英语文章阅读
英语作为世界通用语的地位越来越突出,英语口语在跨文化交际中的作用也日益显著。下面就是小编给大家整理的英语文章阅读，希望大家喜欢。
英语文章阅读：Being humble
If a man is crossing a river and an empty boat collides with his own skiff(小艇) , even though he be a bad-tempered man he will not become very angry.
But if he sees a man in the boat, he will shout at him to steer(控制，驾驶) clear.
If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, and yet again, and begin cursing.
And all because there is somebody in the boat.
Yet if the boat were empty, he would not be shouting, and not angry.
If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world,
no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you....
Who can free himself from achievement, and from fame, descend and be lost amid the masses of men?
He will flow like Tao, unseen, he will go about like Life itself with no name and no home.
Simple is he, without distinction. To all appearances he is a fool.
His steps leave no trace. He has no power. He achieves nothing, has no reputation.
Since he judges no one, no one judges him.
Such is the perfect man:
His boat is empty.
…
The man who has some respect for his person keeps his carcass(尸体，残骸) out of sight, hides himself as perfectly as he can.
英语文章阅读：Advice for Good Little Girls
Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every trifling offense. This kind of retaliation(报复，反击) should only be resorted to under peculiarly aggravating circumstances.
If you have nothing but a rag doll stuffed with saw-dust, while one of your more fortunate little playmates has a costly china one, you should treat her with a show of kindness, nevertheless. And you ought not to attempt to make a forcible(强制的) swap with her unless your conscience would justify you in it, and you know you are able to do it.
You ought never to take your little brother's "chawing-gum" away from him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promise of the first two dollars and a half you find floating down the river on a grindstone(磨石) . In the artless simplicity natural to his time of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair transaction. In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse infant to financial ruin and disaster.
If at any time you find it necessary to correct your brother, do not correct him with mud -- never on any account throw mud at him, because it will soil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little; for then you attain two desirable results -- you secure his immediate attention to the lesson you are inculcating, and, at the same time, your hot water will have a tendency to remove impurities(杂质) from his person -- and possibly the skin also, in spots.
If your mother tells you to do a thing, it is wrong to reply that you won't. It is better and more becoming to intimate that you will do as she bids you, and then afterward act quietly in the matter according to the dictates(命令，指示) of your better judgment.
You should ever bear in mind that it is to your kind parents that you are indebted for your food and your nice bed and your beautiful clothes, and for the privilege of staying home from school when you let on that you are sick. Therefore you ought to respect their little prejudices and humor their little whims(奇想，幻想) and put up with their little foibles, until they get to crowding you too much.
Good little girls should always show marked deference for the aged. You ought never to "sass(跟……顶嘴) " old people -- unless they "sass" you first.
英语文章阅读：Fragrance Forever
The smell of wood, refreshingly sweet, greeted me even before I sat down at the round table. As if breathing along with the trees, I felt a simple, primitive(原始的，简单的) joy when admiring those furniture and home articles shaped and carved out of cedar(雪松) in the heritage museum village of San Antonio, an old-time riverside town down south in the United States.
The craftsman, Arnold, came from a family of carpenters. As a Vietnam War veteran, he related to me, a visitor from Asia, how he had fought against the Vietcong guerrillas in the jungle.
His dearest memory, he said, was that of a medley(混合) of tropical smells of the rain forest, in which he had to move with the utmost(极度的) caution, trembling with fear that the lurking enemy would attack from anywhere, any moment. What calmed him down, he recalled, was the fragrance(香味) of wood as he, holding his rifle, was lying prone against the trunk of a large tree, sticking himself to the coarse bark.
After the war, Arnold started to live by working on wood, like his ancestors. Among his finest carpentry works was a rocking-chair, in which his daughter was now seated, reading. I picked out a tube-shaped pot with a lid. Chiselled out of a block, the objet d'art well preserved the material's colour in various shades, the clear annual rings, the original cracks and nodes -- what a reminder of the mystique(奥秘) of life!
Lifting the lid, I savoured the fragrance of wood, feeling the natural power that had helped Arnold overcome his fear -- fragrance in war, which sounds like a poet's nonsense.