英語六級美文欣賞

　　一：The wisdom of one word 改變一生的邂逅

　　Isn’t it amazing how one person, sharing one idea, at the right time and place can change the course of your life’s history? This is certainly what happened in my life. When I was 14, I was hitchhiking from Houston, Texas, through El Paso on my way to California. I was following my dream, journeying with the sun. I was a high school dropout with learning disabilities and was set on surfing the biggest waves in the world, first in California and then in Hawaii, where I would later live.

　　Upon reaching downtown El Paso, I met an old man, a bum, on the street corner. He saw me walking, stopped me and questioned me as I passed by. He asked me if I was running away from home, I suppose because I looked so young. I told him, "Not exactly, sir," since my father had given me a ride to the freeway in Houston and given me his blessings while saying, "It is important to follow your dream and what is in your heart, Son.”

　　The bum then asked me if he could buy me a cup of coffee. I told him, "No, sir, but a soda would be great." We walked to a corner malt4 shop and sat down on a couple of swiveling stools while we enjoyed our drinks.

　　After conversing for a few minutes, the friendly bum told me to follow him. He told me that he had something grand to show me and share with me. We walked a couple of blocks until we came upon the downtown El Paso Public Library.

　　We walked up its front steps and stopped at a small information stand. Here the bum spoke to a smiling old lady, and asked her if she would be kind enough to watch my things for a moment while he and I entered the library. I left my belongings with this grandmotherly figure and entered into this magnificent hall of learning.

　　The bum first led me to a table and asked me to sit down and wait for a moment while he looked for something special amongst the shelves. A few moments later, he returned with a couple of old books under his arms and set them on the table. He then sat down beside me and spoke. He started with a few statements that were very special and that changed my life. He said, "There are two things that I want to teach you, young man, and they are these:

　　"Number one is to never judge a book by its cover, for a cover can fool you." He followed with, "I’ll bet you think I m a bum, don t you, young man?"

　　I said, "Well, uh, yes, I guess so, sir."

　　"Well, young man, I’ve got a little surprise for you. I am one of the wealthiest men in the world. I have probably everything any man could ever want. I originally come from the Northeast and have all the things that money can buy. But a year ago, my wife passed away, bless her soul, and since then I have been deeply reflecting upon life. I realized there were certain things I had not yet experienced in life, one of which was what it would be like to live like a bum on the streets. I made a commitment to myself to do exactly that for one year. For the past year, I have been going from city to city doing just that. So, you see, don’t ever judge a book by its cover, for a cover can fool you.

　　"Number two is to learn how to read, my boy. For there is only one thing that people can’t take away from you, and that is your wisdom." At that moment, he reached forward, grabbed my right hand in his and put them upon the books he d pulled from the shelves. They were the writings of Plato and Aristotle-immortal classics from ancient times.

　　The bum then led me back past the smiling old woman near the entrance, down the steps and back on the streets near where we first met. His parting request was for me to never forget what he taught me.

　　Bum n. 游蕩者, 游民, 鬧飲 adj. 無價值的 vi. 過游民生活, 免費得到, 流浪 vt. 乞討

　　如果一個人，在適當的時候和地方因為一句話而改變了他的人生歷程，你會感到驚異和不可思議嗎？然而這的確是千真萬確的，它就發生在我14歲那年。那時，我正在從得克薩斯州的休斯敦，經由愛坡索市前往加利福尼亞州去的旅途中。日出即行，日落即息；癡癡地追尋著我的夢想。我本來在讀高中，也許我天生就不是讀書的材料，因此我不得不中途輟學。隨即我決心要到世界上最大的海浪上去沖浪，先準備到加利福尼亞州，再到夏威夷，然后我準備就在那里住下來。

　　在剛進入愛坡索市區的時候，我看到有一個老頭，一個流浪者，坐在街道的拐角處。他看見了走路的我，當我就要從他的旁邊走過去時，他攔住了我，并開口向我發問。他問我是不是偷著從家里跑出來的，我想他這么問我一定是看我太年輕，覺得我太嫩的緣故。"不完全是，先生，"因為是我爸爸開車把我送到休斯敦的高速公路上的，他還一邊為我祝福，一邊說："兒子，追尋你的夢想和心中的憧憬非常重要。"

