英語經典美文欣賞三篇

英語作爲學習生涯中必不可少的課程，想學好真的不容易。小編在此獻上英語美文，希望大家喜歡。

英語經典美文欣賞

控制你的情緒 Control Your Emotion

You must control and direct your emotions not abolish them. Besides, abolition would be antimissile task. Emotions are like a river. Their power can be dammed up and released under control and direction, but is cannot be held forever in check. Sooner or later the dam will burst, unleashing catastrophic destruction.

你必須控制並導引你的情緒而非摧毀它，況且摧毀情緒是一件不可能的事情。情緒就像河流一樣，你可以築一道堤 防把它擋起來，並在控制和導引之下排放它，但卻不能永遠抑制它，否則那道堤防遲早會崩潰，並造成大災難。

Your negative emotions can also be controlled and directed. PMA and self-discipline can remove their harmful effects and make them serve constructive purposes. Sometimes fear and anger will inspire intense action. But you must always submit your negative emotions--and you positive ones--to the examination of your reason before releasing them. Emotion without reason is a dreadful enemy.

你的消極心態同樣也可被控制和導引，積極心態和自律 可去除其中有害的部分，而使這些消極心態能爲目標貢獻力 量。有的時候恐懼和生氣會激發出更徹底的行動，但是在你釋放消極情緒(以及積極情緒)之前務必要讓你的理性爲它們做一番檢驗，缺乏理性的情緒必然是一位可怕的敵人。

What faculty provides the crucial balance between emotions and reason? It is your willpower, or ego, a subject which will be explored in more detail below. Self-discipline will teach you to throw your willpower behind either reason or emotion and amplify the intensity of their expression.

是什麼力量使得情緒和理性之間能夠達到平衡呢?是意志力或自尊心(我將在以下做更詳細的說明)。自律會教導你的意志力作爲理性和情緒的後盾，並強化二者的表現強度。

Both your heart and your mind need a master, and they can find the master in your ego. However, your ego will fill their role only if you use self-discipline. In the absence of self-discipline, your mind and heart will fight their battles as they please. In this situation the person within whose mind the fight is carried out often gets badly hurt.

你的感情和理智都需要一位主宰，而在你的自尊心裏就可發現這個主宰，然而只有你在發揮你的自律精神時，自尊心纔會扮演好這個角色，如果沒有了自律，你的理智和感情便會隨心所欲地進行戰爭，戰爭結果當然是你會受到嚴重的傷害。

英語美文欣賞

一萬小時天才理論 The Talent Code

The 10,000-Hour Rule says that you need approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become a world-class expert in a field. There is no other way: if you want to be a world-class expert in your field, you must do your 10,000 hours of practice.

一萬小時天才理論說的是：要想成爲這一領域的世界級專家，你就需要花大約一萬個小時來練習。沒有其他的法子，如果你想成功，那就必須得花一萬個小時。

Then, where should you invest my 10,000 hours of practice?

那麼，你應該把這一萬個小時花在哪裏呢?

This question is important because 10,000 hours is a lot of time. If you consistently practice 4 hours a day for 6 days a week, you will still need 8 years to get 10,000 hours. So answering this question is essential. If you need to invest such a huge amount of time, you’d better do it right. You’d better find your niche.

這個問題很重要，因爲一萬個小時是很長的一段時間。如果你每天練習4小時，每週練習6天，那麼你需要8年的時間才能達到一萬個小時的練習量。所以回答“要把一萬個小時花在哪”的這個問題就變得非常有必要了。你要付出這麼多的時間，你就必須選好方向，選擇最合適的方向。

To find your niche, I find the three questions below helpful. Answer them and you will have an idea of where you should go. Here they are:

爲了能找到最合適的方向，我提出了下面的三個問題，如果能回答出來這些問題，你就能找到你的方向了。問題如下：

1. Where have you invested your time?

你過去都把時間花在了哪裏?

One way to know where to invest your time is simply to look at where you have invested your time. For example, in the last few years you might have learned how to play music for one or two hours a day. Or you might have blogged about a certain topic. Or you might have spent a lot of time on gardening.

要想知道該在哪個方面花時間的最簡單的辦法就是回頭看看自己已經在哪個領域花了時間。比如說，在過去的幾年裏，你每天都會花一兩個小時來演奏音樂，或者在某個問題上持續地發表文章，又或者在園藝上花費了大量的時間。

Those are good signs of where you should invest your 10,000 hours. You already invest part of that 10,000 hours so you only need to invest the rest. The difference is now you do it consciously and deliberately. You will be more effective that way.

這些都能很好地說明你應該在哪些方面來利用這一萬個小時的時間。你已經花了一部分時間了，那麼你只需要把一萬個小時中剩下的那部分時間花上去就可以了。區別在於現在你是有意識地、特意地把時間用在某個領域上，而收效也會更好。

2. What are your passions?

你最感興趣的是什麼?

