晨读英语美文100篇
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳道创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble andcourteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense andhypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's uniquequalities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with thenatural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally,because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me. Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she wasgazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the otherfeatures, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of Independence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomesdestructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment ofan absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He willkiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death. Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone nogeneral improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out,knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,thatmankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field,even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the differencebetween love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. Rush Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a dropof water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus —the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. Whathave I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun.A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink alittle, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow. Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with ajangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our TimesPeace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries andregions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-EsteemSelf-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective andproductive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel ofappreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is awoman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable. Freedom—it is today more than ever the most precious human possession. We—Sweden and the United States—we have it still. My country is young—but it greets you with a peculiar fellowship, you whose earth is ancient and free.。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳语创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, novivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrateand insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers,and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may youhope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity buta human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book ofdeluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. Thisis what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, whileone of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turnedup into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of Independence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, derivingtheir just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the presentKing of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soonas new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. Animmeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode ofproduction and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries. Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for t he belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But lovewill change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. Rush Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return;willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus —the dayflows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never toreturn?Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade,dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red andblue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken.It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble. Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our Times Peace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing internationalrelations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-Esteem Self-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy ofhappiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy,positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life. Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me.I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it isa woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable. Freedom—it is today more than ever the most precious human possession. We—Sweden and the United States—we have it still. My country is young—but it greets you with a peculiar fellowship, you whose earth is ancient and free.。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳家百创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instrumentsas human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.欧阳家百（2021.03.07）Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your lifewhich now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good forhuman life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me. Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud wassinging, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me. Passage5 Declaration of IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to securethese rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care mayprove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursuetheir way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and ProgressWhy does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing，a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is:What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by EngelsOn the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a givenpeople or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that LastsIf somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the bel ief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition withthe passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a per son could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. RushSwallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eightthousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus — the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fairthough: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer DayOne day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping itsdry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the parkshut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our TimesPeace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in thisworld a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions. Passage14. Self-EsteemSelf-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice.Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for FreedomIt is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for whathas been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books.I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above。
励志晨读英语美文带翻译 晨读英语美文100篇带翻译优秀6篇
励志晨读英语美文带翻译晨读英语美文100篇带翻译优秀6篇英语晨读美文带翻译篇一Youth not a teme of lefe; et a state of mend; et not a matter of rosy cheeks, red leps and supple knees; et a matter of the well, a qualety of the emagenateon, a vegor of the emoteons; et the freshness of the deep sprengs of lefe.Youth means a temperamental predomenance of courage over temedety, of the appetete for adventure over the love of ease. Th often exts en a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserteng our edeals.Years may wrenkle the sken, but to geve up enthuseasm wrenkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-dtrust bows the heart and turns the speret back to dust.Whether 60 or 16, there en every human beeng’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfaeleng appetete for what’s next and the joy of the game of leveng. In the center of your heart and my heart, there a wereless stateon; so long as et receeves messages of beauty, hope, courage and power from man and from the enfenete, so long as you are young.When your aereals are down, and your speret covered weth snows of cynecm and the ece of pessemm, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aereals are up, to catch waves of optemm, there’s hope you may dee young at 80.译文：青春青春不是年华，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏的想象，炙热的恋情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。
英语晨读背诵美文30篇_英文+翻译
英语背诵美文30篇 英文＋翻译第一篇：Youth 青春Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple1) knees; it is a matter of will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.Youth means a temperamental2) predominance3) of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting4) our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite5), so long are you young.When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism6) and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.[Annotation:]1）supple adj. 柔软的2）temperamental adj. 由气质引起的3）predominance n. 优势4) desert vt. 抛弃5) the Infinite上帝6) cynicism n. 玩世不恭青春青春不是年华，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志、恢弘的想象、炙热的感情；青春是生命的深泉在涌动。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳美创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian,not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;but still, I repeat, they are noguarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, Irepeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, runningits course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great thatI would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life fora few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if thechance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, andthe tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That tosecure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries andusurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss thehand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and ProgressWhy does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has madeextraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance,be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by EngelsOn the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequentlythe degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that LastsIf somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to.We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever.That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. RushSwallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or threeoblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus — the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leaveus, never to return?Passage11. A Summer DayOne day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun.A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts,creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound ofthe neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our Times Peace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the loftycause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperitypromoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-EsteemSelf-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice getsstarted. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positivethings life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for FreedomIt is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day.I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole bodyof American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is。
晨读英语美文100个