　　然后那個流浪者問我他能請我喝咖啡嗎？我回答說："不，先生，一杯汽水就可以了。"

　　于是，我們走進街道拐角處的一家酒吧，坐在一雙轉椅上，喝著飲料。

　　在閑聊了幾分鐘后，這個和藹可親的老流浪漢要我跟他走。他告訴我說他有一樣大東西給我看，要與我分享。我們走過了幾個街區，來到了愛坡索市的公立圖書館。

　　我們沿著它前面的臺階向上走，在一處小小的咨詢臺前停了下來。老流浪漢向一位笑容可掬的老太太說了幾句話，并問她是否愿意在他和我進圖書館時幫忙照看一下我的行李。我把行李放在那位老奶奶般的人那里，走進了那座宏偉的學習殿堂。

　　老流浪漢先把我帶到一張桌子前，讓我坐下來稍等片刻，而他則到那些林立的書架中去尋找那個特別重要的東西去了。不一會兒，他腋下夾著幾本舊書回來了。他把書放到桌子上，然后他在我的身邊坐了下來，打開了話匣子，出口便不凡，其話語非常特別，改變了我一生的命運。他說："年輕人，我想教你兩件事，就是：第一是切記不要從封面來判斷一本書的好壞，因為封面有時也會蒙騙你。"他接著說道："我敢打賭，你一定認為我是個老流浪漢，是不是？年輕人。"

　　我說："嗯，是的，先生，我想是的。"

　　"嗯，年輕人，我要給你一個小驚喜：其實我是這個世界上最富有的人之一，人們夢寐以求的任何東西我幾乎都有。我最初從美國東北部來，凡是金錢能買到的東西，我全都有。但是一年前，我妻子死了，愿上帝保祐她的在天之靈，從那以后，我開始深深地反思人生的意義。我意識到，生活中有些東西我還沒有體驗過，其中之一就是做一個沿街乞討的流浪漢滋味如何。于是我對自己發誓要像流浪漢一樣活一年。在過去的一年里，我從一個城市流浪到另一個城市，就像流浪漢一樣生活。所以，你看，切記不要從封面來判斷一本書的好壞，因為封面有時也會蒙騙你。"

　　"第二，我的孩子，是要學會如何讀書。因為這個世界上只有一種東西是別人無法從你的身上拿走的，那，就是你的智慧！"說到這，他俯身向著我，抓住我的右手放在他從書架中找到的書上。那是柏拉圖和亞里士多德的著作--從古至今已經流傳了幾千年的不朽的經典。

　　二： To be or not to be

　　Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: "I think, therefore am."

　　But the best definition of existence ever saw did another philosopher who said: "To be is to be in relations." If this true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interest-ed only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead.

　　Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest--even more, a new accomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy; the real pessimist is the person who has lost interest.

　　Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, new friends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your live be also. If your thoughts are confined only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow cir-conscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you are living in China~ if you’re interested in the characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly interesting people, if you listen intently to fine music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination.

　　To be or not to be--to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let live!

　　三、Dreams 夢想

　　When we were young, we had dreams and expectations. We imagine things; we keep thinking about what we want to be, what we want to do, what makes us proud and happy and what will we become.

　　We grew up, and things seemed like having their own way. We accept our success or failures and we move on. The rapid change, the need to do the urgent things, the works, the pressures and the failures, all kill part of our visions.

　　Things have changed, but they cannot really take away the dreams. We still have to dream on, to visualize our desires, our wants, our vision of our future, even when we are considered too old for such things.

　　Cornell Sanders started his business when he was sixty, and started the whole successful KFC business. The main thing is not the age whether being too old, or too young, but it is the desire to dream on, and the courage to realize it.

　　The ability to dream on is one of the fine qualities of human race that other species do not possess. So dream on, and put a deadline: make it a giant dream, a tiny one, an old everlasting one, a new-found one, a hobby-related one, a change of life one, a religious one, a stupid one, a stroke of genius one, or just whatever... just continue to dream on... Then, Just Go and Do It!

　　四：We Were Dear to Each Other 相親相愛

　　Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.

　　And yellow leaves of autumn,which have no songs,flutter and fall there with a sign.

　　O Troupe of little vagrants of the world,leave your footprints in my words.

