英文美文欣賞
閱讀是人類社會的一種重要的活動,這種活動是隨文字的產生而產生的。下面是本站小編帶來的英語經典美文摘抄，歡迎閱讀!
Best Mom a Dad Could Be(父親扮演的最佳母親形象)
I was 15 when my mother died. As I walked out of church after the funeral，it hit me：we never got to have one of those heart-to-heart mother-daughter talks.
Then，ahead of me，I saw Dad carrying my three-year-old brother，Michael. His cheek was pressed against Dad‘s dark suit，and the finger he was usually sucking had fallen from his mouth. He’d gone to sleep during the service and now，on our father‘s broad shoulder，he felt safe. At that moment，I believe，God had a plan for us：missing Mom so much，we’d learn to know Dad. Our father had always been loving，but he was the authority figure，working hard as a high-school teacher. If I wanted to go out on Saturday，I‘d have to ask his permission. He’d say，“We‘ll see，”and he would not give a definitive yes until he was satisfied all my chores were done. He always had Mom talk to us about personal things. He’d get embarrassed– it was his upbringing，I guess.
Now here he was with three teenage girls on his hands. Suddenly he had to confront things like dating and brass. The man who seldom showed his emotions became a man who‘d listen to all our deepest heartaches.
When I was in college，my boyfriend，Paul，broke up with me. I thought it was the end of the world. When I came home for the weekend，dad saw something was wrong the minute I walked in the door.
“Do you want to talk about it?”he asked. I turned to him，and everything spilled out. He didn‘t have a lot of answers，but he was there to listen. I never felt that a mom could have done better.
Dad‘s support helped me see things through：Paul and I decided t get married. And when it came time，Dad insisted on doing the reception. The day before the wedding，there he stood in or cluttered kitchen，peeling potatoes，fixing sandwiches and then packing everything in ice-cream buckets to take to the church.
I was so happy to be getting married that I never thought I‘d be a nervous bride. But right after Dad walked me down the aisle，my chin started quivering. When I looked over at him，he was crying too.
Paul and I now have three kids，and Grandpa is part of their life too. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas we go back to Dad‘s. and he cooks. Then recently we decided with my brothers and sisters to take a camping trip the way we used to with Mom. We camped out for a week– 12 of us– Dad and all his kids and grandchildren. It rained the whole time，but Dad loved it. I think if Mom was watching，seeing us together and strong，she was happy for us too.
Dad helped me see that every person is here for a reason，affecting others in ways we cannot see. We all miss Mom more than words can express，but we were given the best mom a dad could be.
Barbie Streed
英語經典美文摘抄篇二Run Through the Rain(雨中穿行)
She had been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart. She must have been 6 years old，this beautiful brown haired，freckle-faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters，so much in a hurry to hit the Earth it has no time to flow down the spout.她和媽媽剛在沃爾瑪購完物。這個天真的小女孩應該6歲大了，頭髮是美麗的棕色，臉上有雀斑。外面下着傾盆大雨。雨水溢滿了檐槽，來不及排走，就迫不及待地涌向了大地。
We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal-Mart. We waited，some patiently，others 4)irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I get lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running，splashing so carefree as a child come pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.
我們都站在沃爾瑪門口的遮篷下。大家在等待，有的人很耐心，也有人煩躁，因爲老天在給他們本已忙碌的一天添亂。雨天總引起我的遐思。我出神地聽着、看着老天洗刷沖走這世界的污垢和塵埃，孩時無憂無慮地在雨中奔跑玩水的記憶洶涌而至，暫時緩解了我這一天的焦慮。
Her voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in.“Mom，let‘s run through the rain，”she said.
小女孩甜美的聲音打破了這令人昏昏欲睡的氣氛，“媽媽，我們在雨裏跑吧，”她說。
“What?”Mom asked.
“什麼?”母親問。
“Let‘s run through the rain!”She repeated.
“我們在雨裏跑吧，”她重複。
“No，honey. We‘ll wait until it slows down a bit，”Mom replied.
“不，親愛的，我們等雨小一點再走，”母親回答說。
This young child waited about another minute and repeated：“Mom，let‘s run through the rain.”
過了一會小女孩又說：“媽媽，我們跑出去吧。”
“We‘ll get soaked if we do，”Mom said.
“這樣的話我們會溼透的，”母親說。
“No，we won‘t，Mom. That’s not what you said this morning，”the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom‘s arm.“
“不會的，媽媽。你今天早上不是這樣說的。”小女孩一邊說一邊拉着母親的手。
“This morning?When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?”
“今天早上?我什麼時候說過我們淋雨不會溼啊?”
“Don‘t you remember?When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer，you said，’If God can get us through this，he can get us through anything!”
