經典英文美文欣賞閱讀

　　利用英語經典美文開展閱讀教學,是培養學生閱讀能力的有效形式。下面是小編帶來的，歡迎閱讀!

　　篇一

　　Free Minds and Hearts at Work

　　by Jackie Robinson

　　At the beginning of the World Series of 1947, I experienced a completely new emotion, when the National Anthem was played. This time, I thought, it is being played for me, as much as for anyone else. This is organized major league baseball, and I am standing here with all the others; and everything that takes place includes me.

　　About a year later, I went to Atlanta, Georgia, to play in an exhibition game. On the field, for the first time in Atlanta, there were Negroes and whites. Other Negroes, besides me. And I thought: What I have always believed has come to be.

　　And what is it that I have always believed? First, that imperfections are human. But that wherever human beings were given room to breathe and time to think, those imperfections would disappear, no matter how slowly. I do not believe that we have found or even approached perfection. That is not necessarily in the scheme of human events. Handicaps, stumbling blocks, prejudices—all of these are imperfect. Yet, they have to be reckoned with because they are in the scheme of human events.

　　Whatever obstacles I found made me fight all the harder. But it would have been impossible for me to fight at all, except that I was sustained by the personal and deep-rooted belief that my fight had a chance. It had a chance because it took place in a free society. Not once was I forced to face and fight an immovable object. Not once was the situation so cast-iron rigid that I had no chance at all. Free minds and human hearts were at work all around me; and so there was the probability of improvement. I look at my children now, and know that I must still prepare them to meet obstacles and prejudices.

　　But I can tell them, too, that they will never face some of these prejudices because other people have gone before them. And to myself I can say that, because progress is unalterable, many of today’s dogmas will have vanished by the time they grow into adults. I can say to my children: There is a chance for you. No guarantee, but a chance.

　　And this chance has come to be, because there is nothing static with free people. There is no Middle Ages logic so strong that it can stop the human tide from flowing forward. I do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe—and with every fiber in me—that what I was able to attain came to be because we put behind us ***no matter how slowly*** the dogmas of the past: to discover the truth of today; and perhaps find the greatness of tomorrow.

　　I believe in the human race. I believe in the warm heart. I believe in man’s integrity. I believe in the goodness of a free society. And I believe that the society can remain good only as long as we are willing to fight for it—and to fight against whatever imperfections may exist.

　　My fight was against the barriers that kept Negroes out of baseball. This was the area where I found imperfection, and where I was best able to fight. And I fought because I knew it was not doomed to be a losing fight. It couldn’t be a losing fight—not when it took place in a free society.

　　And; in the largest sense, I believe that what I did was done for me—that it was my faith in God that sustained me in my fight. And that what was done for me must and will be done for others.

　　篇二

　　Don’t Step Out of Character

　　By VIRGINIA SALE

　　ON A PLANE flying from Chicago to New York, my seat companion was a young girl who gave me a friendly smile as I sat beside her, but whose young face showed great sadness. Hesitantly, she told me she was on her way to the funeral of her seventeen-year-old brother, who had been killed in Korea. She also told me that her only other relatives were two brothers, both in the service, and that they had lost their eldest brother in the war in Europe. I wanted to say something to comfort her…I felt so useless…say something to comfort her…I felt so useless…All I could say was “I’m so sorry.” And I thought, “Just what can I do to help bring order and hope into the world today?” And the thought came to me, “I can pray and my prayers will tune in with other sincere prayers to create a mighty force for good and for peace in the world.”

　　As a girl I was fortunate in having old-fashioned, religious parents, and I often think of the old hymn my good father sang so lustily as stood beside him in church, “I need Thee every hour.” As I’ve grown older my philosophy has changed—in a way. I don’t think of God now as an old man with a long gray beard sitting up on a throne. I believe in a practical religion. What good is it unless I can use it to help solve my daily problems, large or small?

