英文美文摘抄

　　在經典誦讀中積累語言經典美文大多語言凝練,極富音韻美。誦讀經典美文,是一種薰陶,也是一種積累,能有效提高學生的文學素養,培養學生的語言能力和寫作能力。下面是小編帶來的優美，歡迎閱讀!

　　優美篇一

　　Suffering Is Self-Manufactured

　　by Leon J Saul

　　I believe the immediate purpose of life is to live, to survive. All known forms of life go through life cycles. The basic plan is birth, maturing, mating, reproducing, death. Thus, the immediate purpose of human life is for each individual to fulfill his life cycle. This involves proper maturing into the fully developed adult of the species. The pine tree grows straight unless harmful influences warp it. So does the human being.

　　It is a finding of the greatest significance that the mature man and woman have the nature and characteristics of the good spouse and parent, namely the ability to enjoy, responsible, working, and loving. If the world consisted primarily of mature persons—loving, responsible, productive toward family, friends, and the world—most of our human problems would be resolved.

　　But most people have suffered in childhood from influences which have warped their development. Hence, as adults, they have not realized their full and proper nature. They feel something is wrong without knowing what it is. They feel inferior, frustrated, insecure, and anxious. And they react to these inner feelings just as any animal reacts to any hurt or threat: by a readiness to fight or to flee. Flight carries them into alcoholism and other mental disorders. Fight impels them to crime, cruelty, and war. This readiness to violence, this inhumanity of man to man, is the basic problem of human life, for in the form of war, it now threatens to extinguish us.

　　Without the fight/flight reaction, man would never have survived the cave and the jungle. But now, through social living, man has made himself relatively safe from the elements and the wild beasts. He is even learning to protect himself against disease. He can produce adequate food, clothing, and shelter for the present population of the Earth. Barring a possible astronomical accident, he now faces no serious threat to his existence, except one: the fight/flight reaction within himself.

　　This jungle readiness to hurt and to kill is now a vestigial hangover, like the appendix, which interferes with the new and more powerful means of coping with nature through civilization. Trying to solve every problem by fighting or fleeing is the primitive method still central for the immature child. The later method—understanding and cooperation—requires the mature capacities of the adult. In an infantile world, fighting may be forced upon one. Then it is more effective if handled maturely for mature goals. Probably war will cease only when enough persons are mature.

　　The basic problem is social adaptation and biologic survival. The basic solution is for people to understand the nature of their own biological, emotional maturity, to work toward it to help the children in their development toward it. Human suffering is mostly made by man himself. It is primarily the result of the failure of adults, because of improper child rearing, to mature emotionally. Hence, instead of enjoying their capacities for responsible work and love, they are grasping, egocentric, insecure, frustrated, anxious, and hostile.

　　Maturity is the path from madness and murder to inner peace and satisfying living for each individual and for the human species. This I believe on the evidence of science and through personal observation and experience.

　　優美篇二

　　I Never Stopped Believing

　　by Eva Saxl

　　I believe that it is important to be brought up with a firm belief in the good. I was fortunate in this respect. My parents not only gave me a happy home, but they had me study half a dozen foreign languages and made it possible for me to travel in other countries. This made me more tolerant and helped me to bridge many difficulties in later life.

　　Soon after I had married, my husband and I left our native Czechoslovakia and went to live in Shanghai, China. Here was a really international city. People of all races and creeds lived and worked together. As everywhere, there were good and bad people. I found out that most people are kind and good. But in the Orient, one cannot always be certain. Many people do not show their true character openly. Often it is difficult to strike the chord that will get a harmonious response. But when we spoke Chinese, we could strike these chords. In return, the Chinese taught us much about their philosophy of life.

　　In Shanghai, in 1941, when I was only twenty years old, the doctors discovered that I had diabetes. It was a terrible shock, because diabetes is incurable. But it can be controlled by insulin. Although this drug was not manufactured in China, there were ample stocks of imported insulin available. This enabled me to continue a normal, happy life.