“你不記得了嗎?你和爸爸談他的癌症時，你不是說‘如果上帝讓我們闖過這一關，那我們就沒有什麼過不去了。’”
The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn‘t hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes. Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.
人羣一片寂靜。我發誓，除了雨聲，你什麼都聽不到。我們都靜靜地站着。接下來的幾分鐘沒有一個人走動。母親停了一下，在想着應該說些什麼。
Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child‘s life. Time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.“Honey，you are absolutely right. Let’s run through the rain. If get wet，well maybe we just needed washing，”Mom said. Then off they ran.
有人也許會對此一笑了之，或者責備這孩子的不懂事，有人甚至不把她的話放在心上。但這卻是一個小孩子一生中需要被肯定的時候。若受到鼓舞，此時孩子單純的信任就會發展成爲堅定的信念。“親愛的，你說得對，我們跑過去吧。如果淋溼了，那也許是因爲我們的確需要衝洗一下了，”母親說。然後她們就衝出去了。
We all stood watching，smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars. And yes，I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing. Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions，they can take away your money，and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories. So，don‘t forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories every day!
我們站在那裏，笑着看她們飛快地跑過停着的汽車。他們把購物袋高舉過頭想擋擋雨，但還是溼透了。好幾個人像孩子般尖叫着，大笑着，也跟着衝了出去，奔向自己的車子。當然，我也這樣做了，跑了出去，淋溼了。我也需要接受洗禮。環境或其他人可以奪去你的物質財富財，搶走你的金錢，帶走你的健康，但沒有人可以帶走你珍貴的回憶。因此，記得要抓緊時間，抓住機會每天都給自己留下一些回憶吧!
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. I hope you still take the time to run through the rain.
世間萬物皆有自己的季節，做任何事情也有一個恰當的時機。希望你有機會在雨中狂奔一回。
英語經典美文摘抄篇三Artful Aging(年歲在長，創造力不減)
Don‘t ever assume your best work is behind you. Creativity often peaks in our later years.
On his desk at the University of Kentucky，Prof. David Snowdon displays an artistic treasure：a ceramic sculpture of Santa Claus perched atop a John Deere tractor. The artist，Sister Esther Boor，gave it to him before her death in 2002. At 107，she was the oldest participant in the research project Snowdon directs，the university‘s groundbreaking Num Study. Since its start in 1986，the program has investigated the relationship between aging and Alzheimer’s disease by tracking the health of 678 Roman Catholic nuns over 70. Sister Esther took up ceramics after she retired at 97. Snowdon cherishes her reply on first being asked to join the project：“She said she was too busy to be in a study of old people.”
Snowdon still isn‘t sure what kept Sister Esther so vibrant for so many years. But the secret of her kind of sustained creative energy is an increasingly valuable one. People are living longer lives than ever before. What matters now is to make those extra years more fulfilling– and it can be done. Researchers who investigate longevity are discovering that old age can be a peak period for creativity.“We always think of winding down in old age，”says Judith Salerno，deputy director of the National Institute on Aging.“We need to begin thinking about late life as an opportunity for people to explore.”Oldsters may not be a quick or prolific as they were in their 20s，but experience is a rich resource. Those who learn to tap it as they grow older can accomplish amazing things and sometimes develop talents they never recognized.
There‘s no shortage of precedents，great and small. Some have been classic late bloomers. Laura Ingalls Wilder was in her 50s and 60s when she wrote her“Little House”books. Anna(Grandma Moses)Robertson sold her first paintings to a collector at 79– and kept at it for the next two decades. Others went on blooming long after their expected season. I.M. Pei designed Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in his 70s，and Frank Lloyd Wright died at 91 building his final monument，the Guggenheim Museum. Still others，like Franz Joseph Haydn and Ludwig von Beethoven，found way to redouble their inspiration as they entered their final years.
No one denies that age has costs. A healthy adult‘s brain contains approximately 100 billion neurons(nerve cells)，some of which die off with age.“For all of us，there’s undoubtedly a very slow degeneration，”says neurologist Arnold Scheibel，turning 82 on Jan. 18 and still hard at work at UCLA. The loss is drastic in people with Alzheimer‘s，but no big deal in health individuals. And other parts of the brain actually keep developing as we get older– particularly if we give them plenty of exercise.“Over time，and especially with challenge，brain cells sprout new projections called dendrites，”says Dr. Gene Cohen，author of“The Creative Age”and director of the Center on Aging，Health and Humanities at George Washington University. Dendrites flourish in the brain’s critical information-processing sector throughout our 50s，60s and 70s.
