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提升英语阅读能力是我们学习英语的关键，下面我为大家带来英语阅读小文章，希望大家喜欢!
The expensive shops in a famous arcade near Piccadilly were just opening. At this time of the morning, the arcade was almost empty. Mr Taylor, the owner of a jewellery shop was admiring a new window display. Two of his assistants had been working busily since 8 o'clock and had only just finished. Diamond necklaces and rings had been beautifully arranged on a background of black velvet. After gazing at the display for several minutes, Mr Taylor went back into his shop.
The silence was suddenly broken when a large car, with its headlights on and its horn blaring, roared down the arcade. It came to a stop outside the jeweler's. One man stayed at the wheel while two others with black stockings over their faces jumped out and smashed the window of the shop with iron bars. While this was going on, Mr Taylor was upstairs. He and his staff began throwing furniture out of the window. Chairs and tables went flying into the arcade. One of the thieves was struck by a heavy statue, but he was too busy helping himself to diamonds to notice any pain. The raid was all over in three minutes, for the men scrambled back into the car and it moved off at a fantastic speed. Just as it was leaving, Mr Taylor rushed out and ran after it throwing ashtrays and vases, but it was impossible to stop the thieves. They had got away with thousands of pounds worth of diamonds.
皮卡迪利大街附近的一条著名拱廊街道上，几家高档商店刚刚开始营业。在早晨的这个时候，拱廊街上几乎空无一人。珠宝店主泰勒先生正在欣赏新布置的橱窗。他手下两名店员从早上8点就开始忙碌，这时刚刚布置完毕。钻石项链、戒指漂亮地陈列在黑色丝绒上面。泰勒先生站在橱窗外凝神欣赏了几分钟就回到了店里。
宁静突然被打破，一辆大轿车亮着前灯，响着喇叭，呼啸着冲进了拱廊街，在珠宝店门口停了下来。一人留在驾驶座上，另外两个用黑色长筒丝袜蒙面的人跳下车来。他们用铁棒把商店橱窗的玻璃砸碎。这开始发生时，泰勒先生正在楼上。他与店员动手向窗外投掷家具，椅子，桌子飞落花流水在拱廊街上。一个窃贼被一尊很重的雕像击中，但由于他忙着抢钻石首饰，竟连疼痛都顾不上了。这场抢劫只持续了3分钟，因为窃贼争先恐后地爬上轿车，以惊人的速度开跑了。就在轿车离开的时候，泰勒先生从店里冲了出来，跟在车后追赶，一边还往车上扔烟灰缸、花瓶。但他已无法抓住那些窃贼了。他们已带着价值数千镑的首饰逃之夭夭了。
Yesterday afternoon Frank Hawkins was telling me about his experiences as a young man. Before he retired, Frank was the head of a very large business company, but as a boy he used to work in a small shop. It was his job to repair bicycles and at that time he used to work fourteen hours a day. He saved money for years and in 1958 he bought a small workshop of his own. In his twenties Frank used to make spare parts for aeroplanes. At that time he had two helpers. In a few years the small workshop had become a large factory which employed seven hundred and twenty-eight people. Frank smiled when he remembered his hard early years and the long road to success. He was still smiling when the door opened and his wife came in. She wanted him to repair their grandson's bicycle!
昨天下午弗兰克·霍金斯向我讲述了他年轻时的经历。在他退休之前，弗兰克是一家非常大的事务公司头，但作为一个男孩，他曾经工作在一个小商店。他的工作是修理自行车，那时他一天工作十四小时。他积蓄多年，并在1958他买了属于自己的小作坊。在他二十几岁的弗兰克曾生产飞机零配件。那时他有两个帮手。在几年的小作坊已经成为一个雇用七百二十八人的大工厂。弗兰克回想着他早年的艰难经历和走过的漫长的成功之路。他正笑着的时候，门开了，他的妻子走了进来。她叫他去修理他们孙子的自行车!
Nearly a week passed before the girl was able to explain what had happened to her. One afternoon she set out from the coast in a small boat and was caught in a storm. Towards evening, the boat struck a rock and the girl jumped into the sea. Then she swam to the shore after spending the whole night in the water. During that time she covered a distance of eight miles. Early next morning, she saw a light ahead. She knew she was near the shore because the light was high up on the cliffs. On arriving at the shore, the girl struggled up the cliff towards the light she had seen. That was all she remembered. When she woke up a day later, she found herself in hospital.