In fact, that’s one reason why 10,000 hours is a magic number to become a world-class expert: almost everyone else fails before reaching that point. Only a few people can reach the 10,000 hours mark and that’s why they become world class.

事實上，興趣就是一萬個小時天才理論的奧妙之處，因爲很多人都在達到這個數量級之前就放棄了。只有一小部分人可以堅持一萬個小時，而他們就成了世界級的高手。

To help you reach the 10,000 hours mark, doing something you love is really helpful. It will help you go through difficult times. It will help you overcome boredom. Without it, the 10,000 hours will feel like a painful journey. It’s highly unlikely that you will ever reach the 10,000 hours mark that way。

爲了讓自己能堅持一萬個小時，做自己感興趣的事是非常重要的。它可以幫助你渡過難關，戰勝無聊。如果是自己不感興趣的東西的話，那麼要堅持一萬個小時簡直就是一段痛苦不堪的長途跋涉啊，很有可能你在到達終點前就已經放棄了。

3. What opportunities does the age give you?

你所處的時代賦予了你什麼?

Ask yourself: what opportunities does your birth date give you? What opportunities does the history give you at this point in time?

問問自己：你出生的那個時代給你帶來了什麼機會?現在的社會環境又給你創造了什麼機遇?

Answering these questions is not easy because it’s difficult to see whether or not something will be hot. When Bill Gates did his 10,000 hours of practice to learn programming, he might not know that it would eventually put him in a perfect position to be a software mogul. You need to have faith in something and believe that the dots will eventually connect.

要回答這個問題並不容易因爲沒有人可以預見未來，知道什麼東西會在將來火起來。當比爾-蓋茨把他的一萬個小時用於學習編程的時候，他可能也不知道最終自己會因此而成爲軟件業巨頭。你需要對自己選擇的方向有信心，要相信最終這些小的點都會連成線。

英語經典美文欣賞

身體最重要的部分 The Most Important Body Part

My mother used to ask me what is the most important part of the body. Through the years I would guess at what I thought was the correct answer.

從前我母親經常問我，身體最重要的部位是什麼。許多年來，我一直以爲自己所想的是正確答案。

When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said, "My ears, Mommy."

當我很小的時候，我認爲對人類而言，聲音很重要，因此回答：“媽咪，是耳朵。”

She said, "No. Many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon."

她說：“不對，有許多人是聾人。但是你繼續想，不久我會再問你。”

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated the correct answer. So this time I told her, "Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes."

當她再度問我時，已經是好幾年後了。自從第一次回答之後，我就一直仔細的思考正確答案。所以這次我對她說：“媽咪，視覺對每個人都很重要，所以應該是我們的眼睛。”

She looked at me and told me, "You are learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind."

她看着我，對我說：“你學的很快，但還是不對，因爲有許多人是盲人。”

Over the years, Mother asked me a couple more times and always her answer was, "No, but

you are getting smarter every year, my child."

往後的年日裏她又問了我幾次，但她總是回答：“不對，可是孩子啊，你每年都有進步喔。”

Then last year, my Grandpa died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to Grandpa. She asked me, "Do you know the most important body part yet, my dear?"

去年我祖父去世，每個人都很傷心，大家都哭了。輪到我們向爺爺做最後的告別時，媽媽看着我，問我：“寶貝，你知道身體最重要的部位了嗎?”

I was shocked when she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me. She saw the confusion on my face and told me, "This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived your life." I saw her eyes well up with tears. She said, "My dear, the most important body part is your shoulder."

她在這時候問我這個問題，令我嚇了一大跳。我一直以爲這只是我和她之間的遊戲。她看我一臉迷惑的樣子，對我說：“這問題很重要，它是你真正理解生活的標誌。”我看她眼睛裏充盈着淚水，她說：“寶貝，最重要的部位是你的肩膀。”

I asked, "Is it because it holds up your head?"

我問：“是因爲它能支撐腦袋嗎?”

She replied, "No, it is because it can hold the head of a friend or loved one when they cry. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometime in life, my dear. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will have a shoulder to cry on when you need it."

她回答說：“不，是因爲讓我們的朋友、我們所愛的人哭泣的時候，它可以給予依靠。寶貝，每個人在一生中都會有需要一個可以靠着哭泣的肩膀的時候。我只是希望當你需要時，會有足夠的愛人和朋友，給你一個可倚靠哭泣的肩膀。”

Then and there I knew the most important body part is not a selfish one. It is sympathetic to the pain of others.

從那時起，我知道身體最重要的部位不是利己的部位，而是對別人的痛苦能感同身受的部位。