美文英语短篇：英语美文摘抄Solitude《孤独》

经典美文英语短篇：英语美文摘抄Solitude《孤独》

Solitude

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Laugh, and the world laughs with you,Weep, and you weep alone.

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer,Sigh, it is lost on the air.

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,But shrink from voicing care.

你欢笑，这世界陪你一同欢笑;

你哭泣，却只能独自黯然神伤。

只因古老而忧伤的大地必须注入欢乐，它的烦恼已经足够。

你歌唱，山谷将与你和音共曲;

你叹息，空气将其无声湮没。

快乐之声总能引来回声阵阵，忧虑之音却令其销声匿迹。

Rejoice, and men will seek you.

Grieve, and they turn and go.

They want full measure of all your pleasure,But they do not need your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many,Be sad, and you lose them all.

There are none to decline your nectared wine,But alone you must drink life’s gall.

你欢喜，人们会与你相随;

你悲伤，人们则会转身离去。

人人都愿分享你全部的快乐，但无人需要你的哀伤苦楚。

快乐起来吧，你会拥有众多朋友。

若悲伤感怀，你会与他们失之交臂。

没有人会拒绝与你共酌美酒甘露，然而生活的苦汁你必须独自品尝。

Feast, and your halls are crowded;

Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a long and lordly train,But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisle of pain.

饕餮盛宴，你的厅堂人潮涌动;

时光飞逝，这世界匆匆而过，成功、给予，是你生活的动力，然而没有人能够替你离世而去。

因为欢愉的殿堂里，容得下一节长长的豪华火车，但我们必须一个接一个地排队，穿越岁月磨难的狭长隧道而进入。

1.Thrift

[导读]本文论述了节俭这一美德的重要。文章围绕论点展开，层次分明。（选取任意两个段落背诵）

Thrift is the foundation of all greatness.It is applied not only to money matters, but to everything else in life—the wise use of one's time, ability, and energy.In short, thrift is the scientific management of one's money, of one's time, of one's affairs, and of one's self.Thrift is the best word for us.It makes fortune.It uplifts character.It improves the quality of the individual.The exercise of thrift has a very healthful reaction upon all the other faculties.The habit of thrift denotes self-control.It is a proof that a man is not a hopeless victim of his weakness.It is a proof that he is the master of himself as well as of his finances.Thrift is an educator.A thrifty man thinks and plans.He has a program.He has a certain amount of independence.If you have cultivated thrift, it means that you have the ability to control your desires and that you are developing some of the grandest human qualities—self-reliance, independence, prudence, and foresight.We know that all great nations are founded on thrift.The ancient Roman Empire degenerated and came to an end when it ceased to be thrifty.Yet thrift does not require superior courage.It needs no fervent resolution, but only a little patient self-denial.And BEGIN is its device!

[注释]

thrift: n.economy;frugality.节俭；俭约。

fortune: n.a great deal of money or property.钱财 uplift v.: improve.提高；

Healthful reaction: helpful reaction.有助的反应 faculty: n.ability.能力

victim: n.person sacrificed.牺牲者

finances: n.money;private income.钱财；个人所得 thrifty: adj.economical;frugal.节俭的 program: n.plan of what is to be done.计划

grandest human qualities: noblest character.最高尚的品德

self-reliance: n.reliance on one’s own power.自恃

prudence: n.caution.谨慎

foresight: n.power to see or realize beforehand.先见

degenerate: v.decline.衰颓

fervent resolution: Intense determination.非常的决心

self-denial: n.self-control.克己 2.Advice To A Young Man

[导读]罗伯特·伯德特（Robert Jones Burdette）的作品逻辑严密，层层推进，富有感染力。（选出任意一段进行背诵）

Remember, my son, you have to work.Whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheel-barrow or a set of books, digging ditches or editing a paper, ringing an

