英语背诵文章.doc

1. Beauty is Meaningless

A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him, concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond. It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and, because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher. And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet they do convey a hint of beauty and serenity greater than we have known or imagined. Greater too than we can describe, for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.

年轻人看到日落，由于无法理解或表达心中激起的那种强烈感情，便断定日落处一定是通往遥远世界的大门。我们任何人在强烈感受到美的时刻都不禁联想到：我们似乎瞥见从一个不同世界射向我们的一线光芒，不仅不同，而且因为这种美具有强烈的感染力，所以在某种程度上更高级。还有，尽管这光芒使人眼花缭乱，但它确实传送了一种我们未曾经历的和无法想像的美和静谧的启示。这种美和静谧是我们所不能描述的，因为人们创造语言的目的是表达我们的世界的各种意义，无法轻易地运用于另一个世界。

That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable. In some moods, nature shares it. There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer, no sunset so beautiful that it does not wake the vision of a greater beauty, a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed, and in passing leaves an indefinable longing and regret. But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries, if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humor born of indigestion, or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us, if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning. If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp. Beauty is in the terms of human meanings is meaningless.

不可否认，一切伟大的艺术都具有使人超尘脱俗的浮想的力量。在某种状态下，大自然就具有这种魅力。六月的天空不是蓝得不能再蓝，日落不是美得不能再唤起一个更美的景象，一个未被饱览就消失的、而且在消失的时候留给人们一种莫名的渴望和遗憾的景象。但是，如果这个世界不只是一场恶作剧的话，如果生命不只是惨淡的星光里的平凡的一闪的话，如果存在不只是神秘的宗教发出的一阵空虚的笑声的话，如果对某种玄妙的事物的暗示不是由于消化不良而引起的不好情绪，或者不是一种魔鬼送来嘲笑我们并使我们发狂的怪念头的话，一句话，如果美有某种意义的话，我们千万不要设法去阐明它的意义。如果我们瞥见难以言传的东西，企图用语言把它表达出来是不明智的。我们也不应该设法给我们所不理解的事物赋予意义。从人生各种意义来看，美是难以言传的。

2. Don't Give Up

If we should ever accomplish anything in life, let us not forget that we must persevere.

不要忘记，在人生的道路上，要想做成什么事，我们必须持之以恒。

If we would learn our lessons in school, we must be diligent and not give up whenever we come to anything difficult.

如果我们在学校里想要学好功课，就必须得勤奋，任何时候遇到难题都不要放弃。

We shall find many of our lessons very hard, but let us consider that the harder they are the better they will do to us if we will persevere and learn them thoroughly.

我们会发现，许多功课非常难，但是我们得记住，那些功课越难，将来对我们的益处就越大--只要我们能持之以恒，完全弄懂。

But there are some among us who are ready to give up when they come to a hard example in mathematics, and say, "I can't do this."

不过，我们当中有一些人，一遇到数学难题就轻易放弃，说："这道题我做不出来。"

They never will if they feel so.

如果他们这么认为，那他们永远也做不出来。

I can't never did anything worth while; but I'll try accomplish wonders.

说"我不能"的人永远干不成任何有价值的事，而说"我会努力"的人则可以创造奇迹。

Let us remember that we shall meet with difficulties all through life.

让我们记住，在我们一生中，总要遇到各种难题。

They are in the pathway of everyone.

这些难题就横亘在每一个人的人生道路上。

If we will only try and keep trying, we shall be sure to conquer and overcome every difficulty we meet with.

只要我们努力，再努力，就一定会征服所遇到的每一个困难。

If we have a hard lesson today, let us strive to learn it well and then we shall be prepared for a harder one tomorrow.

假如我们今天功课上遇到一个难题，那就让我们竭力解决它，然后我们就可以做好准备应付明天更大的难题。

And if we learn to master hard lessons in school, it will prepare us to overcome the hard things that we shall meet in life, when our school days are over.

假如我们在学校里就学会驾驭功课上的难题，将来离开学校后，我们就可以准备好克服我们在人生道路上遇到的各种难题。

3. Every Living Person Has Problems

(Every mountain has a peak)

What is the secret ingredient of tough people that enables them to succeed? Why do they survive the tough times when others are overcome by them? Why do they win when others lose? Why do they soar when others sink?

