英文經(jīng)典美文
閱讀是人生的一種美好享受。閱讀經(jīng)典美文可以讓學(xué)生的心靈得到滋潤(rùn)和凈化,穿越時(shí)空與作者展開(kāi)靈魂的交流,在不斷提升的精神境界中讓生命之樹(shù)得以枝繁葉茂。下面是學(xué)習(xí)啦小編帶來(lái)的優(yōu)美經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章,歡迎閱讀!
優(yōu)美經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章篇一
Life in a violin Case
琴匣子中的生趣
Alexander Bloch
亞歷山大·布洛克
In order to tell what I believe, I must briefly sketch something of my per-sonal history.
為了闡明我生活的信條,我必須簡(jiǎn)單介紹一下我的經(jīng)歷。
The turning point of my life was my decision to give up a promising business career and study music. My parents, although sympathetic, and sharing my love of music, disapproved of it as a profession. This was understandable in view of the family background. My grandfather had taughtmusic for nearly forty years at Springhill College in Mobile and, though much beloved and respected in the community, earned barely enough to provide for his large family. My father often said it was only the hardheaded thriftiness of my grandmother that kept the wolf at bay . As a consequence of this example in the family, the very mention of music as a profession carried with it a picture of a precarious existence with uncertain financial rewards. My parents insisted upon college instead of a conservatory of music, and to college I went-quite happily, as I remember, for although Iloved my violin and spent most of my spare time practicing, I had many other interests.
我生活的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)是我決定不做發(fā)跡有望的商人而專攻音樂(lè)。我父母雖然同情我,也像我一樣熱愛(ài)音樂(lè),卻反對(duì)我以音樂(lè)為職業(yè)。考慮到我的家庭情況,他們的這種態(tài)度是完全可以理解的。我祖父在莫比爾的斯普林希爾學(xué)院教授音樂(lè)達(dá)40年之久,深受學(xué)院師生的熱愛(ài)和敬重,他的工資卻幾乎不夠維持一大家人的生活。父親常說(shuō)若不是祖母精明能干,克勤克儉,一家人非挨餓不可。所以在我們家,只要一提起音樂(lè)這個(gè)行當(dāng),大家就會(huì)想起那收入微薄、朝不保夕的苦日子。父母堅(jiān)持要我上大學(xué),不準(zhǔn)我進(jìn)音樂(lè)學(xué)院,我也就上了大學(xué)。我記得自己當(dāng)時(shí)還挺高興,因?yàn)殡m然我熱愛(ài)小提琴,大部分課余時(shí)間都花在練琴上,但我還有許多其他的愛(ài)好。
Before my graduation from Columbia, the family met with severe financial reverses and I felt it my duty to leave college and take a job. Thus was I launched upon a business career-which I always think of as the wasted years.
不等尊從哥倫比亞大學(xué)畢業(yè),家庭經(jīng)濟(jì)嚴(yán)重惡化,我感到自己有責(zé)任退學(xué)找工作,就這樣我投身子商界——事后我每次想起這段經(jīng)歷都覺(jué)得是虛度了年華。
Now I do not for a moment mean to disparage business. My whole point is that it was not for me. I went into it for money, and aside from the satisfaction of being able to help the family, money is alll got out of it. It was not enough. I felt that life was passing me by. From being merely discontented I became acutely miserable. My one ambition was to save enough to quit and go to Europe to study music.I used to get up at dawn to practice before I left for "downtown," distracting my poor mother by bolting a hasty breakfast at the last minute. Instead of lunching with my business associates, I would seek out some cheap cafe, order a meager meal and scribble my harmony exercises. I continued to make money, and finally, bit by bit, accumulated enough to enable me to go abroad. The family being once more solvent, and my help no longer necessary, I resigned from my position and, feeling like a man released from jail, sailed for Europe. I stayed four years, worked harder than I had ever dreamed of working before and enjoyed every minute of it.
