1、英语散文一、It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had
2、everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens这是一个最好的时代，也是一个最坏的时代；这是明智的年代，这是愚昧的年代；这是信任的纪元，这是怀疑的纪元；这是光明的季节，这是黑暗的季节；这是希望的春日，这是失望的冬日；我们面前应有尽有，我们面前一无所有；我们都将直下地狱二The chess-boar
3、d is the world:the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes t
4、he smallest allowance for ignorance.By Thomas Henry Huxley棋盘宛如世界：一个个棋子仿佛世间的种种现象：游戏规则就是我们所称的自然法则。竞争对手藏于暗处，不为我们所见。我们知晓，这位对手向来处事公平，正义凛然，极富耐心。然而，我们也明白，这位对手从不忽视任何错误，或者因为我们的无知而做出一丝让步，所以我们也必须为此付出代价。 三Equality and GreatnessBetween persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction
5、 of merit. Money is nothing;character,conduct,and capacity are everything.Instead of all the workers being leveled down to low wage standards and all the rich leveled up to fashionbale income standards,everybody under a system of equal incomes would find his or her own natural level.There would be g
6、reat people and ordinary people and little peolpe,but the great would always be those who had done great things,and never the idiot whose mother had spoiled them and whose father had left a hunred thousand a year;and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters,and not poor persons
7、 who had never had a chance.That is why idiots are always in favour of inequality of income(their only chance of eminence),and the really great in favour of equality.收入相当的人除了品性迥异以外没有社会差别。金钱不能说明什么；性格，行为，能力才代表一切。在收入平等制度下，每个人将会找到他或她正常的地位，而不是所有的工人被划到应拿低工资阶层，所有的富人被划到应得高收入的阶层。人有卓著伟人，平庸之辈和碌碌小人之别，然伟人总是那些有所建
8、树之人，而非从小深受母亲溺爱，父亲每年留下一大笔钱之人；碌碌小人总是那些心胸狭窄，品德卑劣之人，而不是那些从未获取机会的穷人。愚蠢之众总是赞成收入不平等（他们职能凭借这种机会才能为人所知） ，而真正伟大之人则主张平等相待，原因就在于此四Great ExpectationsAs the night was fast falling,and as the moon,being past the full,would not rise early,we held a little council:a short one,for clearly our course was to lie by at
9、the first lonely tavern we could find.So,they plied their oars once more,and I looked out for anything like a house.Thus we held on,speaking little,for four or five dull miles.It was very cold,and,a collier coming by us,with her gallery-fire smoking and flaring,looked like a comfortable home.The nig
10、ht was as dark by this time as it would be until morning;and what light we had,seemed to come more from the river than the sky,as the oars in their dipping stuck at a few reflected stars.天黑得很快，偏巧这天又是下弦月，月亮不会很早升起。我们就稍稍商量了一下，可是也用不着多讨论，因为情况是明摆着的，再划下去我们一遇到冷落的酒店就得投宿。于是他们又使劲打起浆来，我则用心寻找岸上是否隐隐约约有什么房屋的模样。这样又
11、赶了四五英里路，一路上好不气闷，大家简直不说一句话。天气非常冷，一艘煤船从我们近旁驶过，船上厨房里生着火，炊烟缕缕，火光荧荧，在我们看来简直就是个安乐家了。这时夜已透黑，看来就要这样一直黑到天明，我们仅有的一点光亮似乎不是来自天空，而是来自河上，一浆又一浆的，搅动着那寥寥几颗倒映在水里的寒星。五The doer of DeedsIt is not the critic who counts,not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,the doer of deeds could have done them better.Th
12、e credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arens,whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;who stives valiantly;who errs,and comes short again and again;because there is not effort without error and shortcoming;but who does actually strive to do the deeds;who knows the great enthusias
13、ms,the great devotions;who spends himself in a worthy cause,who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst,if he fails,at least fails whiledaring greatly,so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.真正令人尊
14、敬的并非那些评论家和那些指出强者是如何跌倒，实干家本该做得更好的人。荣誉属于那些亲临竞技场，满脸污泥，汗水和鲜血的人。他们不懈努力，他们曾犯过过错，并一再失败。因为付出即意味着犯错和失败。他们满怀激情地努力做事，执着不懈，将生命奉献于崇高的事业。他们为经过艰辛努力最终取得的伟大成就而自豪，如果失败，他们夜败的荣耀。因而，这样的人永远不应与那些不知道胜利，也从未失败过的冷淡而胆怯的灵魂相提并论。十六 The pleasant familyWhen in an hour they crowded into a cab to go home， I strolled idly to my club.
