经典美文背诵(汇编两篇)
优美的文字于细微处传达出美感,并浸润着人们的心灵。通过英语美文,不仅能够感受语言之美,领悟语言之用,还能产生学习语言的兴趣。度过一段美好的时光,即感悟生活,触动心灵。下面是读文网小编为大家带来经典美文背诵,希望大家喜欢!
经典美文:雄心
It is not difficult to imagine a world short ofambition. It would probably be a kinder world: without demands, without abrasions, withoutdisappointments. People would have time forreflection. Such work as they did would not be forthemselves but for the collectivity. Competitionwould never enter in. conflict would be eliminated,tension become a thing of the past. The stress ofcreation would be at an end. Art wouldno longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in itsfunctions. The family would become superfluous as social unit, with all its former power forbringing about neurosis drained away, Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would dieof heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Timewould stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.
Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be!
There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Doesthis mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That theefforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and eventsnow not all success, obviously, is worthesteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which areand which are not is something one soon enough learns on one’s own. But even the mostcynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and thatthe true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to takeon a point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motivesfor competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity.
We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historicalepoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not,most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within allthis realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice,honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift.We decide what is important and what istrivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuseto do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, thesechoices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, soare our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.
一个缺乏抱负的世界将会怎样,这不难想象。或许,这将是一个更为友善的世界:没有渴求,没有磨擦,没有失望。人们将有时间进行反思。他们所从事的工作将不是为了他们自身,而是为了整个集体。竞争永远不会介入;冲突将被消除。人们的紧张关系将成为过往云烟。创造的重压将得以终结。艺术将不再惹人费神,其功能将纯粹为了庆典。作为社会单位的家庭及其所带来精神伤痛也将荡然无存,人的寿命将会更长,因为由激烈拼争引起的心脏病和中风所导致的死亡将越来越少。焦虑将会消失。时光流逝,抱负却早已远离人心。
啊,长此以往人生将变得多么乏味无聊!
有一种盛行的观点认为,成功是一种神话,因此抱负亦属虚幻。这是不是说实际上并不丰在成功?成就本身就是一场空?与诸多运动和事件的力量相比,男男女女的努力显得微不足?显然,并非所有的成功都值得景仰,也并非所有的抱负都值得追求。对值得和不值得的选择,一个人自然而然很快就能学会。但即使是最为愤世嫉俗的人暗地里也承认,成功确实存在,成就的意义举足轻重,而把世上男男女女的所作所为说成是徒劳无功才是真正的无稽之谈。认为成功不存在的观点很可能造成混乱。这种观点的本意是一笔勾销所有提高能力的动机,求取业绩的兴趣和对子孙后代的关注。
我们无法选择出生,无法选择父母,无法选择出生的历史时期与国家,或是成长的周遭环境。我们大多数人都无法选择死亡,无法选择死亡的时间或条件。但是在这些无法选择之中,我们的确可以选择自己的生活方式:是勇敢无畏还是胆小怯懦,是光明磊落还是厚颜无耻,是目标坚定还是随波逐流。我们决定生活中哪些至关重要,哪些微不足道。我们决定,用以显示我们自身重要性的,不是我们做了什么,就是我们拒绝做些什么。但是不论世界对我们所做的选择和决定有多么漠不关心,这些选择和决定终究是我们自己做出的。我们决定,我们选择。而当我们决定和选择时,我们的生活便得以形成。最终构筑我们命运的就是抱负之所在。
经典美文:科学与艺术
I beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind andapprieciative manner in which you have received thetoast of science.It is the more grateful to me to hearthat toast proposed in an assembly of this kind.Because I have noticed of late years a great andgrowing tendency among those who were oncejestingly said to have been born pre-scientific age tolook upon science as an invading and aggressiveforce, which of it had find its own way, it would oust from the universe all other pursuits. Ithink there are many persons wholook upon the new birth of our times as a sort of monsterrising out of the sea of modern thought with thepurpose of devouring the Andromeda of art.Andnow and then a Perseus, equipped with the shoes of swiftnessof the ready writer, and with thecap of invisibility of the editorial article,and it may be with the Medusa head of vituperation,shows herself ready to try conclusions with the scientific dragon. Sir, I hope that Perseus shouldthink better of it. First, for the sake of his own, because the creature is hard of head,strong ofjaw,for some time past has shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comesin his way; and secondly, for the sake of justice, for I assure you, of my own personalknowledge if left alone, the creature is a very debonair and gentle monster.As for theAndromeda of art, the creature has the tenderest respect for the lady, and desires nothing morethan to see her happily settled and annually pruducing a flock of such charming children asthose we see about us.
But putting parables aside, I am unable to understand how any one with a knowledge ofmankind can imagine that the growth of science can threaten the development of art in any ofits forms. If I understand the matter of all, science and art are the obverse and reverse ofthe Nature's medal; the one expressing the external order of things, in terms of feeling, andthe other in terms of thought. When men no longer love norhate; when suffering causes nopity, and the tale of great deeds ceases to thrill. when the lily of the field shall seem no longermore beautifully arrayed than the Solomon in all his glory, and the owe has vanished from thesnow-capped peak and deep ravine, and indeed the science may have the world to itself, butitwill not be because the monster has devoured the art, but because one side of human natureis dead, and because men have lost half of their ancient and present attributes.
请允许我为你们如此友善和赞赏地为科学干杯而深表感谢。我尤其感激在这般友善的大会上来为科学祝酒。因为事实上近些年我确实发现有些戏称自己是在前科学时代出生的人,正在酝酿一股很强大而且日渐强大的倾向,将科学视为入侵和占领的势力,而且若假以时日,必将我们宇宙其他的事物驱逐出去。我想有很多人认为我们的时代是从现代头脑中爆发的怪物,目的就是要吞噬掉艺术的安德洛默达。时不时的,还有一位珀尔修斯,脚蹬写作快手之超速鞋,头戴社论文章之阴形帽,或许还安着充斥漫骂之词的“美杜沙之脑”威风凛凛,大有与科学之龙一比高下的气势。但是,各位绅士,我劝这位珀尔修斯先生三思而行。首先,为了他自己的安全着想,因为这怪物脑壳坚硬,口鄂强壮,从它过往的经历可以看出它所到之处,势如破竹,所向披靡,无人能拦,实不易对付。再者,为正义说句话,我可以向你们保证,以我愚见,只要放任不管,它还是一个温而文雅,无比绅士的怪物。至于艺术的安德洛默达,此怪物穷其所有的敬仰,别无他求,只希望看到她能够安居乐业,每年都能生一大群如我们所见的快乐迷人的小孩子。
不过撇去那些比喻,我实在不能理解那些有一点人文知识的人为什么会担心科学的进步怎么就会威胁到艺术的发展。依我所见,科学和艺术实乃大自然这枚圣牌的正反两面,一个以情感的方式表达了事物的外在规律,而另外一个则是一理性的方式。当人类不再爱,也不再恨;当苦难不再引起怜悯;当壮举不再让人激动,当山野的百合花还比不上所罗门的荣光,当雪山之巅和万丈深渊不再博得敬畏,那么科学是真的统治了这个世界。但是那不是因为怪物吞噬了艺术,而是因为人性的另一面已经死亡,而是因为人类已经失去了他们从古到今的天性。