名家经典英语美文摘抄
对人生的意义与价值的探索是现代散文的一个重要主题,这一类散文称为“人生美文”。小编分享名家经典英语美文,希望可以帮助大家!
名家经典英语美文:Five Balls Of Life
This was written by the CEO of Coca-Cola Brian G. Dyson.It was used as Georgia Tech's Commencement Address:
Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.But the other four balls family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?
Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.
Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as they would be your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.
Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each together.
Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.
Don't forget, a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
Don't be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery and Today is a gift: that's why we call it 'The Present'.
名家经典英语美文:Sportsmen's Values
A veteran springboard driver, defeated by his compatriot in the finals of a world championship, offering congratulations to the victor in a warm embrace and waving a tearful farewell to the audience. An outstanding female fencer falling in a decisive set not under the attack of her rival's sword but as a result of a muscular spasm of her own.
Those are common occurrences in the athletic world but they are scenes of tragic heroism bringing tears to the eyes of the outgoing heroes as well as the audience. Sportsmen spend the best part of their lives in tough training and fierce competitions fighting or ever better records. When it becomes evident they are on the decline they still make strenuous efforts to give their best so as to bring a satisfactory end to their brilliant career.
Chances to compete for championship are few and far between. Life is short. Still shorter is the time for an athlete trying to win games. None other than an athletic contestant feels so keenly about the rarity of opportunity and the fleeting of time. He cherishes every minute, makes full use of it and tries to grasp any chance coming his way. He gets as much as he gives, winning honours not only for himself but also fro his country.
To participate and to win-that is the Olympic spirit. It finds expression in the weak daring to defy the strong, and the strong striving for ever better performance. Ever better-the ideal always luring a sportsman forward. He will do everything he can for it, never relax, never give up. It is said that none of the competitors can avoid being defeated-even the best is bound to be surpassed by someone still stronger. This is the rule of sports-thousands of losers to set off one victor who in turn will eventually be replaced by someone on the honour list. However, undaunted by the inevitable failure, he is always striving to do the best he can. When the time comes and he knows he can't, he well step down happily to give place to the younger winner, aware contentedly of the fact that he has done his bit for the "ever better" records of the Olympic Games. He will say proudly that he has not lived his youth in vain.
名家经典英语美文:Magical coat
My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat simultaneously. It was hanging on a rack at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass, crammed in with shoddy trench coats and an assortment of sad, woolen overcoats -- a rose among thorns.
While the other coats drooped, this one looked as if it were holding itself up. The thick, black wool of the double-breasted chesterfield was soft and unworn, as though it had been preserved in mothballs for years in dead old Uncle Henry's steamer trunk. The coat had a black velvet collar, beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and an unbelievable price of $28. We looked at each other, saying nothing, but John's eyes gleamed. Dark, woolen topcoats were popular just then with teenage boys, but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that touch of classic elegance from a bygone era.
John slid his arms down into the heavy satin lining of the sleeves and buttoned the coat. He turned from side to side, eyeing himself in the mirror with a serious, studied expression that soon changed into a smile. The fit was perfect.
John wore the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big grin. "Ho. did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They loved it," he said, carefully folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. I started calling him "Lord Chesterfield" and "The Great Gatsby."
Over the next few weeks, a change came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness, quiet, reasoned discussion replaced argument. He became more judicious, more mannerly, more thoughtful, eager to please. "Good dinner, Mom," he would say every evening.
He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him on the niceties of behaviour; without a word of objection, he would carry in wood for the stove. One day when I suggested that he might start on homework before dinner, John -- a veteran procrastinator - said, "You're right. I guess I will."
When I mentioned this incident to one of his teachers and remarked that I didn't know what caused the changes, she said laughing. "It must be his coat!" Another teacher told him she was giving him a good mark not only because he had earned it but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend who had not seen our children in a long time, "Could this be John?" he asked, looking up to John's new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never mistake a person's clothes for the real person within them. But there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see, for practising standards of excellence in though, speech, and behaviour, and for matching what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
Sometimes, watching John leave for school, I've remembered with a keen sting what it felt like to be in the eighth grade -- a time when it was as easy to try on different approaches to life as it was to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast panorama where all the doors are open. And if I were there right now, I would picture myself walking through those doors wearing my wonderful, magical coat.