经典的英语文章适合我们闲时练习英语阅读，下面我为大家带来，希望大家喜欢! 篇一： I am an art student and I paint a lot of pictures. Many people pretend that they understand modern art. They always tell you what a picture is 'about'. Of course, many pictures are not 'about' anything. They are just pretty patterns. We like them in the same way that we like pretty curtain material. I think that young children often appreciate modern pictures better than anyone else. They notice more. My sister is only seven, but she always tells me whether my pictures are good or not. She came into my room yesterday. 'What are you doing?' she asked. 'I'm hanging this picture on the wall,' I answered. 'It's a new one. Do you like it?' She looked at it critically for a moment. 'It's all right,' she said, 'but isn't it upside down?' I looked at it again. She was right! It was! 我是个学艺术的学生，画了很多画。有很多人装成很懂现代艺术。他们总是告诉你一幅画的。当然，有很多画是什么意思也没有的。他们只不过是漂亮的图案。我们喜欢它们就像我们喜欢漂亮的窗帘布。我觉得小孩子们往往比任何人都更能欣赏现代绘画。他们观察到的东西更多。我的妹妹只有七岁，但她总能说出我的画是好还是不好。昨天她到我房里来了。"你干什么呢。她问。"我把这幅画挂到墙上，我回答。"这是一个新的。你喜欢吗。她用挑剔的目光一会儿。"这都是正确的，"她说，"但这不是颠倒的吗?"我又看。她是对的!这是! 篇二： Late in the afternoon, the boys put up their tent in the middle of a field. As soon as this was done, they cooked a meal over an open fire. They were all hungry and the food *** elled good. After a wonderful meal, they told stories and sang songs by the campfire. But some time later it began to rain. The boys felt tired so they put out the fire and crept into their tent. Their sleeping bags were warm and fortable, so they all slept soundly. In the middle of the night, two boys woke up and began shouting. The tent was full of water! They all leapt out of their sleeping bags and hurried outside. It was raining heavily and they found that a stream had formed in the field. The stream wound its way across the field and then flowed right under their tent! 在下午晚些时候，男孩子们把帐篷搭在一个领域中。一旦这是，他们在篝火上烧起了饭。他们都饿了，而且食物闻起来很香。一顿美餐之后，他们讲故事、唱歌的篝火。但过了些时候开始下雨了。孩子们感到累了，所以他们扑灭了火，爬进了帐篷。睡袋既暖和又舒适，所以他们都睡得很香。在半夜里，两个男孩醒来了，开始喊。帐篷里全是水!他们全都跳出睡袋，跑到外面。雨下得很大，他们发现地上已经形成了一个流。那小溪弯弯曲曲穿过田野，然后正好从他们的帐篷! 篇三： Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics. Last year a journalist had been instructed by a well-known magazine to write an article on the president's palace in a new African republic. When the article arrived, the editor read the first sentence and then refused to publish it. The article began: 'Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president's palace.' The editor at once sent the journalist a fax instructing him to find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall. The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts, but he took a long time to send them. Meanwhile, the editor was getting impatient, for the magazine would soon go to press. He sent the journalist two urgent telegrams, but received no reply. He sent yet another telegram rming the journalist that if he did not reply soon he would be fired. When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly published the article as it had originally been written. A week later, the editor at last received a telegram from the journalist. Not only had the poor man been arrested, but he had been sent to prison as well. However, he had at last been allowed to send a cable in which he rmed the editor that he had been arrested while counting the 1084 steps leading to the 15-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace. 报刊杂志的编辑常常为了向读者提供成立一些关紧要的事实和统计数字而走向极端。去年，一位记者受一家有名的杂志的委托写一篇关于非洲某个新成立共和国总统府的文章。稿子寄来后，编辑看第一句话就拒绝予以发表。文章的开头是这样的："几百级台阶通向环绕总统的高墙。"编辑立即给那位记者发去传真，要求他核实一下台阶的确切数字和围墙的高度。 记者立即出发去核实这些重要的事实，但过了好长时间不见他把数字寄来，在此期间，编辑等得不耐烦了，因为杂志马上要付印。他给记者先后发去两份传真，但对方毫无反应。于是他又发了一份传真，通知那位记者说，若再不迅速答复，将被解雇。但记者还是没有回复。编辑无奈，勉强按原样发稿了。一周之后，编辑终于接到记者的传真。那个可怜的记者不仅被捕了，而且还被送进了监狱。不过，他终于获准发回了一份传真。在传真中他告诉编辑，就在他数通向15英尺高的总统府围墙的1，084级台阶时，被抓了起来。
英语阅读：IfIWereaBoyAgain
If I were a boy again, I would practice perseverance more often, and never give up a thing because it was or inconvenient. If we want light, we must conquer darkness. Perseverance can sometimes equal genius in its results. “There are only two creatures,” says a proverb, “Who can surmount the pyramids — the eagle and the snail.”
