英語經典文章賞析

　　隨著經濟全球化的進一步發展,英語作為重要的國際語言顯得越來越重要。下面是小編帶來的，歡迎閱讀!

　　1

　　幸運的媽媽

　　Lucky Mother

　　A young mother believed that it was very wrong to waste any food when there were so many hungry people in the world. One evening, she was giving her small daughterher tea before putting her to bed. First she gave her a slice of fresh brown bread and butter, but the child said that she did not want it like that. She asked for some jam on her bread as well.

　　Her mother looked at her for a few seconds and then said, "When I was a small girl like you, Lucy, I was always given either bread and butter, or bread and jam, but never bread with butter and jam.

　　Lucy looked at her mother for a few moments with pity in her eyes and then said to her kindly, "Aren't you pleased that you've come to live with us now?"

　　幸運的媽媽的短篇故事翻譯：

　　一位年輕的母親認為,世界上還有很多受飢餓的人,浪費食物真不應該。有天晚上,在安排幼小的女兒睡覺之前,她給女兒喂夜宵。她先給她一片新鮮的黑麵包跟黃油,但孩子說她不喜好這樣吃。她還要一些果醬塗在麵包上。

　　母親女兒多少秒鐘,隨即說道,“露茜,當我象你一樣小的時候,總是吃麵包加黃油,或者麵包加果醬,素來不麵包既加黃油又加果醬。”

　　露茜母親一會兒,眼中露出惻隱的臉色,而後她柔聲說:“你現在能跟我們生活在一起難道不感到高興嗎?”等短篇故事內容。

　　2

　　學會生活在現實中

　　Learn to live in the present moment

　　To a large degree,the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live on the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are---always!

　　我們內心是否平和在很大程度上是由我們是否能生活在現實之中所決定的.不管昨天或去年發生了什麼，不管明天可能發生或不發生什麼，現實才是你時時刻刻所在之處.

　　Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about variety of things--all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns dominate your present moments, so much so that we end up anxious,frustrated,depressed,and hopeless. On the flip side, we also postpone our gratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing that "someday" will be much better than today. Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that 'someday' never actually arrives. Jhon Lennone once said, "Life is what is happening while we are busy making other plans." When we are busy making 'other plans', our children are busy growing up, the people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape, and our dreams are slipping away. In short, we miss out on life.

　　毫無疑問，我們很多人掌握了一種神經兮兮的藝術，即把生活中的大部分時間花在為種種事情擔心憂慮上--而且常常是同時憂慮許多事情.我們聽憑過去的麻煩和未來的擔心控制我們此時此刻的生活，以至我們整日焦慮不安，委靡不振，甚至沮喪絕望.而另一方面我們又推遲我們的滿足感，推遲我們應優先考慮的事情，推遲我們的幸福感，常常說服自己"有朝一日"會比今天更好.不幸的是，如此告戒我們朝前看的大腦動力只能重複來重複去，以至"有朝一日"喲貧農公元不會真的來臨.約翰.列儂曾經說過："生活就是當我們忙於制定別的計劃時發生的事."當我們忙於指定種種"別的計劃"時，我們的孩子在忙於長大，我們摯愛的人裡去了甚至快去世了，我們的體型變樣了，而我們的夢想也在消然溜走了.一句話，我們錯過了生活.

　　Many people lives as if life is a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isn't. In fact, no one have a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. When we put our attention on the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future--we won't have enoughh money,our children will get into trouble,we will get old and die,whatever.

　　許多人的生活好象是某個未來日子的彩排.並非如此.事實上，沒人能保證他或她肯定還活著.現在是我們所擁有的唯一時間，現在也是我們能控制的唯一的時間.當我們將注意力放在此時此刻時，我們就將恐懼置於腦後.恐懼就是我們擔憂某些事情會在未來發生--我們不諱有足夠的錢，我們的孩子會惹上麻煩，我們會變老，會死去，諸如此類.

　　To combat fear, the best stradegy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present. Mark Twain said,"I have been through some terrible things in life, some of which actually happened." I don't think I can say it any better. Practice keeping your attention on the here and now. Your effort will pay great dividends.

　　若要克服恐懼心理，最佳策略是學會將你的注意力拉回此時此刻.馬克.吐溫說過："我經歷過生活中一些可怕的事情，有些的確發生過."我想我說不出比這更具內涵的話.經常將注意力集中於此情此景，此時此刻，你的努力終會有豐厚的報償.

　　3\How High Can You Jump?