　　The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover.

　　It becomes small as one song,as one kiss of the eternal.

　　It is the tears of the earth that keep her smiles in bloom.

　　The mighty desert is burning for the love of a blade of grass who shakes her head and laughs and flies away.

　　If you shed tears when you miss the sun,you also miss the stars.

　　The sands in your way beg for your song and your movement,dancing water,Will you carry the burden of their lameless?

　　Her wishful face haunts my dreams like the rain at night.

　　Once we dreamt that we were strangers.

　　We wake up to find that we were dear to each other.

　　夏天的飛鳥,飛到我的窗前唱歌,又飛去了。

　　秋天的黃葉,它們沒有什么可唱,只嘆息了一聲,飛落在那里。

　　世界上的一小隊小小的漂泊者呀,請留下你們的腳印在我的文字里。

　　世界對著它的愛人,把它浩瀚的面具揭了下來。

　　它變小了,小如一首歌,小如一回永恒的吻。

　　是大地的淚點,使她的微笑保持著青春不謝。

　　無垠的沙漠熱烈地追求一葉綠草的愛,她搖搖頭笑著飛開了。

　　如果你因失去了太陽而流淚,那么你也將將失去群星了。

　　跳著舞的流水呀,在你途中的泥沙,要求你的歌聲,你的歡跳.你肯挾痂足的泥沙而俱下么?

　　她的熱切的臉,如夜雨似的,攪擾著我的夢魂。

　　有一次,我們夢見大家都是不認識的。

　　我們醒了,卻知道我們是相親相愛的。

　　五:Prometheus 普羅米修斯

　　Prometheus was a Titan ．In the war between Zeus the giants he had stood on the side of the new Olympian gods．Out of the clay he made the first man，to whom Athena gave soul and holy breath．Prometheus spent a lot of time and energy in creating the gift of fire．The fire raised man above all animals ．Later，there held a joint meeting of gods and men．The meeting was to decide what part of burnt animals should be given to gods and what to men．Prometheus cut up an ox and divided it into two parts：under the skin he placed the fresh，and under the fat he put the bones，for he knew the selfish Zeus loved fat．

　　Zeus saw through the trick and felt displeased at the Prometheus' favor towards men．So in a masterful way he took away the gift of fire from mankind．However，Prometheus managed to steal fire from heaven and secretly brought it down to men．Flying into an anger at this unjustified act of rebellion，Zeus let the other gods chain Prometheus to a rock on Mountain Caucasus，where a hungry eagle ever tore at his liver which ever grew again．His period of pain was to be thirty-thousand years．Prometheus faced his bitter fate firmly and never lost courage before Zeus．At last Heracles made Prometheus and Zeus restore to friend ship，when Heracles came over in search of the golden apple and killed the eagle and set the friend of mankind free．

　　普羅米修斯

　　普羅米修斯是泰坦巨人之一。在宙斯與巨人的戰爭中，他站在新的奧林波斯山神一邊。他用粘土造出了第一個男人。雅典娜賦予了這個男人靈魂和神圣的生命。普羅米修斯還花費了很多時間和精力創造了火，并將之贈予人類。火使人成為萬物之靈。在這之后，舉行了第一次神與人的聯席會議。這個會議將決定燒烤過的動物的哪一部分該分給神，哪一部分該給人類。普羅米修斯切開一頭牛，把它分成兩部分：他把肉放在皮下，將骨頭放在肥肉下。因為他知道自私的宙斯愛吃肥肉。宙斯看穿了他的把戲。普羅米修斯偏袒人類，這使宙斯感到不快。因此，他專橫地把火從人類手中奪走。然而，普羅米修斯設法竊走了天火，偷偷地把它帶給人類。宙斯對他這種肆無忌憚的違抗行為大發雷霆。他令其他的山神把普羅米修斯用鎖鏈縛在高加索山脈的一塊巖石上。一只饑餓的老鷹天天來啄食他的肝臟，而他的肝臟又總是重新長出來。他的痛苦要持續三萬年。而他堅定地面對苦難，從來不在宙斯面前喪失勇氣。最后，海格立斯使普羅米修斯與宙斯恢復了他們的友誼，找到了金蘋果，殺死了老鷹，因而解救了人類的老朋友。

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