著名的英语美文

古今中外的经典美文是知识的结晶,是智慧的源泉。开展经典美文诵读,能拓宽学生视野,开发学生智力,培养学生美好情操,对提高全民族人民的素质也能起到积极的作用。下面是我带来的关于经典英语美文摘抄，欢迎阅读!关于经典英语美文摘抄篇一 埃及艳后Three centuries later, shortly before the birth of Christ, Egypt was still ruled by a living goddess, Cleopatra, a Greek descended from one of Alexander's generals. She looked back to the Golden Age of Alexander's world empire and was determined to do even better herself. Alexander died at the age of 32. By the time Cleopatra was 23, she had gone ever further than Alexander making her entrance into Rome as Queen of Egypt and consort of Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in the world. These were complex times. To keep your throne, you had to be adaptable, ruthless, intelligent and a great politician. Cleopatra had all these traits which is why history has provided us with lots of interpretations of Cleopatra. Renaissance poets saw her as a heroine dying for love. And painters alluded to her eroticism in their bare breasted portrayals of the dying queen. Hollywood reinforced the image of Cleopatra as a vamp starting with Theda Bara's seductive portrayal in 1917. But who was the real Cleopatra? What did she really look like? We're in Berlin because this is the best portrait of Cleopatra in the world. There are very few ancient sculptures that are existing. So this is probably as close as we're ever going to get to how she really looked. She's rather plain looking, isn't she? Look at her hair. It's tied up in a simple bun. It's a classical Greek hairstyle. It's practical but not exactly designed to captivate a Roman general. We know from ancient sources that her hair was a reddish color, wavy. But look at her nose. It's a little bit too long and hooked at the end. And her mouth, is not exactly sensual. She's not wearing any jewelry. There are no earrings, no necklace. This is not the portrait of a femme fatale. The ancient sources tell us she was intelligent, witty, charming, a linguist and along with this, she had a tremendous determination. It was this amazing combination of abilities that made Cleopatra the most famous woman in history. It wasn't her beauty. Women in Egypt had always been powerful: Queen Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and now Cleopatra. But during the era of the Ptolemy's, the role of Greek women had changed. They gained an identity apart from that of their husbands or families. Women participated in the arts and civic life and marriage became a union of two people, not just two houses. The portraits of the women of this period show strong individuals looking back at you with confidence. They're almost haunting. Women would not have this power again until the 20th century. Cleopatra was well educated, strong minded with ideas of her own and a female. As a intellectual, Cleopatra would have been heartbroken: when during fighting between Egyptians and Caesar's Roman troops, there occurred one of the greatest tragedies of the ancient world - the burning of the library of Alexandria. It's sad to think about what was lost in the fire at Alexandria. There are the missing manuscripts of Aristotle and Plato. They were probably there. There was an entire room with editions of Homer. Maybe even there were early manuscripts of the Old Testament, which could probably help settle Biblical questions today. Cleopatra was eventually able to replace 200,000 of the manuscripts. Books were very important to her. It's ironic that today everybody knows her for her beauty, but it was her intelligence that was most important asset she had. 耶稣诞生的三百年后，埃及依然在克莉奥帕卓女王的统治下，她是亚历山大大帝手下一名将领的后代。她一面追怀着亚历山大帝国的黄金时期，一面决意自己做得更出色。 亚历山大于32岁驾崩，当时埃及艳后仅23岁，她远行得疆界比亚历山大更远，她以埃及王后和世界上最有权力的人——朱利安·恺撒情人的身份走进罗马。 当时局面非常复杂。要保住王位则必须是一名灵活，无情、机智兼出色的政客。这些特点埃及艳后全部具备，这也解释了为什么我们会从历史上看到关于她的多种不同说辞。文艺复兴时期的诗人将她视成为爱情献身的女英雄。画家们把她描绘为裸胸垂死的贪欲的女王。好莱坞的电影强化了她的荡妇形像——第一部始于桑德·芭拉在1917年媚人的扮演。 