超級經典的英語美文優美段落摘抄

　　勵志教育是高校思想政治教育的核心,對培養大學生健全人格、促進大學生全面發展以及構建和諧社會都至關重要。

　　下面是小編帶來的英語勵志段落摘抄，歡迎閱讀!

　　One Girl Changed My Life

　　My childhood and adolescence were a joyous outpouring of energy, a ceaseless quest for expression, skill, and experience. School was only a background to the supreme delight of lessons in music, dance, and dramatics, and the thrill of sojourns in the country, theaters, concerts. And books, big Braille books that came with me on streetcars, to the table, and to bed. Then one night at a high school dance, a remark, not intended for my ears, stabbed my youthful bliss: “That girl, what a pity she is blind.” Blind! That ugly word that implied everything dark, blank, rigid, and helpless. Quickly I turned and called out, Please don’t feel sorry for me, I’m having lots of fun. But the fun was not to last.

　　With the advent of college, I was brought to grips with the problem of earning a living. Part-time teaching of piano and harmony and, upon graduation, occasional concerts and lectures, proved only partial sources of livelihood. In terms of time and effort involved, the financial remuneration was disheartening. This induced within me searing self-doubt and dark moods of despondency. Adding to my dismal sense of inadequacy was the repeated experience of seeing my sisters and friends go off to exciting dates. How grateful I was for my piano, where—through Chopin, Brahms, and Beethoven—I could mingle my longing and seething energy with theirs. And where I could dissolve my frustration in the beauty and grandeur of their conceptions.

　　Then one day, I met a girl, a wonderful girl, an army nurse, whose faith and stability were to change my whole life. As our acquaintance ripened into friendship, she discerned, behind a shell of gaiety, my recurring plateaus of depression. She said, “Stop knocking on closed doors. Keep up your beautiful music. I know your opportunity will come. You’re trying too hard. Why don’t you relax, and have you ever tried praying?”

　　The idea was strange to me. It sounded too simple. Somehow, I had always operated on the premise that, if you wanted something in this world, you had to go out and get it for yourself. Yet, sincerity and hard work had yielded only meager returns, and I was willing to try anything. Experimentally, self-consciously, I cultivated the daily practice of prayer. I said: God, show me the purpose for which You sent me to this world. Help me to be of use to myself and to humanity.

　　In the years to follow, the answers began to arrive, clear and satisfying beyond my most optimistic anticipation. One of the answers was Enchanted Hills, where my nurse friend and I have the privilege of seeing blind children come alive in God’s out-of-doors. Others are the never-ending sources of pleasure and comfort I have found in friendship, in great music, and, most important of all, in my growing belief that as I attune my life to divine revelation, I draw closer to God and, through Him, to immortality.

　　一位女孩改變了我的生活

　　羅絲·雷斯尼克

　　我在童年和少年時代激情四溢，無時無刻不追求展現自我、磨礪才藝和體味生活。學校裡的音樂、舞蹈和戲劇課讓我歡欣不已，而劇院和音樂會更讓我身心為之震顫，鄉間流連的時光也同樣美妙，還有我的書，那些厚重的盲文書籍無論在我乘車、用餐還是睡覺時都與我形影不離。

　　然而，一天晚上，在高中的一次舞會上，一句我無意中聽到的話霎那間將我年少的幸福擊碎——“那女孩是個瞎子，真可惜!”

　　瞎子——這個刺耳的字眼隱含著一個陰暗、漆黑、僵硬和無助的世界。我立刻轉過身，大聲喊道：“請不要為我嘆惜，我很快樂!”——但我的快樂自此不復存在。

　　升入大學之後，我開始為生計而奔波。課餘時間我教授鋼琴及和聲，臨近畢業時還偶爾參加幾次演奏會，做了幾次講座，可要維持生計光靠這些還是不夠，與投入的時間和精力相比，它們在經濟上的回報讓人沮喪。這讓我失去了自信和勇氣，內心鬱悶苦惱。眼看我的姐妹和夥伴們一次次興高采烈地與人約會，我更覺消沉空虛。所幸的是，還有鋼琴陪我。我沸騰的渴望和激情在肖邦、貝多芬、勃拉姆斯那裡得到了共鳴。我的挫敗感在他們美妙壯麗的音樂構想中消散。

