英文文章背誦

　　英語作為一種與漢語完全不同的語言,有其自身的語言特點。要在非英語語言的環境中學好英語,以背誦的形式來積累語言,是一種行之有效的學習方法。下面是小編帶來的適合背誦的英語文章，歡迎閱讀!

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　　The first navigational lights in the New World were probably lanterns hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by "light dues" levied on ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. By then there were only a dozen or so true lighthouses in the colonies. Little over a century later, there were 700 lighthouses. The first light erected on the West Coast in the 1850’s featured the same basic New England design: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In New England and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles. Since most stations in the Northeast were built on rocky eminences, enormous towers were not the rule. Some were made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some stood on pilings or stilts; some were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast was low and sandy. It was often necessary to build tall towers there - massive structures like the majestic Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, lighthouse, which was lit in 1870. At 190 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. Notwithstanding differences in appearance and construction, most American lighthouses shared several features: a light, living quarters and sometimes a bell or later, a foghorn.They also had something else in common: a keeper and, usually, the keeper’s family. The keeper’s essential task was trimming the lantern wick in order to maintain a steady,bright flame. The earliest keepers came from every walk of life -they were seamen,farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands - and appointments were often handed out by local customs commissioners as political plums. After the administration of lighthouses was taken over in 1852 by the United States Lighthouse Board, an agency of the Treasury Department,the keeper corps gradually became highly professional.

　　在新大陸上，最初的航標燈要算那些掛在港灣的提燈了吧。 最初的燈塔是1716 年由馬薩諸塞灣殖民地在波士頓港一個叫小布羅斯特的島上建起的。 這最初的燈塔是通過向船隻徵收"買光錢"來維持運作的，於 1776 年被炸燬。 那時，在各殖民地，真正的燈塔僅有十幾個。 但過了一個世紀多一點，燈塔就增至七百多個了。 1850年，在西部沿海建起的首座燈塔基本上沿襲了新英格蘭燈塔的設計方案，即那種中心或周圍升起塔樓的典型的哥德角式房子。 新英格蘭與其它一些地方的燈塔在建築風格上是多樣化的。 在東北部，燈塔大都建在石質的高地上，因此塔身不需要太高。 它們有磚石結構的; 也有木材或金屬結構的，有的燈塔建在支架上，有的則用鐵條固定在岩石上。 在更南方的地區，從馬里蘭到弗羅裡達礁群的海岸地勢低平且多為沙質，因此高大的塔身就很必要了。 例如 1870年在北卡羅來納的哈特拉角建的巨集偉的大燈塔，高達 190 英尺，是全美最高的磚結構燈塔。 雖然美國的燈塔在外觀和結構上存在一些差異，但它們確有些共同之處，比如都有燈標、有住房、有時還有鍾後來改用霧角。 此外，還有一個相同之處，那就是都有守塔人，通常是守塔人全家。 守塔人的基本工作就是修剪燈蕊，以便火焰明亮而穩定。 最早的守塔人來 自各種行業：海員、農民、技工和幹粗活的。 這個職位通常是作為政治回報由地方海關官員決定任命。 但在 1852 年後，財政部下屬的美國燈塔管理委員會接管了所有燈塔，守塔人這支隊伍也逐漸趨向專業化了。

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　　Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls. But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering-- waiting, waiting, waiting for the station. “When we reach the station, that will be it!” we cry. “When I’m 18.”; “When I buy a new 450SL Mercedes Benz!”; “When I put the last kid through college.”; “When I paid off the mortgage!”; “When I get a promotion.”; “When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!” Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us. “Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm180: 24: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad, it is the regrets over yesterday and fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today. So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

　　3

　　Plant adaptations can be remarkably complex. Certain species of orchids, for instance, imitatefemale bees, other plants look and smell like dead animals, and still others have the appearance of stones. These strange adaptations to life represent just a few of the sophisticated means by which plants enhance their chances of survival. Mimicry in plants or animals is a three part system. There is a model: the animal, plant or substrate being initiated. There is a mimic: the organism that imitates the model. And there is a signal receiver or dupe: the animal that cannot effectively distinguish between the model and the mimic. Mimetic traits may include morphological structures, color patterns, behaviors or other attributes of the mimic that promote its resemblance to a model.That model may be either an unrelated species or an inanimate object, such as the background against which an organism spends most of its time. Mimicry is not an active strategy on the part of an individual plant; flowers do not deliberately trick or deceive animals into visiting them.Mimicry arises as the result of evolution through natural selection and the occurrence of random genetic mutations that lead over many generations to the appearance of favorable characteristics. If such traits help to camouflage a plant, for example, the plant is likely to have a survival advantage over other plants that are less well camouflaged.The plant will leave more descendants, thereby passing the advantage to the next generation. For natural selection to favor the evolution of mimicry, the mimicry must derive a reproductive advantage from modeling itself after another organism or object: its fitness, measured as the number of offspring produced that survive into the next generation, must be increased as the result of deception.

　　植物的適應性極為複雜。 某種蘭花模仿雌蜂，還有些植物看上去或嗅起來象死去的動物，更有些植物具有石頭的外表。 這些稀奇古怪的適應性不過是植物的眾多求生手段中的一小部分罷了。 動植物的擬態包括三方面的內容：一是被模仿者，動物，植物或是生態基層，二是模仿者，即那些去模擬其它東西的生物，三是上當受騙者，即不能分辨模仿者與被模仿者的動物。 被模仿特徵包括形態結構，色彩花紋，動作習性或其它模仿者實現它與被模仿者相似的特點。 被模仿者可以是其它種類的生物或非生命物，如棲居地的環境。 擬態並非某個植物主動的策略。 花朵並非故意誘騙動物來訪。 擬態是無數代自然選擇和遺傳變異的進化而獲得的有利特徵的結果。 比如，有些特徵有利於偽裝，那麼具有這些特徵的植物就比不具有的易於生存。 這種植物就會有更多的後代，並把這些特徵代代相傳。 要讓自然選擇惠顧模仿者的進化，模仿者必須在模仿其它生物或物體中得到繁殖優勢：它的適應能力，以存活至下一代的幼獸的數目來衡量，必定因為欺騙而加強了。