, hardly in their dreams. It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live. The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

　　I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me suggest a few comparisons, that some one may convey an idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray?

　　And yet it has not the blue devils, but the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters. The sun is alone, except in thick weather, when there sometimes appear to be two, but one is a mock sun. god is alone---but the devil, he is far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Millbrook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.

　　譯文：

　　獨處

　　我發現人若大部分時間用於獨處，將有益身心。與人為伴，即使是摯友，也很快會有厭煩或虛度光陰的感覺。我愛獨處，我發現沒有比獨處更好的伴侶了。出國，身在熙攘人群中，要比退守陋室更讓人寂寞。心有所想，身有所繫的人總是孤身一人，不論他身處何地。獨處與否也不是由人與人之間的距離來確定。在劍橋苦讀的學子雖身處蜂巢般擁擠的教室，實際上卻和沙漠中的苦行僧一樣，是在獨處。家人終日耕于田間，伐于山野，此時他雖孤單但並不寂寞，因他專心於工作;但待到他日暮而息，卻未必能忍受形影相弔，空有思緒做伴的時光，他必到“可以看見大夥兒”的去處去找樂子，如他所認為的那樣以補償白日裡的孤獨;因此他無法理解學子如何能竟夜終日獨坐而不心生厭倦或倍感淒涼;然而他沒意識到，學子雖身在學堂，但心繫勞作，但是耕於心田，伐於學林，這正和農人一樣，學子在尋求的無非是和他一樣的快樂與陪伴，只是形式更簡潔罷了。

　　與人交往通常都因唾手可得而毫無價值，在頻繁的相處中，我們無暇從彼此獲取新價值。我們每日三餐相聚，反覆讓彼此重新審視的也是依舊故我，並無新奇之處。為此我們要循規蹈矩，稱其為懂禮儀，講禮貌，以便在這些頻繁的接觸中相安無事，無須論戰而有辱斯文。我們相遇在郵局，邂逅在社交場所，圍坐在夜晚的爐火旁，交情甚篤，彼此干擾著，糾纏著;實際上我認為這樣我們都或多或少失去了對彼此的尊重。對於所有重要的傾心交流，相見不必過頻。想想工廠裡的女孩，她們雖從不落單，但也少有夢想。像這樣方圓一英里僅一人居住，那情況會更好。人的價值非在肌膚相親，而在心有靈犀。

　　我的房子裡有很多夥伴，尤其在無人造訪的清晨。我把自己和周圍事物對比一下，你或許能窺見我生活的一斑。比起那湖中長笑的潛鳥，還有那湖，我並不比它們孤獨多少。你看：這孤單的湖又何以為伴呢?然而它那一灣天藍的湖水裡有的卻是天使的純淨，而非魔鬼的憂鬱。太陽是孤獨的，雖然時而在陰鬱的天氣裡會出現兩個太陽，但其中之一為幻日;上帝是孤獨的 – 魔鬼才從不孤單，他永遠不乏夥伴，因從他都甚眾。比起牧場上的一朵毛蕊花，一支蒲公英，一片豆葉，一束酢漿草，一隻牛虻或大黃蜂來，我並不孤單多少;比想密爾溪，風標，北極星，南風，四月春雨，正月融雪，或者新房中的第一隻蜘蛛，我也並不更加孤單。

　　篇三

　　Human Life a Poem 人生如詩

　　Human Life a Poem

　　I think that, from a biological standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem. It has its own rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay. It begins with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying awkwardly to adapt itself to mature society, with its young passions and follies, its ideals and ambitions; then it reaches a manhood of intense activities, profiting from experience and learning more about society and human nature; at middle age, there is a slight easing of tension, a mellowing of character like the ripening of fruit or the mellowing of good wine, and the gradual acquiring of a more tolerant, more cynical and at the same time a kindlier view of life; then In the sunset of our life, the endocrine glands decrease their activity, and if we have a true philosophy of old age and have ordered our life pattern according to it, it is for us the age of peace and security and leisure and contentment; finally, life flickers out and one goes into eternal sleep, never to wake up again.

