经典长篇英语美文欣赏长篇带翻译
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经典长篇英语美文欣赏篇一
Genius Sacrificed for Failure
牺牲英才得庸才
Wliilam N. Brown
威廉·N.布朗
During my youth in America’s Appalachian mountains, I learned that farmers preferred sonsover daughters,largely because boys were better at heavy farm labor (though what boysanywhere could best the tireless Hui’an girls in the fields of Fujian!)
我在美国的阿巴拉契亚山区度过青少年时代时,发现那里的农民重男轻女,多半因为男子更能胜任重体力农活。当然,如果要同福建省惠安县农田里的妇女相比,她们那份不歇不竭的能耐是任何地方的男子都自叹弗如的!
With only 3% of Americans in agriculture today,brain has supplanted brawn, yet culturalpreferences, like bad habits,are easier to make than break. But history warns repeatedly of thetragic cost of dismissing too casually the gifts of the so-called weaker sex.
今天在美国,脑力已经取代了体力,只有3%的美国人在从事农业。但文化上的习俗正如陋规,形成容易冲破难。面对所谓“阴柔”性别,历史再三告诫我们,若对她们的禀赋过于轻率地否定,其代价将会何等惨重!
About 150 years ago,a village church vicar in Yorkshire, England,had threelovely,intelligent daughters but his hopes hinged entirely on the sole male heir, Branwell, ayouth with remarkable talent in both art and literature.
约150年前在英国的约克郡有一个乡村教区的牧师,他有三个聪慧可爱的女儿,但是他的希望却独独钉在唯一的继承者儿子布朗维尔身上。这个年轻人在艺术和文学上都有出众的天赋。
Branweir s father and sister hoarded their pennies to pack him off to London' s Royal Academyof Arts, but if art was his calling, he dialed a wrong number. Within weeks he hightailed it home,a penniless failure.
父亲和姐妹都省吃俭用,帮兄弟打点完备,送他上了伦敦皇家艺术学院。可是尽管他要以艺术为业,但拨错了号。不到几个礼拜,就不名一文,弃甲归家。
Hopes still high, the family landed Branwell a job as a private tutor, hoping this would free himto develop his literary skills and achieve the success and fame that he deserved. Failureagain.
然而家人并不就此罢休,他们又想方设法帮布朗维尔捞到一份私人教师的活儿,希望这份差事能够使他自由发展文学才能,走上应得的功成名就的大道:这次又失败了。
For years the selfless sisters squelched their own goals, farming themselves out as teachersand governesses in support of their increasingly indebted brother, convinced the world musteventually recognize his genius. As failures multiplied, Branwell turned to alcohol,thenopium,and eventually died as he had lived: a failure. So died hope in the one male8 _ butwhat of the three anonymous sisters?
几年来,无私的姐妹们压抑着她们自己的目标和志向,受雇于人做管家或家庭教师以支持她们那日益债台高筑的兄弟,她们深信世界总有一天会认识到他的天才。随着接踵而至的失败,布兰维尔开始酗酒,后来又吸上鸦片,最后死时与生前一样,一无所成,于是寄托在这唯一男性身上的指望也随之死去。但是,那三位默默无闻的姐妹们又如何了呢?
During Branwell ’ s last years,the girls published a book of poetry at their own expense (undera pseudonym,for fear of reviewer’ s bias against females). Even Branwell might havesnickered: they sold only 2 copies.
在布兰维尔生前最后几年,姑娘们自己出资出版了一本诗集(用的是假名,以防编辑们对女性的成见)。只卖出两本,就连布兰维尔也哂笑她们。
Undaunted, they continued in their spare time, late at night by candlelight, to pour out theirpent-up emotion,writing of 9 what they knew best, of women in conflict with their naturaldesires and social condition — in reality, less fiction than autobiography! And 19th centuryliterature was transformed by Anne ’ s Agnes Grey, Emily, s Wuthering Heights, andCharlotte ’ s Jane Eyre.