　　直到有一天，我遇見一位女孩，一位出色的女孩，這名隨軍護士的信念和執著將改變我的一生。我們日益熟稔，成為好友，她也慢慢察覺出我的快樂的外表之下內心卻時常愁雲密佈。她對我說，“門已緊鎖，敲有何用?堅持你的音樂夢想，我相信機會終將來臨。你太辛苦了，何不放鬆一下——試試禱告如何?”禱告?我從未想到過，聽起來太天真了。一直以來，我的行事準則都是，無論想得到什麼都必須靠自己去努力爭取。不過既然從前的熱誠和辛勞回報甚微，我什麼都願意嘗試一番。

　　雖然有些不自在，我嘗試著每天都禱告——“上帝啊，你將我送到世上，請告訴我你賜予我的使命。幫幫我，讓我於人於己都有用處。”

　　在接下來的幾年裡，我得到了明確而滿意的回答，超出了我最樂觀的期望值。其中一個回答就是魔山盲人休閒營區。在那裡，我和我的護士朋友每年都有幸看到失明的孩子們在大自然的懷抱中是多麼生氣勃勃。除此之外，朋友們真摯的友誼以及美妙的音樂都給我帶來無窮無盡的歡樂和慰藉。最重要的是，我越來越意識到，在我日復一日的禱告中，當我聆聽上帝的啟示之時，我正日益與他靠近，並通過他接近永恆。

　　Occasionally my mother used to announce that she was going to take time out from the day's activities "to rest," she would say, "and to invite my soul." She always put the phrase in quotes, in order, I expect, to divert the facetious remarks which might arise from the worldly or practical-minded folk within earshot or disarm those who might feel "soul" was a Sunday word not to be used in everyday conversation.

　　But she meant to do exactly what she said, "invite my soul."

　　The pressure of the modern world is so great upon us today that we find little time for rest, physical rest, let alone leisure for spiritual reception. Thus, when we take the word "soul" out of its Sunday clothes it is unfamiliar to us, we don't know it very well. We may have different interpretations of the meaning of the word; to some it may mean "conscience," to others that part of our being given us with life. I believe with Dr. Schweitzer in the sanctity of life, that the miracle called life, which cannot be manufactured by man, does come from a source which we call God, and that life and soul are the same. And yet when I am asked point-blank, "What do you believe?" I hedge and play for time in my confusion by saying, "Well, now, that's a pretty big question."

　　It is not altogether the pressure of the modern world which has clouded our comprehension; "the simple faith of our fathers" got a nasty jolt when Copernicus propounded his theory that the sun and stars did not revolve around the earth and that therefore man was not the sole object of celestial concern. Darwin dealt another blow and Freud's search into the operations of our hidden selves shook our conviction that man could be made in the image of God.

　　兩誡足矣

　　佩吉·伍德

　　過去，我母親不時會宣佈她要在每天的事務中抽出點時間來“休息”一下——“我要招待自己的靈魂”，她說這些話時總是用手勢做個引號。我猜這是因為她不想被那些世故或講求實際的傢伙聽到後開她的玩笑，或是讓那些覺得“靈魂”這個詞僅僅在禮拜日才會用的人放心。

　　但母親所想的和她所說的確實是一回事，也就是“要招待自己的靈魂”。

　　現代社會帶給我們太多的壓力，讓我們幾乎找不到時間讓身體得到休息，更不用說抽時間來款待自己的心靈。所以，當我們脫下“靈魂”這個詞的宗教外衣，它就變得如此陌生，我們並未真正瞭解它。

　　我們對“靈魂”這個詞也許有不同的理解：有人認為它指的是“良心”，有人認為它是指我們生命中生而有之的那一部分。我認同史懷哲醫生的觀點，認為生命是神聖的，生命這一奇蹟不可能來自人類的創造，它的源頭就是我們所說的上帝，而生命和靈魂本就是一體的。可是，當有人直截了當地問我，“你的信仰是什麼?”我不免有些困惑，只好支支吾吾、閃爍其詞地說，“哦，這個嘛，這是個很複雜的問題”。

　　我們認識上的困惑並不完全來自現代社會帶來的壓力。哥白尼提出太陽和星辰並非圍繞著地球轉，這一理論嚴重動搖了“我們祖輩單純的信仰”，如此一來，人類不再是上天唯一的眷顧。達爾文又給了人們當頭一棒，弗洛伊德對人們隱藏的自我所進行的探索再次動搖了我們關於人可能是按照上帝的形象所創造出來的信念。