Eliminate Internal Negative Chatter
The first step is one of awareness. It will be hard to make a change to positive thinking without being acutely intimate with the thoughts that run through your mind. Recently, I was amazed to discover deep buried emotions from negative thoughts that I had for fewer than 10 minutes. Without awareness, I would have carried the hurt and anger inside. Awareness helped me to bring them out to the open for me to deal with.
Undoubtedly it will not be easy to make a switch if you have a long history or negative self talk. Your talk became negative over the years due to various factors. For instance, if your first grade teacher repeatedly told you that you were stupid, you might believe it to be truly the case. You would find that your inner chatter would often be filled with talk of I am so slow and it is so hard to learn. If you constantly tell yourself such negative stories, your actions are going to reflect your low self esteem. It will be difficult to get very far if you are always putting yourself down.
A common negative talk involves telling yourself I can’t. When you say to yourself I can’t or it is too difficult, you are creating a resistance. Having such a mental block will prevent you from achieving a task you could otherwise succeed at.
Anytime you catch yourself saying I can’t, turn around and challenge your own claim with, Why can’t I? Research shows that most geniuses became the people they are also because of the hard work they put in. So if you would like to be successful, you need to start saying I can a lot more.
A great method that I have also found useful is to say Cancel Cancel each time I find myself saying something negative, whether in the mind or verbally. The method works if you sincerely have the intent of becoming a positive thinker.
英语文章摘抄 （二）
positive Affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements of a desired outcome or goal. They are usually short, believable and focused. By repeating them over and over again, you build inroads into your subconscious mind, opening up the possibility of a new state of thoughts.
An important step when repeating affirmations is that you need to read your affirmations aloud with feeling. The mere reading of the words bears no consequence unless you put some emotions behind them. Of significant fact is that your subconscious mind takes any orders given in complete faith and after repeated self talk. So the daily practice of repeating affirmations is important.
Initially you may be skepticism toward the statement of your positive affirmation. However, if you follow this simple set of instructions your skepticism will soon give way to a new set of beliefs and then crystallized into absolute faith.
英语文章摘抄 （三）
positive Scripts
One thing that you may observe is on how easy it is for your mind to build negative thought upon negative thought. The chatter not only does not stop but it spins a drama that traps and limits you.
From now on, regularly do this exercise instead. Spin an uplifting story that runs like a movie script. Some visualization will be helpful. You build on a story with a positive outline. The longer you can tell this story to yourself the better. It is also best if you can make this story one about having all your goals achieved. When you do this, you start to internalize your goals and dreams, as if they are something that you have already achieved.
摘抄包括日常意义上的摘抄与教学意义上的摘抄。根据是否满足基本要求,摘抄的价值有正面与负面之分。摘抄与习作的关系主要体现在摘抄提供的知识、素材、语言材料积累以及篇章写法熟识等方面对习作的价值。我精心收集了超经典英语美文，供大家欣赏学习!
Watch the world go by
I was sitting outside my new home yesterday (we just moved last week, and we love the new place), watching the world go by.
There were people in cars, in a hurry to get to their next appointment. There were birds flying by, insects just as busy as the people in cars, plants and weeds thriving in the humid(潮湿的) Guam climate.
Inside the house, my children were also busy, as ever, making a mess of the house (which my wife and I would soon clean up), getting into things, their natural curiosity overpowering our previous pleas for them not to play with lotion(洗液，洗涤剂) or take things apart.
The sky was slightly overcast and there was a cool breeze, quite strong and pleasant actually.
It's not often that most of us just sit quietly, and allow the world to pass us by.
Why not?
What is so important that it can't wait until later? What email must be answered right this moment? Do we really need to read all those articles online, all those messages from others, all those newspapers and magazines? Do we need to have the television and radio and Internet on all the time?
Is life passing us by as we keep our minds super-busy? Are we missing out on the beautiful world around us as we constantly think about the future - what we need to do, our anxieties about what might happen - and the past - what we did wrong, what someone else did to us, what we said, what should have happened?
When was the last time you just sat, and observed? Why not do it today?