然而她们并不气馁。姐妹们继续利用她们的空余时间,夜深人静时秉烛而书,倾吐她们幽禁的情怀,抒写她们最熟悉的一切。她们描写了那种女性自发的意愿与社会环境之间的冲突。实际上她们所写的与其说是小说不如说是自传!于是,19世纪文学就因安妮的《安格尼斯·格雷》、艾米丽的《呼啸山庄》和夏洛特的《简·爱》而改观了。
But years of sacrifice for Banwell had taken their toll. Emily took ill at her brother’s funeral anddied within 3 months, aged 29; Anne died 5 months later, aged 30; Charlotte lived only to age39. If only they had been nurtured instead of sacrificed.
然而,三姐妹为了布兰维尔的多年牺牲,付出了沉重的代价。艾米丽在她兄弟葬礼的那一天便得了病,三个月后便离世了,年方29岁;五个月后安妮也以30芳龄长逝;夏洛特则只活到39岁。假若她们能早日得到培养而不做牺牲,那该多好啊!
No one remembers Branwell ’ s name, much less his art or literature,but Bronte sister' stragically shot lives teach us even more of life than of literature. Their sacrificed genius cries outto us that in modem society we must value children not by their physical strength or sexualgender, as we would any mere beast of burden, but by their integrity, strength, commitment,courage—spiritual qualities abundant in both boys and girls. China,a nation blessed by moreboys and girls than any nation,ignores at her own peril 10 the lesson of the Bronte tragedy.
无人再记得布兰维尔的名字,更不用说他的艺术或文学了。然而,从勃朗特三姐妹悲剧性的夭折中,我们学到的不仅是文学,更重要的是生命之谛,她们牺牲了的天分向我们大声疾呼:现在社会再不能以体力或性别,把子女当牛马来评估了。它必须就忠诚、能力、责任心、勇敢等等男女孩子都富有的精神品质来对他们评价。中国,这个有幸拥有世界上最多的男孩女孩的国家应从勃朗特悲剧中获得认识,勿蹈覆辙。
Patrick Bronte fathered Branwell,but more importantly, he fathered Anne, Emily and Charlotte.Were he alive today he would surely urge us to put away our passe 11 prejudices and avoidhis own tragic and irrevocable error of putting all of his eggs in one male basket!
帕特里克·勃朗特养育了布兰维尔,但更重要的,他是安妮、艾米丽和夏洛特的父亲。倘若此人今日仍活着的话,他一定会迫切敦促我们放下我们的古旧偏见,避免他自己的悲剧和抱憾终身的过失—将一切都押在一个男性后裔身上。
经典长篇英语美文欣赏篇二
Glories of the Storm
辉煌壮丽的暴风雨
It begins when a feeling of stillness creeps into my consciousness. Every thing has suddenlygone quiet. Birds do not chirp. Leaves do not rustle. Insects do not sing.
起初,有一种平静的感觉悄悄袭上我的心头。刹那间,万物都突然寂静无声。鸟儿不在啁啾,树叶不再沙沙作响,昆虫也停止了欢唱。
The air that has been hot all day becomes heavy. It hangs over the trees, presses the heads ofthe flowers to the ground, sits on my shoulders. With a vague feeling of uneasiness I move tothe window. There, in the west, lies the answer - cloud has piled on cloud to form a ridge ofmammoth while towers, rearing against blue sky.
整日闷热的空气变得格外呆滞,它笼罩着树木,逼得花朵垂向地面,也压得我的肩头沉甸甸的。我怀着隐隐约约的烦躁不安,信步走到窗前,原来答案就在西边天际,云层重重叠叠,就像一排嵯峨的白塔,高耸在蓝天之上。
Their piercing whiteness is of brief duration. Soon the marshmallow rims flatten to anvil tops,and the clouds reveal their darker nature. They impose themselves before the late-afternoonsun, and the day darkens early. Then a gust of wind ships the dust along the road, chillwarning of what is to come.
云彩那耀眼的白色转瞬便消失了。顷刻间,棉花糖状的云彼岸变得像铁砧一样平展,云层也露出了阴暗的本来面目。它强行遮住西斜的太阳,使天色早早就黑了下来。接着,劲风骤起,一路卷起尘土飞扬。冷嗖嗖的,预示着即将来临的一切。
In the house a door shuts with a bang, curtains billow into the room. I rush to close thewindows, empty the clothesline, secure the patio furnishings. Thunder begins to grumble inthe distance.
