经典的英语美文欣赏 带翻译

　　学习英语可以是一个枯燥的过程，也可以是一个有趣的过程。小编在此献上经典英语美文，希望对大家喜欢。

　　英语经典美文：无知的快乐

　　It is impossible to take a walk in the country with an average townsman—especially, perhaps, in April or May-without being amazed at the vast continent of his ignorance. It is impossible to take a walk in the country oneself without being amazed at the vast continent of one's own ignorance. Thousands of men and women live and die without knowing the difference between a beech and an elm, between the song of a thrush and the song of a blackbird. Probably in a modern city the man who can distinguish between a thrush's and a blackbird's song is the exception. It is not that we have not seen the birds. It is simply that we have not noticed them. We have been surrounded by birds all our lives, yet so feeble is our observation that many of us could not tell whether or not the chaffinch sings, or the colour of the cuckoo.

　　和一个普通的城里人在乡村漫步—特别是，可能在四五月份——你不可能不对他无知的领域之广而感到惊讶。一个人去乡间散步，你不可能不对自己无知的领域之广而感到惊讶。成千上万的男男女女活着然后死去，一辈子也不知道山毛榉和榆树之间有什么区别，不知道画眉和黑鹂的啼鸣有什么不同。现代都市中能辨别画眉和黑鹂叫声的人大概是极其罕见的。并非我们没有见过这两种鸟儿，仅仅是因为我们从不去注意它们。我们一生中都有鸟儿生活在我们周围，然而我们的观察力是如此微弱，以致我们中间许多人弄不清楚苍头燕雀是否全唱歌，说不出布谷鸟是什么颜色。

　　This ignorance, however, is not altogether miserable. Out of it we get the constant pleasure of discovery. Every fact of nature comes to us each spring, if only we are sufficiently ignorant, with the dew still on it. If we have lived half a lifetime without having ever even seen a cuckoo, and know it only as a wandering voice, we are all the more delighted at the spectacle of its runaway flight as it hurries from wood to wood conscious of its crimes, and at the way in which it halts hawk-like in the wind, its long tail quivering, before it dares descend on a hill-side of fir-trees where avenging presences may lurk.

　　然而，这种无知并不完全是不幸的。从无知中，我们能源源不断地获取发现带来的喜悦。但愿我们真的一无听知，那么每到春天，各种自然现象就会带着清新的露珠呈现在我们眼前。如果我们已生活半生，甚至未曾见过一只布谷鸟，而仅仅把它当成一个四处飘荡的声音，那么.当我们亲眼目睹它因为自知自己的罪恶在林木间匆匆逃离穿梭，看到它如何如鹰般在风中骤然停止鸣叫，摆动着瑟瑟发抖的长尾翼，不敢在小山旁的冷杉上停歇，担心那里危机四伏时，我们一定会更加欣喜。

　　It would be absurd to pretend that the naturalist does not also find pleasure in observing the life of the birds, but his is a steady pleasure, almost a sober and plodding occupation, compared to the morning enthusiasm of the man who sees a cuckoo for the first time. And, as to that, the happiness even of the naturalist depends in some measure upon his ignorance, which still leaves him new worlds of this kind to conquer.He may have reached the very Z of knowledge in the books, but he still feels half ignorant until he has confirmed each bright particular with his eyes. Assuredly the men of science have no reason as yet to weep over their lost ignorance. There will always be a fortune of ignorance waiting for them under every fact they turn up.

　　如果假设博物学家在观察鸟类的生活时发现不到乐趣，那是荒谬可笑的。和清晨有人第一次看到布谷鸟的兴奋相比，博物学家的快乐是稳固的，他们的工作是严肃和漫长的。为此，甚至是博物学家的幸福在某种程度上也取决他的无知，无知给他留下这类新天地让他去征服。他的书本知识可能已经达到了顶峰，但是，在他亲眼证实每一个光辉的细节之前，他仍然感到自己是半无知的，无疑，科学家们迄今没有理由为他们错过的无知而哭泣。在他们发掘出的每一个事实下面总将会有一笔无知的财富在等待着他们。

　　But your and my ignorance is not confined to cuckoos. It dabbles in all created things, from the sun and moon down to the names of the flowers, including nearly everything you and I have taken for granted. One of the greatest joys known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen. Do not forget that Socrates. was famed for wisdom not because he was omniscient but because he realised at the age of seventy that he still knew nothing. Once more I shall see the world as a garden through the eyes of a stranger, my breath taken away with surprise by the painted fields.