auction bell or writing funny things, you must work.If you look around you will see the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who work the hardest.Don't be afraid of killing yourself with overwork.It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny side of thirty.They die sometimes, but it is because they quit work at six in the evening, and do not go home until two in the morning.It’s the interval that kills, my son.The work gives you an appetite for your meals;it lends solidity to your slumbers, it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday.There are young men who do not work, but the world is not proud of them.It does not know their names, even it simply speaks of them as “old So-and-So’s boy”.Nobody likes them;the great, busy world doesn’t know that they are there.So find out what you want to be and do, and take off your coat and make a dust in the world.The busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays, and the better satisfied will the world be with you.[注释]

son: young man.年轻人

pick n: a sharp-pointed iron tool used in digging.锄头

wheel-barrow n: a small vehicle with one wheel and two handles, used for moving small loads.手推车

a set of books: a set of accounts.一套帐簿

ditch n: a channel dug in the ground.沟 paper: newspaper.报纸

auction n: a public sale in which goods are sold to the highest bidder.拍卖 overwork n: too much work.工作过劳

on the sunny side of thirty: below thirty years of age.三十岁以内 interval n: the time between events.间隔时间

The work gives you an appetite for you meals:工作会增加你的食欲

it lends solidity to your slumbers: the work makes you sleep soundly.工作会使你安然入睡

it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday:工作会使你心满意足地享受假日

So-and-So: a certain person.某人

take off your coat: keep up your spirits.脱下你的外衣，意即提起你的精神 make a dust in the world: become prominent in the world.扬名于世 the…the…: by how much….by so much.愈….愈….apt to get into: liable to suffer.易于遭受

3.Books（选择任意两段背诵）

[导读]塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯（Samuel Smiles）英国作家，以道德教诲的作品“自助”(Self-Help，1859)最为有名。

A man may usually be known by the books he reads, as well as by the company

for there is a companionship of books as well as of men;and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.A good book may be among the best of friends.It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change.It is the most patient and cheerful of companions.It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress.It always receives us with the same kindness;amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book—just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third.There is an old proverb, “Love me, love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this: “Love me, love my book.” The book is a truer and higher bond of union.Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author.They live in him together, and he in them.A good book is often the best urn of a life, enshrining the best thoughts of which that life was capable;for the world of a man's life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts.Thus the best books are treasuries of good words and golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our abiding companions and comforters.“They are never alone,” said Sir Philip Sidney, “that are accompanied by noble thoughts.” The good and true thought may in time of temptation be as an angel of mercy purifying and guarding the soul.It also enshrines the germs of action, for good words almost invariably inspire to good works.company: 陪伴 adversity: 不幸, 逆境

distress: 悲痛, 穷困

console : vt.安慰

affinity: 吸引力, 亲合力

bond: 结合, 粘结

urn:壶。这一句的意思是：好书常如最精美的宝器，珍藏着人的一生思想的精华。enshrine: 铭记 abiding: adj.持久的

Sir Philip Sidney: 菲利普·悉尼爵士英国作家。

[参考译文] 书为友

观其友而知其人，同样，察一个人读些什么书就可知他的为人，只因书与人一样，也能做人之友。无论是书还是人，我们都应该择其最佳者为友。

一本好书可以成为人的挚友，古往今来，恒久不变。所有朋友中，书本最为耐心而又令人愉悦。我们身处逆境灰心沮丧时，书本并不变脸抛弃我们，始终如一，友爱接纳。我们年轻时，书本给我们以欢娱和陶冶；我们老迈时，又予我们以慰藉和鼓励。

黑兹利特曾说：“书香轻拂沁心灵，诗行轻滑渗血液。青春时所读之书，垂暮时依然会回想，仿佛就在身边发生。书籍价廉物美，我们就在书香中呼吸。”

一本好书往往就是作者的人生结晶，里面蕴藏着他穷其一生的求索成果。因为人一生的世界大多就是其思想的世界，故而最优秀的书籍也就是至理名言和辉煌思想的富藏。这些

思想若能铭记在心，就成为我们永久的朋友和永恒的慰藉。菲利普·悉尼爵士说得好：“与高尚思想为伴的人永不寂寞。”在我们受诱惑时，美好纯真的思想如同仁慈的天使，净化卫护着我们的灵魂，并蕴含着我们行动的萌芽，因为金玉良言总能激励我们美好的行为。