可是埃及艳后究竟是什么样的人?她的外貌是怎样的呢? 于是我们来到了柏林，这儿有全世界最好的埃及艳后的肖像。现在仅存的古代雕像已是凤毛麟角，所以这一尊也许能帮助我们尽多地了解她的外貌。她长得挺平常的，是不是?看看他的头发，结的是个简单的髻。这是希腊古典发型。风格朴实，并非特别设计来俘获罗马将领的爱情。 我们从古代资料了解到她的头发是浅红色的，有波纹的。可瞧她的鼻子，是稍有点长的鹰钩鼻。嘴也算不上性感。她不饰带任何珠宝。没有耳环，没有项链。这并非一个性感尤物的相貌。 古代资料还告诉我们，她聪明、诙谐、迷人、精通多种语言，而且，她还具有惊人的毅力。正是集合了这种种才华而决非美貌，才使得埃及艳后成为历史上最负盛名的女性。 过去，埃及妇女的势力向来不弱，如：哈特谢普苏特女王、奈费尔提蒂女王，以及想在这位克莉奥帕卓女王。但在托勒密王朝时期，希腊妇女的角色改变了。她们取得独立于丈夫和家庭外的身份，参与到艺术和市民生活中，并以两个个人而不是两家人的名义缔结婚姻。这一时期的妇女形象表现除了强烈的个性与自信。那令人印象深刻。21世纪以前妇女们都没有再拥有过这种权力。埃及艳后便是受过良好 教育 、意志坚强、有自己思想的一位女性。 在埃及人与恺撒的罗马军队作战期间发生了古代一大惨剧——亚历山大图书馆的焚毁。作为一位知识人士，这一悲剧定曾让埃及艳后为之哀恸不已。要说亚历山大图书馆在那次火灾中的损失是令人伤心的。遗失的亚里土多德和伯拉图手稿估计就在其中。有一整个房间里放的是荷马的作品。如果《圣经旧约》的早期文稿没有在那时遗失的话，也许今日我们对《圣经》的许多疑惑已经解开了。 埃及艳后最后找回了二十万册文稿。书籍对她太重要了。讽刺的是她以美貌蜚声于今日世界，而其实智慧才是她最最可贵的资产。 关于经典英语美文摘抄篇二 犹太女孩谱写别样《神曲》Book on Divine Comedy does Dante differently What's a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey whose first language was Yiddish doing writing a book about history's greatest Catholic poet, Dante? Perhaps trying to convince the world that his epic poem, the Divine Comedy, is not just for Ivy League intellectuals but for the common man and woman on life's journey. Harriet Rubin's "Dante in Love," published by Simon and Schuster, may not become required reading in the hallowed halls of Oxbridge academia. But that's just fine with her. "This book is aimed at people in hell," said Rubin. "And how do you get out of hell if there is no exit sign anywhere? The book is aimed at people who are in some kind of quandary. People with passion." Quandary? Passion? Dante ate them for breakfast. Banned from returning to his beloved Florence in 1302, Dante roamed from city to city in Italy and France, from noble court to grubby back streets until he died in Ravenna in 1321. Through the exile, the wandering and the angst, he created The Divine Comedy -- divided into Hell, Purgatory and Paradise -- a poem many consider the greatest ever written. Rubin, the daughter of a window cleaner and housewife from New Jersey, already had experience in writing about an Italian luminary from centuries past. She is author of the highly provocative and acclaimed 1998 book "The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women," in which she discusses how to become powerful without becoming like a man. Now she is doing Dante differently from many previous works on the poet considered to be the father of the Italian language. It is by no means a "Divine Comedy for Idiots." But in its own way it does take Dante off the pedestal of poetic sanctity and explain as simply as possible the immense tapestry of religion, art, architecture, cosmology, theology and history that provided the backdrop for the work. 犹太女孩谱写别样《神曲》 一个来自新泽西、母语为依地语的犹太女孩创作了一本关于历史上最伟大的天主教诗人但丁的书，不觉得她很可爱吗? 这或许是为了向世人证明，但丁的史诗《神曲》并不仅仅是写给长青藤联盟的学者看的，同样也适合跋涉在生命旅程中的普通男女。 哈里特·鲁宾的《爱中的但丁》一书由西蒙和舒斯特出版集团发行，这本书可能并不会成为牛津和剑桥大学神圣厅堂里的必读书，但对她来说这样已经很好了。 鲁宾说：“这本书的受众对象是那些在苦难中挣扎的人们。如果在任何地方都找不到出口标志，你怎样才能脱离困境呢?这本书是专为那些陷入某种困境、却仍怀有激情的人们而写的。” 困境?激情?但丁拿它们当家常便饭。 1302年，但丁被禁止回到他深爱的佛罗伦萨，于是他周游意大利和法国，从一个城市游荡到另一个城市，从高雅的宫廷徘徊到肮脏的后街，直到1321年，他死于拉文纳(意大利东北部港市)。 在流放、游荡和痛苦中，他创作了《神曲》，这部被很多人视为有史以来最伟大的诗篇分为《地狱》、《炼狱》和《天堂》三部。 鲁宾，一个新泽西的擦窗工人兼家庭主妇的女儿，在写作方面已小有 经验 ，她曾写过一本关于几个世纪前的一位意大利大师的书。 1998年，她创作的《女君王论: 女人获取权力的战略、战术与武器》一书出版了，这本书非常富有煽动性、赢得了很高的评价。在书中她讨论了(女人)怎样才能变得强大，却不必像男人一样。 现在，她正在用一种和以往许多描写但丁的著作不同的方式来诠释这位被认为是意大利语言之父的诗人。 这决不是一本“为愚人而作的神曲”。 但是，她独有的写作手法确实使但丁的圣洁诗歌不再那么高高在上，她尽可能用最简单直白的方式来阐释这部作品深厚的背景，那是宗教、艺术、建筑、宇宙哲学、神学和史学共同 编织 出的巨大织锦。 