砰的一声,风关上了一扇房门。窗帘也随风扬起,向屋内翻卷着。我急忙跑上去关上窗户,收下晾晒的衣服,安顿好露台上的家什。远处开始响起隆隆的雷声。
The first drops of rain are huge. They splat into the dust and imprint the windows withindividual signatures. They plink on the vent pipe and plunk on the patio roof. Leaves shudderunder their weight before rebounding, and sidewalk wears a coat of shiny spots.
最初落下来的是大颗大颗的水珠,扑扑地打在尘土里。在玻璃窗是留下了一个个印记。雨点把排气管敲得叮叮当当,把露台顶棚打得噼噼啪啪,树叶被砸得瑟瑟发抖,难以抬头。人行道披上了一层亮闪闪的水点。
The rhythm accelerates; plink follows plunk faster and faster until the sound is a roll of drumsand the individual drops become an army marching over fields and rooftops. Now the first boltof lightning stabs the earth. It is heaven's exclamation point. The storm is here!
雨加快了节奏,叮叮当当紧跟着噼噼啪啪,一阵紧似一阵,终于连成一片紧密的鼓点,颗颗雨滴也汇集成一支行进在田野和屋顶的大军。这时,第一道闪电刺向大地,这是老天划的惊叹号。暴风雨来了。
In spite of myself, I jump at the following crack of thunder. It rattles the windowpane andsends the dog scratching to get under the bed. The next bolt is even closer. It raises the hairon the back of my neck, and I take an involuntary step away from the window.
随即响起了一声霹雳,我不禁跳了起来,雷声震得窗户格格作响,吓得狗儿三抓两爬钻到床底下。第二道闪电离得更近。我惊得寒毛倒立,不由得从床边后退了一步。
The rain now becomes a torrent, flung capriciously by rising wind. Together they batter thetrees and level the grasses. Water streams off roofs and out of rain spouts. It pounds againstthe window in such a steady wash that I am sightless. There is only water. How can so muchfall so fast? How could the clouds have supported this vast weight? How can the earth endurebeneath it?
这时,雨下的简直是倾盆如注,狂风吹得雨水飘摇不定。风雨交加,恣意地抽打树木,夷平草地。雨水从屋顶奔流而下,漫出了排水管,不停地泼洒在窗户上,使我什么也看不清楚。眼前只有水。这么多雨水,怎么能下得这么急?云层怎么能承受得这么巨大的重量?大地怎么能经受得起这样的冲击?
Pacing through the house from window to window, I am moved to openmouthed wonder. Lookhow the lilac bends under the assault, how the day lilies are flattened, how the hillside steps area new made waterfall! Now hailstones thump upon the roof. They bounce white against thegrass and splash into the puddle. I think of the vegetable garden, the fruit trees, the crops inthe fields; but, thankfully, the hailstones are not enough in numbers or size to do real damage.Not this time.
我在房里踱来踱去,从一个窗口走到另一个窗口,屋外的景色使我瞠目结舌,惊叹不已。瞧,在暴风雨的袭击下,丁香折弯了腰,萱草倒伏在地,山坡上的石阶小道变成了一帘新辟的瀑布!这是突然下起冰雹。乒乒乓乓地砸在屋顶上,顷刻间草地上银珠纷飞,税洼里水花四溅,我开始担心园里的蔬菜、水果,还有田里的庄稼;不过,谢天谢地,冰雹个头不大,数量也不多,还不足以造成什么实际损失。至少这一次是不会了。
From this storm is already beginning to pass. The tension is released from the atmosphere, thecurtains of rain let in more light. The storm has spend most of its energy, and what is left willbe expended on the countryside to the east.
因为这场暴风雨即将过去,紧张的气氛缓和了,从雨幕中透出更多的亮光。暴风雨已经耗去了大部分的精力,还有一点余威只能到东边的乡间去施展了。
I am drawn outside while the rain still falls. All around, there is a cool and welcome feeling. Ibreathe deeply and watch the sun's rays streaks through breaking clouds. One ray catches thedrops that form on the edge of the roof, and I am treated to a row of tiny, quivering colors -my private rainbows.