生命中的片段
When he told me he was leaving I felt like a vase which has just smashed. There were pieces of me all over the tidy, tan(棕褐色) tiles. He kept talking, telling me why he was leaving, explaining it was for the best, I could do better, it was his fault and not mine. I had heard it before many times and yet somehow was still not immune; perhaps one did not become immune to such felony(重罪).
He left and I tried to get on with my life. I filled the kettle and put it on to boil, I took out my old red mug and filled it with coffee watching as each coffee granule(颗粒) slipped in to the bone china. That was what my life had been like, endless omissions of coffee granules, somehow never managing to make that cup of coffee.
Somehow when the kettle piped its finishing warning I pretended not to hear it. That's what Mike's leaving had been like, sudden and with an awful finality. I would rather just wallow in uncertainty than have things finished. I laughed at myself. Imagine getting all philosophical and sentimental about a mug of coffee. I must be getting old.
And yet it was a young woman who stared back at me from the mirror. A young woman full of promise and hope, a young woman with bright eyes and full lips just waiting to take on the world. I never loved Mike anyway. Besides there are more important things. More important than love, I insist to myself firmly. The lid goes back on the coffee just like closure on the whole Mike experience.
He doesn't haunt my dreams as I feared that night. Instead I am flying far across fields and woods, looking down on those below me. Suddenly I fall to the ground and it is only when I wake up that I realize I was shot by a hunter, brought down by the burden of not the bullet but the soul of the man who shot it. I realize later, with some degree of understanding, that Mike was the hunter holding me down and I am the bird that longs to fly. The next night my dream is similar to the previous nights, but without the hunter. I fly free until I meet another bird who flies with me in perfect harmony. I realize with some relief that there is a bird out there for me, there is another person, not necessarily a lover perhaps just a friend, but there is someone out there who is my soul mate. I think about being a broken vase again and realize that I have glued myself back together, what Mike has is merely a little part of my time in earth, a little understanding of my physical being. He has only, a little piece of me.
谁能拒绝12次微笑呢?
A passenger told an air hostess that he needed a cup of water to take his medicine when the plane just took off. She told him that she would bring him the water in ten minutes.
Thirty minutes later, when the passenger's ring for service sounded, the air hostess flew in a flurry. She was kept so busy that she forgot to deliver him the water. As a result, the passenger was held up to take his medicine. She hurried over to him with a cup of water, but he refused it.
In the following hours on the flight, each time the stewardess passed be the passenger she would ask him with a smile whether he needed help or not. But the passenger never paid heed to(注意) her.
When he was going to get off the plane, the passenger asked the stewardess to hand him the passengers' booklet. She was very sad. She knew that he would write down sharp words, but with a smile she handed it to him.
Off the plane, she opened the booklet, and cracked a smile(展颜微笑), for the passenger put it, "On the flight, you asked me whether I need help or not for twelve times in all. How can I refuse your twelve sincere smiles?"
That's right! Who can refuse your twelve sincere smiles from a person?
美文,大概就是美的化身,它是一种情感,一种体验和一种表达。下面是我带来的经典英语美文摘抄，欢迎阅读!
经典英语美文摘抄篇一
什么东西比金钱更重要
It is physically impossible for a well-educated intellectual, or brave man to make money the chief object① of his thoughts; as physically impossible as it is for him to make his dinner the principal object of them.
一个受过良好 教育 、有头脑的、有胆识的人完全不可能将金钱当作他考虑的主要对象，正如他完全不可能将美餐当做他主要考虑对象一样。
All healthy people like their dinner, but their dinner is not the mainobject of their lives. So all healthy-minded people like making money--ought to like it and to enjoy the sensation② of winning; but the main object of their lives is not money; it is something better than money.
所有健康的人都喜欢享用美餐，但美餐并不是他们生活的主要目标。同样道理，所有思想健全的人都喜欢挣钱--喜欢并体验挣到钞票的兴奋感是正当的;然而，他们生活的主要目标并不是金钱，而是比金钱更珍贵的东西。
A good soldier, for instance③, mainly wishes to do his fighting well. He is glad of his pay--very properly so --and justly grumbles④ when you keep him ten months without it; still, his main notion⑤ of life is to win battles, not to be paid for winning them.
