读书使人充实的英语小短文

Reading makes a full man is a saying of the famous English philosopher Francis Bacon.It means that anyone who wants to be a full man must keep on reading.

　　A full man may be defined as one who has a mind filled with ideas, or one who is stocked with knowledge. Certainly school education can fill the young minds with a certain amount of ideas and knowledge. But to think that the ideas and knowledge thus taught make a full man is a mistake. Evidently, no one can say that he is a full man because he is a graduate of a middle school or even a university.

　　Then can such ideas and knowledge be obtained through experience? Indeed, from experience we get new ideas and knowledge. But to suppose that ideas and knowledge thus acquired make a full man is also a mistake. A carpenter's experience is different from a smith's and a smith's is different from a barber' s. Obviously, the statement that experience can make a full man does not hold water, either.

　　Thus, we see that the real factor by which a full man is made includes not only education and experience, but also reading. By reading scientific books, we are informed of many facts; by reading geography, we know the earth's surface, forms, physical features, etc.; by reading history, we are told of the growth of the nations. It is by reading that we can learn many things without actually seeing or hearing them.

　　Therefore, no matter how high our education may be or how much experience we may have, we cannot become a full man unless we keep reading.