英语美文欣赏50篇

Occasionally, life can be undeniably, impossibly difficult. We are faced with challenges and events that can seem overwhelming, life-destroying to the point where it may be hard to decide whether to keep going. But you always have a choice. Jessica Heslop shares her powerful, inspiring journey from the worst times in her life to the new life she has created for herself:

生活有时候困难得难以置信，但又不容置疑。我们面临的挑战与困境似乎无法抵御，试图毁灭我们生活，甚至使你犹疑是否继续走下去。但是你总有选择的余地。从人生低谷走向新生活的杰西卡·赫斯乐普，在这里与我们分享她启迪心灵、充满震撼力的生活之旅。

In 2012 I had the worst year of my life.

2012年是我生活中最艰难的一年。

I worked in a finance job that I hated and I lived in a concrete jungle city with little greenery. I occupied my time with meaningless relationships and spent copious quantities of money on superficialities. I was searching for happiness and had no idea where to find it.

我做着讨厌的财务工作，住在难寻绿色的高楼林立的城市。我忙于无意义的交往，在一些肤浅表面的东西上大笔开销。我寻找快乐，却又不知道它在哪里。

Then I fell ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and became virtually bed bound. I had to quit my job and subsequently was left with no income. I lived with my boyfriend of then only 3 months who financially supported me and our relationship was put under great pressure. I eventually regained my physical health, but not long after that I got a call from my family at home to say that my father’s cancer had fiercely progressed and that he had been admitted to a hospice.

然后我患上了慢性疲劳综合症，几乎到了卧床不起的地步。我不得不辞掉工作，同时也就断了财源。我和那时仅相处了3个月的男友住在一起，经济上完全依赖于他，我们的关系承受着巨大压力。终于我恢复健康，但不久，我接到家里的电话，父亲的癌症急剧恶化，已经住进了临终关怀中心。

I left the city and I went home to be with him.

我离开了城市，回家陪父亲。

He died 6 months later.

6个月之后，他去世了。

My father was a complete inspiration to me. He was always so strong that, for a minute after he drew his last breath, I honestly thought he would come back to life. I couldn’t believe I would never again cuddle into his big warm chest and feel safe no matter what.

父亲的事让我彻底清醒。他一直很强壮，在他咽气之后一分钟里，我真的认为，他会活过来。我不能相信，我再也不能依偎在他温暖的怀抱里，享受他宽大的胸怀带给我的安全感。

The grief that followed was intense for all of us 5 children and our mother, but we had each other.

母亲和我们5个兄弟姐妹极为难过，但至少我们还拥有彼此。

But my oldest sister at that time complained of a bad back. It got so bad after 2 months that she too was admitted to hospital.

但是，那时我大姐开始抱怨着背痛，2个月后，因疼痛加剧也住进了医院。

They discovered that she had highly advanced cancer in her bones and that there was nothing that they could do.

医生们检查发现，她已是骨癌晚期，对此他们已无能为力。

She died 1 month later.

1个月之后，她也走了。

I could never put into words the loss of my sister in my life.

大姐的逝去让我陷入难以形容的痛苦之中。

She was a walking, talking angel and my favourite person in the whole world. If someone could have asked me the worst thing that could ever happen, it would have been losing her.

在这个世界上，她是一个能走路、会说话的天使，我最喜欢的人。如果有人问我，世界上发生的最坏的事情是什么，那就是失去她。

She was my soul-mate and I never thought I would journey this lifetime without her.

她是我的灵魂伴侣，我从来没有想过，我会走过没有她陪伴的生命旅程。

The Moment Of Deliberate Choice

抉择时刻

The shock and extreme heart break brought me to my knees. The pain was so great and my world just looked desolate. I had no real home, no money, no job, and no friends that cared. Not one person had even sent me a sympathy card for my loss.

我被打击和极度的心痛击挎了。强烈的痛苦使世界在我眼中变得如此凄凉。我没有真正意义上的家，没有钱，没有工作，也没有关心我的朋友。没有一个人因我失去亲人而寄给我慰问卡。

I made an attempt of my own life and I ended up in hospital.

我尝试着活下去，结果住进了医院。

I remember lying in the hospital bed, looking up at the ceiling and seeing my sister’s beautiful face. She stayed with me all night long.

我记得，躺在病床上，看着天花板，看到姐姐美丽的面庞。她整夜守候着我。

I realised during that night that I had a choice. I could choose to end my life or I could choose to live it.

那天晚上，我意识到我可以选择。要么结束生命，要么活下去。

I looked in my sister’s eyes and I made a decision not to go with her just yet. That I would stay and complete my journey here.

望着姐姐的眼睛，我决定不跟她走。我要留下来，走完我的生命旅程。

I also made the decision that, I wouldn’t just live any life. I would live the life that I absolutely LOVE and nothing less.

同时，我还决定，不只为生活而生活，我要完全以自己想要的方式生活。

In that moment, the clarity that descended around me was like a light shining in a dark room for the first time. As if the earth’s plates had shifted under my feet and everything suddenly looked real for the first time.