.晨读英语美文100篇Passage1.KnowledgeandVirtueKnowledgeisonething,virtueisanother;goodsenseisnotconscience,refinementisnothumility,norislargenessandjustness of view faith.Philosophy,however enlightened,however profound,gives no commandover the passions,no influential motives,no vivifying principles.LiberalEducationmakesnottheChristian,nottheCatholic,butthegentleman.Itiswelltobeagentleman,itiswelltohaveacultivatedintellect,adelicatetaste,acandid,equitable,dispassionate mind,a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct oflife—these are theconnatural qualities of alargeknowledge;they aretheobjects ofa amadvocating,Ishallillustrateandinsistuponthem;butstill,Irepeat,they are noguarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness,and they mayattach to the manof the world,to the profligate,to the heartless,pleasant,alas,andattractive as he shows whendecked outin by themselves,theydo but seemtobewhatthey are not;theylook like virtue atadistance,buttheyaredetectedbycloseobservers,andinthelongrun;andhenceitisthattheyarepopularly accusedof pretense andhypocrisy,not,Irepeat,from.their ownfault,but becausetheir professors andtheir admirerspersist in taking themfor whattheyare not,and are officiousin arrogating for them apraise to which they havenothegraniterockwithrazors,ormoorthevessel withathreadofsilk,thenmayyouhopewithsuchkeenand delicateinstrumentsashumanknowledgeandhumanreasonto contendagainstthosegiants,Passage2.“Packing”aPersonAperson,like acommodity,needs going toofar is absolutely little exaggeration,however, doesnoharmwhenit showstheperson's uniquequalities totheir displaypersonalcharminacasualandnaturalway,it is important for oneto have a clearknowledge ofmasterpackagerknowshowto integrate art andnaturewithout any traces of embellishment,so that the personsopackagedis nocommoditybutahumanbeing,lively andyoungperson,especially afemale,radiant withbeautyandfull oflife,hasallthefavorgrantedbyattempttomakeupwouldbeself-defeating.Youth,however,comesandgoesin amomentof forthemiddle-agedisprimarily to concealthe furrows ploughedby youstill enjoylife'sexuberance enough to retainself-confidenceandpursuepioneeringwork,youareuniqueinyournaturalqualities,and yourcharmandgracewillpeoplearebeautiful iftheirriveroflifehasbeen,throughplains,mountainsand jungles,running its course asit havereallylivedyour lifewhich now arrives at acomplacent stageofserenityindifferent to fameor is noneed t oresorttohair-dyeing；thesnow-cappedmountainisitselfa beautifulsceneofyourlookschangefromyoung tooldsynchronizingwiththenaturalageingprocesssoasto keepinharmonywith nature,forharmonyitself isbeauty,while theotherwayroundwillonlyendinbeintheelder'scompanyislikereadingathickbookofdeluxe editionthatfascinatesonesomuchastobereluctanttopart longasonefindswhereonestands,oneknowshowto packageoneself,justasacommodityestablishesitsbrandby therightpackaging.Passage3.ThreePassionsIHaveLivedforThreepassions,simplebutoverwhelminglystrong,havegoverned my life:the longingfor love,the search forknowledge,and unbearable pity for the suffering o fpassions,like greatwinds,haveblownmehitherand thither,in a wayward courseover a deepoceanofanguish,reachingtotheveryvergeofhavesoughtlove,first,becauseitbringsecstasy—ecstasysogreatthat Iwouldoftenhavesacrificedalltherestofmylifeforafewhoursforthishavesoughtit,next,becauseitrelievesloneliness—thatterriblelonelinessinwhichoneshiveringconsciousnesslooksovertherimofthew orldintothecoldunfathomablelifelesshavesoughtit,finally,becauseintheunionoflov eIhaveseen,inamysticminiature,the prefiguringvisionoftheheaventhatsaintsandpoetshaveiswhatIsought,andthoughitmi ghtseemtoogoodforhumanlife,thisiswhat—atlast—Ihaveequal passion I have sought have wished tounderstand thehearts of havewishedto knowwhythestarsshine...Alittleofthis,butnotmuch,Ihaveandknowledge,sofar astheywerepossible,ledupwardtowardthe alwayspity brought mebackto ofcries of pain reverberate in my in famine,victimstorturedbyoppressors,helplessoldpeople—ahatedburdentotheir sons,and the wholeworldofloneliness,poverty,andpainmakeamockeryofwhathumanlifeshouldlongtoalleviate theevil,butI cannot,andItoo hasbeenmy havefound it worthliving,andwouldgladlylive it ;.againifthechancewereofferedme.Passage4.ALittleGirlSittingonagrassygrave,beneathoneofthewindowsof thechurch,wasalittleherheadbentbackshewasgazingup at the skyandsinging,while oneof herlittle hands waspointing toatiny cloudthat hoveredlike agolden feather abovehersun,whichhadsuddenlybecomevery bright, shiningonherglossyhair,gaveitametallicluster,anditwasdifficult tosaywhatwasthe color,darkbronzeor completely absorbedwassheinwatching thecloudtowhichher strangesongorincantationseemedaddressed,thatshedidnot observemewhenI rose andwenttowards herhead,high upintheblue,alarkthatwassoaringtowardsthesamegauzycloud wassinging,asif in Islowly approachedthechild,I could seebyherforehead,whichinthesunshine seemedlikeaglobeofpearl,andespeciallybyhercomplexion,that sheuncommonlyeyes,whichatonemomentseemedblue-gray,at another violet,were shadedbylong black lashes,curvingbackwardinamostpeculiarway,andthesematchedin huehereyebrows,andthetressesthatweretossedabouthertender throat werequivering in the thisI didnottakeinatonce;foratfirstIcouldseenothingbutthosequivering,glittering,changeful eyes turned up into mytheotherfeatures,especiallythesensitivefull-lipped mouth,grewuponmeasI stood silently seemedtomeamoreperfectbeautythanhadevercometomein myloveliest dreamsof it wasnotherbeauty somuch asthelookshegavemethatfascinatedme,meltedme.Passage5DeclarationofIndependenceWhenintheCourseofhumanevents,itbecomesnecessary foronepeopletodissolvethepoliticalbandswhichhaveconnectedthemwith another,and toassumeamongthepowersofthe earth,theseparate andequal station towhichtheLawsofNatureandofNature'sGodentitlethem,adecent respecttotheopinionsofmankindrequiresthattheyshould declarethecauseswhichimpelthemtotheholdthese truths to be self-evident,that all menare createdequal,that they are endowedby their Creator with certain unalienableRights,thatamongtheseareLife,Libertyandthepursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted amongMen,deriving their just powersfromtheconsentofthegoverned,—Thatwheneverany Formof Governmentbecomesdestructive of theseends,it is theRight of the Peopletoalteror to abolishit,andtoinstitutenewGovernment,layingitsfoundationonsuchprinciplesand organizingitspowersinsuchform,astothemshallseemmostlikelyto effect their Safetyand Happiness.Prudence,indeed, willdictatethatGovernmentslongestablishedshouldnotbe changedforlightandtransientcauses;andaccordinglyall experience hasshown,that mankindaremoredisposedto suffer,whileevils are sufferable,than to right themselves byabolishingtheformstowhichtheyarewhena longtrainofabusesandusurpations,pursuinginvariablythe sameObject evinces adesign to reducethemunder absoluteDespotism,it istheir right,it is their duty,tothrow offsuchGovernment,andtoprovide newGuardsfor their future security.—SuchhasbeenthepatientsufferanceoftheseColonies;and suchisnowthenecessity whichconstrains themtoalter their formerSystemsofhistoryofthepresentKingof Great Britainis a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,allhavingindirectobjecttheestablishmentofanabsolute TyrannyovertheseStates.To provethis, let Facts besubmittedtoacandidworld.Passage6.ATributetotheDog Thebestfriendamanhasintheworldmayturnagainsthimandbecomehissonordaughterthat hehasreared ;.with loving caremayprove whoarenearest and dearesttous,thosewhomwetrustwithourhappinessandour goodname,maybecometraitorstotheirmoneythatamanhashe flies awayfromhim,perhapswhenheneeds itman’sreputationmaybesacrificedinamomentofill-considered people whoareproneto fall ontheirkneestodoushonorwhensuccessiswithusmaybethefirst tothrowthestoneofmalicewhenfailure settlesits cloud uponouroneabsolutely unselfish friend that mancanhaveinthisselfishworld,theonethatneverdesertshim,theonethat neverproves ungrateful or treacherous,ishisman’sdogstands byhimin prosperity andinpoverty,in health andinwill sleep onthecold ground,wherethe wintrywindsblowandthesnowdrives fiercely,ifonly hemaybenear hismaster’swillkissthehandthathasnofoodtooffer;he will lick thewoundsandsoresthat comefromencounterwith the roughnessof the willguard thesleep ofhispaupermasterasifhewereaallotherfriendsdesert,heriches takewingsandreputation falls topieces,heisasconstantinhisloveasthesuninitsjourneys throughthe fortunedrivesthe masterforth,anoutcastintheworld,friendlessandhomeless,thefaithfuldogasksnohigherprivilegethanthatofaccompanyinghim,toguardhimagainst danger,to fight against his whenthelastsceneofallcomes,anddeathtakesthemasterinitsembrace,andhis bodyis laid awayinthe cold ground,no matterifallotherfriendspursuetheirway,therebythegravewillthenoble dogbefound,his headbetweenhispaws,his eyessadbutopenin alert watchfulness,faithful andtrue evenin death.Passage7.KnowledgeandProgressWhydoestheidea of progress loomsolarge in the modernworld?Surely becauseprogress ofaparticular kind is actuallytaking place around usand is becoming more andmoremankindhasundergonenogeneral improvement inintelligence ormorality,it hasmadeextraordinary progress intheaccumulationofbegantoincreaseassoonasthe thoughts of oneindividualcould becommunicatedtoanotherbymeansoftheinventionofwriting，agreatadvancewasmade,forknowledgecouldthenbenotonlycommunicatedbut also madeeducation possible,andeducationinitsturnaddedtolibraries:thegrowthof knowledgefollowedakindofcompoundinterestlaw,whichwas greatlyenhancedbytheinventionofthiswascomparatively slowuntil,withthe comingof science,the tempowassuddenlyknowledgebegantobeaccumulatedaccording to asystematic trickle becameastream;thestream has nowbecomea torrent.Moreover,as soon as newknowledge is acquired,it is now turned to practicalis called“moderncivilization”is notthe resultof a balanced developmentof all man's nature,but ofaccumulatedknowledgeappliedtopracticalproblem nowfacinghumanityis:Whatisgoingtobedonewithallthisknowledge?Asis sooften pointed out,knowledgeis atwo-edgedweaponwhichcanbeusedequally for goodor is nowbeing usedindifferently for anyspectacle,for instance,be more grimly weirdthan that ofgunners usingscience toshattermen'sbodieswhile,closeathand,surgeonsuseittorestore them?Wehavetoaskourselves very seriously whatwillhappen if this twofold use ofknowledge,with itsever-increasingpower,continues.Passage8.AddressbyEngelsOn the14th of March,at a quarter to three in theafternoon,thegreatestlivingthinkerceasedtohadbeenleft alone for scarcelytwominutes,and whenwecamebackwefoundhiminhisarmchair,peacefullygonetosleep—but immeasurablelosshasbeensustainedbothbythemilitantproletariatofEuropeandAmerica,andbyhistorical science,inthedeathofthisgapthathasbeenleft bythedepartureofthismightyspiritwillsoonenoughmake itselfasDarwindiscoveredthelawofdevelopmentoforganic nature,so Marxdiscovered thelawofdevelopment ofhumanhistory:the simple fact,hithertoconcealed byanovergrowthofideology,thatmankindmustfirstofalleat,drink,haveshelter andclothing,before it canpursuepolitics,science,art,religion,etc.;that therefore theproduction of theimmediatematerialmeansofsubsistenceandconsequentlythedegreeof economicdevelopmentattained byagivenpeopleorduringagivenepochformthefoundationuponwhichthestateinstitutions,the legal conceptions,art,andeventheideasonreligion,of the people concernedhavebeenevolved,andin the lightofwhichtheymust,therefore,beexplained,insteadofvice versa,ashadhitherto beenthethatis notalsodiscoveredthespeciallawofmotiongoverningthepresent-day capitalist modeof productionand the bourgeoissociety that this modeofproduction has discoveryofsurplus value suddenly threwlight onthe problem,in tryingtosolvewhichallpreviousinvestigations,ofbothbourgeois economists and socialist critics,hadbeengroping in the ;.dark.Two such discoveries would be enough for one themantowhomitisgrantedtomakeevenonein every single field which Marx investigated—andheinvestigatedverymanyfields,noneofthemsuperficially—in every field,even in that ofmathematics,he made independent9.Relationship that LastsIf somebodytellsyou,“I’ll love you for ever,”willyoubelieve it?Idon’tthink there’sanyreasonnot are ready to believe such commitment