例如，一位优秀的士兵主要想打好仗。他为自己的薪饷感到高兴--完全合乎情理;假如，你扣发他十个月军饷，他发牢骚理所应当。不过，他的人生主要目标仍然是打胜仗，并非为了薪饷而打胜仗。
So too of doctors. They like fees no doubt--ought to like them; yet the entire object of their lives is not fees. They, on the whole desire to cure the sick, would rather cure their patients and lose their fee than kill them and get it. And so with all other brave and rightly trained men: their work is first, their fee is second, very important always, but still second.
医生也是如此。毫无疑问，他们都喜欢收诊费--本应如此;然而他们人生的全部目标并不是诊费。总的说来，他们都想把病人治好，而且宁愿把病人治好而得不到诊金，也不愿为了诊金而把病人治死。所有其他有胆识的、受过正当培训的人也是如此：他们总是工作第一、报酬第二。报酬尽管总是非常重要，但还是第二。
But in every nation, there is a vast class of people who are cowardly⑥, and more or less stupid. And with these people, just as certainly the fee is first and the work second, as with brave people the work is first and the fee second.
可是，在每个国家，都有一大批怯懦的、多少有点愚蠢的人。对于这些人而言，无疑是报酬第一、工作第二，正如有胆识的人工作第一、报酬第二一样。
And this is no small distinction⑦. It is the whole distinction in a man. You cannot serve two masters; you must serve one or the other. If your work is first with you, and your fee is second, work is your master.
这决非细微差异，这是根本性差异，区分一个人的根本性差异。你不能侍奉两个主人，你必须侍奉其中一个，非此即彼。假如就你而言是工作第一、报酬第二，那么工作就是你的主人。
Observe, then, all wise work is mainly threefold⑧ in character. It is honest, useful, and cheerful. I hardly know anything more strange than that you recognize honesty in play, and do not in work.
请注意，一切明确的工作本质上都具有三重性：诚实、有用和愉悦。人们在娱乐中讲究诚实而在工作中却不讲诚实--据我所知，没有比这更奇怪的事情了。
In your lightest games you have always someone to see what you call "fair play". In boxing you must hit fair; in racing, start fair. Your watchword is fair play; your hatred, foul play. Did it ever strike you that you wanted another watchword⑨ also, fair work, and another hatred also, foul⑩ work?
在最不重要的比赛中，你总是请人做裁判，确保人们常说的公平竞赛。 拳击 中，你出拳必须公正;赛跑时，你起跑必须公正。你的 口号 就是公正比赛，你所深恶痛绝的就是违反规则。那么，你可曾想过，你还需要另一个口号，那就是老老实实地工作;你深恶痛绝的应是投机取巧。
经典英语美文摘抄篇二
Mother & Child 妈妈与孩子
It was Christmas 1961. I was teaching in a small town in Ohio where my twenty-seven third graders eagerly anticipated the great day of gifts giving.
那是1961年的 圣诞节 。我在俄亥俄州的一个小镇上教小学三年级。班上27个孩子都在积极参加"礼物赠送日"的活动。
A tree covered with tinsel and gaudy paper chains graced one corner. In another rested a manger scene produced from cardboard and poster paints by chubby, and sometimes grubby, hands. Someone had brought a doll and placed it on the straw in the cardboard box that served as the manger. It didn't matter that you could pull a string and hear the blue-eyed, golden-haired dolly say, "My name is Susie." "But Jesus was a boy baby!" one of the boys proclaimed. Nonetheless, Susie stayed.
教室的一角被一棵树装点得熠熠生辉，树上缀满了金银丝帛和华丽的彩纸。教室的另一角是一个涂着海报油彩由纸板制成的马槽，这出自孩子们那胖乎乎、脏兮兮的小手。有人带来了一个娃娃，把它放在纸板槽里的稻草上(假装小耶稣)。只要拉拉它身上的一条细绳，这个蓝眼睛、金发的娃娃就会说道，"我叫苏西"，不过这都没有关系。一个男孩提出："耶稣可是个小男孩呀!"不过苏西还是留了下来。
Each day the children produced some new wonder -- strings of popcorn, hand-made trinkets, and German bells made from wallpaper samples, which we hung from the ceiling. Through it all she remained aloof, watching from afar, seemingly miles away. I wondered what would happen to this quiet child, once so happy, now so suddenly withdrawn. I hoped the festivities would appeal to her. But nothing did. We made cards and gifts for mothers and dads, for sisters and brothers, for grandparents, and for each other. At home the students made the popular fried marbles and vied with one another to bring in the prettiest ones. " You put them in a hot frying pan, Teacher. And you let them get real hot, and then you watch what happens inside. But you don't fry them too long or they break."So, as my gift to them, I made each of my students a little pouch for carrying their fried marbles. And I knew they had each made something for me: bookmarks carefully cut, colored, and sometimes pasted together; cards and special drawings; liquid embroidery doilies, hand-fringed, of course.