在那一刻，这一想法第一次清晰得如同一盏在黑暗闪烁的明灯。好像脚下的地球版块变换了，每一样东西在我眼前都真实得前所未有。

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues:

Because I am the Vice-Chancellor of the oldest of the foreign universities represented here today, I have been chosen to speak on their behalf. I am pleased to be their voice in presenting our heartfelt congratulations to the professors, teachers, researchers and students of Peking University on the 100th anniversary of its foundation.

Our universities form a great intellectual community round the world. Science has no nationality; knowledge belongs to everyone.

Our universities creat new knowledge. They teah this knowledge, together with that of other universities and also the best of the great storehouse of knowledge, which those who came before us have uncovered, tested and accumulated.

All universities contibute to the prosperity and success of their country. They also conserve the culture and inheritance specific to their country's civization. But, they do more. Knowledge is secure only when it is hard won by the independent tests of accuracy, rational explanation and ture. So, when we teach our students skills, we also give them values. On the one side, these are values for personal and civic conduct. On the other side, these values underwrite the personal need for independent understanding which is the source of human creativity.

These duties give universities a high responsibility. They are rooted in a great and fine tradition of honesty. university is a beacon of light in its own society and, by its association with its sisters, its knowledge and its values are spread wide.

A tradition is not built easily ir quickly. During one hundred years, Peking University has been fashioning its tradition. Present and future members of the University! We hope to see you elaborate and consolidate your tradition. We hope to see you become a keystone of the intellectual community. In your next century, we hope to see you contribute to the international academic movement as a whole, as more and more of you numbers come to paticipate in the activities of your sister universities.

Congratulations, Peking University on your first century of achievement

”Your money or your life.” The choice traditionally presented by the highwayman is supposed to have only one sensible answer. Money is, after all, no use to a corpse. Yet economists often study something rather like the highwayman‘s offer in an attempt to uncover the answer to an important question: how much is your life actually worth?

Like many awkward questions, this is one that has to be answered. Safety regulations save lives but also raise the cost of doing business, a cost we all pay through higher prices. Are they worth it? Our taxes pay for life-saving spending on road safety and fire fighting. Are they high enough, or too high?

So how much are we willing to spend to save a life? A traditional planner‘s approach used to be to measure the value of wages lost due to death or injury. That‘s dreadful: it confuses what I think my life is worth with what my boss thinks my life is worth.

So an alternative is to ask people how much they would pay for a safer car or kitchen cleaner. But such surveys do not always produce sensible results. Our answers depend on whether we‘re being offered a safer ?10 household cleaner and then asked if we want the more dangerous ?5 version, or whether we‘re offered the ?5 brand and then asked if we‘ll pay ?10 for the safer product. People often answer ”no” to both questions, contradicting themselves. These inconsistencies mean that we‘re either irrational or lying to pollsters, and perhaps both.

Economists therefore tend to prefer observing real choices. If you‘re willing to cross a busy street to pick up a ?20 note, the economist who put it there can infer something about your willingness to accept risk. More orthodox approaches look at career choices: if you‘re willing to be a lumberjack, part of that decision is to accept risk in exchange for financial reward.

Being a soldier is risky; so is being a drug-dealer or prostitute. The difficulty, evidently, is to disentangle the health risk and the financial reward from all the other motivations to choose a particular way of life. That isn‘t easy but economists try.

World Bank economist Paul Gertler and his colleagues reckoned that Mexican prostitutes valued their lives at about $50,000 per year, based on willingness to take money not to use condoms. At five times their annual earnings, that‘s a similar figure to workers accepting risky jobs in rich countries.

There are anomalies. Steve Freakonomics Levitt and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh calculated that Chicago drug dealers seemed to value their entire lives at $50,000 to $100,000 - low indeed, even for poor young men whose career choice indicates a taste for risks.

Whatever the frailties of these calculations, they are the best we have. And far from cheapening life, this sort of research often highlights just how valuable our safer, healthier modern lives really are. Kevin Murphy of the Chicago Graduate School of Business recently visited London to present his research on the value of health improvements in the US since 1970. They‘re vast - about $10 trillion in today‘s money. Looking further back, if you had to choose between the material progress of the 20th century and the improvements in health, it would be a toss-up. The health gains are as valuable as everything else put together. Encouragingly, health in most developing countries has improved faster than in rich ones, suggesting that global inequality is falling.

And a more personal piece of good news: Murphy reckons the delicious cheeseburger I ate before interviewing him only cost me ?1 worth of health. Talk about a good deal.

