英語經典長篇美文欣賞
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樂觀的父親A Father's Influence
The wisdom my 77-year-old father has passed on to me came more through osmosis than lectures. Pinning down a dad's influence to one true thing is like saying that the final inning is all that matters in a baseball game—when in reality, it's every play up until then that has gotten the team to where it is. And my dad has been there since the first pitch. From making "the best pancakes you kids have ever eaten" on Saturday mornings, to assuring tearful teenagers studying for finals that all they needed was a good night's sleep and everything would be better in the morning, my dad's dogged optimism shines through. It is a big part of the reason I recovered after a pelvis-smashing accident, when I was run over by a truck: My father assumed that I'd be jogging with him again.
He would also be the first to note that a grand slam by the last batter in a two-run game can change everything. In that he's a realist. But the thing about Dad is that he believes he is the guy who will hit that ball out of the park in the clutch play. Even though his first great-grandchild was born a year and a half ago, he's still that kid on the bench saying, "Put me in, Coach."
Old age hasn't slowed him, mainly because he doesn't think almost-80 is old. I should have taken a photo of my dad swimming in the lake in front of our cabin in Alaska last summer to show you what he looks like. He is strong, bald and about 5'10", 150 pounds, with a long French nose, blue eyes and a great smile. He had come for a visit and was training for a charity swim across the Hudson River in New York, where he lives. He wore his custom-fitted wetsuit (it zips up the back, so we had to help him into it), but he still got so cold that when I hauled him, leaky goggles were all fogged up and I feared he'd die of hypothermia. We warmed him by stoking the woodstove and parking him, wrapped in a sleeping bag, as close to the open oven door as we could without cooking his legs.
"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad," he'll say, when he reads this. "I was fine." Which he was. He always is. He did complete the Hudson swim a month later in New York, but told me over the phone that next time he'll make sure his wetsuit fits correctly (in haste, he pulled it on backward) and buy new goggles. (They filled up with water and he bumped into Pete Seeger's moored sailboat—the folk singer is the race's organizer.)
If you ask my father whether or not his life has been hard, he will say he is a lucky guy. Not in a Hollywood way—he means the kind of happiness that comes from sharing a well-cooked family meal, taking a good long run or growing a perfect tomato. Did I mention that he used to run marathons before his knee replacement surgery? He's the one who convinced me I could do it, too. "Anyone can run a marathon," he said, "as long as you put in your time training."
My father was born in 1933. His London childhood took a turn at the beginning of World War II: His father enlisted in the French Army and was captured by the Germans and spent the war in a prison camp. My dad and his mother and sister were shipped off to New Jersey to live with relatives. His mother suffered from depression, and Dad went to boarding school in New England from the sixth grade on.
Yet in all Dad's dinner table stories, and there have been many, he turned them into great stories.
These days the favorite saying of the family patriarch his grandchildren have dubbed Papa Bob is "And so it goes," from the writer Kurt Vonnegut. He repeats it often, especially when he has suffered a setback—anything from spraining an ankle skiing to facing my mother's death. During her illness (she had leukemia) he did his best to cheer her up. My sister, who lives next door to Dad, sometimes complained that he was in denial.
What good would it have done anyone if my father had embraced the sorrow of losing his wife of 49 years just as he was thinking about retiring to spend more time with her? Sometimes wishing days are happy can make them so. As much as it drove his daughters crazy, I'm sure my mother's last months were better because my father was planning a family vacation with all the grandkids to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
And honestly? He knew what was happening and chose to face it without undue sadness or fear. When I was 10, a neighbor was hit by a delivery truck and killed while riding her bicycle to play at the school ballfields. A few weeks after that funeral, Dad and I played catch in the backyard. "Two hands, keep your eye on the ball," he coached as we tossed it back and forth over the clothesline. (I've been following that advice all my life. A woman could do worse than keep her eye on the ball of what matters in life and hold on to it tightly, with two hands.) Anyway, I asked him why that awful truck had killed my friend. It was so unfair. Dad said, "Life's not fair." He didn't say it with any bitterness at all. He said it like Satchel Paige said, "You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out." Even an optimist like my dad understands that some things don't turn out right. The difference is, he knows it is your response to hard times that counts, and his is always to land on his feet, grateful to still be here, with a story to tell.
After a family dinner the other night, Papa Bob regaled us all with embellished versions of his recent and first-ever skydiving adventure. He said he was dizzy from the altitude-"12,000 feet!"—but the instructor sort of nudged him out of the plane. "Sixty-five seconds of free falling," he said. "I loved it. I should have been a paratrooper." Then he said, "I didn't even dent this new titanium knee."