　　Flea trainers have observed a strange habit of fleas while training them. Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it. The fleas will jump up and hit the top of the cardboard box over and over and over again.

　　As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious. The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.

　　When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box. They won't jump out because they can't jump out. Why? The reason is simple. They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high.

　　Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that's all they can do!

　　Many times, people do the same thing. They restrict themselves and never reach their potential. Just like the fleas, they fail to jump higher, thinking they are doing all they can do.

　　跳蚤訓練人在訓練跳蚤時發現跳蚤有一個奇怪的習慣。若把跳蚤放在一個有頂蓋的盒子裡，他們會不斷地跳起來，撞擊頂蓋。

　　你觀察他們跳起來撞擊頂蓋，會慢慢發現一個有趣的現象。他們仍會跳起來，但不會再撞到頂蓋。

　　當你把頂蓋拿開時，跳蚤還會接著跳，但卻不會跳出盒子。為什麼呢?原因很簡單。它們已經習慣了只跳那麼高。

　　一旦它們習慣只跳這麼高之後，它們就只能跳這麼高了。

　　很多時候，人們也是一樣。他們自己限制了自己，從來不去發掘自己的潛力。就像跳蚤一樣，沒能跳得更高，還以為已經到了自己能力的極限。

　　3

　　Russell on Affection ***羅素論愛***

　　The best type of affection is reciprocally life-giving; each receives affection with joy and gives it without effort, and each finds the whole world more interesting in consequence of the existence of this reciprocal happiness. There is, however, another kind, by no means uncommon, in which one person sucks the vitality of the other, one receives what the other gives, but gives almost nothing in return. Some very vital people belong to this bloodsucking type. They extract the vitality from one victim after another, but while they prosper and grow interesting, those upon whom they live grow pale and dim and dull. Such people use others as means to their own ends, and never consider them as ends in themselves. Fundamentally they are not interested in those whom for the moment they think they love; they are interested only in the stimulus to their owe activities, perhaps of a quite impersonal sort. Evidently this springs from some defect in their nature, but it is one not altogether easy either to diagnose of to cure. It is a characteristic frequently associated with great ambition, and is rooted, I should say, in an unduly one-sided view of what makes human happiness. Affection in the sense of a genuine reciprocal interest of two persons in each other, not solely as means to each other’s good, but rather as a combination having a common good, is one of the most important elements of real happiness, and the man whose ego is so enclosed within steel walls that this enlargement of it is impossible misses the best that life has to offer, however successful he may be in his career. A too powerful ego is a prison from which a man must escape if he is to enjoy the world to the full. A capacity for genuine affection is one of the marks of the man who has escaped form this prison of self. To receive affection is by no means enough; affection which is received should liberate the affection which is to be given, and only where both exist in equal measure does affection achieve its best possibilities.

　　最好的那種愛是彼此愉悅的愛;彼此很愉快地接受，很自然地給出，並且由於有了這種互惠的快樂，彼此都覺得整個世界更有趣味。然而，還有一種決非少見的愛，那就是一方吸收著另一方的活力，接受著另一方的給出，但他這一方几乎毫無回報。某些生命力極旺的人便屬於這吸血的一類。他們把一個又一個犧牲者的活力吸淨，但是當他們越發生機勃勃，興致盎然之時，那些被榨取的人卻變得越來越蒼白、黯淡和遲鈍。這種人總是把他人當作工具來實現自己的目標，卻從不考慮他人也有他自己的目標。他們一時以為他們愛著那些人，其實那些人根本引不起他們的興趣;他們感興趣的不過是為自己的活動添些刺激，而他們的活動也許當屬全無人格的那種。這種情形顯然源於他們本性上的某種缺陷，但是這種缺陷既不容易診斷也不容易治療。它往往與極大的野心有關，同時也是由於他們總是不恰當地從單方面去看待人生幸福的緣故。兩人真正相互關心意義的愛，不僅是促進彼此幸福的手段，而且是促進共同幸福的手段，是真正快樂的最重要因素之一。凡是把自我禁錮起來不能擴充套件的人，必然錯失人生所能提供的最好的東西，不管他在事業上如何成功。太強的自我是一座監獄，你若想充分地享受人生，就得從這座監獄中逃脫。能有真正的愛，這是一個人已逃出自我監獄的標誌之一。光接受愛是絕對不夠的;接受的愛應當能激發你奉獻出自己的愛，惟有當接受的愛和奉獻出的愛等量存在時，愛才能達到它的最佳狀態。