If I were a boy again, I would school myself into a habit of attention; I would let nothing come between me and the subject in hand. I would remember that a good skater never tries to skate in two directions at once.
The habit of attention becomes part of our life, if we begin early enough. I often hear grown up people say, “I could not fix my attention on the sermon or book, although I wished to do so”, and the reason is, the habit was not formed in youth.
If I were to live my life over again, I would pay more attention to the cultivation of the memory. I would strengthen that faculty by every possible means, and on every possible occasion. It takes a little hard work at first to remember things accurately; but memory soon helps itself, and gives very little trouble. It only needs early cultivation to become a power.
If I were a boy again, I would cultivate courage. “Nothing is so mild and gentle as courage, nothing so cruel and pitiless as cowardice,” says a wise author.
We too often borrow trouble, and anticipate that may never appear.” The fear of ill exceeds the ill we fear.” Dangers will arise in any career, but presence of mind will often conquer the worst of them. Be prepared for any fate, and there is no harm to be feared.
If I were a boy again, I would look on the cheerful side. Life is very much like a mirror: if you smile upon it, I smiles back upon you; but if you frown and look doubtful on it, you will get a similar look in return.
Inner sunshine warms not only the heart of the owner, but of all that come in contact with it. “Who shuts love out, in turn shall be shut out from love.”
Importance of learning very early in life to gain that point where a young boy can stand erect, and decline.
If I were a boy again, I would school myself to say no more often. I might write pages on the doing an unworthy act because it is unworthy.
If I were a boy again, I would demand of myself more courtesy towards my companions and friends, and indeed towards strangers as well. The smallest courtesies along the rough roads of life are like the little birds that sing to us all winter long, and make that season of ice and snow more endurable.
Finally, instead of trying hard to be happy, as if that were the sole purpose of life, I would, if I were a boy again, I would still try harder to make others happy.
英语阅读：AnEmptyBox
Once upon a time, a man punished his 5-year-old daughter for using up the family's only roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became even more upset when on Christmas Eve, he saw that the child had pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a shoebox to put under the Christmas tree.
Nevertheless, the next morning the little girl, filled with excitement, brought the gift box to her father and said, "This is for you, Daddy!"
As he opened the box, the father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction.
But when he opened it, he found it was empty and again his anger flared. "Don't you know, young lady, " he said harshly, "when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something inside the package!"
The little girl looked up at him with tears rolling from her eyes and said: "Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was all full."
The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his precious little girl. He begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only a short time later. It is told that the father kept that little gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and remember the love of this beautiful child who had put it there.
In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given an invisible golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God.
There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.
英语阅读：HappinessEquateswithFun?
I live in Hollywood. You may think people in such a glamorous, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still equate happiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion.
Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful inpiduals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells "happiness".
But in memoir after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children, profound loneliness.
The way people cling to the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equates happiness actually diminishes their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equated with happiness, then pain must be equated with unhappiness. But, in fact, the opposite is true: More times than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very endeavors that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment, civic or charitable work, and self-improvement.
英语阅读：TodayisaGift
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room‘s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end.
They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn‘t hear the band - he could see it in his mind‘s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly and painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall.
The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."
英语阅读：IsPackingImportanttoYou?
A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.
As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man's name embossed in gold.
Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, "With all your money you give me a Bible?" He then stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.
Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and a wonderful family, but realizing his father was very old, he thought perhaps he should go to see him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make the arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.
When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago.
With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he was reading, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words… "PAID IN FULL".
How many times do we miss blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? I trust you enjoyed this. Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. Sometimes we don't realize the good fortune we have or we could have because we expect "the packaging" to be different. What may appear as bad fortune may in fact be the door that is just waiting to be opened.
英语阅读：TheBabyEagle
Once upon a time there was a baby eagle living in a nest perched on a cliff overlooking a beautiful valley with waterfalls and streams, trees and lots of little animals, scurrying about enjoying their lives.
The baby eagle liked the nest. It was the only world he had ever known. It was warm and comfortable, had a great view, and even better, he had all the food and love and attention that a great mother eagle could provide. Many times each day the mother would swoop down from the sky and land in the nest and feed the baby eagle delicious morsels of food. She was like a god to him, he had no idea where she came from or how she worked her magic.
The baby eagle was hungry all the time, but the mother eagle would always come just in time with the food and love and attention he craved. The baby eagle grew strong. His vision grew very sharp. He felt good all the time.
Until one day, the mother stopped coming to the nest.
The baby eagle was hungry. "I'm sure to die," said the baby eagle, all the time.
"Very soon, death is coming," he cried, with tears streaming down his face. Over and over. But there was no one there to hear him.
Then one day the mother eagle appeared at the top of the mountain cliff, with a big bowl of delicious food and she looked down at her baby. The baby looked up at the mother and cried "Why did you abandon me? I'm going to die any minute. How could you do this to me?"
The mother said, "Here is some very tasty and nourishing food, all you have to do is come get it."
"Come get it!" said the baby, with much anger. "How?"
The mother flew away.
The baby cried and cried and cried.
A few days later, "I'm going to end it all," he said. "I give up. It is time for me to die."
He didn't know his mother was nearby. She swooped down to the nest with his last meal.
"Eat this, it's your last meal," she said.
The baby cried, but he ate and whined and whined about what a bad mother she was.
"You're a terrible mother," he said. Then she pushed him out of the nest.
He fell.
Head first.
Picked up speed.
Faster and faster.
He screamed. "I'm dying I'm dying," he cried. He picked up more speed.
He looked up at his mother. "How could you do this to me?"
He looked down.
The ground rushed closer, faster and faster. He could visualize his own death so clearly, coming so soon, and cried and whined and complained. "This isn't fair!" he screamed.
Something strange happens.
The air caught behind his arms and they snapped away from his body, with a feeling unlike anything he had ever experienced. He looked down and saw the sky. He wasn't moving towards the ground anymore, his eyes were pointed up at the sun.
"Huh?" he said. "What is going on here!"
"You're flying," his mother said.
"This is fun!" laughed the baby eagle, as he soared and ped and swooped.
"Yes it is!" said the mother.
英语阅读精选文章
学习英语需要每天积累，除了积累单词之外，还有就是文章了。以下是网我整理的关于英语阅读的精选文章，供同学们阅读。
篇一：读书之乐
Reading is a pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness make you a good reader. Reading is fun, not because the writer is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the author's or even goes beyond his. Your experience, compared with his, brings you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.
Every book stands by itself, like a one-family house, but books in a library are like houses in a city. Although they are separate, together they all add up to something; they are connected with each other and with other cities. The same ideas, or related ones, turn up in different places; the human problems that repeat themselves in life repeat themselves in literature, but with different solutions according to different writings at different times.
Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate on books somebody tells you "ought" to read, you probably won't have fun. But if you put down a book you don't like and try another till you find one that means something to you, and then relax with it, you will almost certainly have a good time--and if you become as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder, or more gentle, you won't have suffered during the process.
