英語長篇勵志文章

　　閱讀是英語教學必不可少的組成部分,它既是一項十分重要的語言技能,又是獲取知識的重要手段。下面是小編帶來的，歡迎閱讀!

　　1

　　Learning to Get Out of the Way

　　In every one of the higher religions there is a strain of infinite optimism on the one hand,and on the other,of a profound pessimism.In the depths of our being,they all teach,there is an inner high--but an inner Light which our egotism keeps,for most of the time,in a state of more of less eclipse.If,however,it so desires,the ego can get out of the way,so to speak,can dis--eclipse the Light and become identified wiht its divine source.Hence the unlimited optimmism of the traditional religions.There pessinism springs from the observed fact that,though all are called,few are chosen--for the sufficient reason that few choose to be chosen.

　　To me,this older conception of man's nature and destiny seems more realistic,more nearly in accord with the given facts,than any form of modern utopianism.

　　In the Lord's Prayer we are taught to ask for the blessing which consists in not being led into temptation.The reason is only too obvious.Whe temptations are very great or unduly prolonged,most persons succumb on them.To devise a perfect social order is probably beyond our powers,but I believe that it is perfectly possible for us to reduce the number of dangerous temptations to a level far below that which is tolerated at the present time.

　　A society so arranged that there shall be a minimum of dangerous temptations--this is the end towards which,as a citizen,I have to strive.In my efforts to that end,I can make use of a great variety of means.Do good ends justify the use of intrinsically bad means?On the level of theory,the point can be argued indefinitely.In practice,meanwhile,I find that the means employed invariably determine the nature of the end achieved.Indeed,as Mahatma Gandhi was never tired of insisting,the means are the end in its preliminary stages.Men have put forth enoumous efforts to make their world a better place to live in;but except in regard to gadgets,plumbing and hygiene,their sussess has been pathetically small."hell,"as the proverb has it,"is paved with good intentions."And so long as we go on trying to realize our ideals by bad or merely inappropriate means,our good intentions will come to the same bad ends.In this consists the tragedy and the irony of history.

　　Can I,as an individual,do anything to make future history a little less tragic and less ironic than history past and present?I believe I can.As a citizen,I can use all my intelligence and all my good will to develop political means that shall be of the same kind and quality as the ideal ends which I am trying to achieve.And as a person,as a psychophysical roganism,I can learn how to get out of the way,so that the divine source of my life and consciousness can come out of eclipse and shine through me.

　　在每種高階宗教的信仰中既包含無窮的樂觀精神，又有一種深奧的悲觀論。它們都告誡我們，在我們生命深處有一道內在的光芒——而這道光芒大多時候多多少少被我們自負的陰影所遮蓋。然而，如果願意，自負可以離開，或者說可以讓這道光芒重新閃耀，並與創造它的神相融合，於是產生了傳統宗教無盡的樂觀主義，而其悲觀論源於人們觀察到的事實，即儘管人人皆受到召喚，卻只有極少數人受到垂青——全因幾乎無人願受到垂青。

　　在我看來，這種關於人性及命運的更老的觀念似乎比任何形式的現代烏托邦主義更現實，更符合既成事實。

　　主禱文教導我們要乞求上帝保佑，不被誘惑引入歧途，原因非常清楚，如果誘惑太大或延續太久，大多數人就會屈服。也許我們無力設計一種完美的社會秩序，但我相信我們完全可以將危險的誘惑減少到遠遠低於目前可忍受的程度。

　　構建一個能將危險的誘惑最小化的社會是我作為一個公民奮鬥的目標。在為之奮鬥的過程中，我可以採用各種方式，然而目標正確就可以採用實質上不正當的手段開脫嗎?在理論層面上，這一點可以廣泛討論;在實踐中，我同時發現，採用的手段決定目標的性質，無一例外。確實正如馬哈特瑪·甘地不厭其煩地堅持的那樣，手段是目標的初始階段。人們千方百計將這個世界建成更美好的家園，但除了小器械，管道安裝和衛生之外，他們的成就少得可憐。“地獄”正如一句諺語所說“是由善意鋪就的”。只要我們繼續試圖以卑劣或僅僅不當的手段實現理想，我們的善意將同樣釀出惡果，構成歷史的悲劇和諷刺。

　　作為個人，我能盡全力使未來不像過去和現在那麼富有悲劇和諷刺意味嗎?我相信，我能。作為公民，我能以我全部的智慧和全部的善意，運用與我為之奮鬥的理想同種同質的政治手段。作為一個人，一種具備身心的有機體，我能學會如何擺脫自負，這樣賦予我生命和意識的神的光芒就能驅散陰影，照亮我全身。

　　2

　　Growth That Starts From Thinking

　　It seems to me a very difficult thing to put into words the beliefs we hold and what they make you do in your life. I think I was fortunate because I grew up in a family where there was a very deep religious feeling. I don’t think it was spoken of a great deal. It was more or less taken for granted that everybody held certain beliefs and needed certain reinforcements of their own strength and that that came through your belief in God and your knowledge of prayer.

　　But as I grew older I questioned a great many of the things that I knew very well my grandmother who had brought me up had taken for granted. And I think I might have been a quite difficult person to live with if it hadn’t been for the fact that my husband once said it didn’t do you any harm to learn those things, so why not let your children learn them? When they grow up they’ll think things out for themselves.

