英语美文欣赏2011

Life Is Not Only About WorkA long time ago, there was an emperor who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he liked, then the emperor would give him the area of land he would have covered.Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much as possible. Finally, the horseman came to a point where he had covered a substantial area but was exhausted and dying. He asked himself, “ Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I need only a very small area to bury myself.”The story above is similar with the journey of our life. We push very hard everyday to make more money, to gain power and recognition. We neglect our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauties and the hobbies we love. One day when we look back, we will realize that we don’t really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed.Life is not only about making money, acquiring power or recognition. Life is definitely not only about work! Work is only necessary to keep us living so as to enjoy the beauties and pleasures of life. Life is a balance of work and play. You have to decide how you want to balance your life. Define your priorities, and realize what you are able to compromise. Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim of human existence.So, take it easy! Do what you want to do and appreciate nature. Life is fragile; life is short. Do not take life for granted. Live a balanced lifestyle and enjoy life!2.Choose to Live Without Limits-Nick VujicicMany people look at me and simply see a man with no arms and legs. They pity me, failing to see my happiness beyond my circumstances—failing to see that I live a zealous life, characterized by a deep joy that is unhindered by my circumstances. Although I appear “incomplete” on the outside, I am whole on the inside. Sadly, there are so many people with arms and legs who are whole on the outside but are broken on the inside. Their lives are characterized by unhappiness, dissatisfaction and unfulfillment. My mission in life is to resurrect strength in these individuals, inspire them to fulfill their potential and motivate them to live life without limits!Having been born without limbs, I travelled a long road of unanswered questions. I traveled this road for so long that I eventually fell into a deep depression, telling myself that I could only survive as a burden to those around me. I felt like an inconvenience to my parents and a nobody at school. Although I was able to experience the ground-breaking opportunity of being the first “disabled”student to be integrated into Australian mainstream classrooms. I hated my life. Kids were kids, and I was ridiculed and humiliated. Teasing and rejection became the daily norm for me.Although I had many friends, my life consisted of so much daily bullying that I believed my life had two purposes: to be teased and to be a burden to others. My parents loved me and did their best to raise me and my two younger “ normal”siblings in love, support and encouragement. They helped me believe that there was a future and a hope for my life. They believed in God, but it was a god that I could not understand at the time.How could I have a future for my life when I could not see one? At age eight, my desperation led me to tell my mom that I wanted to kill myself. At age 10, I tried.Finally having had enough of life, I went to the bathtub and rolled over. Once…twice… three times. The third time, I could not do it. I could not stomach the visual of my parents and siblings crying at my grave, asking “why?” and blaming themselves. Can you imaging if Ididn’t stick around in this life? I had no idea that I would complete a double-degree in Accounting and Financial Planning, or that I could type 43 words a minute, or by age 27 I’d be a world-traveler, meeting Presidents and speaking to crowds as large as 110.000 people. I had no idea that I would found two organizations, give to the needy and address four internationally-based congresses. Who could have imagined that a man without arms or legs would be the hands and feet of love, hugging teenagers around the world, telling them that they are loved, making them believe that there is hope and future for their lives? I hope helping people see that their value is not determined by their religion, looks, wealth or job. I love helping them embrace a genuine satisfaction in living, a peace in belonging, and an inspiration to believe that a rich man can be poor, and a poor man can be rich. Each of us can live a life of fulfillment despite our circumstances.We have a daily choice: we can choose to be angry about what we do not have, or we can choose to be thankful for we do have. Being angry is counterproductive and fear and pain can be destructive. I believe it is far worse to be in a broken home than to have no limbs. I never try to pretend that I understand your pain, but I am here to tell you that there is hope, whether you see it or not. Just because you cannot see purpose in your life ,it doesn’t mean there isnone. You are here for a reason. Find it. Seek it. Live it. If my life’s journey can inspire you to live life to the fullest, never give up, dream big and believe in your potential. I am fulfilled. Why? Because I have come to understand that even when the clouds I my personal storm do not part, I can still carry someone else through their storm. I do not get a miracle, I can still be a miracle for someone else.Today, I challenge you. If this was your last day to live, who would you call? Who would you thank? What would you say you have taken for granted? Do your best. Set goals. That is success.3. Life Change at the Last MinuteLife is a work in progress. I’m not sure of the source for that quote, but it rings true with me. Some argue that people don’t change; as our bodies develop, plateau, and then decline towards death, our spirits need not. We do have a too-human aversion to change, preferring the comfort of our old ways, even if these ways do us no good. Like the worn security blanket that Linus carried everywhere in the Peanuts cartoon, we take refuge in tattered habits. Yet, we are constantly writing and editing the story of our lives until the day when we die.My father’s face was so peaceful and full of naked and undisguised love, and then I got it: my father had always loved me fully but had been unable to show it, choosing to hide it deep withinhimself. Now with both his and my own efforts, he dropped all the veils and gave me the most precious gift in the world, one I feel unbelievably blessed to have received. The brief moment of his full love was so powerful that it seemed to make up for years of going without it.Three days later, my father died in his sleep at home, his heart open. Together, we worked until the very end to reshape and edit our father-daughter story, and we managed to give it a happy ending.4. My Big Sister YI YiShe is 17, in college, and her name is Yi Yi. In a couple of seconds you will read all about my big sister. Yi YI loves to laugh, take me to cool places, and she is very responsible about