The answer is very simple. It’s all in how they perceive their problems. Yes, every living person has problems. A problem-free life is an illusion- a mirage in the desert. Accept that fact.

Every mountain has a peak. Every valley has its low point. Life has its ups and downs, its peaks and its valleys. No one is up all the time, nor are they down all the time. Problems do end. They are all resolved in time.

You may not be able to control the times, but you can compose your responses. You can turn your pain into profanity -or into poetry. The choice is up to you.You may not have chosen your tough time, but you can choose how you will react to it. For instance, what is the positive reaction to a terrible financial setback? In this situation would it be the positive reaction to cop out and run away? Escape through alcohol, drug, or suicide? No! such negative reactions only produce greater problems by promising a temporary “solution” to the pressing problem. The positive solution to a problem may require courage to initiate it. When you control your reaction to the seemingly uncontrollable problem of life, them in fact you do control the problem’s effect on you. Your reaction to the problem is the last word! That’s the bottom line. What will you let this problem do to you? It can make you tender or tough. It can make you better or bitter. It all depends on you.

In the final analysis, the tough people who survive the tough times do so because they’ve chosen to react positively to their predicament. Tough times never last, but tough people do. Tough people stick it out. History teaches us that every problem has a lifespan. No problem is permanent. Storms always give way to the sun. Winter always thaws into springtime. Your storm will pass. Your winter will thaw. Your problem will be solved.

4. Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan

The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher,Anne Mansfield Sullivan,came to me.I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between two lives which it connects.It was the third of March,1887,three months before I was seven years old!

On the afternoon of that eventful day,I stood on the porch,dump,expectant.I gussed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something was about to happen,so I went to the door,and waited on the steps.The afternoon sun penetrated the mass honeysuchle that covered the porch,and fell on my upturned face.My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the meet Southern spring.I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me.Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor succeede passionate struggle!

Have you ever at sea in a dense fog,when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in,and the greatship,tense and anxious,groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line,and you waited with beating heart for something to happen?I was like the ship before my education began,only I was without compass or sounding-line,and had no way of knowing how near the haobor was."Light!Give me light"was the wordless cry of my soul,and the light of love shone on me in that very hour!

What 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 life for a few hours of 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. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much I have achieved

Love and knowlidge , 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 lonelines, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I'm too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered to me.

我为什么活着

三股简单而非凡强烈的激情一直控制着我的一生：对爱的渴望，对知识的追求和对人类苦难不堪忍受的怜悯。这三股激情，象阵阵巨风，把我在痛苦的海洋的路途中吹得任意东西，变动无常，直吹到了绝望的边缘。

我寻求爱，首先是因为它带来了欣喜若狂之情——欣喜若狂使人如此心醉神迷，我常常愿意牺牲我的全部余生来换取几小时这样的欢乐。我寻求爱，其次是因为它能解除寂寞——那种可怕的寂寞，如同一个人毛发悚然地从这世界的边缘探望令人战栗的死气沉沉的无底深渊。我寻求爱，最后是因为在爱的结合中我看到了圣徒们和诗人们所想象的预言中的天堂景象的神秘雏型。这就是我所寻求的东西，虽然它也许似乎是人生所难以得到的美好事物，但这就是——最后——我终于找到的东西。

我怀着同样的激情寻求知识。我希望理解人们的心。我希望知道星星为什么发光。我力图领悟毕达哥拉斯的才能，他的才能使数字支配着不断变动的事物。在这方面，我只达到了一小部分，并不很多。

爱和知识，尽其可能，远远地把人引向九天之上。倡怜悯总是把我带回到地面上来。痛苦的呼号的回声在我心里回荡。受饥挨饿的儿童，在压迫者折磨下受苦受难的人们，无依无靠而成为自己子女嫌恶的负担的老人，以及整个孤苦寂寞的世界，穷困与痛苦都在嘲弄着人生，使人们不能过应有的美好生活。我渴望减轻灾难祸害，但是我力不从心，我自己也在受苦。

这就是我的一生。我觉得我的一生过得很值得。如果我还有机会的话，我将乐意再度过这样的一生。
2\学会生活在现实中

Learn to live in the present moment

To a large degree,the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live on the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are---always!