at themoment,whateverchangemayhappen forthebelief inaneverlastinglove,that’sanotheryoumaybeaskedwhetherthereissuchathingasaneverlasting’d answer Ibelieve init,butaneverlasting love isnotmayunswervinglylove orbeloved byalovewillchangeitscompositionwiththepassageof willnotremainthethecourseofyourgrowthandasa result of your increased experience,love willbecomesomethingdifferenttothebeginningyoubelieveda ferventloveforapersoncouldlastandby,however,“fervent”gavewayto“prosaic”.Precisely becauseofthischangeitbecamepossibleforlovetowhatwasmeantbyan everlastinglovewouldeventuallyendupina;.. sortofusedtoinsistonthedifferencebetweenloveandformerseemedmuchmorebeautif ulthanthe day,however,itturnsout there’sreallynoneedtomakesuchisactuallyasortofthesametoken,theeverlastinginterdependenceisactuallyaneverlastingwishIcouldbelievetherewassomebodywhowouldlovemefor’s,asweallknow,tooromantictobetrue.Passage10.RushSwallows may have gone,but there is a time ofreturn;willow trees mayhavedied back,but there is atime ofregreening;peach blossomsmayhavefallen,but they willbloomagain.Now,youthewise,tellme,whyshould ourdaysleave us, nevertoreturn?Iftheyhadbeenstolenbysomeone,whocoulditbe?Wherecouldhehidethem?Iftheyhadmadetheescape themselves,thenwherecouldtheystayatthemoment?Idon’tknowhowmanydaysIhavebeengiventospend,butIdofeel myhandsaregettingstocksilently,Ifindthatmorethan eight thousand dayshave already slid awayfromadropofwaterfromthepoint ofaneedle disappearing intotheocean,mydaysaredrippingintothestreamoftime, soundless,sweatis starting onmyforehead, ;..andtears welling upinmythat havegonehavegoneforgood,thosetocomekeepcoming;yetinbetween,howfast istheshift,insucharush?WhenIgetupinthemorning,theslanting sunmarksits presenceinmysmall roomin twoor threesunhasfeet,look,heistreading on,lightly andfurtively;and I amcaught,blankly,inhis—thedayflowsawaythrough the sink whenI washmyhands,wears offinthebowlwhenIeatmymeal,andpassesawaybeforemyday-dreaminggazeasreflectincanfeelhishastenow,soIreachoutmyhandstoholdhimback,buthekeeps flowingpastmywithholdingtheevening,asIlieinbed,hestrides overmybody,glides pastmyfeet,in his agile momentI openmyeyesandmeetthe sunagain,onewhole dayhasburymyfaceinmyhandsandheavea thenewdaybeginstoflashpastinthecanIdo,inthis bustling world,with my days flying in their escape?Nothing butto hesitate,to haveIbeendoing inthateight-thousand-dayrush,apartfromhesitating?Those bygonedayshavebeendispersedassmokebyalightwind,or evaporatedasmistbythemorningtraceshaveIleftbehindme?HaveI ever left behindanygossamertraces at all?Ihavecometothe world,stark naked;amIto goback,in ablink,;..inthesamestarknakedness?Itisnotfairthough:whyshouldIhavemadesuchatripfornothing!Youthewise,tellme,whyshouldourdaysleaveus,nevertoreturn?;.。
晨读英语美文100篇
1.The English CharacterTo other Europeans, the best known quality of the British, and in particular of the English, is “reserved”.A reserved person is one who does not talk very much to strangers, does not show much emotion, and seldom gets excited. It is difficult to get to know a reserved person: he never tells you anything about himself, and you may work with him for years without ever knowing where he lives, how many children he has, and what his interests are. English people tend to be like that.Closely related to English reserve is English modesty. Within their hearts, the English are perhaps no less conceited than anybody else, but in their relations with others they value at least a show of modesty. Self－praise is felt to be impolite. If a person is, let us say, very good at tennis and someone asks him if he is a good player, he will seldom reply “Yes,” because people will think him conceited. He will probably give an answer like,“I’m not bad,” or “I think I’m very good,” or “Well, I’m very keen on tennis.”Even if he had managed to reach the finals in last year’s local championships, he would say it in such a way as to suggest that it was only due to a piece of good luck.Since reserve and modesty are part of his own nature, the typical English tends to expect them in others. He secretly looks down on more excitable nations, and likes to think of himself as more reliable than they are. He doesn’t trust big promises and open shows of feelings, especially if they are expressed in flowery language. He doesn’t trust self－praise of any kind. This applies not only to what other people may tell him about themselves orally, but to the letters they may write to him. To those who are fond of flowery expressions, the Englishman may appear uncomfortably cold.2.What Happened to Sunday?Today our life and work rarely feel light, pleasant or healing. Instead, the whole experience of being alive begins to melt into one enormous obligation. It becomes the standard greeting everywhere:“I am so busy.”We say this to one another with no small degree of pride. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, weimagine, to others.To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset, to whiz through our obligations without time for a single mindful breath —this has become the model of a successful life. Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We lose the nourishment that gives us help. We miss the quiet that gives us wisdom. Poisoned by the belief that good things come only through tireless effort, we never truly rest. This is not the world we dreamed of when we were young.How did we get so terribly rushed in a world saturated with work and responsibility, yet somehow bereft of joy and delight? We have forgotten the Sabbath. Sabbath is the time to enjoy and celebrate what is beautiful and good —time to light candles, sing songs, worship, tell stories, bless our children and loved ones, give thanks, share meals, nap, and walk. It is time to be nourished and refreshed as we let our work, our chores and our important projects lie fallow, trusting that there are larger forces at work taking care of the world when we are at rest. Sabbath is more than the absence of work.Many of us, in our desperate drive to be successful and care for our many responsibilities feel terrible guilt when we take time to rest. But the Sabbath has proven its wisdom over the ages. Many of us still recall when, not long ago, shops and offices were closed on Sundays. Those quiet Sunday afternoons are embedded in our cultural memory.3.Dating with My MotherAfter 22 years of marriage, I have discovered the secret to keep love and intimacy alive in my relationship with my wife, Peggy: I started dating with another woman. It was Peggy’s idea, actually,“you know you love her,” she said one day, taking me in surprise. The other woman my wife was encouraging me to date is my mother, a 72-year-old widow who has lived alone since my father died 20 years ago.I had promised myself that I would spend more time with mom. But with the demands of my job and three kids, I never got around to seeing her much beyond family get-togethers and holidays. She was surprised and suspicious, when I called and suggested the two of us goout to dinner and a movie. She thinks anything out of the ordinary signals bad news. “I thought it would be nice to spend some time with you,” I said,“Just the two of us.”“I would like that a lot,” she said.We didn’t go anywhere fancy, just a neighborhood place where we could talk. My mother clutched my arm, half out of affection and half to help her negotiate the restaurant steps. Since her eyes now see only large shapes and shadows, I had to read the menu for both of us. “I used to be the reader when you were little,” my mother smiled. I understood what she was saying. From care-giver to cared-for, from cared-for to care-giver, our relationship had come full circle. “Then it is time for you to relax and let me return the favor.” I said.We had a nice talk over dinner. We talked for so long that we missed the movie. “I will go out with you again.”My mother said as I dropped her off,“but only if you let me buy dinner next time.” I agreed. Now Mom and I got out for dinner a couple of times a month.4.I Want to KnowIt doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.It doesn’t interest me how old y ou are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want toknow if you can be faithful and therefore be trust worthy. I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life from god’s presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,“Yes!”It doe sn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.It doesn’t interest me who you are, how y ou came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.5.If I Were a Boy AgainIf I were a boy again, I would practice perseverance oftener, and never give up a thing because it was hard or inconvenient. If we want light, we must conquer darkness. If I were to live my life over again, I would pay more attention to the cultivation of the memory. I would strengthen that faculty by every possible means, and on every possible occasion. It takes a little hard work at first to remember things accurately; but memory soon helps itself, and gives very little trouble. It only needs early cultivation to become a power.If I were a boy again, I would look on the cheerful side. Life is very much like a mirror if you smile upon it, it smiles back upon you; but if you frown and look doubtful on it, you will get a similar look in return. Inner sunshine warms not only the heart of the owner, but of all that come in contact with it. “Who shuts love out, in turn shall be shut from love.”If I were a boy again, I would school myself to say “No” oftener. I might write pages on the importance of learning very early in life to gain that point where a young boy can stand erect, and decline doingan unworthy act because it is unworthy.If I were a boy again, I would demand of myself more courtesy towards my companions and friends, and indeed towards strangers as well. The smallest courtesies along the rough roads of life are like the little birds that sing to us all winter long, and make that season of ice and snow more endurable.Finally, instead of trying hard to be happy, as if that were the sole purpose of life, I would, if I were a boy again, try still harder to make others happy.6.Paradox of Our TimesWe have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less common senses; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.We spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get to angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too often, and pray too seldom.We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too little and lie too often. We have learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, not life to years. We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.W e’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We have conquered outer space, but not inner space. We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less. We have learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies, but have less communication. We are long on quantity, but short on quality.These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men and short character; steep profits and shallow relationships. More leisure and less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition; two incomes, butmore divorce; fancier houses, but broken homes.This is a strange and confusing age. There are so many paradoxes in our time that we hardly know who we are, where we are, and where to go.7.People with DisabilitiesPeople with disabilities comprise a large part of the population. It is estimated that over 35 million Americans have physical, mental, or other disabilities. About half of these disabilities are “developmental”, i.e., they occur prior to the individual’s twenty-second birthday, often from genetic conditions, and are severe enough to affect three or more areas of development, such as mobility, communication, employment, etc. Most other disabilities are consider ed “adventitious”,i.e., accidental or caused by outside forces.Prior