关于经典英语美文摘抄篇三 Macho, insensitive bosses share certain characteristics. Their behavior is arrogant, quick-tempered and controlling. Their motives are typically selfish and manipulative. They show little concern for others and few signs of understanding why others don’t trust them. Most of all, they are quite unaware of their failings and the impact they have on their subordinates. No only do they see no need to change, they often make their high-handed behavior a source of pride. That’s why you can trust them to be some of your best teachers about productivity and success. Before you decide that I’ve lost my mind, I'll explain. Most human beings are amazingly consistent in the way they behave. That’s why we can say of some action, “That isn’t like you,” or “It’s so out of character.” Without that consistency, such a remark would be pointless. And amongst the most consistent groups of all are those who spend least time in any kind of introspection: the extreme extroverts, the loud, slap-you-on-the-back hearty types, the arrogant, the pompous, the selfish and the self-centered — the people who, if they become bosses, are most likely to prove to be bad ones. Powerful lessons from powerful people Bad bosses can become useful teachers precisely because their behavior tends to be so consistently bad. You can be fairly sure of their motives and intentions, which allows you to compare cause with effect . The pompous boss, convinced of her superiority and the rightness of whatever she does; the lazy boss, sure that status confers the right to live off other people’s efforts; the rigid, controlling boss, firm in his belief that all subordinates are incompetent without his oversight; all of these hold to their actions so tenaciously — and are so blind to what they are doing — that they will provide some of the best lessons in what not to do that you will ever be offered. Here are seven of the lessons you might come across, beginning with productivity: See how much effort bad bosses have to use to make things happen their way; effort that would be unnecessary if they behaved better — all that time spent micro-managing and checking; all the ranting and raving to reduce others to obedience; all the lies and stratagems needed to manipulate others instead of asking them openly. See how others react to them; how people become adept at sabotaging their efforts and undermining their success. Even when they dare not oppose the boss openly, subordinates will show great ingenuity in finding other ways to frustrate them. Look at the effect bad bosses have on trust — how this type of behavior ruins relationships with customers as well as employees. Once discovered, as it always is in the end, cynical manipulation renders future trust impossible too. What about the impact on motivation? Consider how you feel if you find yourself going along with the boss’s bad behavior. Do you feel motivated or depressed? Does it make you want to exert yourself or limit your output to no more than is needed to preserve your safety and career prospects? Rigidity next. Most macho bosses see changing a poor decision as an unacceptable sign of weakness. How many times have you seen a bad leader produce disaster from what could have been a triumph, simply because he or she refused to admit to — and change — a bad decision? Take some time to consider what survival in the lifestyle of a bad boss demands. Is that how you would be willing to live? Are the rewards they get worth what they have to do to get them? Most important, observe the way bad bosses are regarded by those above them. Are they genuinely fooling the top dogs about their weaknesses? Or are those executives simply playing the same game — but far better — manipulating middle and junior managers to enhance their own positions, then throwing them to the wolves when they become too much of an embarrassment? I’m sure you can think of many more situations where a bad boss has taught you a valuable lesson. Observing and learning from others’ mistakes is as important as learning from your own — and a good deal less painful. Besides, the macho tough guys can never admit to being wrong. They can’t learn from their own mistakes. Since you can, it’s an advantage you can use for all it’s worth.