读书是愉悦心智之事。在这一点上它与运动颇为相似:一个优秀的读者必须要有热情、有知识、有速度。读书之乐并非在于作者要告诉你什么，而在于它促使你思考。你跟随作者一起想像，有时你的想象甚至会超越作者的。把自己的体验与作者的相互比较，你会得出相同或者不同的结论。在理解作者想法的同时，也形成了自己的观点。
每一本书都自成体系，就像一家一户的住宅，而图书馆里的藏书好比城市里千家万户的居所。尽管它们都相互独立，但只有相互结合才有意义。家家户户彼此相连，城市与城市彼此相依。相同或相似的思想在不同地方涌现。人类生活中反复的问题也在文学中不断重现，但因时代与作品的`差异，答案也各不相同。
如果你希望的话，读书也能充满乐趣。倘若你只读那些别人告诉你该读之书，那么你不太可能有乐趣可言。但如果你放下你不喜欢的书，试着阅读另外一本，直到你找到自己中意的，然后轻轻松松的读下去，差不多一定会乐在其中。而且，当你通过阅读变得更加优秀，更加善良，更加文雅时，阅读便不再是一种折磨。
篇二：任教印象
The main impression growing out of twelve years on the faculty of a medical school is that the health problem in the . today, even more than AIDS or cancer, is that Americans don’t know how to think about health and illness. Our reactions are formed on the terror level.
We fear the worst, expect the worst, thus invite the worst. The result is that we are becoming a nation of weaklings and hypochondriacs, a self-medicating society incapable of
distinguishing between casual, everyday symptoms and those that require professional attention.
Early in life, too, we become seized with the bizarre idea that we are constantly assaulted by invisible monsters called germs, and that we have to be on constant alert to protect ourselves against their fury. Equal emphasis, however, is not given to the presiding fact that our bodies are superbly equipped to deal with the little demons and the best way of forestalling an attack is to maintain a sensible life-style.
在医学院任教十二年来，我获得的主要印象是，当今美国头号健康问题——一个比艾滋病或癌症更为严重的问题——是美国人不知道如何去认识健康与疾病。我们的反应是惊恐万状。我们怕最坏的事，想着最坏的事，而恰恰就召来了最坏的事。结果 ，我们变成了一个孱弱不堪，总疑心自己有病的民族，一个分不清哪些是日常偶发症状，哪些是需要治疗的症状，而自己擅自用药的社会。
我们年轻的时候还染上了一种奇怪的观念：一种肉眼看不见的叫做细菌的小妖怪在不断向我们进攻，我们必须长备不懈地保护自己不受其伤害。然而，对另一个重要事实，我们却未能给予同样的重视，那就是，我们的身体装备精良，足以对付这些小妖怪，而且防止妖怪进攻的最佳途径就是保持合理的生活方式。
经典的英语文章适合我们闲时练习英语阅读，下面我为大家带来，希望大家喜欢! 篇一： I am an art student and I paint a lot of pictures. Many people pretend that they understand modern art. They always tell you what a picture is 'about'. Of course, many pictures are not 'about' anything. They are just pretty patterns. We like them in the same way that we like pretty curtain material. I think that young children often appreciate modern pictures better than anyone else. They notice more. My sister is only seven, but she always tells me whether my pictures are good or not. She came into my room yesterday. 'What are you doing?' she asked. 'I'm hanging this picture on the wall,' I answered. 'It's a new one. Do you like it?' She looked at it critically for a moment. 'It's all right,' she said, 'but isn't it upside down?' I looked at it again. She was right! It was! 我是个学艺术的学生，画了很多画。有很多人装成很懂现代艺术。他们总是告诉你一幅画的。当然，有很多画是什么意思也没有的。他们只不过是漂亮的图案。我们喜欢它们就像我们喜欢漂亮的窗帘布。我觉得小孩子们往往比任何人都更能欣赏现代绘画。他们观察到的东西更多。我的妹妹只有七岁，但她总能说出我的画是好还是不好。昨天她到我房里来了。"你干什么呢。她问。"我把这幅画挂到墙上，我回答。"这是一个新的。你喜欢吗。她用挑剔的目光一会儿。"这都是正确的，"她说，"但这不是颠倒的吗?"我又看。她是对的!这是! 篇二： Late in the afternoon, the boys put up their tent in the middle of a field. As soon as this was done, they cooked a meal over an open fire. They were all hungry and the food *** elled good. After a wonderful meal, they told stories and sang songs by the campfire. But some time later it began to rain. The boys felt tired so they put out the fire and crept into their tent. Their sleeping bags were warm and fortable, so they all slept soundly. In the middle of the night, two boys woke up and began shouting. The tent was full of water! They all leapt out of their sleeping bags and hurried outside. It was raining heavily and they found that a stream had formed in the field. The stream wound its way across the field and then flowed right under their tent! 