to the 20th century, only a small percentage of people with disabilities survived for long. Medical treatment for these disabilities was unavailable. Advancements in medicine and social services have created a climate in which people with disabilities can expect to have such basic needs as food, shelter, and medical treatment. Unfortunately, these basics are often not available. Civil liberties such as the right to vote, marry, get an education, and gain employment have historically been denied on the basis of disability.In recent decades, the disability rights movement has been organized to fight against these infringements of civil rights. Congress responded by passing major legislation recognizing people with disabilities as a protected class under civil rights statutes.Still today, people with disabilities must fight to live their lives independently.It is estimated that more than half of qualified Americans with disabilities are unemployed, and a majority of those who do work are underemployed. About two-thirds live at or below the official poverty level.Significant barriers, especially in transportation and public awareness, prevent disabled people from taking part in society. For example, while no longer prohibited by law from marrying, a person with no access to transportation is effectively excluded fromcommunity and social activities which might lead to the development of long-term relationships.8.My Perfect WifeI am a twenty-two-year-old male, single, and live at home with my parents. At my age, I am always looking for a great girl to be with for the rest of my life. The perfect wife will be different to every man because no two men are looking for the same qualities in a wife. People say that the appearance of a mate should not make any difference, but it is nice to have someone decent-looking. The physical aspects of the girl will play an important role in whom I pick for my wife.I think overall, I want a slim-figured woman with a pretty face. I am a very energetic person, the type of person that cannot just stay home and do nothing. I would want a wife who would want to play a game of tennis or would go running with me. I would want her to be involved with life instead of watching television or reading a book all night. She needs to be energetic, enjoy camping, boating, or just taking a couple of weeks off and traveling. The woman of my dreams must be full of energy and able to cope with everyday happenings.I would also like to have a wife who is well-educated. She does not necessarily have to have a four-year college degree but should be a girl who knows what is going on in the world. She must be ambitious in her career rather than rely ing on her husband’s income.She needs to be helpful, knowledgeable about financial and practical household matters. My wife must be intelligent enough to make decisions on her own without relying on me. She must be a woman with a brain as well as good looks.There is no doubt that the “perfect wife” is hard to find. I think no two people should be married until they are totally convinced that they are made for each other.e as You AreCome as you are; do not loiter over your toilet. If your braided hair has loosened, if the parting of your hair be not straight, if the ribbons be not fastened, do not mind.Come as you are; do not loiter over your toilet. Come, with quick steps over the grass. If the red come from your feet because of the dew, if the rings of bells upon your feet slacken, if pearls drop out of your chain, do not mind.Come, with quick steps over the grass. Do you see the clouds wrapping the sky? Flocks of cranes fly up from the further riverbank. The anxious cattle run to their stalls in the village.Do you see the clouds wrapping the sky? Come as you are; do not loiter over your toilet. Let your work be. Listen, the guest has come. Do you hear, he is gently shaking the chain which fastens the door? See that your anklets make no loud noise, and that your step is not over-hurried at meeting him.Let your work be, the guest has come in the evening. It is the full moon on a night of April; shadows are pale in the court yard; the sky overhead is bright. Draw your veil over your face if you must, carry the lamp in the door if you fear.Have no word with him if you are shy; stand aside by the door when you meet him. If he asks you questions, and if you wish to, you can lower your eyes in silence. Do not let your bracelets jingle when, lamp in hand, you lead him in.Have you not finished your work yet? Listen, the guest has come.10.W eakness or StrengthSometimes your biggest weakness can become your biggest strength. Take, for example, the story of one 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move.“Sir,” the boy finally said, “shouldn’t I be learning more moves?”“This is the only move you know, but this is the only m ove you’ll ever need to know,”the master replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.Several months later, the master took the boy to his firsttournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match.Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when his judo master intervened. “No,” the judo master insisted, “Let him continue.”Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard .Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.On the way home, the boy and his judo master reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.“Sir, how did I win the tournament with only one move?”“You won for two reasons,” the master answered.“First, you’ve almost master ed one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. Second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.11.D ifference Between CulturesI have always found the Chinese to be a very gracious people. In particular, Chinese frequently compliment foreign friends on their language skills, knowledge of Chinese culture, professional accomplishments, and personal health. Curiously, however, Chinese are as loath to accept a compliment as they are eager to give one. As many of my Chinese friends have explained, this is a manifestation of the Chinese virtue of modesty.I have noticed a difference, though, in the degree to which modesty is emphasized in the United States and China. In the US, we tend to place more emphasis on “seeking the truth from fact;”thus, Americans tend to accept a compliment with gratitude. Chinese, on the other hand, tend to reject the compliment, even when they know theydeserve the credit or recognition which has been awarded them.I can imagine a Chinese basketball fan meeting Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. He might say, “Mr. Jordan, I am so happy to meet you.I just want to tell you, you are the best basketball player in the world; you’re the greatest!” to which Jordan would probably respond,“Thank you very much. I really appreciate it! I just do try to do my best every time I step on the court.”If an American met Deng Yaping, China’s premier pingpong player, he might say much the same thing: “Ms. Deng, you’re the best!” but as a Chinese, Deng would probably say, “No, I really don’t play all that well. You’re too much kind.”Plainly, Americans and Chinese have different ways of responding to praise. Ironically, many Americans might consider Ms. Deng’s hypothetical response the less modest, because it is less truthful — and therefore less sincere. Americans generally place sincerity above etiquette; genuine gratitude for the praise serves as a substitute for protestations of modesty.After all, in the words of one of my closest Chinese friends, modesty taken to the extreme is arrogance.12.U niversity Life under StrainThe quality of university life is under strain from the relentless expansion of higher education, leading independent schools in Britain complained. The warning followed survey of the impressions of campus life gained by former pupils of the schools. Infrequent contact with tutors, worries over student safety, and even grumbles over the food were all seen as symptoms of the pressure on universities. Head teachers said that standards could well drop if the squeeze on university budgets continued.A survey was carried out because of fears that the level of pastoral care in universities has declined. A number of students’suicides had raised concerns among head teachers. Although most of the 6,000 students surveyed were enjoying university life, almost a third were less satisfied with their course. About one in ten had serious financial problems and some gave alarming accounts of conditions around theirhalls of residence. Incidents quoted included a fatal stabbing and shooting outside a hall of residence, the petrol-bombing of cars near another residence, and two racist attacks. Nine percent of women and seven percent of men rated security as unsatisfactory in the area where they lived.The survey confirm ed head teachers’ fears about contact between students and tutors slipping, with a quarter of the students seeing their tutor only every three weeks. New students, used to regular contact with their teachers, found it hard to adapt to the change.Interview techniques were a cause for concern, with the school calling for more training of the university staff involved in admissions. Some headmasters complained that interview were increasingly “eccentric”.One greeted an applicant by throwing him an apple. Another interview lasted only three minutes. About a quarter of the students found the workload at university heavier than they had expected. There were differences between subjects, with architecture, engineering, veterinary science, medicine and some science subjects demanding the most work.The survey also confirmed previous concerns about possible racial bias in admissions to medical courses. Applicants with names suggesting an ethnic minority background had been rejected by white candidates with the same qualifications.13.T he Importance of Developing AttitudesOf all the areas of learning the most important is the development of attitudes. Emotional reactions as well as logical thought processes affect the behavior of most people. “The burnt child fears the fire” is one instance; another is the rise of figures like Hitler. Both these examples also point up the fact that attitudes come from experience. In the one case the experience is direct and impressive，in the other it is indirect and gradual.The class room teacher in the elementary school is in strategic position to influence attitudes. This is true partly because children acquire attitudes from those adults whose words they respect. Another reason why it is true is that pupils often search somewhat deeply into asubject in school that has only been touched upon at home or has possibly never occurred to them before.To a child who had previously acquired little knowledge of Mexico, his teacher’s method of handling such a unit would greatly affect his attitude toward Mexicans. The teacher can develop proper attitudes through social studies, science matters, the very atmosphere of the classroom, etc.However, when children come to school with undesirable attitudes, it is unwise to attempt to change their feelings by criticizing them. The teacher can achieve the proper effect by helping them obtain constructive experience.To illustrate, first-grade pupils, afraid of policemen will probably change their attitudes after a classroom talk with the neighborhood officer in which he explains how he protects them. In the same way, a class of older children can develop attitudes through discussion, research and all-day trips.Finally, a teacher must constantly evaluate his own attitudes, because his influence can be harmful if he has personal prejudices. This is especially true in respect to controversial issues and questions of which children should be encouraged to reach their own conclusion as result of objective analysis of all the facts.14.M odern American UniversityBefore the 1850s, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students. Meanwhile, throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed. In German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals.Between mid-century and the end of the 1800s, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study. Some of them return to become presidents of venerable colleges —Harvard, Yale, Columbia —and transform them into modern universities.The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. Drilling and memorizing were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professors own research was presented in class. With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate student learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the selective system, by which students were able to choose their own course of study.The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close attention to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new system. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.15.E nglish as a Crazy LanguageLet’s face it — English is a crazy language. There is neither egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffin s weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbread s, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese . So one moose, two meese?Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal?If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed toan asylum or the verbally insane.In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?Have noses that run and feet that smell?Park on driveways and drive on parkways?How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposite?How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race.That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.16.Advice to a Young ManRemember, my son, you have to work.Whether you handle a pick or a pen,a wheel-barrow or a set of books,digging ditches or editing a paper,ringing an auction bell or writing funny things,you must work.If you look around you will see the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who work the hardest.Don’t be afraid of killing yourself with overwor k.It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny side of thirty.They die sometimes,but it is because they quit work at six in the evening,and do not go home until two in the morning.It’s the interval that kills, my son.The work gives you an appetite for your meals;it lends solidity to your slumbers;it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday.There are young men who do not work,but the world is not proud of them.It does not know their names;even it simply speaks of them as “old so-and-so’s boy”.Nobody likes them;the great, busy world doesn’t know that they are there.So find out what you want to be and do,and take off your coat and make a dust in the world.The busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get into,the sweeter will be your sleep,the brighter and happier your holidays,and the better satisfied will the world be with you.17.All I Learned in Kindergarten…Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be,I learned in kindergarten.Wisdom was not at the top。
一年级英语经典晨读100篇
一年级英语经典晨读100篇英语是一门重要的国际语言，在现代社会的发展中起着重要的作用。
对于孩子来说，从小学习英语可以为他们的未来奠定坚实的基础。
而晨读是培养孩子英语阅读习惯的一种有效方式。
本文将为一年级学生准备了100篇经典的英语晨读文章，旨在帮助他们提高英语水平。
1. The SunThe sun is big and bright. It gives us light and heat. We need the sun to live.2. The MoonThe moon is not as bright as the sun. It shines at night and helps us see in the dark.3. The StarsThe stars are tiny dots in the sky. They twinkle and make the night sky beautiful.4. The SkyThe sky is blue during the day and dark at night. It's where the sun, moon, and stars are.5. The CloudsClouds are white and fluffy. They float in the sky and bring rain.6. The RainRain falls from the clouds. It makes the plants and flowers grow.7. The TreesTrees are tall and green. They provide us with shade and oxygen.8. The FlowersFlowers are colorful and smell nice. Bees and butterflies love them.9. The BirdsBirds have feathers and can fly. They sing beautiful songs.10. The AnimalsThere are many animals in the world. Some live in the jungle, some live in the ocean.11. The FarmOn the farm, there are cows, pigs, and chickens. They help us get milk, meat, and eggs.12. My FamilyI love my family. I have a mom, dad, and a little sister. We have fun together.13. My SchoolMy school is big and has many classrooms. I learn and play with my friends here.14. My TeacherMy teacher is kind and helpful. She teaches us new things every day.15. My FriendsI have many friends at school. We play games and have fun together.16. My RoomMy room is my favorite place. I have my toys and books there.17. My ToysI have a teddy bear and a toy car. I love playing with them.18. My Favorite FoodI love pizza and ice cream. They taste delicious!19. My Favorite ColorMy favorite color is blue. It reminds me of the sky and the ocean. 20. My Favorite AnimalMy favorite animal is a dog. They are loyal and friendly.21. My Favorite BookMy favorite book is "The Lion King". It's about a lion's journey. 22. My Favorite SportMy favorite sport is soccer. I like running and kicking the ball.23. My Favorite SeasonMy favorite season is summer. I can play outside and swim.24. My Favorite HolidayMy favorite holiday is Christmas. I get presents and spend time with my family.25. My DreamsI have big dreams for the future. I want to be a doctor and help people.26. Helping OthersHelping others is important. It makes the world a better place.27. Being PoliteBeing polite means saying "please" and "thank you". It shows respect to others.28. SharingSharing is caring. It's important to share with others.29. Being KindBeing kind to others makes them happy. It's always a good thing to do.30. ListeningListening is a good skill. It helps us understand others better.31. SpeakingSpeaking is how we communicate with others. Let's practice speaking English every day.32. ReadingReading is fun. It helps us learn new things and explore different worlds.33. WritingWriting is a way to express our thoughts and ideas. Let's improve our writing skills.34. CountingCounting is important. It helps us solve problems and understand numbers.35. AddingAdding is combining numbers. Let's practice adding numbers together.36. SubtractingSubtracting is taking away numbers. Let's practice subtracting.37. ShapesThere are different shapes, like a circle and a square. Let's learn about shapes.38. ColorsColors make the world beautiful. Let's learn different colors in English.39. Days of the WeekThere are seven days in a week. Let's learn the days of the week.40. Months of the YearThere are twelve months in a year. Let's learn the months of the year.41. WeatherThe weather changes every day. Let's learn different weather conditions.42. In the GardenIn the garden, we can see flowers and insects. Let's explore the garden.43. At the BeachAt the beach, we can build sandcastles and swim. Let's have fun at the beach.44. In the ForestIn the forest, we can see trees and animals. Let's explore the forest.45. At the ZooAt the zoo, we can see different animals. Let's learn about them.46. At the ParkAt the park, we can play on the swings and slides. Let's have fun at the park.47. At the LibraryAt the library, we can read books and learn new things. Let's visit the library.48. At the SupermarketAt the supermarket, we can buy food and groceries. Let's go shopping.49. At the DentistAt the dentist, we take care of our teeth. Let's keep our teeth healthy.50. At the DoctorAt the doctor, we get check-ups and medicine. Let's stay healthy.51. On a PicnicOn a picnic, we can eat sandwiches and play games. Let's have a picnic.52. On a FarmOn a farm, we can see cows, pigs, and chickens. Let's visit a farm.53. On a TrainOn a train, we can travel to different places. Let's take a train ride.54. On a PlaneOn a plane, we can fly in the sky. Let's take a plane trip.55. On a BusOn a bus, we can go to school and other places. Let's take a bus ride.56. On a BoatOn a boat, we can sail on the sea and see fish. Let's go on a boat.57. On a BikeOn a bike, we can ride and explore the neighborhood. Let's go for a bike ride.58. On a HikeOn a hike, we can walk in nature and see beautiful views. Let's go hiking.59. On a Roller CoasterOn a roller coaster, we can feel the thrill and excitement. Let's ride a roller coaster.60. On a Ferris WheelOn a Ferris wheel, we can see the city from above. Let's ride a Ferris wheel.61. On a Merry-Go-RoundOn a merry-go-round, we can go round and round. Let's ride a merry-go-round.62. On a SwingOn a swing, we can fly through the air. Let's have fun on a swing.63. On a SlideOn a slide, we can slide down quickly. Let's have fun on a slide.64. On a TrampolineOn a trampoline, we can jump and bounce. Let's have fun on a trampoline.65. On a SkateboardOn a skateboard, we can do tricks and ride fast. Let's ride a skateboard.66. On a ScooterOn a scooter, we can glide and have fun. Let's ride a scooter.67. On a Roller SkateOn roller skates, we can glide smoothly. Let's learn how to roller skate.68. On Ice SkatesOn ice skates, we can glide on the ice. Let's learn how to ice skate.69. On a SnowboardOn a snowboard, we can slide on the snow. Let's learn how to snowboard.70. At the MoviesAt the movies, we can watch new films. Let's go to the movies.71. At the ConcertAt the concert, we can enjoy music and songs. Let's go to a concert.72. At the CircusAt the circus, we can see acrobats and clowns. Let's go to the circus.73. At the MuseumAt the museum, we can see art and artifacts. Let's visit a museum.74. At the AquariumAt the aquarium, we can see fish and sea creatures. Let's visit an aquarium.75. At the Amusement ParkAt the amusement park, we can ride roller coasters and play games. Let's have fun at the amusement park.76. At the Birthday PartyAt the birthday party, we can eat cake and play games. Let's celebrate a birthday.77. At the WeddingAt the wedding, we can see the bride and groom. Let's celebrate a wedding.78. At the Halloween PartyAt the Halloween party, we can wear costumes and go trick-or-treating. Let's have fun on Halloween.79. At the Christmas PartyAt the Christmas party, we can exchange gifts and sing songs. Let's celebrate Christmas.80. At the New Year's PartyAt the New Year's party, we can count down and watch fireworks. Let's celebrate the New Year.81. My Daily RoutineIn the morning, I wake up and brush my teeth. Then I eat breakfast and go to school. After school, I do my homework and play with my friends. In the evening, I have dinner and go to bed.82. My Favorite HobbyMy favorite hobby is painting. I enjoy using different colors to create beautiful pictures.83. My Favorite SongMy favorite song is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". It's a classic nursery rhyme.84. My Favorite MovieMy favorite movie is "The Lion King". I love the characters and the story.85. My Favorite CartoonMy favorite cartoon is "Tom and Jerry". It's funny and entertaining.86. My Favorite Place to VisitMy favorite place to visit is the beach. I love playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean.87. My Favorite MemoryMy favorite memory is when I went to Disneyland with my family. We had so much fun.88. My Favorite Holiday TraditionMy favorite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree with my family.89. My Favorite Subject in SchoolMy favorite subject in school is art. I love expressing myself through drawings and paintings.90. My Favorite Seasonal ActivityMy favorite seasonal activity is building a snowman in winter. It's so much fun!91. My Favorite Animal at the ZooMy favorite animal at the zoo is the lion. They are majestic and powerful.92. My Favorite Book CharacterMy favorite book character is Harry Potter. He is brave and resourceful.93. My Favorite SuperheroMy favorite superhero is Spider-Man. He can climb walls and save the day.94. My Favorite Board GameMy favorite board game is Monopoly. I love buying properties and becoming a tycoon.95. My Favorite Science ExperimentMy favorite science experiment is making a volcano erupt. It's exciting to see the lava flow.96. My Favorite Outdoor ActivityMy favorite outdoor activity is playing soccer. I love running and kicking the ball.97. My Favorite Indoor GameMy favorite indoor game is chess. It's a strategy game that challenges my mind.98. My Favorite Place to EatMy favorite place to eat is the ice cream shop. I love trying different flavors.99. My Favorite Mode of TransportationMy favorite mode of transportation is the train. I enjoy the scenic views during the journey.100. My Favorite Animal SoundMy favorite animal sound is the roar of a lion. It's powerful and fierce.以上是一年级英语经典晨读的100篇文章，每篇文章涉及到不同的主题，旨在帮助一年级学生提升英语水平，拓宽视野，培养阅读兴趣。
