每日英語美文
書面表達是初中學英語教學的重點,也是一個難點。如何使學生的書面表達化難為易?可以從英語中的經典美文入手:指導觀察打好寫好書面表達的基礎,從中獲得寫好書面表達的興趣。下面是小編帶來的每日晨讀英文美文,歡迎閱讀!
每日晨讀英文美文篇一
Rain of Seattle
I love the rain, deeply and passionately and more than the sun. At least I live in the right place, famous for its damp weather and spawning its own genuine rainforest. I can't imagine living anywhere else than the Pacific Northwest.
我愛雨,深情而熱烈,甚至勝過對太陽的愛。最起碼我住在適宜之地,以潮溼的天氣和產生自己的雨林而出名。除了太平洋西北部,我想不出自己還能住在哪兒。
Seattleites will say they like how rain keeps the city green, how clean the air tastes afterwards. My real reason for enjoying the rain is steeped in pure selfishness when it's mucky outside, I don't have to do anything. I can spend the afternoon curled up reading, build a fire and make a big pot of spiced tea. I can sleep in late, waking up occasionally to hear soothing patter on the roof, water racing down the gutter. Nobody expects me to leave my house or do anything overly productive. Maybe I'll invite a few friends over to watch an old movie or play a board game. Friends' expectations are low and easy to meet.
西雅圖人會說他們喜歡雨使這個城市變綠,空氣變得清新。我喜歡雨的真正原因純粹是出於自我考慮。在外面泥濘的時候,我可以什麼都不幹,整個下午蜷縮在家裡看書,再生盆火,泡一大壺香茶。我可以睡到很晚,時而醒來傾聽屋簷上柔和的拍打,水順著水槽往下流的聲音。沒人要我離開房子或去幹一些超負荷的勞動。也許我會邀上幾個朋友看一部老電影,或者玩玩棋盤遊戲。朋友的期望不高,極易滿足。
Summer in Seattle is beautiful but exhausting. The sunny, gorgeous weather and blue skies draw Seattleites from their cozy little homes, ready to dry out and have fun. People go hiking, biking, canoeing. Folks work in their gardens, wash their cars and attend outdoor concerts in the park all in the same day! The effort involved to throw a party ratchets up several notches, as people host barbecues and picnics and water-skiing parties.
西雅圖的夏天如此美麗卻令人疲憊不堪。晴朗的天氣和蔚藍的天空吸引著西雅圖人走出安逸舒適的小家,準備去幹燥的戶外尋找樂趣。他們去遠足、騎車、劃獨木舟。他們修整自家的花園、洗車、去公園聽露天音樂會,所有這些都在同一天做完!在他們舉行烤肉、野餐和參加水上滑雪派對時,他們會把派對分成幾個等級一步步推進。
每日晨讀英文美文篇二
A Straight Wall Is Hard to Build
By Lou R. Crandall
As I try to outline my thoughts, the subject becomes more and more difficult. I have many basic beliefs, but as I try to pick and choose, it seems to me that they can all be summarized in the word character. Obviously what you believe is a fundamental thing. There can be no fanfare, no embellishments. It must be honest.
An architect once told me that the most difficult structure to design was a simple, monumental shaft. The proportions must be perfect to be pleasing. The hardest thing to build is a plain, straight wall. The dimensions must be absolute. In either case, there is no ornamentation to hide irregularities, no moldings to cover hidden defects, and no supports to strengthen concealed weaknesses.
I’m using this example to illustrate human character, which, to me, is the most important, single power in the world today. The young people of today are, in reality, foundations of structures yet to be built. It is obvious that the design of these human structures is the combined efforts of many human architects. Boys and girls are influenced first by their parents, then by their friends, and finally by their business associates. During this period of construction, the human character is revised and changed until, at maturity, a fairly well fixed form of character is found.
There are a few human straight walls and fewer human monumental shafts. Such men and women are personalities of great beauty and are so rare that history records their being and holds them up as examples for the future. The Biblical characters are, for me, the closest examples of human perfection. They were unselfish, steadfast in their faith, and unstinted in their help to others. Today in this world of turmoil and trouble, we could use more of such people, but they do not just happen along. I believe that they are the result of concentrated effort on the part of the parents and associates, and the more we build with character, the better this world will become.
This may sound like a dreamer’s hope and a theoretical goal, which can never be reached. I do not think so. The world, as a whole, has progressed tremendously, material-wise, and we are a fortunate nation in that we are leading the possession. It is, I believe, natural that nations not so fortunate should look upon us with envy. We would do the same if the positions were reversed, so we should not judge too harshly the efforts of others to equal our standard of living. In either case, the fortunate or the unfortunate character in the individual, and collectively in the nation, stands out.
I agree that it is easier to build character under ideal conditions, but not forget that character is also required to give, as well as to receive. It should be to the benefit of humanity if all individuals—and this includes myself—did a renovating or remodeling job on our own character; it may merely be a case of removing such rough edges or tossing away moldings to expose irregularities; in some cases to remove a prop and stand on one’s own feet. In any event, if some of us set the examples, others will follow, and the results should be good. This I believe.
每日晨讀英文美文篇三
A Game of Cards
By Norman Cousins
Ever since I was old enough to read books on philosophy, I have been intrigued by the discussions on the nature of man. The philosophers have been debating for years about whether man is primarily good or primarily evil, whether he is primarily altruistic or selfish, cooperative or combative, gregarious or self-centered, whether he enjoys free will or whether everything is predetermined.
As far back as the Socratic dialogues in Plato, and even before that, man has been baffled about himself. He knows he is capable of great and noble deeds, but then he is oppressed by the evidence of great wrongdoing.
And so he wonders. I don’t presume to be able to resolve the contradictions. In fact, I don’t think we have to. It seems to me that the debate over good and evil in man, over free will and determinism, and over all the other contradictions—it seems to me that this debate is a futile one. For man is a creature of dualism. He is both good and evil, both altruistic and selfish. He enjoys free will to the extent that he can make decisions in life, but he can’t change his chemistry or his relatives or his physical endowments—all of which were determined for him at birth. And rather than speculate over which side of him is dominant, he might do well to consider what the contradictions and circumstances are that tend to bring out the good or evil, that enable him to be a nobler and responsible member of the human race. And so far as free will and determinism are concerned, something I heard in India on a recent visit might be worth passing along. Free will and determinism, I was told, are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism. The way you play your hand represent free will.
Now where does all this leave us? It seems to me that we ought to attempt to bring about and safeguard those conditions that tend to develop the best in man. We know, for example, that the existence of fear and man’s inability to cope with fear bring about the worst in him. We know that what is true of man on a small scale can be true of society on a large scale. And today the conditions of fear in the world are, I’m afraid, affecting men everywhere. More than twenty-three hundred years ago, the Greek world, which had attained tremendous heights of creative intelligence and achievement, disintegrated under the pressure of fear. Today, too, if we read the signs correctly, there is fear everywhere. There is fear that the human race has exhausted its margin for error and that we are sliding into another great conflict that will cancel out thousands of years of human progress. And people are fearful because they don’t want to lose the things that are more important than peace itself—moral, democratic, and spiritual values.
The problem confronting us today is far more serious than the destiny of any political system or even of any nation. The problem is the destiny of man: first, whether we can make this planet safe for man; second, whether we can make it fit for man. This I believe—that man today has all the resources to shatter his fears and go on to the greatest golden age in history, an age which will provide the conditions for human growth and for the development of the good that resides within man, whether in his individual or his collective being. And he has only to mobilize his rational intelligence and his conscience to put these resources to work.