英语优美的名篇的阅读参考

英语优美的名篇的阅读参照
英语优美段落一
On beauty
Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide And how shall you speak of her except she be the 1)weaver of your speech
The 2)aggrieved and the 3)injured say, Beauty is kind and gentle. Like a young mother half-shy of her own 4)glory she walks among us.
And the 5)passionate say, Nay, beauty is a thing of 6)might
and 7)dread. Like the 8)tempest she shakes the earth beneath
us and the sky above us.
The tired and the 9)weary say, Beauty is of soft 10)whisperings. She speaks in our spirit. Her voice 11)yields to our silences like a 12)faint light that 13)quivers 14)in fear of the shadow.
But the 15)restless say, We have heard her shouting among the mountains, and with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and
the beating of wings and the 16)roaring of lions.
At night the watchmen of the city say, Beauty shall rise with
the dawn from the east.
And at 17)noon-time the 18)toilers and the 19)wayfarers say, We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset.
In winter say the 20)snow-bound, She shall come with
the spring leaping upon the hills.
And in the summer heat the 21)reapers say, We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow
in her hair.
All these things have you said of beauty, yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied, and beauty is not a
need but an 22)ecstasy. It is not a mouth 23)thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, but rather a heart 24)enflamed and
a soul 25)enchanted. It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear, but rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the 26)sap within the 27)furrowed 28)bark, nor a wing attached to a 29)claw, but rather a garden for ever in bloom and
a flock of angels for ever in flight.
Beauty is life when life 30)unveils her holy face.
美
假如美不以自己为门路，为导游，你们到哪里，又怎样能找
到她呢假如她不是你们语言的编织者，你们又怎样能讨论她呢
悲伤难过者说：美是和善而温柔的。

她像一位因自己的光荣而半害羞怯的年青母亲，走在我们的身旁。

热忱豪放者说：不，美是激烈而令人惊畏的。

她如狂风雨般
震动我们脚下的大地，摇撼我们头上的天空。

疲倦疲乏者说：美是温柔的低语，她在我们的心中诉说。

她
的声音颠簸在我们的缄默中，如同一道轻微的光在对暗影的惧怕
中发抖。

但开朗好动者说：我们曾听到她在山谷中高声呼喊，随其呼喊而来的是足蹄踏地、翅膀拍击和雄狮大吼的声音。

夜晚，城市的守夜人说：美将与晨曦一起从东方升起。

中午，勤劳奋作者和长途跋涉者说：我们曾看到她透过傍晚
之窗瞭望大地。

寒冬，困在风雪中的人说：她将与春同至，雀跃于山峦之间。

炎暑，收割庄稼的人说：我们曾看到她与秋叶共舞，雪花点
缀于她的发梢。

你们谈到对于美的所有这些，实质并不是对于她自己，而是对于你们未被知足的需求，但美其实不是一种需求，而是心醉神迷的惊喜。

她不是焦渴的唇，也不是伸出的空空的手，而是一颗焚烧的心，一个充满愉悦的灵魂。

她不是你们想看到的形象，也不是
你们想听到的歌声，而是你们闭上眼睛看到的形象，堵住耳朵听
到的歌声。

她不是伤残树皮下的树液，也不是悬在利爪下的翅膀。

而是一座鲜花永久绽放的花园，一群永久在天空翱翔的天使。

当生命摘去掩盖她圣洁面貌的面纱时，美就是生命。

英语优美段落二
Most people complain of fortune, few of nature; and the kinder they think the latter has been to them, the more they murmur at what they call the injustice of the former.
Why have not I the riches, the rank, the power, of such and such, is the common expostulation with fortune; but why have
not I the merit, the talents, the wit, or the beauty, of such and
such others, is a reproach rarely or never made to nature.
The truth is, that nature, seldom profuse, and seldom niggardly, has distributed her gifts more equally than she is generally supposed to have done. Education and situation make the great difference. Culture improves, and occasions elicit, natural talents I make no doubt but that there are potentially, if I may use that pedantic word, many Bacons, Lockes, Newtons, Caesars, Cromwells, and Mariboroughs at the ploughtail behind counters, and, perhaps, even among the nobility; but the soil must be cultivated, and the season favourable, for the fruit to have all its spirit and flavour.
If sometimes our common parent has been a little partial, and not kept the scales quite even; if one preponderates too much, we throw into the lighter a due counterpoise of vanity,
which never fails to set all right. Hence it happens, that hardly any one man would, without reverse, and in every particular, change with any other.
Though all are thus satisfied with the dispensations of nature, how few listen to her voice! How to follow her as a guide! In vain she points out to us the plain and direct way to truth, vanity, fancy, affection, and fashion assume her shape and wind us through fairy-ground to folly and error.
好多人诉苦命运，却极罕有人诉苦自然 ;人们越是以为自然对
他们博爱有加，便越是嘀咕命运对他们的所谓不公。

人们经常对命运发出诘难：我为什么没有财产、地位、权利
以及诸这样类的东西;但人们却极少或从不这样责备过自然：我
为什么没有优点、天分、机智或漂亮以及诸这样类的东西。

事实是，自然老是将天分公正地分派给人们，比人们往常以为的还要不偏不倚，极少过分地大方!也极少小气。

人与人之间的巨大差别是因为教育和环境使然。

文化涵养改进了天分，机会环境引发了天分。

我们其实不思疑在农田耕种，在柜台后营业，甚至
在权门贵族中间有好多潜伏的培根们、洛克们、牛顿们、凯撒们、
克伦威尔们和马尔伯勒们，假如同意我用潜伏的这个学究味浓厚
的词的话 ;可是要使果实拥有它所有的质量微风味，还一定有耕作
过的泥土，一定有适合的季节。

若是大自然有时有那么一点偏爱，没有将天平摆正 ;若是有一头过重，我们就会在轻的一头投上一枚大小适合的虚荣的砝码，它每次都会将天平从头调平，从不出差错。

所以就出现了这
种状况：几乎没有人会毫无保存地和另一个人里里外外所有对调
一下。

固然对于自然的分派，人人都感觉满意 ;但是肯听听她的忠告的人倒是这样之少 !能将她看作导游而跟从后来的人又是这样
之少 !她陡然地为我们指出一条通向真谛的笔挺的坦途 ;而虚荣、想象、矫情、时兴却俨然以她的相貌出现，暗中将我们引向空幻的歧路，走向笨拙和错误。