《高考英语晨读美文六100篇》
名著诗歌节选1. The Gift of the Magi (1)导读：《麦琪的礼物》是美国著名作家欧·亨利的著名短篇小说。
吉姆和黛拉生活窘迫，但都深爱着对方。
圣诞节前一天，他们都想送对方一件特别的礼物，结果阴差阳错，两人珍贵的礼物都变成了无用的东西，而他们却得到了比任何实物都宝贵的东西——爱。
Della finished her crying and dried her face. She stood by the window and looked out unhappily at a gray cat walking along a gray fence in a gray back yard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her husband Jim a gift. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.There was a tall glass mirror between the windows of the room. Suddenly Della turned from the window and stood before the glass mirror and looked at herself. Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Quickly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.Della and Jim had two possessions which they valued. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a brown waterfall. It reached below her knees and made itself almost like a covering for her. And then quickly she①put it up again. She stood still while a few tears fell on the floor.She②put on her coat and her old brown hat.With a quick motion and brightness still in her eyes, she danced out the door and down the street. Where she stopped the sign read: "Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." Della ran up the steps to the shop,③out of breath."Will you buy my hair?" asked Della."I buy hair," said Madame. "④Take your hat off and let us have a look at it.”⑤Down came the beautiful brown waterfall of hair."Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the hair with an experienced hand."Give it to me quick," said Della.The next two hours went by as if they had wings. Della looked in all the stores to choose a gift for Jim. She found it at last. It was a chain —simple round rings of silver. It was perfect for Jim’s gold watch. She gave the shopkeeper twenty-one dollars and she hurried home with the eighty-seven cents that was left.When Della arrived home she began to repair what was left of her hair. The hair had been ruined by her love and her desire to give a special gift. Repairing the damage was a very big job. Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny round curls of hair that made her look wonderfully like a schoolboy. She looked at herself in theglass mirror long and carefully.麦琪的礼物（1）黛拉停止了哭泣，擦干了脸。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳德创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influentialmotives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; theyare the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, theydo but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious inarrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneeringwork, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Threepassions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wishedto understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands waspointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat werequivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me. Passage5 Declaration of Independence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men arecreated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuinginvariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man hashe may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputationfalls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it hasmade extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanceddevelopment of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has beensustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, ashad hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries. Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever changemay happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking isactually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. Rush Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away fromme. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus —the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet thesun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything inMarseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so didtheir recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red andblue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now atlength the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our Times Peace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, andtension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus oneconomic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-Esteem Self-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidablescars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly inself-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be insome measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman whostands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable. Freedom—it is today more than ever the most precious human possession. We—Sweden and the United States—we have it still.。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳学创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct oflife—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors andtheir admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art andnature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one findswhere one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging. Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they werepossible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaringtowards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of Independence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decentrespect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and toprovide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never provesungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modernworld? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What isgoing to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat,drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlastinginterdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship. Passage10. Rush Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment?I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in mysmall room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus — the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhaustedlaborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of thecool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble. Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our TimesPeace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has beenfully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all otherpeace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions. Passage14. Self-Esteem Self-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because whenpeople experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life. Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept,for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my ownwholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable. Freedom—it is today more than ever the most precious human possession. We—Sweden and the United States—we have it still. My country is young—but it greets you with a peculiar fellowship, you whose earth is ancient and free.Passage16. Passing on Small Change The pharmacist handed me my prescription, apologized for the wait, and explained that his register had already closed. He asked if I would mind using the register at the front of the store.I told him not to worry and walked up front, where one person。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳家百创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insistupon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may youhope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.欧阳家百（2021.03.07）Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains,mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in theunion of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloudto which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of Independence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that theyshould declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absoluteTyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in itsjourneys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo wassuddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development oforganic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? Idon’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the bel ief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship. Passage10. Rush Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossomsmay have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment?I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus — the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What canI do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softenednowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feelthat I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our Times Peace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation.However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-Esteem Self-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and areworthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families,since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I shouldlike to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable. Freedom—it is today more than ever the most precious human possession. We—Sweden and the United States—we have it still. My country is young—but it greets you with a peculiar fellowship, you whose earth is ancient and free.Passage16. Passing on Small Change The pharmacist handed me my prescription, apologized for the wait,。