我從來(lái)無(wú)意貶低經(jīng)商,我的意思是它不適合我。我經(jīng)商只是為了掙錢(qián)。除了能補(bǔ)貼家用給我?guī)?lái)一點(diǎn)滿足以外,我從這項(xiàng)職業(yè)得到的唯一東西就是錢(qián)。這是不夠的。我感到年華似水從我身邊流走。對(duì)職業(yè)的不滿使我痛苦不堪。我唯一的抱負(fù)就是積攢足夠的錢(qián),然后改行,到歐洲去學(xué)音樂(lè)。于是,我天天黎明即起,練習(xí)小提琴,再去“商業(yè)區(qū)”上班,幾乎來(lái)不及囫圇吞下倉(cāng)促準(zhǔn)備的早餐,搞得我可憐的媽媽惶恐不安。我不與商界同事共進(jìn)午餐,總愛(ài)找個(gè)便宜的餐館,隨便混上一頓,信手寫(xiě)些和聲練習(xí)曲.。我不停地掙錢(qián),終于,一分一分地?cái)€夠了出國(guó)的錢(qián)。這時(shí),家庭經(jīng)濟(jì)情況也好轉(zhuǎn)了,不再需要我的幫助。我辭去商務(wù),感到自己像出獄的犯人一樣自由,乘船去了歐洲,一去就是四年。我學(xué)習(xí)要比從前想象的刻苦得多,然而生活得很快樂(lè)。
"Enjoyed" is too mild a word. I walked on air. I really lived. I was a freeman and I was doing what I loved to do and what I was meant to do.
“快樂(lè)”一詞還不足以表達(dá)我的心情。我是樂(lè)不可支,飄飄欲仙了。我過(guò)著真正的生活。我是個(gè)自由人,做我愛(ài)做的、命中注定要做的事情。
If I had stayed in business I might be a comparatively wealthy man today, but I do not believe I would have made a success of living. I would have given up all those intangibles, those inner satisfactions that money can never buy, and that are too often sacrificed when a man's primary goal is finanaal success.
假如我一直經(jīng)商,今天可能已經(jīng)成了一個(gè)相當(dāng)富有的人,但我認(rèn)為我那時(shí)的生活并沒(méi)有帶來(lái)成功;為了金錢(qián)我可能放棄了一切無(wú)形的東西,放棄了精神上的種種樂(lè)趣,那是金錢(qián)永遠(yuǎn)買(mǎi)不來(lái)的,一個(gè)人要是把獲取金錢(qián)當(dāng)做主要的奮斗目標(biāo),他的精神樂(lè)趣就常常被犧牲了。
When I broke away from business it was against the advice of practically all my friends and family. So conditioned are most of us to the association of success with money that the thought of giving up a good salary for an idea seemed little short of insane. If so, all I can say is 'Gee , it's great to be crazy."
我毅然脫離商業(yè),幾乎違背了所有的親友的勸告。我們大多數(shù)人習(xí)慣把成功與金錢(qián)連在一起。那種為理想而放棄高薪的念頭簡(jiǎn)直會(huì)被人認(rèn)為是瘋子的念頭。如果真是如此,我倒要說(shuō)一聲:“咦!瘋子真了不起!”
Money is a wonderful thing, but it is possible to pay too high a price for it.
錢(qián)固然是好東西,但是為了錢(qián)而付出的代價(jià)往往太高昂了。
優(yōu)美經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章篇二
Love Is Not Like Merchandise
愛(ài)情不是商品
A reader in Florida, apparently bruised by some personal experience, writes in to complain, "If I steal a nickel's worth of merchandise, I am a thief and punished; but if I steal the love of another's wife, I am free."
佛羅里達(dá)州的一位讀者顯然是在個(gè)人經(jīng)歷上受過(guò)創(chuàng)傷, 他寫(xiě)信來(lái)抱怨道: “如果我偷走了五分錢(qián)的商品, 我就是個(gè)賊, 要受到懲罰, 但是如果我偷走了他人妻子的愛(ài)情, 我沒(méi)事兒。”
This is a prevalent misconception in many people's minds---that love, like merchandise, can be "stolen". Numerous states, in fact, have enacted laws allowing damages for "alienation of affections".