15、I was perhaps a little lonely， and it was with a touch of envy that I thought of the pleasant family life of which I had had a glimpse. They seemed devoted to one another. They had little private jokes of their own which， unintelligible to the outsider， amused them enormously. Perhaps Charles Strick
16、land was dull judged by a standard that demanded above all things verbal scintillation； but his intelligence was adequate to his surroundings， and that is a passport， not only to reasonable success， but still more to happiness. Mrs. Strickland was a charming woman， and she loved him. I pictured thei
17、r lives， troubled by no untoward adventure， honest， decent， and， by reason of those two upstanding， pleasant children， so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station， not without significance. They would grow old insensibly； they would see their son and daughter co
18、me to years of reason， marry in due course the one a pretty girl， future mother of healthy children； the other a handsome， manly fellow， obviously a soldier； and at last， prosperous in their dignified retirement， beloved by their descendants， after a happy， not unuseful life， in the fullness of thei
19、r age they would sink into the grave.Excerpt from the Moon and Sixpennce by W. Somerset Maugham一个钟头以后，这一家挤上一辆马车回家去了，我也一个人懒散地往俱乐部踱去。我也许感到有一点寂寞，回想我刚才瞥见的这种幸福家庭生活，心里不无艳羡之感。这一家人感情似乎非常融洽。他们说一些外人无从理解的小笑话，笑得要命。如果纯粹从善于辞令这一角度衡量一个人的智慧，也许查理斯。思特里克兰德算不得聪明，但是在他自己的那个环境里，他的智慧还是绰绰有余的，这不仅是事业成功的敲门砖，而且是生活幸福的保障。思特里克兰德太太是
20、一个招人喜爱的女人，她很爱她的丈夫。我想象着这一对夫妻的生活，不受任何灾殃祸变的干扰，诚实、体面，两个孩子更是规矩可爱，肯定会继承和发扬这一家人的地位和传统。在不知不觉间，他们俩的年纪越来越老，儿女却逐渐长大成人，到了一定的年龄，就会结婚成家一个已经出息成美丽的姑娘，将来还会生育活泼健康的孩子；另一个则是仪表堂堂的男子汉，显然会成为一名军人。最后这一对夫妻告老引退，受到子孙敬爱，过着富足、体面的晚年。他们幸福的一生并未虚度，直到年寿已经很高，才告别了人世。十七、Imagine that you spent your whole life at a single house.Each day a
21、t the same hour you entered an artificially-lit room,undressed and took up the same position in front of a motion picture camera.It photographed one frame of you per day,every day of your life. On your seventy-second birthday,the reel of film was shown.You saw yourself growing and aging over seventy
22、-two years in less than half an hour(27.4minites at sixteen frames per second). Images of this sort ,though terrifying, are helpful in suggesting unfamiliar but useful perspectives of time. They may ,for example ,symbolize the telescoped ,almost momentary charater of the past as seen through the eye
23、s of an anxious or disa-ffected individual. Or they may suggest the remarkable brevity of our lifes in the cosmic scale of time. If the estimated age of the cosmos were shorted to seventy-two years, a human life would take about ten seconds. But look at time the other way. Each day is a minor eterni
24、ty of over 86000 seconds. During each second, the number of distinct molecular functions going on with the human body is comparable to the mumber of seconds in the estimated age of the cosmos, A few seconds are long enough for a revolutionary idea, a startling communication, a babys conception, a wo
25、unding insult, a sudden death. Depending on how we think of them, our lives can be infinitely long or infinitely short.十八、Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter ofrosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, aquality of the imagination, a vigor
26、of the emotions; it is the freshness ofthe deep springs of life.Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of theappetite 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. Wegrow old by