　　但是，你我的无知绝不仅仅局限于布谷鸟，它涉及所有的创造物，上到太阳和月亮，下到百花的名称，几乎包括所有你我认为是理所当然的事物。人类感受过的最大快乐之一就是迅速逃到无知中去追求知识。无知的巨大乐趣，归根结底，是提问的乐趣。已经失去了这种快乐的人，或已经用这种快乐去换取教条的乐趣(即回答问题的乐趣)的人，已经开始僵化。不要忘记苏格拉底之所以以智慧闻名于世，并不是因为他无所不知而是因为他在70岁的时候认识到他还什么都不知道.而我将再一次用陌生人的眼光来审视这个花园一样的世界，每当我看到那如画的田野，我都将惊叹不已。

　　美文欣赏：同情心：学会理解别人的痛苦和挣扎

　　We've all heard the quote, 'Be Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.'

　　我们都听过这句话：“要善良，因为你遇到的每个人都在经历某种痛苦。”

　　My husband and son died within two years of each other. From my personal experience, I believe that if we aren't careful, grief can become a rather self-involved process in which we can become so focused on our own suffering that we miss the opportunity to connect with, and possibly bring comfort to, someone else who may be going through a similar experience.

　　我的丈夫和儿子两年内相继去世。从我的个人经验来看，我相信我们一不小心就会被伤痛左右，以自己为中心，我们会变得过于关注自己的痛苦，而错失和正经历相似痛苦的人接触的机会，也无法给予他们安慰。

　　Six months after my husband died, I was sinking in the quicksand of grief. I could not pull myself out of the misery.

　　那时，我真的认为自己的生活要比身边任何人都不容易。生活给我上了完美的一课，通过这次不幸我认清了一个事实：顾影自怜使我看不到别人，只看到自己。

　　In that moment, I actually believed that my life was more difficult than anyone else around me. Life handed me a perfectly wrapped lesson that opened my eyes to the fact that through my suffering I had allowed myself to become blinded by my self-pity.

　　我在健康出现问题时吸取了这个教训。我的外科手术引发了并发症，最终住院4天。那段时期我极其痛苦，身体的疼痛和精神上的伤痛把我夹在中间，我的生活一团糟。

　　The lesson presented itself in a health crisis. I had complications from a surgical procedure and ended up being hospitalized for four days. I was in an extreme amount of pain during this time. Between the physical pain and the emotional pain of grief, I was an absolute mess.

　　我也应该告诉你我是一名注册护士。对护士而言，很难接受自己成为病人并进行药物治疗这种事。

　　I should also tell you that I am a Registered Nurse. As a nurse, it is hard to be on the receiving end of medicine as the patient.

　　住院的前三个晚上同一位护士护理我。她挺年轻，可能快30岁。头两个晚上几乎不怎么跟我说话，除了定期来给我送药。很明显她不知道我精神上有多痛苦。问问你的病人感觉怎么样能有多难?我认定她是不合格的护士，缺乏同情心，而且我依然沉浸在自己精神和身体的痛苦中。

　　The first three nights that I was in the hospital, the same nurse took care of me. She was young, maybe in her mid to late 20s, and she hardly interacted with me at all the first two nights, other than to give my medications as scheduled. She obviously had no idea how much emotional pain I was in. How hard is it to ask your patient how she's feeling? I wrote her off as a bad nurse who had little empathy, and remained absorbed in my own emotional and physical pain.

　　第三天晚上这个年轻的护士开始打开了话匣子，她问我感觉怎样(终于问了!)。我告诉她我正挣扎于沮丧和痛苦之中，因为我丈夫死于一场飞机事故。

　　The third night the young nurse was a little more talkative. She asked me how I was feeling (finally!). I told her that I was struggling with depression and grief because my husband had died in an airplane accident.

　　她看着我，跟我说她丈夫就在两个月前刚刚去世。我有点不知所措，说不出话，我被惊到了!

　　She looked at me and told me that her husband had died too, just two months earlier. I was stunned. Speechless. Shocked.

　　Never, in any of the possibilities that my mind entertained of why this nurse was so stand-offish with me, did I even consider that she might be in the same pain I was. Not only was she grieving as I was, but she was having to take care of me, instead of caring for herself and her family.

　　我从未想过她对我如此冷淡会是因为这个，我甚至都没想过她可能会有同样的痛苦。她不仅和我一样悲痛，而且还要照顾我，而不是照顾她自己和家人。

　　我们继续讨论分享我们丈夫和孩子的事，我觉着我们那天晚上都给了彼此一点帮助。

　　We went on to talk and share our stories about our late husbands and children. I like to think that we helped each other a bit that night.

