經典英語必背美文3篇

  作為西方文化載體的英語,在晚清時期被引入中國學校教育,並逐步由語言教學發展到語言和科學專業教學相結合。下面是小編帶來的經典英語必背美文,歡迎閱讀!

  經典英語必背美文篇一

  The Westhaven Express

  We have learnt to expect that trains will be punctual. After years of pre-conditioning, most of us have developed an unshakable faith in railway time-tables. Ships may be delayed by storms; air flights may be cancelled because of bad weather; but trains must be on time. Only an exceptionally heavy snow fall might temporarily dislocate railway services. It is all too easy to blame the railway authorities when something does go wrong. The truth is that when mistakes

  occur, they are more likely to be ours than theirs.

  After consulting my railway time-table, I noted with satisfaction that there was an express train to Westhaven. It went direct from my local station and the journey lasted a mere hour and seventeen minutes. When I boarded the train, I could not help noticing that a great many local people got on as well. At the time, this did not strike me as odd. I reflected that there must be a great many people besides myself who wished to take advantage of this excellent service. Neither was I surprised when the train stopped at Widley, a tiny station a few miles along the line. Even a mighty express train can be held up by signals. But when the train dawdled at station after station, I began to wonder. It suddenly dawned on me that this express was not roaring down the line at ninety miles an hour, but barely chugging along at thirty. One hour and seventeen minutes passed and we had not even covered half the distance. I asked a passenger if this was the Westhaven Express, but he had not even heard of it. I determined to lodge a complaint as soon as we arrived. Two hours later, I was talking angrily to the station-master at Westhaven. When he denied the train's existence, I borrowed his copy of the time-table. There was a note of triumph in my voice when I told him that it was there in black and white. Glancing at it briefly, he told me to look again. A tiny asterisk conducted me to a footnote at the bottom of the page. It said: 'This service has been suspended.'

  我們已經習慣於相信火車總是準點的。經過多年的適應,大多數人對火車時刻表產生了一種不可動搖的信念。輪船船期可能因風暴而推延,飛機航班可能因惡劣天氣而取消,唯有火車必然是準點的。只有非同尋常的大雪才可能暫時打亂鐵路執行。因此,一旦鐵路上真出了問題,人們便不加思索地責備鐵路當局。事實上,差錯很可能是我們自己,而不是鐵路當局的。

  我查列車時刻表,滿意地瞭解到有一趟去威斯特海溫的快車。這是趟直達車,旅途總共才需1小時17分鐘。上車後,我不禁注意到許多當地人也上了車。一開始,我並不感到奇怪,我想除我之外,想利用快車之便的也一定大有人在。火車開出幾英里即在一個小站威德里停了下來。對此,我不覺得奇怪,因為即便是特別快車也可能被訊號攔住。但是,當火車一站接著一站往前蠕動時,我便產生了懷疑。我突然感到這趟快車並沒以時速90英里的速度呼嘯前進,而是卟哧卟哧地向前爬行,時速僅30英里。1小時17分過去了,走了還不到一半路程。我問一位乘客,這是不是開往威斯特海溫的那趟快車,他說從未聽說過有這麼一趟快車。我決定到目的地就給鐵路部門提意見。兩小時後,我氣呼呼地同威斯特海溫站站長說起此事。他說根本沒有這趟車。於是我借他本人的列車時刻表,我帶著一種勝利者的調子告訴他那趟車白紙黑字。明明白白印在時刻表上。他迅速地掃視了一眼,讓我再看一遍。一個小小的星形符號把我的目光引到了那頁底部一個說明上。上面寫著:“此趟列車暫停執行。”

  經典英語必背美文篇二

  The first calendar

  Future historians will be in a unique position when they come to record the history of our own times. They will hardly know which facts to select from the great mass of evidence that steadily

  accumulates. What is more they will not have to rely solely on the written word. Films, gramophone records, and magnetic tapes will provide them with a bewildering amount of information. They will be able, as it were, to see and hear us in action. But the historian attempting to reconstruct the distant past is always faced with a difficult task. He has to deduce what he can from the few scanty clues available. Even seemingly insignificant remains can shed interesting light on the history of early man.

  Up to now, historians have assumed that calendars came into being with the advent of agriculture, for then man was faced with a real need to understand something about the seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this assumption is incorrect. Historians have long been puzzled by dots, lines and symbols which have been engraved on walls, bones, and the ivory tusk of mammoths. The nomads who made these markings lived by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age, which began about 35,000 B.C. and ended about 10,000 B.C. By correlating markings made in various parts of the world, historians have been able to read this difficult code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days and the phases of the moon. It is, in fact, a, primitive type of calendar. It has long been known that the hunting scenes depicted on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression. They had a definite meaning, for they were as near as early man could get to writing. It is possible that there is a definite relation between these paintings and the markings that sometimes accompany them. It seems that man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20,000 years earlier than has been supposed.