Despite the gain in dendrites，mental processes tend to lag.“Your reaction time slows down with age，”says Dean Keith Simonton，a psychology professor at the University of California，Davis.“Forget it if you want to take up tennis in your 50s and become a world-class player. But creating things is not a speed test.”Still，some mental pursuits do make it easier than others for young minds to excel.“Different fields require different amounts of expertise，”says Simonton.“In fields that are very abstract and very finite，like higher mathematics，you can make a contribution earlier.”
For those who like scientific definitions，creativity is an exasperatingly slippery concept. Scheibel explains the process as“the putting together of familiar information in an unusual way.”Nevertheless，the seemingly simple idea covers a range of mental tasks，all of them valuable. Researchers sometimes measure creativity by seeing how many different ways a subject can devise to use a paper clip，say，or a toothpick.“If you look at people‘s performance on those tests，it tends to increase until around 40 years old，and then it starts to decline，”says Simonton.“But if you look at something called practical creativity– solving everyday problems you have in life– that peaks later.”Sometimes much later，as in the case of Ben Franklin，who at 78 invented the world’s first bifocals for himself.
No one has figured out yet exactly how the brain handles these feats. At UCLA，magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)may be giving at least some clues into the nature of sudden insights. Subjects are asked to solve simple anagrams. The answers may come in a flash(“Aha!”)or slowly，by methodical examination of the different possibilities. The Aha!Answers are associated with bursts of activity in the brain‘s right temporal lobe.“This region seems to connect information of various kinds，”says neurologist Marco Iacoboni，one of the scientists conducting the study. And making fresh connections is an essential part of creativity.
But fireworks aren‘t everything. Sometimes inspiration comes slowly and quietly. Depending on the idea，Cohen says，different parts of the brain may dominate. The right hemisphere is typically more involved in visual tasks，and the left brain does more verbal work. Many creative concepts need both halves，as well as the hippocampus，a part of the brain that specializes in information processing and recall. Cohen suspects that these various parts of the brain are at high alert during periods of creative inspiration.
Advancing years can actually help that process along. The kids leave home，and a pension can make it easier to quit your day job.“There‘s a freedom in being older，”says veteran radio producer Connie Goldman，73，author of“Secrets of Becoming a Late Bloomer”and“The Ageless Spirit.”“Teenagers like to all be alike and all dress alike. As we get older，we’re more individuals. We‘re ready to be who we are.”Salerno agrees.“In a sense there’s less to lose by trying things in late life，”she says.“You don‘t have to be bothered with what other people think.”Growing up can be a relief. Gail Carson Levine was closing in on 50 when she published her first book，“Ella Enchanted，”earning one of the most prestigious prizes in children’s literature，a Newbery Honor. Now 57，she doubts she could have written such a life-affirming book in her younger years.“Adolescents can be very dark，”she says.“That wears off only slowly.”
Age doesn‘t always bring wisdom.“If you want to be a rigid old coot，you can do it，”says University of Utah psychologist Monisha Pasupathi. But it’s far from inevitable，she adds：“There‘s this myth that old people are rigid.”And a growing body of research suggests that creative activity can actually help keep you healthy. For the last three years Cohen has been conducting a study of 300 senior citizens. Half are participating in community-based arts programs while the others serve as a control group. The members of the arts group make fewer visits to the doctor，fall less often，use less medication and are less likely to be depressed than the controls. Why?“You have a personal sense of mastery，”says Cohen. Other studies have shown similar results.
Scientists are gradually unlocking the secrets of staying mentally vigorous. Marian Diamond，a 78-year-old professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley，lists five essentials：diet，exercise，challenge，novelty and love. Nutrition‘s importance is obvious. Exercise is likewise vital to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems that keep the brain going. Experiments show that lab rats’brains grow larger and sharper when they get new mazes to solve and a variety of toys to play with. And they live longer– as long as 900 days instead of 600 days– if the scientist(or a graduate assistant)keeps them stimulated. People ask Diamond why she hasn‘t retired.“Why should I?”she answers. This year，736 students signed up for her general human anatomy class.
Chuck Close doesn‘t need to be told about challenges. One of the acknowledged masters of contemporary American art at 64，he worries about falling into a rut.“Ease is the greatest enemy of the artist–when you get good at something and just keep cranking it out，”he says.“The hard thing is to keep yourself in a little bit of trouble.”He might seem to have had more trouble than anyone needs without looking for it. At 50 he was hospitalized with a blood clot that initially left him paralyzed from the neck down. In effect he had to learn his craft all over.“I don’t think I‘m doing work drastically different than if this hadn’t happened to me，”he says.“I work very slowly. I make three paintings a year.”He admires the way Matisse，Picasso and de Kooning continued to evolve as they grew older.“Otherwise you have to be lucky and die early，like Pollock.”What about his own art?“I hope I‘m making some of my best work now，but I’m not done yet，”he says.“Call me back when I‘m 89.”It’s a date.
Karen Springen and Sam Seibert
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