things.Yi Yi is always very responsible. When she was in high school, all her teachers loved her in their classes. Yi Yi passed in her homework on time. She never missed one day. Another thing that makes YiYi responsible is that she does not need to be told twice about doing anything. If my mom asks her to take the garbage out, she would get right on it. On the holidays we have days off. So Yi Yi comes home from college and cooks whatever I want for lunch. Anything! If we don’t have the ingredients, we go to the supermarket together and buy whatever it is that we need. Yi Yi always listens to other people. She follows directions very well. My sister is the most responsibleperson I know!Yi Yi is extremely friendly. She is always nice, and never mean! She will help anybody who is emotionally hurt or physically hurt. People love to be around Yi Yi because she is always in a good mood. Each time you see her, she has a big, huge smile on her face. She smiles so much! Sometimes I wonder if that smile is ever going to get stuck! Yi Yi loves to make other people laugh. She once said to me. “ Hearing people laugh makes me feel so good inside!”All her friends adore how much Yi Yi likes to make people happy. What is best about Yi Yi is that she cares about everyone around her. She will help you and make sure you would have tons of fun.Yi Yi loves to drive around Glastonbury. She does not have her own car, so she often uses my mom’s car. I love it when Yi Yi takes me to places, for instance, shopping at the mall. We go to all different stores and shops for clothes and little, tiny and colored accessories. After that, we go to a restaurant for lunch. Yi Yi usually takes me to Panera’s. I get a chicken noodle soup and a smoked turkey sandwich. We talk about what we bought and decide where we should go next. Yi Yi thinks that we should go to Cold Stone for dessert. She lets me choose on what I want to get and gives me awesome suggestions on what topping I should get. She would say that Graham crackers would make ice cream crunchy when mixed with it. Sometimes I alsohave other places I need to go to. If I have a piano lesson or maybe swimming team practice, Yi Yi always makes sure that I have a terrific time.I wish everyone could have a sister like mine: as responsible, friendly and as helpful! But don’t get any idea about stealing mine! She is already taken!5. An Interview with Peter BuffettQ:There is a common phenomenon in China for the Chinese parents. They generally take their children to various extracurricular lessons like ballet, piano, painting, maths, taekwondo and so on. So Chinese children are really tired. I have been here in New York for 10 months but I didn’t see American parents are doing like that. What’s your opinion about that?PB: It strikes me whether the East or the West, they are curious and want to go that direction as if they are supposed to end up in a competition to have the best child. And the most interesting thing is that China now seems to be emulating the West in some way.As China is rising, the west is figure about how to emulate China. I feel like we are in a loop of competition. But the core is that whether wanting your child to be the best pianist or whether wanting the country to be the best country, I would love to find the way to break that cycle and recognize the cooperation and working together would ultimately lead to much better outcome than the concept that we have to be the best. Q: Then would you share with us about how you educate your own children?PB: Well, I am lucky that I have the example and I can live by that example. What I can have as the reference point is my own experience. One thing is to say something; another is to say withsome experience and say it with action. I can tell my children. The conversation can be very difficult. Very emotional. The reason it is emotional is because they are real. I’m not trying to say this will bringyou own good or something. I just trying to say this is my own experience. So that’s really why I wrote the book. I’m not trying to give advice; I am trying to tell my story in a way that might be helpful. So with my own kids I am trying to do that too. I remember I was once in tight spot and I wanted my dad to help me financially. But he knew I could do it. And I had to work through that and in fact I did do it. I went to the bank and got the loan, and worked harder and got through the months. When you look back at it, you say, “wow, I did that. I am capable of doing that.” Those are critical moments. I know that if my dad just wrote me a check somewhere in the back of my mind I would always wonder: “Can I make it myself?”I will doubt myself and my ability, and there is absolutely no substitute for your own experience and for your own learning.Q: But I want to know, were you a little bitangry when your father refused you? Because as a Chinese, I would think, you are my father; you are the person who loves me the most, but at this critical moment you refuse to help me!PB: And I would say there was more sadness than anger. Usually behind anger there is often sadness. I was sad, because the very thing you say, Gee, why won’t you? It was indeed very hard, but someone speaks the truth. There is sadness and anger, but you know you feel the truth in there and you have to work it through. I wouldn’t say he was always right but I knew his conviction was true. He didn’t want the money. He didn’t say it is good to you. You should get out of it. But he just said money can get in the way of relationship. Be that little ink drops in the pool of water and it can change everything. It doesn’t matter whether you lend your friends 10 dollars and they never pay you back. Withoutmoney, the relationship can be established just based on who the other person is. Frustrated, angry, sad as I might have been, I went it through. Then when you look back, You say ,” Boy, he was sure right!”Q: You know, Peter, with the fast economic development, some Chinese families are getting extremely rich in recent years. However, the entrepreneurial hardships of the first generation might well lead to their indulgence of their children. If you were in their shoes, what would you do? Any suggestions to these Chinese parents?PB: ……….Q: I know you and Jeffery are managing your NOVO Foundation with its main focus on helping girls, mostly in underprivileged nations. Why girls? Why not boys?PB: ……….Q: Peter, I believe your mother also plays an important role in your life. Would you say something about her?PB: I sometimes point out that people always talk about my dad. Of course what he does is honoring the society. My mother in general is like a teacher who hasn’t got the honor she really should. My mother really shows me that everyone has something to teach. Everyone’s story has value and you can learn from everyone. There is such dimensionality in every single person and in fact that reflects the landscape of humanity. From people around you, you can learn more about yourself. My mother is more of a listener, and she knows how to ask a question.。