　　I am grateful for what I consider the most worthwhile things in my life—a happy marriage, a good husband, and a son and daughter who become infinite ly finer as they grow up. Success in my theatrical career has come second to these. However, no matter what my material blessings may be, I realize that my happiness must come from within myself. I can’t get back anything I don’t give out. Anybody knows a sure cure for the blues is to get out and do something nice for someone else.

　　I have had a wonderful opportunity, on my tours with my one-woman show, to meet fine, good people in every one of the seven hundred towns I’ve played. From them I know that good people predominate in every part of this country.

　　I love my work. I believe that laughter is a great soul cleanser, and I pray that my audiences may somehow be better off for having seen my show. I believe in blessing everything and everybody along the way. Sometimes I may have let stage fright and nerves rob me and my audience of my best performance. I have failed if I haven’t beforehand blessed everyone in my audience, everyone backstage, and, when I’m working in television, radio or motion pictures, everyone in the studio—my fellow actors and the director and technicians. I admire their courage, their goodhearted generous qualities.

　　What do I mean by “blessing”? Well, I first have a deep sense of gratitude to an audience, and a feeling of good will and good wishes, so that I know there is complete harmony between them and me, and I know they will like me because I really like them—that we will tune in together.

　　My late brother, the great character actor and comedian, Charles “Chic” Sale, said to me one time we were talking about spiritual things and about being perfect channels for expression: “The thing to do, kiddo, is to stay in character—be God’s child.” And I try never to forget this.

　　篇三

　　I Do a Lot of Office Fishing

　　by Richard Salmon

　　Some years ago, I started to look at the stars through high-powered binoculars and began reading books written by astronomers for people like me. I became an entranced stargazer for a while.

　　The men who have learned as much as we know about the universe point out that the sun is an insignificant, moderately hot star in a nebula where it is fixed. The Milky Way, which I have always wanted to spell “w-h-e-y,” is composed of our brothers and sisters, and we are all moving around a central hub. And the hub is moving toward some place, I don’t know where. My brothers and sisters are numbered in billions of billions, and our galaxy itself is one of many, many…how many, I don’t know.

　　Our sun is so small and our earth, its offspring, is so tiny that when I think of the magnitude, I think of what O. Henry described as a “Statue of What’s the Use.”

　　What difference does it make that I exist? What possible influence can I make, or my nation make, or a world make?

　　Where am I going on this ride and does it make any sense? Who’s the boss and what’s He got in mind?

　　That’s what I got to thinking…it’s all too big, too inevitable, too uncontrollable, and if I think about it with my eyes closed, it’s a pretty pessimistic picture.

　　Then one day I saw a hunting dog in the woods, an English setter flecked with black. His tail tangled with dock burs. This is a common occurrence to guys like me. I always want to stop and pull out the burs. But this time, out of nowhere, came the realization that this bounding, healthy dog was performing an important job: the job of transporting seeds that were constructed for the very purpose of hitchhiking. The fluff of milkweed sails on the wind to start a new colony miles from its original parent. This dog and its tangle of dock burs are all part of a plan. And so am I.

　　I believe the plan on this small, lonely earth is to make the best of it—a policy that is becoming increasingly more difficult as the number of human beings increases.

　　When I came to New York many years ago, I found that in big cities people live faster and decide things quicker than country folk. They have to, in order to survive in the struggle for existence.

　　Several times a week I slug it out with city dwellers for a place in the subway. They seem a bad lot. But when I pass a city dweller on a trout stream I find he’s just like other people. He’ll speak to me with interest, even warmth. He will ask me how many trout I’ve taken, what fly was successful. And I break down and tell him, and point out that perhaps the black gnat he’s using is too large.

　　I have tried to make the best of it by doing a lot of office fishing, some front porch fishing, and some quiet mulling about the magnificent things such as dock burs and remote stars. What’s more, I have found it fun; fun that has brought me a lot of happiness, a lot of contentment, and a lot of peace.