雨仍在淅淅沥沥地下着,我却忍不住走到室外,环境是那么清新宜。我深深地呼吸着新鲜空气,仰望着那船运而出的道道阳光,有一束阳光恰巧映射在屋檐边的水珠上,我便看到一条细细的、微微颤动着的七色彩带——一条供我个人欣赏的彩虹。
I pick my way through the west grass, my feet sinking into the saturated soil. The creek in thegully runs bank - full of brown water, but the small lakes and puddles are already disappearinginto the earth. Every leaf, brick, single, and blade of grass is fresh-washed and shining.
我小心翼翼地穿过湿漉漉的草地,双脚不时陷入雨水浸透的土壤中。河谷里的小溪满载着浑浊的泥水奔流而去,但那些小水洼和小水坑里的水已渗入地下,都不见了踪影。每片树叶和草叶,每块砖头和卵石都冲得纤尘不染,熠熠发光。
Like the land, I am renewed, my spirits cleansed. I feel an infinite peace. Fro a time I haveforgotten the worries and irritations I am nurturing before. They have been washed away by theglories of the storm.
像大地一样,我也焕然一新,心灵得到了净化。我感到无比的平静,一时间全然忘掉了以往郁积在心头的烦恼与忧愁。他们都已被这辉煌壮丽的暴风雨涤荡得干干净净。
经典长篇英语美文欣赏篇三
Han Suyin's China
韩素音笔下的中国
China: her size roughly that of Canada or the United States. Her population one billion onehundred million, 22 per cent of the planet's human beings.
中国面积大致相当于加拿大或美国,人口11亿,占全球人口的22%.
China: very young, 60 per cent of the Chinese under 25 years of age. Very old, millennia ofaccumulated and still potent history, pride of remembered greatness motivating her marchtowards the new technological era which is changing the world, and changing her.
中国非常年轻,60%的中国人年龄在25岁以下。中国又非常古老,具有数千年累积起来、现仍具有强大影响的历史,对往昔文明鼎盛的自豪激励着她迈步走向新技术时代。这个时代正在改变世界,改变中国。
China: her history not unitary, but made up of many histories; as she is made up of manydifferent peoples, altogether 56 nations. Yet she is a oneness, coherent, whole. THE GREATWITHIN.
中国的历史并不是一部单一的历史,而是由许多部历史组成,因为中国是由许多不同的民族组成的——总共有56个民族。然而她却是一个紧密完整的统一体。真是一个伟大的、自成一统的国家。
There is a China of the plains, easily travelled, a tourist delight. Here are the wealthiest, themost advanced metropolises: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou...fertilealluviallowlands which seem vast, yet are less than 15 per cent of her total territory. AndChina's arable, cultivable acres make up only seven per cent of the world's total acreage. Onthis she feeds almost a quarter of the world's people. A prodigious achievement!
中国的一部分地区是平原,旅行便利,为游览胜地。这里有最富庶、最先进的大都市:北京、天津、上海、南京、广州……肥沃的冲积平原似乎广阔无边,而实际还不到总领土的15%。中国的耕地面积只占世界耕地总面积的7%。她凭这么少的耕地却养活几乎占世界人口四分之一的人,真是一个了不起的成就!
This China of the plains stretches from Manchuria to Hong Kong; most of it lies eastwards, witheasy access to the ocean. Here both urban and rural areas have greatly profited from therecent economic reforms. Most of the foreign investments, the special economic zones, the newindustrial plants,are sited here. Here are the skills, the manpower, the markets, thecommunication network. Most of the universities are also here, and more than 80 percent ofthe population. Prosperity is evident-over 60 per cent of new houses in the villages, over 20per cent of families with television installed in the last ten years, large new apartment houses forurban dwellers, modem hotels...
中国平原地区从满洲里一直延伸到香港,多半位于东部,临近海洋。新近的经济改革使这里城乡地区都受惠匪浅。多数外资企业、经济特区、新兴工厂都在这一地区。这里拥有先进的技术、充足的人力、广大的市场和发达的交通网络。多数大学也在这里,还有这个国家。80%以上的人口。繁荣景象是显而易见的——农村60%以上的房屋是新建的,20%以上的家庭在过去十年中添置了电视机,城市居民住上了宽敞的新公寓,还有现代化的旅馆……
But there is the other China, 85 per cent of the total surface of the land. This China is not easilyvisited, for communication is still a problem. It stretches in an immense bow fiom North toSouth, and in it live, besides the "typical" Chinese, who call themselves the Hans, fifty-oddother races or ethnic groups called "national minorities". These hark back to China's verybeginning. With them the Hans both warred and traded; co-existed, intermarried ostracized, fornearly 5,000 years.