在下午晚些时候，男孩子们把帐篷搭在一个领域中。一旦这是，他们在篝火上烧起了饭。他们都饿了，而且食物闻起来很香。一顿美餐之后，他们讲故事、唱歌的篝火。但过了些时候开始下雨了。孩子们感到累了，所以他们扑灭了火，爬进了帐篷。睡袋既暖和又舒适，所以他们都睡得很香。在半夜里，两个男孩醒来了，开始喊。帐篷里全是水!他们全都跳出睡袋，跑到外面。雨下得很大，他们发现地上已经形成了一个流。那小溪弯弯曲曲穿过田野，然后正好从他们的帐篷! 篇三： Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics. Last year a journalist had been instructed by a well-known magazine to write an article on the president's palace in a new African republic. When the article arrived, the editor read the first sentence and then refused to publish it. The article began: 'Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president's palace.' The editor at once sent the journalist a fax instructing him to find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall. The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts, but he took a long time to send them. Meanwhile, the editor was getting impatient, for the magazine would soon go to press. He sent the journalist two urgent telegrams, but received no reply. He sent yet another telegram rming the journalist that if he did not reply soon he would be fired. When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly published the article as it had originally been written. A week later, the editor at last received a telegram from the journalist. Not only had the poor man been arrested, but he had been sent to prison as well. However, he had at last been allowed to send a cable in which he rmed the editor that he had been arrested while counting the 1084 steps leading to the 15-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace. 报刊杂志的编辑常常为了向读者提供成立一些关紧要的事实和统计数字而走向极端。去年，一位记者受一家有名的杂志的委托写一篇关于非洲某个新成立共和国总统府的文章。稿子寄来后，编辑看第一句话就拒绝予以发表。文章的开头是这样的："几百级台阶通向环绕总统的高墙。"编辑立即给那位记者发去传真，要求他核实一下台阶的确切数字和围墙的高度。 记者立即出发去核实这些重要的事实，但过了好长时间不见他把数字寄来，在此期间，编辑等得不耐烦了，因为杂志马上要付印。他给记者先后发去两份传真，但对方毫无反应。于是他又发了一份传真，通知那位记者说，若再不迅速答复，将被解雇。但记者还是没有回复。编辑无奈，勉强按原样发稿了。一周之后，编辑终于接到记者的传真。那个可怜的记者不仅被捕了，而且还被送进了监狱。不过，他终于获准发回了一份传真。在传真中他告诉编辑，就在他数通向15英尺高的总统府围墙的1，084级台阶时，被抓了起来。
提升英语阅读能力是我们学习英语的关键，下面我为大家带来英语阅读小文章，希望大家喜欢!
The expensive shops in a famous arcade near Piccadilly were just opening. At this time of the morning, the arcade was almost empty. Mr Taylor, the owner of a jewellery shop was admiring a new window display. Two of his assistants had been working busily since 8 o'clock and had only just finished. Diamond necklaces and rings had been beautifully arranged on a background of black velvet. After gazing at the display for several minutes, Mr Taylor went back into his shop.
The silence was suddenly broken when a large car, with its headlights on and its horn blaring, roared down the arcade. It came to a stop outside the jeweler's. One man stayed at the wheel while two others with black stockings over their faces jumped out and smashed the window of the shop with iron bars. While this was going on, Mr Taylor was upstairs. He and his staff began throwing furniture out of the window. Chairs and tables went flying into the arcade. One of the thieves was struck by a heavy statue, but he was too busy helping himself to diamonds to notice any pain. The raid was all over in three minutes, for the men scrambled back into the car and it moved off at a fantastic speed. Just as it was leaving, Mr Taylor rushed out and ran after it throwing ashtrays and vases, but it was impossible to stop the thieves. They had got away with thousands of pounds worth of diamonds.
