精選英語美文賞析
優美的文字於細微處傳達出美感,並浸潤著人們的心靈。通過英語美文,不僅能夠感受語言之美,領悟語言之用,還能產生學習語言的興趣。度過一段美好的時光,即感悟生活,觸動心靈。下面是小編為大家帶來,希望大家喜歡!
精選英語美文:無需苦苦尋找誠實的人
I BELIEVE in people. However much of a mess we seem to make of the world, it is people who have brought about all the progress we know, and I don't mean just material progress. All have been for-mulated and expressed by men and women. Even when people make mistakes it seems to me they usually make them from right motives. Most of us want to do good.
I believe in people because I have seen a great many of them in different parts of the world. I would rather trust my own experience and observation than the cynical remarks of unhappy men. My belief not only has given me a happy life but has made possible any really useful work I have done.
Of course I like people, too. As a newspaperman for twenty years in this country, Europe and Australia, I met all kinds of men and women and saw them under both favorable and adverse conditions. As a biographer, I learned that the people of other days were not much different than we are today. The lesson of history, both the history of the past and the history we are making on this particular day of today, is that the people's instincts are almost always right. You can trust them. Their information may be wrong and their thinking muddled, but their feelings are sound, and progress stems from this fact.
I lived in Spain at the time of the overthrow of the monarchy in 1931, and first heard of the establishment of a new republic when our cook came from the market, breathless with the news. Her very first comment, expressing what was uppermost in her mind, was given with an almost exalted look: "Seiior, now our children will learn to read and write."
It was a wonderful thing to see people animated by these ideals, carrying out a bloodless revolution. I remember a dance at which the lights were turned out during the playing of the new republican anthem "because," as one republic leader told me 7 "this is a social affair and we don't want to see who won't stand up!' That the counterrevolution was cruel and bitter does not change the fact that the people themselves in those years of progress were gentle and tolerant.
I know nothing that proves the spirit of divinity in human beings more than the press's preoccupation with evil. As a newspaperman myself, I always preferred digging into stories of violence or crime or betrayal because they were so unusual. I once wrote a history of political corruption in America, and after years of research I had to base it on fewer than one per cent of our public servants. Searching for crooks brought me into contact historically speaking with many more honest men. I hardly mentioned them in the book, but they are much more important to me than the grafters. On the day that I find myself being surprised by evidences of loyalty and Integrity and tolerance in my fellow men, then I will have lost my faith.
精選英語美文:藝術家的責任
Very early in my life, an important event took place: in my impressionable and youthful years, I discovered the personality of St. Francis. Since that time, my main ambition has been canalized into a strong desire to serve my neighbor by putting at his disposal the fruits of my knowledge, the results of my studying, the development of my innate talent, and the development of my skill as a performer; plus, my love!My dream has always been to master myself for the sake of serving better and being of more use to my fellow man. My concern and love for him made me realize an additional responsibility, which my fame as an artist brought to me, and that is my responsibility as a human being towards those of my fellow men who might look to me for guidance.
Soon after I had the privilege to come to this country, I realized how important it was to become an example, and I will mention two events which have reinforced this, my belief.
Some years ago, during the war, I heard that the Blood Bank of the Red Cross, which served in Minneapolis and its vicinity, needed badly assistance. Naturally, they were not able to pay for all that they needed, so I decided to take my vacation by accepting this responsible job of blood custodian. I was driving in a truck to various towns within a hundred miles of Minneapolis and taking charge of setting up the Mobile Unit in each town.
The Red Cross administration thought it advisable to advertise the fact that I was working for them, in order to attract public interest. It went to the point where some people probably thought that I was going to entertain them with music during the bleeding, which I certainly would not have refused to do, in spite of the amount of work I had to do, if the doctors hadn’t forbidden such an enjoyable treatment because they wouldn’t be able to hear the pulses of the patients.
Now, the next event was during the time I was conducting the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra in Philadelphia, also during the war. There was a terrific scandal of misguided youths in the high schools mistreating and insulting Jewish boys. Nobody seemed to be able to stop this tragic epidemic, either the teachers in the schools or the preachers in the churches. Finally, Mr. Samuels, at that time the mayor, had the inspired idea of bringing a popular movie star to speak to the various schools, an event which stopped, like a miracle, all those tragedies.
From that I developed the theory that all people who have the chance to enjoy the responsibility of being famous, regardless for what reason or in what profession, can be of a terrific help in this confused world of today—and in general, I would say—by setting an example of sound moral thinking and integrity, as human beings, as well as in their profession. I came even to the point of realizing that any skill of any kind, physical or mental, or any artistic achievement, unless it is based on a moral purpose, cannot claim to have any value or any plausible reason to exist.