但是中国还有另外一部分,占国土总面积的85%。中国的这一部分出入不便,因为交通仍然是一个问题。它由北向南伸展,构成一个巨大的弓形,其中除了自称汉族的“典型”中国人之外,还居住着另外五十几个民族或种族,称为“少数民族”。这些少数民族早在中国形成之初就已存在。将近5,000年间,汉族和少数民族既有战争又有贸易,或与之共存,或与之通婚,或相互排斥。
This other China has many mountain ranges, thousand kilometre long chains stretching fromwest to east dividing the land into enclosed plateaus and basins whose rivers never reach anysea. It has many deserts; more than a million square kilometres of deserts-almost 15 per centof her total area of nine million six hundred thousand square kilometres. It has immensegrasslands and steppes, oases and salt lakes, jungles and troughs lower than the Dead SeamPalestine.
中国的这一部分有许多山脉,一座又一座绵亘千里,由西向东伸展,把土地分隔成一个个山峦环抱的高原和盆地,其中河流一向不通大海。这里有许多沙漠,沙漠面积有一百多万平方公里——几乎占国土总面积960万平方公里的15%。还有一望无际的草地和大草原,有绿洲和盐湖,有丛林和比巴勒斯坦死海还低的地槽。
This China we must lcnow in order really to know China. It is this conglomerate of manynations, mosaic of peoples, languages and customs, which shaped Chinese culture as we knowit today and it is in developing and modernising this area that her future lies.
我们要真正了解中国,就必须了解中国的这一地区。正是这个不同民族、语言、风俗荟萃的多民族聚集体,才形成了今天我们所知道的中国文化。中国的未来就在于这一地区的发展和现代化。
North, Northwest, Southwest...for administraave purposes, this other China,nearly seven millionout of the nearly ten million square kilometres of the land,is conveniently divided into regions,each one holding several provinces. I have walked, ridden,jeeped, explored this China severaltimes in the course of the last three decades. I have leamt the local names of mountains,rivers,deserts; for everything here has two names, the Han Chinese name, and the name (ornames) given by the national minorities which inhabit the area.
中国的这一地区在将近1,000万平方公里的国土中占了近700万平方公里,为了行政管理方便划分为华北、西北、西南……等几个区域,每个区域各拥有若干省份。在过去30年中,我曾数次徒步、骑马或乘吉普车考察过中国的这个地区。我学到了不少山脉、河流、沙漠的本地名称,因为这里所有的东西都有两个名称,一个是汉名,,另一个是居住在当地的少数民族给起的名称。
Mountains: the majestic Altai, whence came thudding on thick-legged Mongol ponies so manynomad hordes. The Bogden or Heaven's mountain, sitting in vast skirts of their own crumbledstone. From their slopes flow streams feeding the oases strung along the rim of inlanddeserts. The Kunlun and the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Himalayas-here Mount Everest isiknown as Chomolungma.
山脉:有巍峨的阿尔泰山,当初不知有多少游牧部落在那边登上腿脚粗壮的蒙古马,轰隆隆一路奔来;有博格多山,又称天山,坐落在山崩地裂造成的广阔地段,从山坡上淌下条条溪流,源源注入内地沙漠边缘上的一连串绿洲之中;还有昆仑山脉和喀喇昆仑山脉、帕米承山脉和喜马拉雅山脉——这里把埃非尔士峰叫做珠穆朗玛峰。
Deserts: the stone deserts of the Gobi and the Ordos, the Tanguli and Kurban Tungu and thedreadful Taklamakan.
沙漠:有戈壁滩和鄂尔多斯沙石滩,有腾格里沙漠和古尔班通古特沙漠,还有那令人生畏的塔克拉玛干沙漠。
Plateaus and basins: Dzungaria and Tarim and Tsaidam, and the Roof of the World, theimmense plateau of Tibet.
高原和盆地:有准噶尔盆地和塔里木盆地,有柴达木盆地,还有“世界屋脊”——辽阔的西藏高原。
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