4.Jane Eyre

[导读]夏洛蒂·勃朗特(Charlotte Bronte)的《简爱》通过简·爱的自述，描绘的是一个出身贫苦家庭，长相平凡，无依无靠的女家庭教师的曲折遭遇。简，成为纯洁、热情、坦率、爱好真理，敢于追求幸福的女性的象征，因而形象鲜明。作品成功之处还在于作者在对人性的描述中，我们隐约看到了自己，卑劣或美丽的人性，而觉得心有戚戚焉。

‘I tell you I must go!’ I retorted, roused to something like passion.‘Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?I have as much soul as you,it is my spirit that addresses your spirit;just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of 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.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 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 this evil, but I cannot, 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.三种单纯而又异常强烈的情感控制着我的生活：对爱的渴望，对知识的渴求，还有因人类遭受痛苦而产生的难以忍受的怜悯。这三种情感，有如三股劲风，卷着我到处飘零，倏忽无定，飞越深深的苦海，濒临绝望的边缘。

我寻求爱，首先是因为爱能让人感到无比幸福——这幸福的感觉如此强烈，我恨不得拿我的余生去换取几个小时的幸福感。我寻求爱的第二个原因是，爱能解除孤寂感——一旦陷入可怕的孤寂之中，灵魂颤抖着从世界的边缘上窥视过去，却只见那又寒又冷、深不可测、毫无生气的深渊。我寻求爱的最后一个原因是，在爱的欢聚中，我看到圣者和诗人们在想象中所预见的天堂景象的神秘缩影。这就是我的追求，尽管对人生而言这好象有点儿可望不可及，但我最终还是如愿以偿了。

我以丝毫不减的热情寻求知识。我发愿要了解人心。我发愿去探究群星闪耀的秘密。我也曾努力理解毕达哥拉斯赋予数的力量，在他那里，数主宰了万物的流变。结果我获得了一点，而不是很多的知识。

爱和知识尽可能的将我引向高高的天空。但是怜悯又往往把我拽回大地。痛哭的回声在我心中回荡不已。饥荒中的儿童，被统治者蹂躏的受害者，成为子女累赘并被他们嫌弃的无助的老人，充满孤寂、贫困和痛苦的世界，这诸多苦难成为对人类生活理想的讽刺。我渴望减轻邪恶导致的痛苦，但是我无能为力，就连我自己也难免其苦。

这就是我的生活。我发现这样活着很有意义，倘若机会容许，我会欣然回到世上再活一次。

9.The Four Freedoms 富兰克林

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.The first is freedom of speech and expression―everywhere in the world.The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way―everywhere in the world.The third is freedom from want―which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peace time life for its inhabitants―everywhere in the world.The forth is freedom from fear which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.我们努力保证未来的岁月能够安定，我们期待着将来有一个建立在四项人类基本自由基础之上的世界

第一是在世界的一切地方，一切人都有言论与表达意见的自由。

第二是在世界的一切地方，一切人都有自由以自己的方式崇拜上帝。

第三是免于匮乏的自由。从世界范围的意义上说就是在经济上达到谅解，保证世界的一切地方，每一个国家的居民都能够过一种健康的和平生活。

第四是免于恐惧的自由。从世界范围的意义上说就是进行世界性的彻底裁军，使世界上的一切地方，没有任何一个国家有能力向任何邻国发起侵略行动。

10.Youth

by Samuel Ullman(选择任意两段背诵)

Youth is not just a stage of life;it is a state of mind.It is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;it is a matter of the will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions.It is the freshness of the deep spring of life.Youth means the predominance of courage over timidity, of adventure over the love of ease.This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty.Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.We grow old by deserting our ideals.Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair---these bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement of the stars and the star like things, the undoubted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what-next and the joy of the game of living.You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.青春不是年华，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志、宏伟的想象、炽热的感情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进去压倒苟安，如此锐气，二十后生有之，六旬男子则更多见。年年有加，并非垂老；理想丢弃，方堕暮年。

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓唐必至灵魂。烦忧、惶恐、丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

无论年届花甲，抑或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线，只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号，你就青春永驻，风华常存。