每天孩子们都会做点儿新玩意--爆米花串成的细链子、手工做的小装饰品和墙纸样做的德国式风铃，我们把这些风铃挂在了天花板上。但自始至终，她都是孤零零地远远观望，仿佛是隔了一道几里长的障碍。我猜想着这个沉默的孩子发生了什么事，原来那个快乐的孩子怎么突然变得沉默寡言起来。我希望节日的活动能吸引她，可还是无济于事。我们制作了许多卡片和礼物，准备把它们送给爸爸妈妈、兄弟姐妹、祖父母和身边的同学。学生们在家里做了当时很流行“油炸"玻璃弹子，并且相互比着，要把最好看的拿来。"老师，把玻璃弹子放在热油锅里，让它们烧热，然后看看里面的变化。但不要炸得时间过长否则会破裂。"所以，我给每个学生做了一个装"油炸弹子"的小袋作为礼物送给他们。我知道他们每个人也都为我做了礼物：仔细剪裁、着色，或已粘集成串的书签; 贺卡 和特别绘制的图片;透明的镶边碗碟垫布，当然是手工编制的流苏。
The day of gift-giving finally came. We oohed and aahed over our handiwork as the presents were exchanged. Through it all, she sat quietly watching. I had made a special pouch for her, red and green with white lace. I wanted very much to see her smile. She opened the package so slowly and carefully. I waited but she turned away. I had not penetrated the wall of isolation she had built around herself.
赠送礼物的那天终于到了。在交换礼物时我们为对方亲手做的小礼品不停地欢呼叫好。而整个过程，她只是安静地坐在那儿看着。我为她做的小袋很特别，红绿相间还镶着白边。我非常想看到她笑一笑。她打开包装，动作又慢又小心。我等待着，但是她却转过了身。我还是没能穿过她在自己周围树起的高墙，这堵墙将她与大家隔离了开来。
After school the children left in little groups, chattering about the great day yet to come when long-hoped-for two-wheelers and bright sleds would appear beside their trees at home. She lingered, watching them bundle up and go out the door. I sat down in a child-sized chair to catch my breath, hardly aware of what was happening, when she came to me with outstretched hands, bearing a small white box, unwrapped and slightly soiled, as though it had been held many times by unwashed, childish hands. She said nothing. "For me?" I asked with a weak smile. She said not a word, but nodded her head. I took the box and gingerly opened it. There inside, glistening green, a fried marble hung from a golden chain. Then I looked into that elderly eight-year-old face and saw the question in her dark brown eyes. In a flash I knew -- she had made it for her mother, a mother she would never see again, a mother who would never hold her or brush her hair or share a funny story, a mother who would never again hear her childish joys or sorrows. A mother who had taken her own life just three weeks before.
放学后，学生们三三俩俩地离开了，边走边说着即将到来的圣诞节：家中的圣诞树旁将发现自己心系已久的自行车和崭新发亮的雪橇。她慢慢地走在后面，看着大家拥挤着走出门外。我坐在孩子们的小椅子上稍稍松了口气，对要发生的事没有一点准备。这时她向我走来，双手拿着一个白色的盒子向我伸过来。盒子没有打包装，稍有些脏。好像是被孩子未洗过的小手摸过了好多遍。她没有说话。"给我的吗?"我微微一笑。她没出声，只是点点头。我接过盒子，非常小心地打开它。盒子里面有一条金色的链子，上面坠着一块闪闪发光的“油炸"玻璃弹子。然后我看着她的脸，虽只有8岁，可却是成人的表情。在她深棕色的眼睛里我找到了问题的答案。我在一瞬间明白过来--这是她为妈妈做的项链，她再也见不到的妈妈，再也不能抱她、给她梳头或一起讲 故事 的妈妈。她的妈妈已再也不能分享她充满童稚的快乐，分担她孩子气的忧伤。就在3个星期前她的妈妈离开了人世。
I held out the chain. She took it in both her hands, reached forward, and secured the simple clasp at the back of my neck. She stepped back then as if to see that all was well. I looked down at the shiny piece of glass and the tarnished golden chain, then back at the giver. I meant it when I whispered," Oh, Maria, it is so beautiful. She would have loved it."Neither of us could stop the tears. She stumbled into my arms and we wept together. And for that brief moment I became her mother, for she had given me the greatest gift of all: herself.