皮卡迪利大街附近的一条著名拱廊街道上，几家高档商店刚刚开始营业。在早晨的这个时候，拱廊街上几乎空无一人。珠宝店主泰勒先生正在欣赏新布置的橱窗。他手下两名店员从早上8点就开始忙碌，这时刚刚布置完毕。钻石项链、戒指漂亮地陈列在黑色丝绒上面。泰勒先生站在橱窗外凝神欣赏了几分钟就回到了店里。
宁静突然被打破，一辆大轿车亮着前灯，响着喇叭，呼啸着冲进了拱廊街，在珠宝店门口停了下来。一人留在驾驶座上，另外两个用黑色长筒丝袜蒙面的人跳下车来。他们用铁棒把商店橱窗的玻璃砸碎。这开始发生时，泰勒先生正在楼上。他与店员动手向窗外投掷家具，椅子，桌子飞落花流水在拱廊街上。一个窃贼被一尊很重的雕像击中，但由于他忙着抢钻石首饰，竟连疼痛都顾不上了。这场抢劫只持续了3分钟，因为窃贼争先恐后地爬上轿车，以惊人的速度开跑了。就在轿车离开的时候，泰勒先生从店里冲了出来，跟在车后追赶，一边还往车上扔烟灰缸、花瓶。但他已无法抓住那些窃贼了。他们已带着价值数千镑的首饰逃之夭夭了。
Yesterday afternoon Frank Hawkins was telling me about his experiences as a young man. Before he retired, Frank was the head of a very large business company, but as a boy he used to work in a small shop. It was his job to repair bicycles and at that time he used to work fourteen hours a day. He saved money for years and in 1958 he bought a small workshop of his own. In his twenties Frank used to make spare parts for aeroplanes. At that time he had two helpers. In a few years the small workshop had become a large factory which employed seven hundred and twenty-eight people. Frank smiled when he remembered his hard early years and the long road to success. He was still smiling when the door opened and his wife came in. She wanted him to repair their grandson's bicycle!
昨天下午弗兰克·霍金斯向我讲述了他年轻时的经历。在他退休之前，弗兰克是一家非常大的事务公司头，但作为一个男孩，他曾经工作在一个小商店。他的工作是修理自行车，那时他一天工作十四小时。他积蓄多年，并在1958他买了属于自己的小作坊。在他二十几岁的弗兰克曾生产飞机零配件。那时他有两个帮手。在几年的小作坊已经成为一个雇用七百二十八人的大工厂。弗兰克回想着他早年的艰难经历和走过的漫长的成功之路。他正笑着的时候，门开了，他的妻子走了进来。她叫他去修理他们孙子的自行车!
Nearly a week passed before the girl was able to explain what had happened to her. One afternoon she set out from the coast in a small boat and was caught in a storm. Towards evening, the boat struck a rock and the girl jumped into the sea. Then she swam to the shore after spending the whole night in the water. During that time she covered a distance of eight miles. Early next morning, she saw a light ahead. She knew she was near the shore because the light was high up on the cliffs. On arriving at the shore, the girl struggled up the cliff towards the light she had seen. That was all she remembered. When she woke up a day later, she found herself in hospital.
朗读是学生学习英语的一种有效的方法;是提高听、说、读、写综合能力的一种行之有效的途径;能使学生更好地体会、理解和表达课文或读物的思想感情。我精心收集了经典的英语朗读短文，供大家欣赏学习!
为梦想而活
If you want success in business or in life, you need to start living your life based on your dreams, not your circumstances. The most successful people in the world know that the place in life you have right now isn’t a place you need to stay.
如果你想要在生意上或生活上取得成功,你要让梦想而不是环境成为你生活的动力。世界上绝大多数的成功人士都明白这样一个道理:人不能被一时的境况羁绊住前进的脚步。
Before becoming a box office superstar, Jim Carrey was homeless and lived in his car. He now is one of the most famous actors in Hollywood.
在成为一名票房明星之前,金·凯瑞无家可归,只能住在汽车里。如今,他已是好莱坞万众瞩目的演员之一。
. Rowling, the author of the successful Harry Potter series, was divorced, unemployed and living on welfare before she published her first book. It’s now said that she has more money than the queen of England.