He loves getting cards in the mail, and usually I'm late, so instead I call him on Father's Day. But this year I've decided to be early for once. Before he takes another skydive or a frigid lake swim, I want to let him know how much he means to me. Dad, thank you—for all of it. For playing catch in the backyard, the stories, the homegrown tomatoes, the running shoes, college, the first-aid kits (he likes us to be prepared for his visits) and mostly for your enduring faith that everything will be OK. It is, because you are my dad.
英語經典長篇美文篇二30 Truths I’ve Learned In 30 Years30歲弄明白的30個道理
Marc剛過完他的30歲生日，並分享了他近幾年剛剛明白的30個道理。
These are simple lessons about life in general that he picked up while traveling, living in different cities, working for different companies (and himself), and meeting remarkable and unusual people everywhere in between.
這些簡單的人生經驗之談，都是他從旅行中，從不同城市、不同公司的生活和工作經歷中，從與世界各地優秀人物的交往中拾取的。
1. There comes a point in life when you get tired of chasing everyone and trying to fix everything, but it's not giving up. It's realizing you don't need certain people and things and the drama they bring.
2. If a person wants to be a part of your life they will make an obvious effort to do so. Don't bother reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.
3. If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down – which is not always as obvious and easy as it sounds.
4. Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.
5. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You don't fail by falling down. You fail by never getting back up. Sometimes you just have to forget how you feel, remember what you deserve, and keep pushing forward.
6. When you get to know people with different ethnic backgrounds, from different cities and countries, who live at various socioeconomic levels, you begin to realize that everyone basically wants the same things. They want validation, love, happiness, fulfillment and hopes for a better future. The way they pursue these desires is where things branch off, but the fundamentals are the same. You can relate to almost everyone everywhere if you look past the superficial facades that divide us.
7. The more things you own, the more your things own you. Less truly gives you more freedom. Read The Joy of Less.
8. While you're busy looking for the perfect person, you'll probably miss the imperfect person who could make you perfectly happy. This is as true for friendships as it is for intimate relationships. Finding a companion or a friend isn't about trying to transform yourself into the perfect image of what you think they want. It's about being exactly who you are and then finding someone who appreciates that.
9. Relationships must be chosen wisely. It's better to be alone than to be in bad company. There's no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason.
10. Making a thousand friends is not a miracle. A miracle is making one friend who will stand by your side when thousands are against you.
11. Someone will always be better looking. Someone will always be smarter. Someone will always be more charismatic. But they will never be you – with your exact ideas, knowledge and skills.
12. Making progress involves risk. Period. You can't make it to second base with your foot on first.
13. Every morning you are faced with two choices: You can aimlessly stumble through the day not knowing what's going to happen and simply react to events at a moment's notice, or you can go through the day directing your own life and making your own decisions and destiny. Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
14. Everyone makes mistakes. If you can't forgive others, don't expect others to forgive you. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.
15. It's okay to fall apart for a little while. You don't always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. You shouldn't be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it's healthy to shed your tears. The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.
16. We sometimes do things that are permanently foolish just because we are temporarily upset. A lot of heartache can be avoided if you learn to control your emotions.
17. Someone else doesn't have to be wrong for you to be right. There are many roads to what's right. You cannot judge others by your own past. They are living a different life than you. What might be good for one person may not be good for another. What might be bad for one person might change another person's life for the better. You have to allow people to make their own mistakes and their own decisions.
18. Nobody is perfect, and nobody deserves to be perfect. Nobody has it easy. You never know what people are going through. Every one of us has issues. So don't belittle yourself or anyone else. Everybody is fighting their own unique war.
19. A smile doesn't always mean a person is happy. Sometimes it simply means they are strong enough to face their problems.
20. The happiest people I know keep an open mind to new ideas and ventures, use their leisure time as a means of mental development, and love good music, good books, good pictures, good company and good conversation. And oftentimes they are also the cause of happiness in others – me in particular.
21. You can't take things too personally. Rarely do people do things because of you. They do things because of them.
22. Feelings change, people change, and time keeps rolling. You can hold on to past mistakes or you can create your own happiness. A smile is a choice, not a miracle. True happiness comes from within. Don't make the mistake of waiting on someone or something to come along and make you happy.
23. It's much harder to change the length of your life than it is to change the depth of it.
24. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
25. When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.
26. One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that's trying to make you like everyone else.
27. Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. Read The Book of Awesome.