27、deserting 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 spring back to dust.Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human beings heart the lure of wonder,the unfailing childlike appetite of whats next and the jo
28、y 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 Infinite, so long are you young.When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism
29、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 dieyoung at 80.十九、Remember, 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
30、 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. Dont be afraid of killing yourself with overwork. It is beyond your power to do that on
31、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. Its 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 gratef
32、ul 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-Sos boy”. Nobody likes them; the great, busy world doesnt know that they are there. So find out what you want to be and do,
33、 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.By Robert Jones Burdette 谨记，我的年轻人，你们必须工作不管你是使锄头还是用笔，也不管是推手推
34、车还是编记账簿，也不管你是种地还是编辑报纸，是拍卖师亦或是作家，都必须有一份工作，并为之努力奋斗如果仔细观察周围的人，你就会发现，那些工作最努力的人最有可能安享晚年而无须去工作不要害怕超负荷的工作会缩短你的寿命，不足三十岁的年龄，你的承受能力远不止如此如果说真的有人过早送命，那完全是因为他们在晚上六点结束工作，却要在外流连到凌晨两点才归家我的年轻人，正是晚上六点到凌晨两点的这段时间的生活毁了他们自己工作会增加你的食欲，工作会使你安然入睡，工作将会使你心满意足地享受假日 有的年轻人不工作，但世界并不会因他们自豪。它不知道他们的姓名，甚至简单地将他们概括为“老令人讨厌者的男孩 ” 。没有人喜欢他们
35、;伟大，繁忙的世界不知道他们在那里。因此，找出哪些你想成为和做的，脱下你的外衣，把粉尘抛在世界上。越是繁忙的你越是少受伤害，甜蜜将成为您的睡眠，光明和幸福着您的假期，更好地满足你的意志世界。 二十、What is immortalTO see the golden sun and the azure sky, the outstretched ocean, to walk upon the green earth , and to be a lord of a thousand creatures to look down giddy precipices or over distant fl
36、owery vales, to see the world spread out under ones finger in a map, to bring the stars near, to view the smallest insects in a microscope, to read history and witness the revolutions of empirees and the succession of generations ,to hear the gloryof Sidon and Tyre of Babylon and Susa,as of a fade p
37、egeant,anf ti say all these wereand are now nothing. to think that we exist in such a point of time, and in such a corner of space,to be at once spectators and a part of the moving scene to watch the return of the seasons, of spring and autumn, to hear-The stock dove plain amid the forest deep,That
38、drowsy rustles to the sighing gale.-to traverse desert wildness, to listen to thedungeons gloom,or sit in crowded theatres and see life itself mocked, to feel heat and cold,pleasure and pain right and wrong,truth and falsehood, to study the works of art and refine the sense of beauty to agony, to wo
39、rship fame and to dream ofimmortality, to have read Shakespeare and Beloit to the same species as Sir isaac Newton to be and to do all this and then in a moment to be nothing to have it all snatched from one like a jugglers ball or a phantasmagoria. 我们看到金色的太阳，蔚蓝的天空，广阔的海洋；我们漫步在绿油油的大地上，做万物的主人；我们俯视令人目眩
40、心悸的悬崖峭壁，远眺鲜花盛开的山谷；我们把地图摊开，任意指点全球；我们把星辰移到眼前观看，还在显微镜下观察极其微小的生物，我们学历史，亲自目睹帝国的兴亡，时代的交替；我们听人谈论西顿、推罗、巴比伦和苏撒的勋业，如同听一番往昔的盛会，听了以后，我们说这些事确实发生过，但现在却是过眼云烟了；我们思考着自己生活的时代，生活的地区；我们在人生的活动舞台上既当观众，又当演员；我们观察四季更迭，春秋代序，我们听见了_野鸽在浓密的树林中哀诉，树林随微风的叹息而低语。_ 我们横绝大漠；我们倾听了子夜的歌声；我们光顾灯火辉煌的厅堂，走下阴森森的地牢，或者坐在万头攒动的剧院里观看生活本身受到的摩拟；我们亲身感受炎热和寒冷，快乐和痛苦，正义和邪恶，真理和谬误；我们钻研艺术作品，把自己的美感提高到极其敏锐的程度；我们崇拜荣誉，梦想不朽；我们阅读莎士比亚，或者把自己和牛顿爵士视为同一族类，正当我们面临这一切，从事这一切的时候，自己却在一刹那之间化为虚无，眼前的一切像是魔术师手中的圆球，像是一场幻影，一下子全都消失得无影无踪