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳学创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connaturalqualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what theyare not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself.A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely.A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children infamine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by hercomplexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they areendowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history ofrepeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come fromencounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and ProgressWhy does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of oneindividual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing，a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have toask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues. Passage8. Address by EngelsOn the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which theymust, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that LastsIf somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervinglylove or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship. Passage10. RushSwallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, neverto return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus — the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again,one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer DayOne day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring andglaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now atlength the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our Times Peace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensivepeace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions.Passage14. Self-EsteemSelf-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one iscompetent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, sincemore than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for FreedomIt is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we havenot yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom.And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom. I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳体创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I amadvocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vesselwith a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, andyour charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I havesought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at thesky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me thatfascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of Independence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to rightthemselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone ofmalice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and Progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing， a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointedout, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by Engels On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree ofeconomic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that Lasts If somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for t he belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as aneverlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. Rush Swallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you thewise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus —the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands andheave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? Passage11. A Summer Day One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache.Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they arethere. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our Times Peace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peaceand development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus oneconomic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions. Passage14. Self-Esteem Self-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life. Passage15. Struggle for Freedom It is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able togive in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life,indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in。
实用文库汇编之晨读英语美文100篇前20篇
*作者：角狂风*作品编号：1547510232155GZ579202创作日期：2020年12月20日实用文库汇编之星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived forThree passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relievesloneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hueher eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such isnow the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most.A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and ProgressWhy does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing，a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science, the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by EngelsOn the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe andAmerica, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.Passage9. Relationship that LastsIf somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to. We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable. You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different toyou. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. By the same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship.Passage10. RushSwallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat is starting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus — the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet,in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush, apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? Passage11. A Summer DayOne day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern France than at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in theatmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow. Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble. Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our TimesPeace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace or political stability there would be no economic progress to speak of.This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only when continued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions. Passage14. Self-EsteemSelf-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times we felt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice.Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness come from? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life. Passage15. Struggle for FreedomIt is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think this gift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept, too, for my country, the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but thewhole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China, whose life has for so many years been my life also, whose life, indeed, must always be a part of my life. The minds of my own country and China, my foster country, are alike in many ways, but above all, alike in our common love of freedom. And today more than ever, this is true, now when China's whole being is engaged in the greatest of all the struggles, the struggle for freedom.I have never admired China more than I do now, when I see her uniting as she has never before, against the enemy who threatens her freedom. With this determination for freedom, which is in so profound a sense the essential quality of her nature, I know that she is unconquerable. Freedom—it is today more than ever the most precious human possession. We—Sweden and the United States—we have it still. My country is young—but it greets you with a peculiar fellowship, you whose earth is ancient and free.Passage16. Passing on Small ChangeThe pharmacist handed me my prescription, apologized for the wait, and explained that his register had already closed. He asked if I would mind using the register at the front of the store. I told him not to worry and walked up front, where one person was in line ahead of me, a little girl no more than seven, with a bottle of medicine on the counter. She clenched a little green and white striped coin purse closely to her chest. The purse reminded me of the days when, as a child, I played dress-up in my grandma’s closet. I’d march around the house in oversized clothes, drenched in costume jewelry and hats and scarves, talking “grownup talk” to anyone who would listen.I remembered the thrill one day when I gave a pretend dollar to someone, and he handed back some real coins for me to put into my。
晨读英语美文100篇前20篇之欧阳音创编
星火书业晨读英语美文100篇六级Passage1. Knowledge and VirtueKnowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no commandover the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteousbearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University.I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the manof the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accusedof pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then mayyou hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.Passage2. “Packing” a PersonA person, like a commodity, needs packaging. But going too far is absolutely undesirable. A little exaggeration, however, does no harm when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage. To display personal charm in a casual and natural way, it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself. A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment, so that the person so packaged is nocommodity but a human being, lively and lovely. A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life, has all the favor granted by God. Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating. Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze. Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time. If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities, and your charm and grace will remain. Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been, through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should. You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing；the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland. Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty, while the other way round will only end inunpleasantness. To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with. As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself, just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.Passage3. Three Passions I Have Lived for Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy —ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness —that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally,because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine ... A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people —a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Passage4. A Little GirlSitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tressesthat were tossed about her tender throat were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.Passage5 Declaration of IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they areendowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide newGuards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. Passage6. A Tribute to the DogThe best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malicewhen failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the world. He will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless，the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master inits embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.Passage7. Knowledge and ProgressWhy does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing，a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law,which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly weird than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.Passage8. Address by EngelsOn the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair,peacefully gone to sleep—but forever. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology,that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the stateinstitutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark. Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated—and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially—in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries. Passage9. Relationship that LastsIf somebody tells you,“ I’ll love you for ever,” will you believe it? I don’t think there’s any reason not to.We are ready to believe such commitment at the moment, whatever change may happen afterwards. As for the belief in an everlasting love, that’s another thing. Then you may be asked whether there is such a thing as an everlasting love. I’d answer I believe in it, but an everlasting love is not immutable.You may unswervingly love or be loved by a person. But love will change its composition with the passage of time. It will not remain the same. In the course of your growth and as a result of your increased experience, love will become something different to you. In the beginning you believed a fervent love for a person could last definitely. By and by, however, “fervent” gave way to “prosaic”. Precisely because of this change it became possible for love to last. Then what was meant by an everlasting love would eventually end up in a sort of interdependence. We used to insist on the difference between love and liking. The former seemed much more beautiful than the latter. One day, however, it turns out there’s really no need to make such difference. Liking is actually a sort of love. Bythe same token, the everlasting interdependence is actually an everlasting love. I wish I could believe there was somebody who would love me for ever. That’s, as we all know, too romantic to be true. Instead, it will more often than not be a case of lasting relationship. Passage10. RushSwallows may have gone, but there is a time of return; willow trees may have died back, but there is a time of regreening; peach blossoms may have fallen, but they will bloom again. Now, you the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return? If they had been stolen by someone, who could it be? Where could he hide them? If they had made the escape themselves, then where could they stay at the moment? I don’t know how many days I have been given to spend, but I do feel my hands are getting empty. Taking stock silently, I find that more than eight thousand days have already slid away from me. Like a drop of water from the point of a needle disappearing into the ocean, my days are dripping into the stream of time, soundless, traceless. Already sweat isstarting on my forehead, and tears welling up in my eyes. Those that have gone have gone for good, those to come keep coming; yet in between, how fast is the shift, in such a rush? When I get up in the morning, the slanting sun marks its presence in my small room in two or three oblongs. The sun has feet, look, he is treading on, lightly and furtively; and I am caught, blankly, in his revolution. Thus —the day flows away through the sink when I wash my hands, wears off in the bowl when I eat my meal, and passes away before my day-dreaming gaze as reflect in silence. I can feel his haste now, so I reach out my hands to hold him back, but he keeps flowing past my withholding hands. In the evening, as I lie in bed, he strides over my body, glides past my feet, in his agile way. The moment I open my eyes and meet the sun again, one whole day has gone. I bury my face in my hands and heave a sigh. But the new day begins to flash past in the sigh. What can I do, in this bustling world, with my days flying in their escape? Nothing but to hesitate, to rush. What have I been doing in that eight-thousand-day rush,apart from hesitating? Those bygone days have been dispersed as smoke by a light wind, or evaporated as mist by the morning sun. What traces have I left behind me? Have I ever left behind any gossamer traces at all? I have come to the world, stark naked; am I to go back, in a blink, in the same stark nakedness? It is not fair though: why should I have made such a trip for nothing! You the wise, tell me, why should our days leave us, never to return?Passage11. A Summer DayOne day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun.A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern Francethan at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and had been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaringwere the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting. Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn todeep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.Passage12. NightNight has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf. The lamps are still burning up anddown the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets—angular like blocks of white marble.Passage13. Peace and Development: the Themes of Our TimesPeace and development are the themes of the times. People across the world should join hands in advancing the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind. A peaceful environment is indispensable for national, regional and even global development. Without peace orpolitical stability there would be no economic progress to speak of. This has been fully proved by both the past and the present. In today’s world, the international situation is, on the whole, moving towards relaxation. However, conflicts and even local wars triggered by various factors have kept cropping up, and tension still remains in some areas. All this has impeded the economic development of the countries and regions concerned, and has also adversely affected the world economy. All responsible statesmen and governments must abide by the purposes of the UN Charter and the universally acknowledged norms governing international relations, and work for a universal, lasting and comprehensive peace. Nobody should be allowed to cause tension or armed conflicts against the interests of the people. There are still in this world a few interest groups, which always want to seek gains by creating tension here and there. This is against the will of the majority of the people and against the trend of the times. An enormous market demand can be created and economic prosperity promoted only whencontinued efforts are made to advance the cause of peace and development, to ensure that people around the world live and work in peace and contentment and focus on economic development and on scientific and technological innovation. I hope that all of us here today will join hands with all other peace-loving people and work for lasting world peace and the common development and prosperity of all nations and regions. Passage14. Self-EsteemSelf-esteem is the combination of self-confidence and self-respect—the conviction that you are competent to cope with life’s challenges and are worthy of happiness. Self-esteem is the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects; it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. Our self-esteem and self-image are developed by how we talk to ourselves. All of us have conscious and unconscious memories of all the times wefelt bad or wrong—they are part of the unavoidable scars of childhood. This is where the critical voice gets started. Everyone has a critical inner voice. People with low self-esteem simply have a more vicious and demeaning inner voice. Psychologists say that almost every aspect of our lives—our personal happiness, success, relationships with others, achievement, creativity, dependencies—are dependent on our level of self-esteem. The more we have, the better we deal with things. Positive self-esteem is important because when people experience it, they feel good and look good, they are effective and productive, and they respond to other people and themselves in healthy, positive, growing ways. People who have positive self-esteem know that they are lovable and capable, and they care about themselves and other people.They do not have to build themselves up by tearing other people down or by patronizing less competent people. Our background largely determines what we will become in personality and more importantly in self-esteem. Where do feelings of worthlessness comefrom? Many come from our families, since more than 80% of our waking hours up to the age of eighteen are spent under their direct influence. We are who we are because of where we’ve been. We build our own brands of self-esteem from four ingredients: fate, the positive things life offers, the negative things life offers and our own decisions about how to respond to fate, the positives and the negatives. Neither fate nor decisions can be determined by other people in our own life. No one can change fate. We can control our thinking and therefore our decisions in life.Passage15. Struggle for FreedomIt is not possible for me to express all that I feel of appreciation for what has been said and given to me. I accept, for myself, with the conviction of having received far beyond what I have been able to give in my books. I can only hope that the many books which I have yet to write will be in some measure a worthier acknowledgment than I can make tonight. And, indeed, I can accept only in the same spirit in which I think thisgift was originally given—that it is a prize not so much for what has been done, as for the future. Whatever I write in the future must, I think, be always benefited and strengthened when I remember this day. I accept,too, for my country,the United States of America. We are a people still young and we know that we have not yet come to the fullest of our powers. This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlof, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. But I speak not only for writers and for women, but for all Americans, for we all share in this. I should not be truly myself if I did not, in my own wholly unofficial way, speak also of the people of China,whose life has for so。
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The road to successIt is well that young men should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate positions. Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a serious responsibility thrust upon them at the very threshold of their business lives sweeping out of the office.I notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, and our young men unfortunately miss that salutary branch of business education. But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. It does not hurt the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary. I was one of those sweepers myself.Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly start ed, my advice to you is “aim high”. I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm.Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive. Say to yourself, “my place is at the top”.Be king in your dreams. And there is the prime condition of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on the line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here, there, and everywhere.“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” is all wrong. I tell you to “put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.”Look round you and take notice, men who do that not often fail. It is easy to watch and carry too many baskets that break most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. One fault of the American businessman is lack of concentration.To summarize what I have said: aim for the highest; never enter a bar room; do not touch liquor, or if at all only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; make thefirm’s int erest yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket; expenditure always within revenue; lastly, be not impatient, for as Emerson says, “no one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourse lf.”When love beckons youWhen love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to our roots and shake them in their clinging to earth.But if, in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s thr eshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be you desires:To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.To know the pain of too much tenderness.To be wounded by your own understanding of love.And to bleed willingly and joyfully.To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest at noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy. To return home at eventide with gratitude.And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.If I rest, I rustThe significant inscription found on an old key-----“if I rest, I rust.”-----would be an excellent motto for those afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like he iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature ----- every department of human endeavor.Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the bust brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.Labor vanquishes all ----- not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.A wet Sunday in a country inn A wet。