我拿起那条链子。她用双手接过它，向前探了探身，在我的脖子后把简易的项链钩系好。然后她向后退了几步，好像在看看是否合适。我低下头看着闪闪发亮的玻璃珠和已失去光泽的金色链子，然后抬起头望着她。我很认真地轻声说道：“哦，玛丽亚，这链子真漂亮。你妈妈一定会喜欢的。"我们已无法抑制住泪水。她踉踉跄跄地扑进我的怀里，我们都哭了。在那短暂的一刻我成了她的妈妈，而她送给了我一份最珍贵的礼物：她的信任和爱。By Patricia A. Habada
经典英语美文摘抄篇三
FAMILY
FAMILY= (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER, (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU
A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.
Daddy, may I ask you a question?
Yeah sure, what is it? replied the man.
Daddy, how much do you make an hour?
That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing? the man said angrily. I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?
pleaded the little boy.
If you must know, I make $20 an hour.
Oh, the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said, Daddy, may I please borrow $10?
The father was furious, If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn't ask for money very often.
The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
Are you asleep, son? He asked.
No daddy, I'm awake, replied the boy.
I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier, said the man, It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $10you asked for.
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. Oh, thank you daddy! He yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.
Why do you want more money if you already have some? the father grumbled.
Because I didn't have enough, but now I do, the little boy replied. Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.
在 英语学习 中,阅读能力是学习者发展 其它 语言能力(听、说、写、译)的基础。下面是我带来的经典英语好 文章 摘抄，欢迎阅读!
经典英语好文章摘抄篇一
Change Makes Life Beautiful(生命美于变化)
To regard all things and principles of things as inconstant modes or fashions has more and more become the tendency of modern thought. Let us begin with that which is without——our physical life. Fix upon it in one of its more exquisite intervals，the moment，for instance，of delicious recoil from the flood of water in summer heat. What is the whole physical life in that moment but a combination of natural elements to which science gives their names?But these elements，phosphorus and lime and delicate fibers，are present not in the human body alone：we detect them in places most remote from it. Our physical life is a perpetual motion of them——the passage of the blood，the wasting and repairing of the lenses of the eye，the modification of the tissues of the brain under every ray of light and sound-processes which science reduces to simpler and more elementary forces. Like the elements of which we are composed，the action of these forces extends beyond us：it rusts iron and ripens corn. Far out on every side of us those elements are broadcast，driven in many currents;and birth and gesture and death and the springing of violets from the grave are but a few out of ten thousand resultant combinations. That clear，perpetual outline of face and limb is but an image of ours，under which we group them a design in a web，the actual threads of which pass out beyond it. This at least of flame——like our life has，that it is but the concurrence，renewed from moment to moment，of forces parting sooner or later on their ways.