11.Of Studies

by Francis Bacon Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.Their chief use for delight，is in privateness and retiring;for ornament, is in discourse;and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.// For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one;but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned.//To spend too much time in studies is sloth;to use them too much for ornament, is affectation;to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar.// They perfect

nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study;and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.读书足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其傅彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹，全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接，而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。(王佐良译)

12.The Joy of Life

Wise men of ancient times and successful men of today have told us that labor is sweet.Its reward is not material gain but what one becomes by it.Work does much more for us than just giving us a living.The real joys of life come from doing something and doing it well.All of us hope for success, but it is illusive and hard to keep.It nearly always slips away from one like sand through the fingers, like water through a leaky pail, unless it is held tight by hard work, day by day, night by night, year in year out.Everyone who fears failure should work harder and harder with a faithful heart as long as he lasts.13.True Nobility

by Ernest Hemingway

(选取任意两段背诵)In a calm sea every man is a pilot.But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all.Take the lot of the happiest----it is a tangled yarn.Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns.Even death itself makes life more loving.Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.To regret one's errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance.There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man.The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.在平静的海平面上，每个人都可以成为领航员。

但如果只有阳光而没有阴影，只有欢乐而没有痛苦，那就不是完整的人生。就拿最幸福的人来说吧——他的幸福是一团纠结的纱线。痛苦和幸福轮番而至，让我们悲喜交集，甚至死亡都让人生更为可爱。人们在生命的严肃深刻，在悲伤与丧亲的阴影下，才最接近真实的自我。

在生活和事业的各个方面，才智的功能远不如性格，头脑的功能远不如心性，天分远不

如自制力、毅力与教养。

我始终认为内心开始过严肃生活的人，他外在的生活会开始变得更为简朴。在一个奢侈浪费的年代，但愿我能让世人了解：人类真正的需求是多么的稀少。

不重蹈覆辙才是真正的醒悟。比别人优秀并无任何高贵之处，真正的高贵在于超越从前的自我。

14.I have a dream（节选，选取任意三小段背诵）

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident;that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.I have a dream today.I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.我要对你们说，朋友们，尽管眼前存在着困难挫折，我仍然有一个梦想。它是深深扎根于 “美国梦”的一个梦想。

我有一个梦想：总有一天，这个国家将站起来，实践民族信条的真谛：“我们认为这些真理是不言而喻的:人人生而平等。”

我有一个梦想：总有一天，在佐治亚州的红土山陵上，昔日奴隶的孩子和昔日奴隶主的孩子，能够情同手足地同坐一堂。

我有一个梦想：总有一天，即使在密西西比州——这个遭受不公和压迫烈焰煎熬的沙漠州能够改造成一个自由公正的绿洲。

我有一个梦想：，我的四个孩子总有一天能够生活在评判他们时不看肤色而看内在品质的国家里。我今天有一个梦想。

我有一个梦想：总有一天亚拉巴马州，它的州长目前口口声声是干预和废除，能够变成这样一个局面：黑人男孩和女孩，能够和白人的男孩和女孩携手同行，如同兄弟姐妹。我

今天有这么一个梦想!15.City

The city as a center where ,any day in any year, there may be a fresh encounter with a new talents, a keen mind or a gifted specialist---this is essential to the life of a country.To play this role in our lives a city must have a soul---a university, a great art or music school, a cathedral or a great mosque or temple, a great laboratory or scientific center, as well as the libraries and museums and galleries that bring past and present together, a city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know.By Margaret Mead: World Enough 城市

城市是个中心，任何一年的任何一天，都可能在此邂逅初出茅庐的天才，敏捷的头脑，或是有天赋的专家―――这是一个国家的生活必不可少的。在我们的生活中，要起到这个作用，一个城市必须拥有一个灵魂——一所大学，一所伟大的艺术或音乐学校，一座大教堂或清真寺或庙宇，一个大型实验室或科学中心，以及图书馆和博物馆还有美术馆，这些地方能把过去与现在萃集一处。三五成群的女士和男人都在探求和推进他们懂得是至高无上的事物，一个城市必须是这样一个所在。

玛格丽特 米德： 尘世