　　One should be able to sense the beauty of this rhythm of life, to appreciate, as we do in grand symphonies, its main theme, its strains of conflict and the final resolution. The movements of these cycles are very much the same in a normal life, but the music must be provided by the individual himself. In some souls, the discordant note becomes harsher and harsher and finally overwhelms or submerges the main melody. Sometimes the discordant note gains so much power that the music can no longer go on, and the individual shoots himself with a pistol or jump into a river. But that is because his original leitmotif has been hopelessly over-showed through the lack of a good self-education. Otherwise the normal human life runs to its normal end in kind of dignified movement and procession. There are sometimes in many of us too many staccatos or impetuosos, and because the tempo is wrong, the music is not pleasing to the ear; we might have more of the grand rhythm and majestic tempo o the Ganges, flowing slowly and eternally into the sea.

　　No one can say that life with childhood, manhood and old age is not a beautiful arrangement; the day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has its seasons, and it is good that it is so. There is no good or bad in life, except what is good according to its own season. And if we take this biological view of life and try to live according to the seasons, no one but a conceited fool or an impossible idealist can deny that human life can be lived like a poem. Shakespeare has expressed this idea more graphically in his passage about the seven stages of life, and a good many Chinese writers have said about the same thing. It is curious that Shakespeare was never very religious, or very much concerned with religion. I think this was his greatness; he took human life largely as it was, and intruded himself as little upon the general scheme of things as he did upon the characters of his plays. Shakespeare was like Nature itself, and that is the greatest compliment we can pay to a writer or thinker. He merely lived, observed life and went away.

　　譯文：

　　人生如詩

　　我以為，從生物學角度看，人的一生恰如詩歌。人生自有其韻律和節奏，自有內在的生成與衰亡。人生始於無邪的童年，經過少年的青澀，帶著激情與無知，理想與雄心，笨拙而努力地走向成熟;後來人到壯年，經歷漸廣，閱人漸多，涉世漸深，收益也漸大;及至中年，人生的緊張得以舒緩，人的性格日漸成熟，如芳馥之果實，如醇美之佳釀，更具容忍之心，處世雖更悲觀，但對人生的態度趨於和善;再後來就是人生遲暮，內分泌系統活動減少，若此時吾輩已經悟得老年真諦，並據此安排殘年，那生活將和平，寧靜，安詳而知足;終於，生命之燭搖曳而終熄滅，人開始永恆的長眠，不再醒來。

　　人們當學會感受生命韻律之美，像聽交響樂一樣，欣賞其主旋律、激昂的高潮和舒緩的尾聲。這些反覆的樂章對於我們的生命都大同小異，但個人的樂曲卻要自己去譜寫。在某些人心中，不和諧音會越來越刺耳，最終竟然能掩蓋主曲;有時不和諧音會積蓄巨大的能量，令樂曲不能繼續，這時人們或舉槍自殺或投河自盡。

　　這是他最初的主題被無望地遮蔽，只因他缺少自我教育。否則，常人將以體面的運動和程序走向既定的終點。在我們多數人胸中常常會有太多的斷奏或強音，那是因為節奏錯了，生命的樂曲因此而不再悅耳。我們應該如恆河，學她氣勢恢弘而豪邁地緩緩流向大海。

　　人生有童年、少年和老年，誰也不能否認這是一種美好的安排，一天要有清晨、正午和日落，一年要有四季之分，如此才好。人生本無好壞之分，只是各個季節有各自的好處。如若我們持此種生物學的觀點，並循著季節去生活，除了狂妄自大的傻瓜和無可救藥的理想主義者，誰能說人生不能像詩一般度過呢。莎翁在他的一段話中形象地闡述了人生分七個階段的觀點，很多中國作家也說過類似的話。奇怪的是，莎士比亞並不是虔誠的宗教徒，也不怎麼關心宗教。我想這正是他的偉大之處，他對人生秉著順其自然的態度，他對生活之事的干涉和改動很少，正如他對戲劇人物那樣。莎翁就像自然一樣，這是我們能給作家或思想家的最高褒獎。對人生，他只是一路經歷著，觀察著，離我們遠去了。