生命美于变化
将所有事物和事物的原则统统归结为经常变化着的形态或风尚，这已日益成为近代思想界的一个趋势。我们可以从我们的生理活动等表面的事情说起。举个例子来说，选定在酷暑中猛然浸入滔滔清流的一刹那和感觉极其愉快的这么一个微妙的时刻。在那一瞬间的所有生理活动，难道不可以说是具有科学名称的各种元素的一种化合作用吗?但是，像磷、石灰、微细的纤维质等这些元素，不仅存在于人体之中，而且在与人体没有丝毫关系的地方也能检查出它们的存在。血液的流通，眼睛中水晶体的消耗和恢复，每一道光波、每一次声浪对于脑组织所引起的变异——都不外是这些元素永久的运动。但是科学把这些运动过程还原为更为简单和基本力量的作用。正如我们身体所赖以构成的元素所形成的我们的生理活动的力量，这些力量在我们身体以外也同样发挥着作用——它可以使铁生锈，使谷物成熟。这些元素，在种种气流吹送之下，从我们身外向四面八方传播：人的诞生，人的姿态，人的死亡，以及在人的坟头上生长出紫罗兰——这不过是成千上万化合结果的点滴例子而已。人类那轮廓分明、长久不变的面颜和肢体，不过是一种表象，在它那框架之内，我们好把种种化合的元素凝聚一团——这好像是蛛网的纹样，那织网的细丝从网中穿出，又引向他方。在这一点上，我们的生命有些像那火焰——它也是种种力量汇合的结果，这汇合虽不断延续，那些力量却早晚要各自飘散。
经典英语好文章摘抄篇二
The Date Father Didn’t Keep (父亲失约)
It happened in one of those picturesque Danish taverns that cater to tourists and where English is spoken. I was with my father on a business-and-pleasure trip，and in our leisure hours we were having a wonderful time.
“It‘s a pity your mother couldn’t come，”said Father.“It would be wonderful to show her around.”
He had visited Denmark when he was a young man. I asked him，“How long is it since you were here?”
“Oh，about 30 years. I remember being in this very inn，by the way.”He looked around，remembering.
“Those were gracious days-”He stopped suddenly，and I saw that his face was pale. I followed his eyes and looked across the room to a woman who was setting a tray of drinks before some customers. She might have been pretty once，but now she was stout and her hair was untidy.“Do you know her?”I asked……
“I did once，”he said.
The woman come to our table.“Drinks?”she inquired.
“We‘ll have beer，”I said. She nodded and went away.
“How she has changed!Thank heaven she didn‘t recognize me，”muttered Father mopping his face with a handkerchief.“I know her before I ever met your mother，”he went on.“I was a student，on a tour. She was a lovely young thing，very graceful. I fell madly in live with her，and she with me.”
“Does Mother know about her?”I blurted out，resentfully.
“Of course，”Father said gently. He looked at me a little anxiously. I felt embarrassed for him.
I said，“Dad，you don‘t have to-”
“Oh，yes，I want to tell you. I don‘t want you wondering about this. Her father objected to our romance. I was a foreigner. I had no prospects，and was dependent on my father. When I wrote Father that I wanted to get married he cut off my allowance. And I had to go home. But I met the girl once more，and told her I would return to America，borrow enough money to get married on，and come back for her in a few months.”
“We know，”he continued，“that her father might intercept a letter，so we agreed that I would simply mail her a slip of paper with a date on it，the time she was to meet me at a certain place;then we‘d married. Well，I went home，got the loan and sent her the date. She received the note. She wrote me：”I’ll be there.“But she wasn‘t. Then I found that she had been married about two weeks before，to a local innkeeper. She hadn’t waited.”
Then my father said，“Thank God she didn‘t. I went home，met your mother，and we’ve been completely happy. We often joke about that youthful love romance.”
The woman appeared with our beer.
“You are from America?”she asked me.
“Yes，”I said.
She beamed.“A wonderful country，America.”
“Yes，a lot of your countrymen have gone there. Did you ever think of it?”
“Not me. Not now，”she said.“I think so one time，a ling time ago. But I stay here. I much better here.”
We drank our beer and left. Outside I said，“Father，just how did you write that date on which she was to meet you?”
He stopped，took out an envelope and wrote on it.“Like this，”he said.“12/11/73，which was，of course，December 11，1973.”
“No!”I exclaimed.“It isn‘t in Denmark or any European country. Over here they write the day first，then the month. So that date wouldn’t be December 11 but the 12th of November!”
Father passed his hand over his face.“So she was there!”he exclaimed.“And it was because I didn‘t show up that she got married.”He was silent a while.“Well，”he said.，“I hope she’s happy. She seems be.”
As we resumed walking I blurted out，“It is a lucky thing it happened that way. You wouldn‘t have met Mother.”
He put his arm around my shoulders，looked at me with a heart-warming smile，and said，“I was doubly lucky，young fellow，for otherwise I wouldn‘t have met you，either!”
经典英语好文章摘抄篇三
改变一生的邂逅
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 malt 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 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.