28. Anyone can make a difference. Making one person smile can change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world.
29. Everything is a life lesson. Everyone you meet, everything you encounter, etc. They're all part of the learning experience we call 'life.' Never forget to acknowledge the lesson, especially when things don't go your way. If you don't get a job that you wanted or a relationship doesn't work, it only means something better is out there waiting. And the lesson you just learned is the first step towards it.
30. Regardless of how filthy your past has been, your future is still spotless. Don't start your day with the broken pieces of yesterday. Every day is a fresh start. Each day is a new beginning. Every morning we wake up is the first day of the rest of our life.
英語經典長篇美文篇三Are You Ignoring That Little Thought別再錯過那些想法
What happened to that brilliant idea that you once had? Did you ignore it because you thought that it was just a little thought?
你曾經想到過的那個非凡的主意後來怎樣了? 你是否因爲覺得那只是個小小的念頭而將其忽略了呢?
Have you ever considered what that little thought would have become if you had acted on your instincts or if you had paid more attention to it?
你是否考慮過， 如果你依照直覺行事，或是多用點心，當初那個小小的念頭將會變成怎樣?
Imagine a scenario ,where you are sitting at home watching television or reading a book, suddenly a light buld is turned on in the dark tunnel of your mind as a thought or an idea crosses your mind. The thought catches your attention but seems so meaningless and you are tempted to discard it, but wait a minute!
想像這樣一個場景：你正坐在家裏看電視或看書，一個想法或念頭閃過腦際，令你眼前一亮， 豁然開朗。這個想法雖然令你心中爲之一動，但卻似乎毫無意義，於是你打算放棄它。但是請等一下!
That thought could be the potential beginning of the success you have so mush yearned for. As the thought crosses your mind. your senses become alert and you suddenly see a possibility, a realization, a solution, a conclusion, or find the answer to a problem whose solution has long eluded you.
那個想法可能就是你渴望已久的潛在的成功起點。當它在你頭腦中閃過時，你的思維變得敏銳起來，你突然看到了一種可能性、一種想法的實現、一個解決方案、一個結論，或是找到讓你困惑已久的問題的答案。
It is almost as if a divine being has whispered the perfect solution into your ear or awakened your sences to a reality thereby bringing illumination to your life. It is like finding the last piece of jigsaw puzzle.
這就像是一位聖人在你耳邊低語，告訴你最佳的解決方案， 或者將你的思維喚回到現實，從而給你的人生帶來光明。這就像是找到智力拼圖的最後一塊一樣。
This becomes an AHA moment and everything freezes around you as you excitedly try to grasp the practicality of that little but powerful thought.
這將成爲一個令人驚喜的時刻。當你滿心激動，努力領會那個不起眼但非常有用的想法的實用性時，周圍的一切都好像靜止了。
Your self-confidence and enthusiasm increase as you become conscious of the great possibilties that can arise if that little thought is acted upon. This becomes the moment to build upon that thought and to write down any ideas that are streaming from that little thought for later review.
當你意識到，如果實踐那個小小是想法，就會產生極大的可能性時，你的自信心就會增強，熱情也會高漲。此時，你要以那個小小的想法爲基礎，記下由其激發出的所有念頭，以便日後回顧。
Seemingly meaningless little thought or ideas when acted upon have a potential to explode into great projects.
看似無足輕重的小想法或念頭一旦得以實施，就具有演變成偉大事業的潛能。
Many successful projects have been born from the little positive thoughts that were carefully nurtured and recognized as tickets to great things.
許多成功的事業都源於那些得到精心孕育的積極的小想法，這些想法被看作是走向恢宏事業的敲門磚。
You may have heard people say many times that it just came to me in a flash moment, a small idea or seemingly meaningless thought may cross your mind about something you have been planning to accomplish.
你可能聽別人多次說過：我瞬間有了那個想法。閃念之間，一個與你一直計劃實現的事情有關的小點子或看似毫無意義的想法，就可能會在你腦中閃過。
Don't waste an opportunity to act on a potentially brilliant idea. You don't have to wait for a major peers in order for a major idea, a master strategy, or approval from your peers in order for you to act on that little thought.
不要浪費任何一個實踐某個充滿潛力的非凡念頭的機會。你不必爲了實踐那個小念頭而等待大主意、總體規劃的出現，或是等待同伴的贊同。
That little thought or idea is the beginning of great things if you decide to follow it through.
如果你下定決心堅持到底，那個小小的想法或念頭就會是你成就偉大事業的開始。
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