　　我们之间的共同点比我想的要多，我们都成了单亲妈妈，孩子都还小，而且都是护士。但也就这些了，她丈夫没有保险，家里经济来源很少，她就靠着一点工资养活家里的男孩儿们。我觉着自愧不如，我意识到自己该有多知足。坦白说，这次经历改变了我对生活的看法。

　　We had much more in common than I would have believed. We were both widowed single moms with young children, and nurses. But, that was where the similarities ended. Her husband had no insurance policy. She had very little family support. She was working paycheck to paycheck to support her boys. I was humbled. I realized how much I had to be grateful for. And, frankly, I never saw life the same way after this experience.

　　这次的经历改变了我的生活，之前我总是对自己的同情心引以为傲，但现在我意识到了我根本没理解同情的真谛。

　　This experience was a life-changing event for me. I had always prided myself on being an empathetic person, but I realize now that I had not really understood what being empathetic meant.

　　想要具备真正的同情心，你的眼光必须超越你自己的伤痛，以局外人的角度看待自己的痛苦。从那之后，我看待别人的眼光也不一样了。

　　To truly be empathetic, you must be able to see beyond your own pain to be witness to the pain. I never looked at another person in the same way after this experience.

　　杂货店的收银员结账时有点粗鲁，好像还很着急?谁知道他今天、或者这周、或者这一生发生了什么呢?可能他最近失去了爱人或孩子，可能他蒙受了很多损失，我无法知晓他经历了什么。我是谁呀，怎么能去评判他呢?

　　The cashier checking me out at the grocery store who seemed rude and in a hurry? Who knows what was going on in his day, week, life? Maybe he recently lost a spouse or a child. Maybe he has experienced compounded losses. I had no way of knowing what this man was going through. Who was I to judge him?

　　有些事情我要感谢死亡，它教会了我同情身边人，使我知道了我们都经受着某种痛苦，而有些是别人看不到的。这些都是死亡馈赠给我的，我会永远心存感激。

　　I thank death for very few things. The gift of empathy for my fellow man, and understanding that we all suffer in ways that aren't always visible, are presents from death that I will always be grateful for.

　　Always take the time to be kind. Even when you're suffering with your own pain. And don't assume that someone else has it easier than you. You never know the battles someone else is fighting.

　　英语经典美文：孤独

　　I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.To be in company,even with the best, is soon wearisome. 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. beacause 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 ire his. and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.

　　大部分时候，我发现独处都是有益于健康的。有人陪伴，即使是最好的同伴，不久也会心生厌烦，兴致将消散。我爱独处。我没有遇见比孤独更好的伴侣了。我们置身国外，立行人群之中，通常比独处室内更加寂寞。一个思考着的或工作着的人总是孤独的，就让他去他想去的地方吧。孤独不是以和同伴之间的距离里程来衡量的。真正勤奋的学生，在剑桥学院一个拥挤的蜂房里，就像沙漠中的苦行僧一样孤单。农夫可以整日在田间或林中独自工作，耕地或者伐木，却并不感到寂寞，因为他有活儿干;可是当他晚上回到家中，却不能在房间坐下独自思考，而必须去“能看到乡亲”的地方消遣娱乐，正如他所想的，去补偿他五天的孤寂;因此他不明白学生如何可以整日整夜地独坐在家里，而不感到倦怠和“优郁”;但他没有意识到，学生虽然身处室内，却依然在自己的田野上耕耘，在自己的森林中采伐.就像农夫在他的田地林间工作一样，之后学生也和农夫一样要去寻求消遣，山要去交朋结友，只是娱乐方式可能更加简明一些。

　　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 mushy 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.

　　社会交际往往极其廉价。我们相聚的时间十分短暂,没有足够的时间让彼此获得任何有价值的新事物。我们在一日三餐的时候见面，我们就如陈腐的奶略，却让彼此相互品尝出新味道。我们必须一致同意若干条规则，也就是我们所谓的礼节和礼貌，使这种经常的聚会相安无事，我们还要一致同意我们没有争吵的必要。我们在邮局碰面，在社交场合碰面，每天晚上在炉火边碰面;我们生活得很拥挤，相互干扰，彼此牵绊，我想，我们因此失去了对彼此的尊重。当然，所有重要的、真诚的沟通，次数少一些就足够了。想一想工厂里的女工——永远不会独处，甚至在梦中也难得是独自一人。如果一平方英里只有一个居民，就像我这样，那要好多了。一个人的价值不在于他的外在。