英文散文(英文经典散文)

However mean your life is,meet it and live it ;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you

are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as

it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is

reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts

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before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have

as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives

of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above

being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by

dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not

trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do

not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

不论你的生活如何卑贱，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有

的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至

在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一

样光亮；在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心

满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，

所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的，不靠城镇来支援他们；可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当

的手段来对付生活，好迟毁他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷旦绝如园中之花而像圣人一样耕友备植它吧！不

要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在

变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你的思想。

A Brother’s Miracle

Tess was a precocious eight-year-old when she heard her Mom and Dad talking about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very sick and they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment complex next month because Daddy didn’t have the money for the doctor’s bills and our house. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and it was looking like there was no-one to loan them the money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful Mother with whispered desperation, “Only a miracle can save him now.”

Tess went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be absolutely exact. No chance here for mistakes. Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the pharmacy with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.

She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good.

Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter. That did it! “世链And what do you want?” the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. “I’颤返扰m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen in ages,”茄旦 he said without waiting for a reply to his question.

“Well, I want to talk to you about my brother,” Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. “He’s really, really sick… and I want to buy a miracle.”

“I beg your pardon?” said the pharmacist.

“His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?”

“We don’t sell miracles here, little girl. I’m sorry but I can’t help you,” the pharmacist said, softening a little.

“Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs.”

The pharmacist’s brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, “What kind of a miracle does your brother need?”

“I don’t know,” Tess replied with her eyes welling up. “I just know he’s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can’t pay for it, so I want to use my money.”

“How much do you have?” asked the man from Chicago. “One dollar and eleven cents,” Tess answered barely audibly. “And it’s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to.”

“Well, what a coincidence,” smiled the man. “A dollar and eleven cents C the exact price of a miracle for little brothers.”

He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said “Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”

That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neurosurgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well.

Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place. “That surgery,” her Mom whispered. “was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?”

Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost…one dollar and eleven cents…plus the faith of a little child.

Once a circle missed a wedge1. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around2 looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete3 and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated4 the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or talking to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

The lesson of the story, I suggested, was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn5, to hope, to nourish6 his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted or never had.

There is a wholeness7 about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of is unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through8 a tragedy9 and survive, who can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

Life is not a trap10 set for us by God so that he can condemn11 us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee12, where no matter how many words you’ve gotten right, you’re dis-qualified13 if you make one mistake. Life is more like a base-ball season, where even the best team loses one-third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance14. Our goal is to win more games than we lose.

When we accept that imperfection15 is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved16 a wholeness that others can only aspire17 to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us—not “Be perfect”, not “Don’t even make a mistake”, but “Be whole.”

If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive18, generous enough to rejoice19 in another’s happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment20 that no other living creature21 will ever know.

1、wedge：n．楔子，三角木；

2、go around：四处走动，四处旅行；

3、incomplete：adj．不完整的；

4、incorporate：vt．加上，使并入；

5、yearn：vi．渴望，思慕；

6、nourish：vt．滋养，培育；

7、wholeness：n．完好无损；

8、go through：遭受，经历苦难（等）；

9、tragedy：n．悲剧，（一出）悲剧；

10、trap：n．陷阱；

11、condemn：vt．谴贵；

12、spelling bee：[美]拼单词比赛；

13、disqualify：vt．使不合格，淘汰；

14、brilliance：n．光辉，光彩；

15、imperfection：n．不完美；

16、achieve：vt．完成，实现；

17、aspire：vi．渴望，追求；

18、forgive：vt．宽恕；

19、rejoice：vi．感到高兴；

20、fulfillment：n．实现；

21、creature：n．人。

我觉得挺有哲理的，看看