初中英語課外閱讀文章

　　英語是國際經濟、技術、資訊等交流中應用最廣泛的語言，也是我國基礎教育中最主要的外語課程。下面就是小編給大家整理的，希望大家喜歡。

　　：If I Died Today

　　"If I died today, how would I feel about my life?" Life is fragile.

　　A good friend of mine called me today and shared that his girlfriend's brother passed away last night. He was married, with two young children. He died of a massive heart attack in the middle of the night. And he was only 44 years old.

　　"It could never happen to me," we think. "I'm too young to die." But how young is "too young to die?"

　　We really don't know how many days or years we will live. An accident, such as by plane, automobile, or other mishap could claim our life. Or perhaps, an unusual illness. Or a vital organ could fail.

　　So what would we say, if our life were to end today? Would we be satisfied? Would we know that we had lived our life fully, on purpose? Could we feel we "did it right?"

　　It is a hard question to answer. I recently had a cousin pass away from cancer. I don't know how she would have answered this question. But I'm 99% positive she wasn't "ready" to go. Not with two little ones and a loving husband and so much life ahead of her ***she was 35 years old***.

　　If we live our life completely every day, we still may not be thrilled with the thought of death. However, death is really only a passing from one physical body to our more complete spiritual one ***not that our spirit isn't the core essence of who we are now***.

　　Are there things we can be doing better? Are there people we can love better? Can we live our aspirations, today? If we know the answer, what are we waiting for to make us do it? Death? Life is fragile. Now is the time to live fully and bless those friends and family who grace us with their love.

　　：Forgiving others

　　In my experiences with discovering life purpose it seems inevitable, in all cases, to come to grips with our past. We build up negative issues in our past and need to clear the clutter out in order to grow. I call this clearing process "Forgiveness". In the Bible, Jesus said,"forgive not seven times, but seventy-times seven." Why? Because forgiveness is our ability to remove negative thoughts and neutralize them so our energy may be spent on doing what we came here for.

　　We cannot move forward in our future if past issues cloud our thinking.

　　We can think of our life as a room. The more past issues or negative thoughts, the more furniture, dust, cobwebs, clutter, and other pests ***spiders, mice, etc. *** clog up our thinking and our ability to manifest.

　　When we forgive, it is as if we took a broom, vacuum cleaner and a dumpster and got rid of the old clutter that blocks us from creating the life we really want.

　　How do we forgive others? Each person may have their own method.

　　My personal choice is through prayer and meditation. Through visualizing the issue or past event which clutters our thinking we may then send love and prayer to that situation and let them go... just let them go and send them on their way with love.

　　It takes some practice. There is another prayer which I've attached in the tools under "The Forgiveness Prayer" which I found very helpful. This prayer is a prayer you can use repeatedly for cleansing in this manner.

　　Not only must we forgive others, but forgiveness in our own mind regarding our impression of others and how they might judge US is also important. I believe forgiving our own self is equally important in the forgiveness process. Marcus Porcious Cato said "I can pardon everyone's mistakes but my own." This is too true for most of us. Yet, we must release our mistakes ***dust, garbage in our spiritual self ***, too, in order to move forward clearly.

　　In forgiving others and forgiving our own self we can truly be free and clear to build the life we want. It is sometimes said "to err is human; to forgive, unusual." We can take the "unusual" path and become truly unusual people. Unusual people discover their purpose and live it each day.

　　：Laughter is a key to happiness

　　Laughter is a key to happiness. Yep, in fact, laughter is the most important aspect to being happy -- no Prozac required! We often forget that laughter is a very essence of our spirit.

　　Laughter relates to communication, too. When we greet one another in America we say "Hello" which is similar to the Hawaiian's "Aloha". Alo - meaning in the presence of and Ha - the divine. ***See Belinda Farrell's article on Forgiveness for more about Aloha.*** The expression Hello was probably originally Ha llo... !

　　Look at the efforts people will put into making other people laugh. We have TV shows such as David Letterman, Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, Friends, The Simpsons, Cheers, etc., which all strive to make people laugh. A whole category of films are classified as comedies. Why? People love to laugh! Clowns at the circus dress funny and do goofy things to make kids ***and adults*** laugh, sometimes until they cry.

　　In theatre, there is the happy, laughing face always portrayed opposite the sad, crying face ***comedy & tragedy***. William Shakespeare utilized both in his plays. While we have the tense tragedy in Hamlet, Macbeth or Othello we have the humor in Midsummer Night's Dream or Much Ado About Nothing. Yet, even in tragedy, humor is often used to relax the audience during the most tense moments. Alfred Hitchcock was a master of utilizing humor in tense moments in his films of the 40's, 50's and 60's.

　　In business settings, I have found that when a manager or customer has asked me a question and I felt completely at a loss for ***when I should have known the answer*** the only escape is to make a joke. This relieves the situation and tended to allow people to forgive me for my mistake.

　　There is a time and a place for humor. If we run around laughing in a church when someone just died we might offend ***I've always hoped people would laugh at my funeral though***.

　　Here are 5 ways to incorporate more laughter ***and more power of HA*** into your life:

　　If you feel goofy, let it out.

　　Feel free to encourage someone through laughing with them.

　　Watch more comedies than tragedies ***or certainly than horror***.

　　Listen to music or read a book that makes you laugh.

　　Start laughing for no reason at all. ***ok, be careful where you try this one - don't want you to get locked away!***