考研英語美文
經典美文作為中華文化的重要載體,是人們瞭解民族傳統、接受優秀民族文化薰陶的捷徑。下面小編整理了，希望大家喜歡!
：美國人The Americans
Americans are a peculiar people. They work like mad, then give away much of what they earn. They play until they are exhausted, and call this a vacation. They live to think of themselves as tough-minded business men, yet they are push-overs for any hard luck story. They have the biggest of nearly everything including government, motor cars and debts, yet they are afraid of bigness. They are always trying to chip away at big government, big business, big unions, big influence. They like to think of themselves as little people, average men, and they would like to cut everything down to their own size. Yet they boast of their tall buildings, high mountains, long rivers, big state, the best country, the best world, the best heaven. They also have the most traffic deaths, the most waste, the most racketeering.
美國人是一個與眾不同的民族。他們拼命地工作，然後花掉了大量辛苦賺來的錢。他們玩得筋疲力盡，並稱之為度假。他們向來把自己想成硬心腸的商人，可是任何不幸的故事都會使他們受騙。幾乎所有最大的東西他們都有 ：政府，汽車和債務，可他們害怕龐大。所以他們總是要想辦法除去大的政府，大的買賣，大的團體，大的影響力。他們願意把自己看成是小人物，平平常常的人，喜歡一切都是平等的。他們吹噓自己的高樓大廈，高山，大河，吹噓自己是大國，是最好的國家，是最好的世界，最好的天堂。 同時，他們的車禍最多，浪費最多，騙子也最多。
When they meet, they are always telling each other, "Take it easy," then they rush off like crazy in opposite directions. They play games as if they were fighting a war, and fight wars as if playing a game. They marry more, go broke more often, and make more money than any other people. They love children, animals, gadgets, mother, work, excitement, noise, nature, television shows, comedy, installment buying, fast motion, spectator sports, the underdog, the flag, Christmas, jazz, shapely women and muscular men, classical recordings, crowds, comics, cigarettes, warm houses in winter and cool ones in summer, thick beefsteaks, coffee, ice cream, informal dress, plenty of running water, do-it-yourself, and a working week trimmed to forty hours or less.They crowd their highways with cars while complaining about the traffic, flock to movies and television while griping about the quality and the commercials, go to church but don't care much for sermons, and drink too much in the hope of relaxing - only to find themselves stimulated to even bigger dreams.
美國人一見面就對彼此說：“放輕鬆點，”然後就向相反的方向狂奔。他們做遊戲象打仗一樣，打起仗來象做遊戲。跟任何人相比，他們結婚次數更多，離婚的頻率更高，賺的錢更多。他們愛孩子，愛動物，愛小玩藝，愛母親，愛工作，愛激動，愛吵吵嚷嚷，愛大自然，愛看電視節目，愛看喜劇，買東西喜歡分期付款，喜歡快節奏，愛買票看體育比賽，同情弱者，熱愛國旗，愛過聖誕節，聽爵士樂，愛看身材好的女子和肌肉發達的男人，愛收藏經典唱片，愛湊熱鬧，看連環畫，抽菸，喜歡房子冬暖夏涼，愛吃切得厚厚的牛排，愛喝咖啡，吃冰淇淋，穿著隨便，喜歡自來水一直淌著，一切自己動手，一週工作時間限制在40小時以內。
There is of course, no typical American. But if you added them all together and then divided by 226 000 000 they would look something like what this chapter has tried to portray.