這是許多人心目中普遍存在的一種錯(cuò)誤觀念——愛(ài)情, 像商品一樣, 可以 “偷走”。實(shí)際上,許多州都頒布法令,允許索取“情感轉(zhuǎn)讓”賠償金。
But love is not a commodity; the real thing cannot be bought, sold, traded or stolen. It is an act of the will, a turning of the emotions, a change in the climate of the personality.
但是愛(ài)情并不是商品;真情實(shí)意不可能買(mǎi)到,賣(mài)掉,交換,或者偷走。愛(ài)情是志愿的行動(dòng),是感情的轉(zhuǎn)向,是個(gè)性發(fā)揮上的變化。
When a husband or wife is "stolen" by another person, that husband or wife was already ripe for the stealing, was already predisposed toward a new partner. The "love bandit" was only taking what was waiting to be taken, what wanted to be taken.
當(dāng)丈夫或妻子被另一個(gè)人“偷走”時(shí),那個(gè)丈夫或妻子就已經(jīng)具備了被偷走的條件,事先已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備接受新的伴侶了。這位“愛(ài)匪”不過(guò)是取走等人取走、盼人取走的東西。
We tend to treat persons like goods. We even speak of the children "belonging" to their parents. But nobody "belongs" to anyone else. Each person belongs to himself, and to God. Children are entrusted to their parents, and if their parents do not treat them properly, the state has a right to remove them from their parents' trusteeship.
我們往往待人如物。我們甚至說(shuō)孩子“屬于”父母。但是誰(shuí)也不“屬于”誰(shuí)。人都屬于自己和上帝。孩子是托付給父母的,如果父母不善待他們,州政府就有權(quán)取消父母對(duì)他們的托管身份。
Most of us, when young, had the experience of a sweetheart being taken from us by somebody more attractive and more appealing. At the time, we may have resented this intruder---but as we grew older, we recognized that the sweetheart had never been ours to begin with. It was not the intruder that "caused" the break, but the lack of a real relationship.
我們多數(shù)人年輕時(shí)都有過(guò)戀人被某個(gè)更有誘惑力、更有吸引力的人奪去的經(jīng)歷。在當(dāng)時(shí),我們興許怨恨這位不速之客---但是后來(lái)長(zhǎng)大了,也就認(rèn)識(shí)到了心上人本來(lái)就不屬于我們。并不是不速之客“導(dǎo)致了”決裂,而是缺乏真實(shí)的關(guān)系。
On the surface, many marriages seem to break up because of a "third party". This is, however, a psychological illusion. The other woman or the other man merely serves as a pretext for dissolving a marriage that had already lost its essential integrity.
從表面上看,許多婚姻似乎是因?yàn)橛辛?ldquo;第三者”才破裂的。然而這是一種心理上的幻覺(jué)。另外那個(gè)女人,或者另外那個(gè)男人,無(wú)非是作為借口,用來(lái)解除早就不是完好無(wú)損的婚姻罷了。
Nothing is more futile and more self-defeating than the bitterness of spurned love, the vengeful feeling that someone else has "come between" oneself and a beloved. This is always a distortion of reality, for people are not the captives or victims of others---they are free agents, working out their own destinies for good or for ill.
因失戀而痛苦,因別人“插足”于自己與心上人之間而圖報(bào)復(fù),是最沒(méi)有出息、最自作自受的樂(lè)。這種事總是歪曲了事實(shí)真相,因?yàn)檎l(shuí)都不是給別人當(dāng)俘虜或犧牲品——人都是自由行事的,不論命運(yùn)是好是壞,都由自己來(lái)作主。
But the rejected lover or mate cannot afford to believe that his beloved has freely turned away from him--- and so he ascribes sinister or magical properties to the interloper. He calls him a hypnotist or a thief or a home-breaker. In the vast majority of cases, however, when a home is broken, the breaking has begun long before any "third party" has appeared on the scene.
但是,遭離棄的情人或配偶無(wú)法相信她的心上人是自由地背離他的——因而他歸咎于插足者心術(shù)不正或迷人有招。他把他叫做催眠師、竊賊或破壞家庭的人。然而,從大多數(shù)事例看,一個(gè)家的破裂,是早在什么“第三者”出現(xiàn)之前就開(kāi)始了的。