英语名篇优美的段落阅读
英语的段落的学习也是很重要的，因为在学习的过程也可以学习到很多东西，所以小编今天就给大家带来了英语的优美段落，有机会的可以多多参考一下
英语优美段落一
What Is Happiness?
"Are you happy?" I asked my brother, Ian, one day.
"Yes. No. It depends on what you mean," he said.
"Then tell me," I said, "when was the last time you think you were happy?"
"April 1967," he said.
It served me right for putting a serious question to someone who has joked his way through life. But Ian's answer reminded me that when we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a 1)pinnacle of 2)sheer delight. And those pinnacles seem to get rarer the older we get.
For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in newly cut 3)hay, playing 4)cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is 5)unreserved.
In the teenage years, the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it's conditional on such things as excitement, love, popularity and whether that zit will clear up before a 6)prom night. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the ecstasy of being plucked from obscurity at another event to dance with a 7)John Travolta look-alike.
In 8)adulthood the things that bring 9)profound joy - birth, love, marriage - also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. Love may not last, loved ones die. For adults, happiness is complicated.
My dictionary defines happy as "lucky" or "fortunate", but I think a better definition of happiness is "the capacity for enjoyment". The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It's easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, even good health.
I added up my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First there was sheer bliss when I shut the last lunchbox and had the house to myself. Then I spent an 10)uninterrupted morning writing, which I love. When the kids came home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.
You never know where happiness will turn up next. When I asked friends what makes them happy, some mentioned 11)seemingly 12)insignificant moments. "I hate shopping," one friend said. "But there's this clerk who always chats and really cheers me up."
Another friend loves the telephone. "Every time it rings, I know someone is thinking about me."
We all experience moments like these. Too few of us register them as happiness.
While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn't about what happens to us; it's about how we perceive what happens to us. It's the 13)knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a 14)set-back as a challenge. It's not wishing for what we don't have, but enjoying what we do possess.
什么是幸福?
“你幸福吗?”一天我问我的兄弟伊恩。
“又幸福，又不幸福。这要看你指的是什么，”他说。
“那么告诉我，”我说，“你最近一次感到幸福是什么时候?”
“1967年4月，”他说。
向一个游戏人生的人提问这么严肃的问题，我真是自讨苦吃。但是伊恩的话启发了我，当我们考虑幸福的时候，我们通常想到一些不同寻常的事情和愉快无比的时刻，而随着年龄的增长，这种时刻是越来越少。
对于孩子来说，幸福充满了魔力。我记得在新割下的草堆里捉迷藏，在树林里扮演警察和强盗，在校剧中担当有台词的角色。当然孩子也有情绪低落的时候，但是当赢了赛跑或得到一辆新自行车时，他们流露出快乐是无可比拟、没有任何保留的。
到了少年时期，幸福观发生了变化。突然间幸福有了条件，例如：刺激、爱情、名气以及舞会前青春痘是否能消除等。我还能感受到因未被邀请去参加一个几乎人人有份的晚会所体会到的痛苦;我还记得在另一次活动中因与一位酷似约翰·屈沃塔的人跳舞而大出风头的那份激动心情。
成年时，能带来深深欢乐的事情(如出生、爱情和婚姻)，同时也带来了责任和失去的危险。爱情也许难以持久;心爱的人也许会离开人世。对于成年人来说，幸福是复杂的。我的字典把幸福定义为“幸运”或“好运”。但是我想幸福更好的定义是“享受的能力”。我们越能享受所拥有的一切，我们就越幸福。从爱与被爱、友情、随心所欲择地而居、甚至到拥有的健康，其中获得的快乐很容易被我们忽视了。
我总结了一下我昨天的幸福时刻：首先是我合上最后一个午餐饭盒，独自在家时的那种无比幸福;然后过了一个写作不受干扰的上午，令我愉快;等到孩子们回家，我享受安静的一天过后他们吵闹的声音。
你永远无法知道下一次幸福何时来临。我问朋友们什么能使他们感到幸福，一些人举出一些似乎不太重要的时刻。“我不喜欢购物，”一位朋友说，“但那里有一个爱聊天的售货员，让我感到很愉快。”
另一位朋友喜欢接电话。“每次电话铃声响，我就知道有人正想着我呢。”
我们都经历过类似的事，但视之为幸福的人寥寥无几。
虽然幸福对我们来说也许更错综复杂，但是获得幸福的途径永远是一样的。幸福不在于我们的遭遇如何，而在于我们如何看待所遭遇到的事情。这是化消极为积极、将挫折看作挑战的诀窍。幸福不是凭空许愿，而是享受拥有。
英语优美段落二
A Great Friendship
—Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison met in 1776. Could it have been any other year? They worked together starting then to 1)further the American Revolution and later to shape the new 2)scheme of government. From that work sprang a friendship perhaps 3)incomparable in 4)intimacy and the trustfulness of 5)collaboration and 6)indurations. It lasted 50 years. It included pleasure and 7)utility but over and above them, there were shared purpose, a common end and an enduring goodness on both sides. Four and a half months before he died, when he was 8)ailing, debt-ridden, and worried about his 9)impoverished family, Jefferson wrote to his longtime friend. His words and Madison's reply remind us that friends are friends until death. They also remind us that sometimes a friendship has a bearing on things larger than the friendship itself, for has there ever been a friendship of greater public 10)consequence than this one?