　　Then bombs fell on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese occupied Shanghai. The import of insulin was cut off. Before long, there was not enough for the diabetics. I was on a starvation diet to keep my insulin requirements as low as possible. But my meager supplies soon scraped bottom. Many diabetics had already died, and the situation became desperate. Throughout all of it, I never stopped believing that with the help of God and my husband’s love and care, I would survive.

　　I continued to teach in Chinese schools. My faith and my husband’s never-ending efforts to get the manufacture of insulin started gave me courage. Buffalo pancreas was secured, and in a small laboratory the production of insulin was attempted. I served as the human guinea pig on which it was tested. I’ll never forget the day when my husband gave me the first injection of the new insulin, which had worked on rabbits. It helped! Can you imagine our happiness and relief?

　　But there were still other things to worry about. Tropical diseases, inflation, and the Japanese military. Oh yes, also American B-29s. Once, they hit the power plant and cut off our electricity. Without it, no insulin could be made. These were difficult times indeed!

　　Besides my trust in God, I derived the greatest strength from the deep love and complete understanding between my husband and me. And next to that was the kindness and help of many, many friends of many nationalities. Even some Japanese civilians, although their country was at war with us, helped whenever they could.

　　To me, who lived under enemy occupation, freedom has a special meaning. My dreams came true when we were sailing toward the United States, where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the rights of every human being.

　　Therefore, this country—of people from many lands—has so quickly become my cherished home. In it, I believe.

　　優美篇三

　　A Reporter Quotes His Sources

　　by William L Shirer

　　It’s rather difficult in these noisy, confusing, nerve-racking days to achieve the peace of mind in which to pause for a moment to reflect on what you believe in. There’s so little time and opportunity to give it much thought—though it is the thing we live by; and without it, without beliefs, human existence today would hardly be bearable.

　　My own view of life, like everyone else’s, is conditioned by personal experience. In my own case, there were two experiences, in particular, which helped to shape my beliefs: years of life and work under a totalitarian regime, and a glimpse of war.

　　Living in a totalitarian land taught me to value highly—and fiercely—the very things the dictators denied: tolerance, respect for others and, above all, the freedom of the human spirit.

　　A glimpse of war filled me with wonder not only at man’s courage and capacity for self-sacrifice, but at his stubborn, marvelous will to preserve, to endure, to prevail—amidst the most incredible savagery and suffering. When you saw people—civilians—who where bombed out, or who, worse, had been hounded in the concentration camps or worked to a frazzle in the slave-labor gangs—when you saw them come out of these ordeals of horror and torture, still intact as human beings, with a will to go on, with a faith still in themselves, in their fellow man, and in God, you realized that man was indestructible. You appreciated, too, that despite the corruption and cruelty of life, man somehow managed to retain great virtues: love, honor, courage, self-sacrifice, compassion.

　　It filled you with a certain pride just to be a member of the human race. It renewed your belief in your fellow men.

　　Of course, there are many days ***in this Age of Anxiety*** when a human being feels awfully low and discouraged. I myself find consolation at such moments by two means: trying to develop a sense of history, and renewing the quest for inner life.

　　I go back, for example, to reading Plutarch. He reminds you that even in the golden days of Greece and Rome, from which so much that is splendid in our own civilization derives, there was a great deal of what we find so loathsome in life today: war, strife, corruption, treason, double-crossing, intolerance, tyranny, rabble-rousing. Reading history thus gives you perspective. It enables you to see your troubles relatively. You don’t take them so seriously then.

　　Finally, I find that most true happiness comes from one’s inner life; from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation. And self-discipline. One must be honest with oneself, and that’s not easy. ***You have to have patience and understanding. And, when you can, seek God.***

　　But the reward of having an inner life, which no outside storm or evil turn of fortune can touch, is, it seems to me, a very great one.