  未來的歷史學家在寫我們這一段歷史的時候會別具一格。對於逐漸積累起來的龐大材料,他們幾乎不知道選取哪些好,而且,也不必完全依賴文字材料。電影、錄影、光碟和光碟驅動器只是能為他們提供令人眼花繚亂的大量資訊的幾種手段。他們能夠身臨其境般地觀看我們做事,傾聽我們講話。但是,歷史學家企圖重現遙遠的過去可是一項艱鉅的任務,他們必須根據現有的不充分的線索進行推理。即使看起來微不足道的遺物,也可能揭示人類早期歷史的一些有趣的內容。

  歷史學家迄今認為日曆是隨農業的問世而出現的,因為當時人們面臨著瞭解四季的實際需要,但近期科學研究發現,好像這種假設是不正確的。

  長期以來,歷史學家一直對雕刻在牆壁上、骨頭上、古代長毛象的象牙上的點、線和形形色色的符號感到困惑不解。這些痕跡是遊牧人留下的,他們生活在從公元前約35,000年到公元前10,000年的冰川期的末期,以狩獵、捕魚為生。歷史學家通過把世界各地留下的這種痕跡放在一起研究,終於弄懂了這種費解的程式碼。他們發現程式碼與晝夜更迭和月亮圓缺有關,事實上是一種最原始的日曆。大家早就知道,畫在牆上的狩獵圖景並不是單純的藝術表現形式,它們有著一定的含義,因為它們已接近古代人的文字形式。有時,這種圖畫與牆壁上的刻痕共存,它們之間可能有一定的聯絡。看來人類早就致力於探索四季變遷了,比人們想像的要早20,000年。

  經典英語必背美文篇三

  Nothing to worry about

  The rough road across the plain soon became so bad that we tried to get Bruce to drive back to the village we had come from. Even though the road was littered with boulders and pitted with holes,

  Bruce was not in the least perturbed. Glancing at his map, he informed us that the next village was a mere twenty miles away. It was not that Bruce always underestimated difficulties. He simply had no sense of danger at all. No matter what the conditions were, he believed that a car should be driven as fast as it could possibly go.

  As we bumped over the dusty track, we swerved to avoid large boulders. The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. We felt sure that sooner or later a stone would rip a hole in our petrol tank or damage the engine. Because of this, we kept looking back, wondering if we were leaving a trail of oil and petrol behind us. What a relief it was when the boulders suddenly disappeared, giving way to a stretch of plain where the only obstacles were clumps of bushes. But there was worse to come. Just ahead of us there was a huge fissure. In response to renewed pleadings, Bruce stopped. Though we all got out to examine the fissure, he

  remained in the car. We informed him that the fissure extended for fifty yards and was two feet wide and four feet deep. Even this had no effect. Bruce engaged low gear and drove at a terrifying speed, keeping the front wheels astride the crack as he followed its zig-zag course. Before we had time to worry about what might happen, we were back on the plain again. Bruce consulted the map once more and told us that the village was now only fifteen miles away. Our next obstacle was a shallow pool of water about half a mile across. Bruce charged at it, but in the middle, the car came to a grinding halt. A yellow light on the dash- board flashed angrily and Bruce cheerfully announced that there was no oil in the engine!

  穿越平原的道路高低不平,開車走了不遠,路面愈加崎嶇。我們想勸說布魯斯把車開回我們出發的那個村莊去。儘管路面佈滿石頭,坑坑窪窪,但布魯斯卻一點兒不慌亂。他瞥了一眼地圖,告訴我們前面再走不到20英里就是一個村莊。這並不是說布魯斯總是低估困難,而是他壓根兒沒有一點兒危險感。他認為不管路面情況如何,車必須以最高速度前進。

  我們在塵士飛揚的道路上顛簸,車子東拐西彎,以躲開那些大圓石。車輪攪起的石塊錘擊車身,發出不祥的錘擊聲。我們想念遲早會飛起一個石塊把油箱砸開一個窟窿,或者把發動機砸壞。因此,我們不時地掉過頭,懷疑車後是否留下了機油和汽油的痕跡。

  突然大石塊不見了,前面是一片平地,唯一的障礙只有一簇簇灌木叢。這使我們長長地鬆了口氣。但是更糟糕的事情在等著我們,離我們不遠處,出現一個大裂縫。我們再次央求布魯斯小心,他這才把車停了下來。我們紛紛下車察看那個大裂縫,他卻呆在車上。我們告訴他那個大裂縫長50碼,寬2英尺,深4英尺。這也沒有對他產生任何影響。布魯斯掛上慢檔,把兩隻前輪分別擱在裂縫的兩邊,順著彎彎曲曲的裂縫,以發瘋的速度向前開去。我們還未來得及擔心後果,車已重新開上了平地。布魯斯又一眼地圖,告訴我們那座村莊離我們只有15英里了。下一個障礙是一片約半英里寬的淺水塘。布魯斯向水塘衝去,但車開到水塘當中,嘎吱一聲停住了。儀表盤一盞黃燈閃著刺眼的光芒,布魯斯興致勃勃地宣佈發動機裡沒油了!