我们常常把精力放在一些并不重要的事情上，把昨天难过的情绪带到今天，把明天未知的恐惧留给今天；可今天，我们本应该做的事情却完成不了。时间在不经意间悄悄流逝。所以，请记住，把握今天~今天才是最重要的。昨天的已经过去，明天的还未到来，过好今天的每一分钟，充实自己的现在时。

活得轻松--在现实中生活

To a large degree，the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment．Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year，and what may or may not happen tomorrow，the present moment is where you are －－always．

我们内心是否平和在很大程度上是由我们是否能生活在现实之中所决定的。不管昨天或去年发生了什么，不管明天可能发生或不发生什么，现实才是你时时刻刻所在之处。

Without question，many of us have mastered the neurotic1) art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things －－all at once．We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments，so much so that we end up anxious，frustrated，depressed，and hopeless．On the flip side，we also postpone our gratification，our stated priorities2)，and our happiness，often convincing ourselves that ‘someday’ will be better than today．Unfortunately，the same mental dynamics3) that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that ‘someday ’never actually arrives．John Lennon once said，‘Life is what’s happening while we’re busy making other plans．’When we’re busy making ‘other plans’，our children are busy growing up，the people we love are moving away and dying，our bodies are getting out of shape，and our dreams are slipping away．In short，we miss out4) on life．

毫无疑问，我们很多人掌握了一种神经兮兮的艺术，即把生活中的大部分时间花在为种种事情担心忧虑上---而且常常是同时忧虑许多事情。我们听凭过去的麻烦和未来的担心控制我们此时此刻的生活，以致我们整日焦虑不安，萎靡不振，甚至沮丧绝望。而另一方面我们又推迟我们的满足感，推迟我们应优先考虑的事情，推迟我们的幸福感，常常说服自己“有朝一日”会比今天更好。不幸的是，如此告诫我们朝前看的大脑动力只能重复来重复去，以致“有朝一日”永远不会真正来临。约翰·列农曾经说过：“生活就是当我们忙于制定别的计划时发生的事。”当我们忙于制定种种“别的计划”时，我们的孩子在忙于长大，我们挚爱的人离去了甚至快去世了，我们的体型变样了，而我们的梦想也在悄然溜走了。一句话，我们错过了生活。

Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal5) for some later date．It isn’t．In fact，no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow．Now is the only time we have，and the only time that we have any control over．When our attention is in the present moment，we push fear from our minds．Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future－－we won’ t have enough money，our children will get into trouble，we will get old and die，whatever．

许多人的生活好像是某个未来日子的彩排。并非如此。事实上，没人能保证他或她明天肯定还活着。现在是我们所拥有的惟一时间，现在也是我们能控制的惟一时间。当我们将注意力放在此时此刻时，我们就将恐惧置于脑后。恐惧就是我们担忧某些事情会在未来发生---我们不会有足够的钱，我们的孩子会惹上麻烦，我们会变老，会死去，诸如此类。

To combat fear，the best strategy6) is to learn to bring your attention back to the present．Mark Twain said，‘I have been through some terrible things in my life，some of which actually happened．I don’t think I can say it any better．Practice keeping your attention on the here and now．Your efforts will pay great dividends7)．

若要克服恐惧心理，最佳策略便是学会将你的注意力拉回此时此刻。马克·吐温说过：“我经历过生活中一些可怕的事情，有些的确发生过。”我想我说不出比这更具内涵的`话。经常将注意力集中于此情此景、此时此刻，你的努力终会有丰厚的报偿。

I have had so many teachers in my life, but those I have valued most are the teachers who taught me about love.www.xiao84.com

一生中,我有许多的老师,但最让我敬重的是那些教我懂得爱的老师。

The person who smiles happily when they drop money in a charity box is a teacher of love.

把钱放入慈善箱时露出幸福微笑的人是爱的老师。

The child who offers laughter and hugs more freely than an adult is a teacher of love. The person who gives corn to starving deer and feeds hungry birds with seeds in winter is a teacher of love. The big dog who shares half of its food and place in the doghouse with a little puppy on a cold night is a teacher of love. Everyone who spends their lives sharing great love through countless acts of kindness is a teacher of love.

慷慨地给予他人微笑和拥抱的孩子是爱的老师。给冬季里挨饿的鹿和饥饿的鸟食物的人是爱的老师。一只能在寒冷的夜晚与小狗分享食物和住处的大狗也是爱的老师。每一个通过友善行为分享爱的人都是爱的老师。

You can be a teacher of love too. You can be a person who gives encouragement and joy to soul in need. You can be a person who cares for a sick friend, comforts a hurting heart and shares cheer fullness and kindness with everyone everywhere. You can be what life wants you to be—a teacher of beauty, glory and unconditional love.

你也可以成为一名爱的老师。你可以给处于困境中的人鼓舞和快乐。你可以照顾生病的朋友、安慰受伤的心灵并与大家分享快乐与友善。你可以顺应天意,成为一名美丽、光荣、能无私奉献爱的老师.

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can :see the folks,:” and recreate, and, as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and :the blues:; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post-office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications. Consider the girls in a factory---never alone, hardly in their dreams. It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live. The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me suggest a few comparisons, that some one may convey an idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray?

And yet it has not the blue devils, but the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters. The sun is alone, except in thick weather, when there sometimes appear to be two, but one is a mock sun. god is alone---but the devil, he is far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Millbrook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.