當然沒有典型的美國人。但是如果你把他們加在一起，然後用226 000 000來除，他們的樣子就象這一章要描述的。
：三種激情Three passions
Three passions, simple but overwhelming strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course ,over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
三種激情雖然簡單，卻異常強烈，它們統治著我的生命，那便是：對愛的渴望，對知識的追求，以及對人類苦難的難以承受的同情。這三種激情像變化莫測的狂風任意地把我刮來刮去，把我刮入痛苦的深海，到了絕望的邊緣。
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy----ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness-----that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what---at last---I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
我曾經尋找愛，首先是因為它能使我欣喜若狂——這種喜悅之情如此強烈，使我常常寧願為這幾個小時的愉悅而犧牲生命中的其他一切。我尋求愛，其次是因為愛能解除孤獨——在這種可怕的孤獨中，一顆顫抖的良心在世界的邊緣，注視著下面冰涼、毫無生氣、望不見底的深淵。我尋求愛還因為在愛的融合中，我能以某種神祕的影象看到曾被聖人和詩人想象過的天堂裡未來的景象。這就是我所追求的東西，雖然這似乎對於人類的生命來說過於完美，但這確實是我最終發現的東西。我懷著同樣的激情去尋找知識，我曾渴望著理解人心，我曾渴望知道為何星星會閃爍，我還企圖弄懂畢達哥拉斯所謂的用數字控制變化的力量，但在這方面，我只知道一點點。
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I can’t, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
愛的力量和知識的力量引我接近天堂，但同情之心往往又把我拉回大地。痛苦的哭泣迴響、震盪在我的心中。飢餓的兒童，被壓迫、受折磨的人們，成為兒孫們討厭的包袱的、無助的老人們，充斥著整個世界的孤獨的氣氛，貧窮和苦難，所有這一切都是對人類生活原本該具有的樣子所作的諷刺。我渴望消除一切邪惡，但我辦不到，因為我自己也處於苦難之中。這就是我的生活，我認為值得一過。而且，如果有第二次機會，我將樂意地再過一次。
：寫作的快樂The joys of writing
The fortunate people in the world—the only reallyfortunate people in the world, in my mind, are those whose work is also their pleasure. The class is not a large one, not nearly so large as it is often represented to be; and authors are perhaps one of the most important elements in its composition.They enjoy in this respect at least a real harmony of life. To my mind, to be able to make your work your pleasure is the one class distinction in the world worth striving for; and I do not wonder that others are inclined to envy those happy human beings who find their livelihood in the gay effusions of their fancy, to whom every hour of labour is an hour of enjoyment, to whom repose—however necessary—is a tiresome interlude. And even a holiday is almost deprivation. Whether a man writes well or ill, has much to say or little, if he cares aboutwriting at all, he will appreciate the pleasures of composition. To sit at one's table on a sunny morning, with four clear hours of uninterruptible security, plenty of nice white paper, and a Squeezer pen—that is true happiness. The complete absorption of the mind upon an agreeable occupation—what more is there than that to desire? What does it matter what happens outside?The House of Commons may do what it likes, and so may the House of Lords. The heathen may rage furiously in every part of the globe. The bottom may be knocked clean out of the American market. Consols may fall and suffragettes may rise. Nevermind, for four hours, at any rate, we will withdraw ourselves from a common, ill-governed, and disorderly world, and with the key of fancy unlock that cupboard where all the good things of the infinite are put away.
在我看來，世上幸運的人——世上唯一真正幸運的人，是那些以工作為樂的人。這類人並不多，還沒有人們常說的那樣多。而且，作家是其中最重要的組成部分之一。就幸運而言，他們至少享受著生活中真正的和諧之美。我覺得能使工作成為樂趣，是世人值得為之奮鬥的一種崇高的榮譽;而且，我相信別人會羨慕這些幸福的人，因為他們在快樂的幻想中找到了生活之路，對他們來說，每勞動一小時，就是享受一小時，而休息——無論多麼有必要一都是令人討厭的插曲，甚至度假也幾乎成了一種損失。無論寫得好壞，寫成多少，只要有心計，就可嚐到謀章佈局的樂趣。在一個陽光明媚的早晨，臨桌而坐，整整四個小時不受打擾，有足夠數量的潔白稿紙，還有一支“擠壓式”妙筆——那才叫真正的幸福。全心全意地投入一項令人愉快的職業——此願足矣!外面發生什麼事又有何妨?下院想幹什麼就幹什麼吧，上院也可如此。異教徒可以在全球各地大發瘋狂。美國市場可以徹底崩潰。證券可以下跌;女權運動可以興起。沒有關係，不管怎麼說，我們有四個小時可以躲開這俗氣的、管理不善的、雜亂無章的世界，並且用想象這把鑰匙，去開啟藏有大幹世界一切寶物的小櫥。