　　And that gave me a feeling that perhaps that’s what we all must do—think out for ourselves what we could believe and how we could live by it. And so I came to the conclusion that you had to use this life to develop the very best that you could develop.

　　I don’t know whether I believe in a future life. I believe that all that you go through here must have some value, therefore there must be some reason. And there must be some “going on.” How exactly that happens I’ve never been able to decide. There is a future—that I’m sure of. But how, that I don’t know. And I came to feel that it didn’t really matter very much because whatever the future held you’d have to face it when you came to it, just as whatever life holds you have to face it exactly the same way. And the important thing was that you never let down doing the best that you were able to do—it might be poor because you might not have very much within you to give, or to help other people with, or to live your life with. But as long as you did the very best that you were able to do, then that was what you were put here to do and that was what you were accomplishing by being here.

　　And so I have tried to follow that out—and not to worry about the future or what was going to happen. I think I am pretty much of a fatalist. You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

　　在思考中成長

　　我的信念是什麼，它在我的人生中起到了什麼作用------這些問題我覺得很難用言語解釋清楚。我認為自己很幸運，因為我出生在一個篤信宗教的家庭。家裡人對宗教談論得並不多。每個人心中或多或少都有某些信仰，都希望通過某種方式獲得力量，而這力量就來自信奉上帝並懂得如何祈禱。

　　我是在祖母身邊長大的。隨著年齡的增長，我對許多祖母視作理所當然的事產生了懷疑。我甚至拒絕讓孩子們接觸這些東西，似乎成了一個不近情理的人。直到有一次我丈夫勸我，這些東西你年少時也接觸過，對你也並無壞處。既然如此，何不讓孩子們也有了解它們的機會呢?他們長大以後會獨立思考這些問題的。

　　他的話使我感到或許我們每個人都應該這樣做------獨立思考自己應該信仰什麼以及如何在生活中堅守自己的的信仰。我認為人一生就應該盡全力做最好的自己------我想這就是我的信仰。

　　我不知道自己是否相信未來。我相信的是我們現在經歷的一切一定有價值，因此必有某些道理，也必然預示著有些事情“將要發生”。但這些事情如何發生，我卻不能決定。一定有未來------對此我深信不疑。但它會怎樣降臨。我不知道，然而著一點，我漸漸感到並不重要。因為無論未來如何，我們到時候總得面對，正如無論生活中發生了什麼，我們都必須面對一樣。真正重要的是要傾盡自己的全力。也許你能力有限、貢獻不多，無法給予他人更多的幫助，或者無法活得那麼精彩，但只要你能傾盡自己的全力，你就能完成來到人世間的使命，能體現人生的價值。

　　這就是我一直奉行的生活原則------不擔心未來的事，也不為下一刻發生的事操心。我想我算是一個相信宿命的人吧。無論發生什麼，我們都得勇敢面對，關鍵是面對的時候我們要勇敢，要傾盡自己的全力。

　　3

　　A New Look from Borrowed Time

　　By Ralph Richmond

　　Just ten years ago, I sat across the desk from a doctor with a stethoscope. “Yes,” he said, “there is a lesion in the left, upper lobe. You have a moderately advanced case…” I listened, stunned, as he continued, “You’ll have to give up work at once and go to bed. Later on, we’ll see.” He gave no assurances.

　　Feeling like a man who in mid-career has suddenly been placed under sentence of death with an indefinite reprieve, I left the doctor’s office, walked over to the park, and sat down on a bench, perhaps, as I then told myself, for the last time. I needed to think. In the next three days, I cleared up my affairs; then I went home, got into bed, and set my watch to tick off not the minutes, but the months. 2 ½ years and many dashed hopes later, I left my bed and began the long climb back. It was another year before I made it.

　　I speak of this experience because these years that past so slowly taught me what to value and what to believe. They said to me: Take time, before time takes you. I realize now that this world I’m living in is not my oyster to be opened but myopportunity to be grasped. Each day, to me, is a precious entity. The sun comes up and presents me with 24 brand new, wonderful hours—not to pass, but to fill.

　　I’ve learned to appreciate those little, all-important things I never thought I had the time to notice before: the play of light on running water, the music of the wind in my favorite pine tree. I seem now to see and hear and feel with some of the recovered freshness of childhood. How well, for instance, I recall the touch of thespringy earth under my feet the day I first stepped upon it after the years in bed. It was almost more than I could bear. It was like regaining one’s citizenship in a world one had nearly lost.

　　Frequently, I sit back and say to myself, Let me make note of this moment I’m living right now, because in it I’m well, happy, hard at work doing what I like best to do. It won’t always be like this, so while it is I’ll make the most of it—and afterwards, I remember—and be grateful. All this, I owe to that long time spent on the sidelines of life. Wiser people come to this awareness without having to acquire it the hard way. But I wasn’t wise enough. I’m wiser now, a little, and happier.

　　“Look thy last on all things lovely, every hour.” With these words, Walter de la Mare sums up for me my philosophy and my belief. God made this world—in spite of what man now and then tries to do to unmake it—a dwelling place of beauty and wonder, and He filled it with more goodness than most of us suspect. And so I say to myself, Should I not pretty often take time to absorb the beauty and the wonder, to contribute a least a little to the goodness? And should I not then, in my heart, give thanks? Truly, I do. This I believe.