英语经典的优美文章欣赏
练习英语阅读不仅仅是为了考试而准备，今天小编就给大家分享一下英语美文欣赏，大家一起学习一下吧
生活的艺术
The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox: it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way: “A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.”
生活的艺术在于懂得什么时候追求，什么时候放弃。因为生活就是一个矛盾体：它要我们紧紧抓住它赐予我们的生命之礼，然后最终又让它们从我们手中跑掉。老先生们说：“人们紧握着拳头来到这个世界上，离开这个世界时却摊开了双手。”
Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God’s own earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.
当然我们应该紧紧把握生活，因为它美妙得不可思议，充满了从上帝的每个毛孔里蹦出来的美。我们都清楚这一点，但我们常常只有在回首往事时才会想去过去，才会突然意识到过去永远地消逝了，才会承认这个道理。
We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.
我们都记得美的褪去，爱的老去。但我们更痛苦地记得美正艳时，我们却没有发现，爱正浓时，我们却没有回应。
Here then is the first pole of life’s paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.
这就是生活对我们自己自相矛盾要求的第一步：永远不要因为忙碌而忽略了它的奇妙和庄严。对即将到来的每一天，我们都要心怀敬意，拥抱没一小时，抓住每一分钟。
Hold fast to life... but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life’s coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
抓住生活，但不要抓得太紧，以至你放不下手。这就是生活像硬币一样也有另一面，也是生活矛盾的另一极：我们必须接受放弃，并且学会怎样让它过去。
This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.
学会这些并非易事。特别是年少轻狂的时候，我们自认为是世界的主宰者，认为只要充满激情地全力追求，就可以得到一切。然而，事实并非如此。只有在面对种种现实时，我们才会渐渐没明白这个道理。
At every stage of life we sustain losses—and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.
在人生的各个阶段，我们都会蒙受损失——并且在这一过程中成长。只有在脱离母体.失去庇护所时，我们才会开始独立的生活。我们不断地升学，接着又离开父母，离开儿时的故乡。继而，我们结婚生子，然后又放手让自己的子女出去闯荡。随着父母和配偶的相继离世，我们也逐渐或者很快衰老。最终，正如双手张开与紧握这一寓言所说，我们必须面对自身的死亡，失去原来的自我，失去我们拥有过或者憧憬过的一切。
勤劳的意义
The significant inscription found on an old key "If I rest, I rust" would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest taint of idleness. Even the most industrious might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.
在一把旧钥匙上发现了一则意义深远的铭文——如果我休息，我就会生锈。对于那些懒散而烦恼的人来说，这将是至理名言。甚至最为勤勉的人也以此作为警示：如果一个人有才能而不用，就像废弃钥匙上的铁一样，这些才能就会很快生锈，并最终无法完成安排给自己的工作。
Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture --- every department of human endeavor.
有些人想取得伟人所获得并保持的成就，他们就必须不断运用自身才能，以便开启知识的大门，即那些通往人类努力探求的各个领域的大门，这些领域包括各种职业：科学，艺术，文学，农业等。
Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness. Had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer
勤奋使开启成功宝库的钥匙保持光亮。如果休米勒在采石场劳作一天后，晚上的时光用来休息消遣的话，他就不会成为名垂青史的地质学家。著名数学家爱德蒙斯通如果闲暇时无所事事，就不会出版数学词典，也不会发现开启数学之门的钥匙。如果苏格兰青年弗格森在山坡上放羊时，让他那思维活跃的大脑处于休息状态，而不是借助一串珠子计算星星的位置，他就不会成为著名的天文学家。
Labor vanquishes all --- not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.
劳动征服一切。这里所指的劳动不是断断续续的，间歇性的或方向偏差的劳动，而是坚定的，不懈的，方向正确的每日劳动。正如要想拥有自由就要时刻保持警惕一样，要想取得伟大的，持久的成功，就必须坚持不懈地努力。
木匠的故事
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business to live a more leisurel life with his wife and enjoy his extended family. He would miss the paycheck each week ,but he wanted to retire. They could get by.
有个老木匠准备退休，他告诉老板，说要离开建造行业，回家与妻子儿女享受天伦之乐。虽然老板给他的工资很高，可是，他更想享受退休生活。生活总能维持下去。
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes,but over time it was easy to see that his heart was not materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.
老板很不舍得他的好工人离开，问他是否能帮忙再建一座房子。老木匠答应了。但是大家后来都看得出来，他的心已不在工作上，他使用的是次料，做工也很粗糙。这真是一种令人遗憾的结束自己全心全意所从事的事业的方式。
When the carpenter finished his work ,his employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said,"This is your house. . . my gift to you. "
房子建好的时候，老板前来视察，然后把大门的钥匙递给他，说道：“这是你的房子……是我送给你的礼物。”
The carpenter was shocked!
老木匠惊呆了!
What a shame!If he had only known he was building his own house,he would have done it all so differently.
真是丢脸啊!如果他早知道是在给自己建房子，他一定不会这么应付了事的。
So it is with us . We build our lives, a day at a time,often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock;we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over,we would do it much differently.
我们又何尝不是这样。我们漫不经心地“建造”自己的生活，不是积极行动，而是消极应付，凡事不肯精益求精，在关键时刻不能尽最大努力。等我们惊觉自己的处境，早已深困在自己建造的“房子”里了。如果能够重新来过，我们一定不会这么做。
But, you cannot go back. You are the carpenter,and everyday you hammer a nail,place a board ,or erect a wall,Someone once said,"Life is a do-it-yourself project. "Your attitude and the choices you made today,help build the "house"you will live in tomorrow. Therefore,build wisely!
但是，你永远也无法回到过去。你就是那个木匠，在建造“生活”这所房子，每天敲进去一颗钉，加上去一块板，或者砌起一面墙。有人曾经说过：“生活就是一项DIY的工程”。你今天的态度与选择决定了你明天会住在什么样的“房子”里。因此，用你的智慧去建造你的"房子"吧!
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