"The friendship which has 11)subsisted between us now half a century, the harmony of our political 12)principles and pursuits have been sources of constant happiness to me through that long period. It's also been a great 13)solace to me to believe that you're 14)engaged in 15)vindicating to 16)posterity the course that we've pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, their blessings of self-government, which we had assisted in acquiring for them. If ever the earth has beheld a system of administration 17)conducted with a single and 18)steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know 19)reproach, it is that to which our lives have been devoted. Myself, you have been a 20)pillar of support throughout life. Take care of me when dead and be assured that I shall leave with you my last 21)affections." (Feb 17, 1826)
A week later Madison replied--
"You cannot look back to the long period of our private friendship and political harmony with more 22)affecting 23)recollections than I do. If they are a source of pleasure to you, what aren't they not to be to me? We cannot 24)be deprived of the happy 25)consciousness of the pure devotion to the public good with which we 26)discharge the trust committed to us and I 27)indulge a confidence that 28)sufficient evidence will find its way to another generation to ensure, after we are gone, whatever of justice may be 29)withheld 30)whilst we are here."
伟大的友谊
——托马斯·杰斐逊和詹姆斯·麦迪逊
托马斯·杰斐逊和詹姆斯·麦迪逊相识于1776年。为什么偏偏是这一年呢?当时他们开始共同努力推动美国革命，后来又一同为政府拟订新草案。在这些合作中孕育出的友谊是亲密无间、信诚以托、坚不可摧的。这份友谊维持了五十年。当中包含有欢乐，有协作，他们更志同道合地朝共同的目标迈进，历经多年从不间断地令彼此受益。在离开人世前四个半月时，杰斐逊重病在身，债台高筑，并为家庭的贫困感到忧心如焚，于是他提笔给这位知交好友写了封信。从他的信以及麦迪逊的回复中，我们可以看到：这两个朋友是一生之交;并且有时候，他们之间的友情意义之大更超越了友情本身，这份友谊给大众带来的深远影响是前所未有的。
“你我之间的友谊迄今已经走过了半个世纪，我们在政治原则与追求上取得的协调在过去的漫漫岁月中为我带来了源源不断的快乐。我感到一大安慰的是，我相信你还在兢兢业业地致力于造福子孙后代的事业——这份事业我们曾为他们争取过，我们也努力要把他们透明自治的优良体制流传下去。希望这世界上有一种治理制度，在执行的时候专门有坚定不移的一只眼睛来审视它，监护大众利益和为之奋斗者的幸福，建立在真理基础上的制度将永远与责难无缘，我们一生所致力的也正在这里。我自己，还有你，毕生都为此鼎力支持。请你照顾我的身后之事，也请相信，我的友情永远和你同在。”(1826年2月17日)
一个星期后，麦迪逊写了回信——
“在过去的漫长岁月中，你我的友谊与一致的政治观，总令我在回想时心中无比感动。它们为你带来欢乐，对我又何尝不是如此?我们肩负人民的信任，为大众福利鞠躬尽瘁，从中获得的幸福感是难以泯灭的。我坚信，无论当前对我们的评判怎样，我们的一切贡献，身后的下一代人必将给予公断。”
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