我们内心是否平和在很大程度上是由我们是否能生活在现实之中所决定的．不管昨天或去年发生了什么，不管明天可能发生或不发生什么，现实才是你时时刻刻所在之处．

Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about variety of things--all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns dominate your present moments, so much so that we end up anxious,frustrated,depressed,and hopeless. On the flip side, we also postpone our gratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing that "someday" will be much better than today. Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that 'someday' never actually arrives. Jhon Lennone once said, "Life is what is happening while we are busy making other plans." When we are busy making 'other plans', our children are busy growing up, the people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape, and our dreams are slipping away. In short, we miss out on life.

毫无疑问，我们很多人掌握了一种神经兮兮的艺术，即把生活中的大部分时间花在为种种事情担心忧虑上－－而且常常是同时忧虑许多事情．我们听凭过去的麻烦和未来的担心控制我们此时此刻的生活，以至我们整日焦虑不安，委靡不振，甚至沮丧绝望．而另一方面我们又推迟我们的满足感，推迟我们应优先考虑的事情，推迟我们的幸福感，常常说服自己＂有朝一日＂会比今天更好．不幸的是，如此告戒我们朝前看的大脑动力只能重复来重复去，以至＂有朝一日＂哟贫农公元不会真的来临．约翰．列侬曾经说过：＂生活就是当我们忙于制定别的计划时发生的事．＂当我们忙于指定种种＂别的计划＂时，我们的孩子在忙于长大，我们挚爱的人里去了甚至快去世了，我们的体型变样了，而我们的梦想也在消然溜走了．一句话，我们错过了生活．

Many people lives as if life is a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isn't. In fact, no one have a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. When we put our attention on the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future--we won't have enoughh money,our children will get into trouble,we will get old and die,whatever.

许多人的生活好象是某个未来日子的彩排．并非如此．事实上，没人能保证他或她肯定还活着．现在是我们所拥有的唯一时间，现在也是我们能控制的唯一的时间．当我们将注意力放在此时此刻时，我们就将恐惧置于脑后．恐惧就是我们担忧某些事情会在未来发生－－我们不讳有足够的钱，我们的孩子会惹上麻烦，我们会变老，会死去，诸如此类．

To combat fear, the best stradegy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present. Mark Twain said,"I have been through some terrible things in life, some of which actually happened." I don't think I can say it any better. Practice keeping your attention on the here and now. Your effort will pay great dividends. 　　

　　若要克服恐惧心理，最佳策略是学会将你的注意力拉回此时此刻．马克．吐温说过：＂我经历过生活中一些可怕的事情，有些的确发生过．＂我想我说不出比这更具内涵的话．经常将注意力集中于此情此景，此时此刻，你的努力终会有丰厚的报偿．

3\How High Can You Jump?

Flea trainers have observed a strange habit of fleas while training them. Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it. The fleas will jump up and hit the top of the cardboard box over and over and over again.

As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious. The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.

When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box. They won't jump out because they can't jump out. Why? The reason is simple. They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high.

Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that's all they can do!

Many times, people do the same thing. They restrict themselves and never reach their potential. Just like the fleas, they fail to jump higher, thinking they are doing all they can do.

跳蚤训练人在训练跳蚤时发现跳蚤有一个奇怪的习惯。若把跳蚤放在一个有顶盖的盒子里，他们会不断地跳起来，撞击顶盖。

你观察他们跳起来撞击顶盖，会慢慢发现一个有趣的现象。他们仍会跳起来，但不会再撞到顶盖。

当你把顶盖拿开时，跳蚤还会接着跳，但却不会跳出盒子。为什么呢？原因很简单。它们已经习惯了只跳那么高。

一旦它们习惯只跳这么高之后，它们就只能跳这么高了。

很多时候，人们也是一样。他们自己限制了自己，从来不去发掘自己的潜力。就像跳蚤一样，没能跳得更高，还以为已经到了自己能力的极限。

4\热爱生活 （Love Your Life ）

Henry David Thoreau/享利.大卫.梭罗

However mean your life is,meet it and live it ;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or