英语优美的名篇的阅读参考

英语优美段落一 On beauty Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide? And how shall you speak of her except she be the 1)weaver of your speech? The 2)aggrieved and the 3)injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle. Like a young mother half-shy of her own 4)glory she walks among us." And the 5)passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of 6)might and 7)dread. Like the 8)tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us." The tired and the 9)weary say, "Beauty is of soft 10)whisperings. She speaks in our spirit. Her voice 11)yields to our silences like a 12)faint light that 13)quivers 14)in fear of the shadow." But the 15)restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains, and with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the 16)roaring of lions." At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east." And at 17)noon-time the 18)toilers and the 19)wayfarers say, "We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset." In winter say the 20)snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills." And in the summer heat the 21)reapers say, "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair." All these things have you said of beauty, yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied, and beauty is not a need but an 22)ecstasy. It is not a mouth 23)thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, but rather a heart 24)enflamed and a soul 25)enchanted. It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear, but rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears. It is not the 26)sap within the 27)furrowed 28)bark, nor a wing attached to a 29)claw, but rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight. Beauty is life when life 30)unveils her holy face. 美 如果美不以自身为途径，为向导，你们到哪里，又如何能找到她呢?如 果她不是你们言语的编织者，你们又如何能谈论她呢? 伤心痛苦者说：“美是善良而温柔的。她像一位因自己的荣耀而半含羞涩 的年轻母亲，走在我们的身边。” 热情奔放者说：“不，美是强烈而令人惊畏的。她如暴风雨般震动我们脚 下的大地，摇撼我们头上的天空。” 疲惫怠倦者说：“美是温柔的低语，她在我们的心中诉说。她的声音波动 在我们的沉默中，犹如一道微弱的光在对阴影的恐惧中颤抖。” 但活泼好动者说：“我们曾听到她在山谷中大声呼叫，随其呐喊而来的是 足蹄踏地、翅膀拍击和雄狮怒吼的声音。” 夜晚，城市的守夜人说：“美将与晨光一同从东方升起。” 正午，辛勤劳作者和长途跋涉者说：“我们曾看到她透过黄昏之窗眺望大 地。” 严冬，困在风雪中的人说：“她将与春同至，雀跃于山峦之间。” 酷暑，收割庄稼的人说：“我们曾看到她与秋叶共舞，雪花点缀于她的发 梢。” 你们谈到关于美的所有这些，实际并非关于她本身，而是关于你们未被 满足的需求，但美并不是一种需求，而是心醉神迷的欣喜。她不是焦渴的唇 ， 也不是伸出的空空的手，而是一颗燃烧的心，一个充满喜悦的灵魂。她不是 你们想看到的形象，也不是你们想听到的歌声，而是你们闭上眼睛看到的形 象，堵住耳朵听到的歌声。她不是伤残树皮下的树液，也不是悬在利爪下的 翅膀。而是一座鲜花永远盛开的花园，一群永远在天空飞翔的天使。 当生命摘去遮盖她圣洁面容的面纱时，美就是生命。 英语优美段落二 Most people complain of fortune, few of nature; and the kinder they think the latter has been to them, the more they murmur at what they call the injustice of the former. Why have not I the riches, the rank, the power, of such and such, is the common expostulation with fortune; but why have not I the merit, the talents, the wit, or the beauty, of such and such others, is a reproach rarely or never made to nature. The truth is, that nature, seldom profuse, and seldom niggardly, has distributed her gifts more equally than she is generally supposed to have done. Education and situation make the great difference. Culture improves, and occasions elicit, natural talents I make no doubt but that there are potentially, if I may use that pedantic word, many Bacons, Lockes, Newtons, Caesars, Cromwells, and Mariboroughs at the ploughtail behind counters, and, perhaps, even among the nobility; but the soil must be cultivated, and the season favourable, for the fruit to have all its spirit and flavour. If sometimes our common parent has been a little partial, and not kept the scales quite even; if one preponderates too much, we throw into the lighter a due counterpoise of vanity, which never fails to set all right. Hence it happens, that hardly any one man would, without reverse, and in every particular, change with any other. Though all are thus satisfied with the dispensations of nature, how few listen to her voice! How to follow her as a guide! In vain she points out to us the plain and direct way to truth, vanity, fancy, affection, and fashion assume her shape and wind us through fairy-ground to folly and error. 很多人抱怨命运，却很少有人抱怨自然;人们越是认为自然对他们仁爱有 加，便越是嘀咕命运对他们的所谓不公。 人们常常对命运发出诘难：我为何没有财富、地位、权力以及诸如此类 的东西;但人们却很少或从不这样责怪过自然：我为何没有长处、天赋、机智 或美丽以及诸如此类的东西。 事实是，自然总是将天赋公平地分配给人们，比人们通常认为的还要不 偏不倚，很少过分地慷慨!也很少吝啬。人与人之间的巨大差异是由于教育和 环境使然。文化修养改良了天赋，机遇环境诱发了天赋。我们并不怀疑在农 田耕作，在柜台后营业，甚至在豪门贵族中间有很多潜在的培根们、洛克们、 牛顿们、凯撒们、克伦威尔们和马尔伯勒们，如果允许我用“潜在的”这个学 究味浓重的词的话;但是要使果实具有它全部的品质和风味，还必须有耕耘过 的泥土，必须有适宜的季节。 倘若大自然有时候有那么一点偏心，没有将天平摆正;倘若有一头过重， 我们就会在轻的一头投上一枚大小适当的虚荣的砝码，它每次都会将天平重 新调平，从不出差错。因此就出现了这种情况：几乎没有人会毫无保留地和 另一个人里里外外全部对换一下。 虽然对于自然的分配，人人都感到满意;然而肯听听她的忠告的人却是如 此之少!能将她当作向导而跟随其后的人又是如此之少!她徒然地为我们指出 一条通向真理的笔直的坦途;而虚荣、幻想、矫情、时髦却俨然以她的面貌出 现，暗中将我们引向虚幻的歧途，走向愚笨和谬误。