《哈利·波特》系列丛书的作者.罗琳,在出版自己的第一本书之前正承受着离婚和失业的痛苦,只能靠福利金生活。但据说现在她比英国女王还要富有。
So what does all this have to do with you? Both the two people come from unpleasant circumstances. Their lives were so hard that it would have been extremely easy for them to give up their dreams. But your circumstances don’t make you who you are, and no situation lasts forever. If you want success, you need to start living and thinking as if you were successful. That doesn’t mean spending money you don’t have, but it does mean walking with your head up and presenting yourself as a positive, motivated and successful person.
但是,这些和你有什么关系呢?这两个人都来自窘困的环境。他们都曾生活艰难,放弃梦想对他们来说易如反掌。但是,当前的境况不能决定你的人生,没有任何一种境况会持续永久。如果你想成功,你就要开始像一个成功的人一样生活和思考。这并不意味着你要去挥霍你原本就不拥有的金钱,而是应该抬起头走路,以积极、进取和成功的姿态展现自己。
Nobody wants to be in business with a negative person with no confidence. When you start living the life you want instead of the life you are accepting, everything starts changing for the better.
没有人愿意和态度消极而缺乏信心的人共事。当你开始过你想要的生活而非你所接受的生活时,一切都会向好的方向转变。
Success is something anyone can have. Start living as if you’re going to be one of the successful people, and soon you will be!
任何人都可以获得成功。像一个成功人士一样生活,不久你也会成为一个成功的人!
跃动的生命
As an introduction to a blog says, life can be poor and life can be lonely, but what we can never lose is the beating heart of life itself.
诚如一篇博客的引言所说,生活可能会贫穷,生命可能会孤独,但是,我们永远不可能失去的是生命本身所具有的一颗跃动的心。
Everyone is busy these days, driven to get somewhere —but do they know where? Something important falls by the wayside as they rush, and then they begin to complain about a boring and mechanical* life with no vitality or newness, but we are the producers of our own lives. If our lives are poor or lonely, we’ve made them so ourselves, and can change them.
现在的人们整天都忙得不亦乐乎,被驱使到这儿到那儿——但是他们知道要去哪儿吗?当他们驾车飞驰而过的时候,某些重要的东西却被遗忘在路旁了,于是,他们开始抱怨生活枯燥呆板,缺少活力和新意。但是,我们才是生活的创造者。如果,生活贫穷而孤独,那是我们自己创造了这样的生活,我们可以去改变它们。
Figure out what you’re really interested in doing, and do it. Call your friends and family every day; go out for walks; go climbing; do some sports. Eat in clean and quiet restaurants with your best friends, or go to cafes with them to chat whenever you’re in the mood. Arrange your room in the way that pleases you, write down your feelings and experiences, or buy a vase and put some flowers in it. Spend an afternoon reading your favorite magazines, without doing anything else.
先搞清楚自己对什么事情真正感兴趣,然后再去做。每天给亲朋好友打个电话,出去散散步,爬爬山,做做运动。心情好的时候,和最要好的朋友去干净又清静的餐馆吃吃饭,或者去咖啡馆聊聊天。随心随性地整理一下自己的房间,记录下自己的情感和经历,或者买一个花瓶,在里面插满鲜花。花一下午的时间去读几本最爱的杂志,不去做任何其他的事情。
Of course, there is a lot to do, but we shouldn’t let our busyness get the better of us. We should try to live for ourselves, like human beings, not like machines.
当然,还有很多事情可以去做,但是我们不能让忙碌占据我们的心灵。我们应该为自己而活,像一个人那样地去生活,而不是像机器一样。
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s doesn’t interest me how old you are.
你以什么为生我不感兴趣。我想知道的是你因什么而痛苦,你是否敢于梦想去满足内心的渴望。
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for your dreams and for the adventure of being alive.
你的年龄我不感兴趣。我想知道的是你是否甘当傻瓜去追求梦想和经历生活的惊险刺激。
I want to know if you can sit down with pain without moving to hide it.
我想知道你是否能忍受痛苦而不是避开它,躲着它。
I want to know if you can be with joy, if you can dance with wildness, and if you can let happiness fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes. Are you someone who doesn’t care about being careful, being realistic or remembering the limitations of being a human?
我想知道你是否快乐,是否能狂舞一曲,让快乐充溢你的全身。你是一个不关心是否谨慎、是否现实或牢记人性局限的人吗?
It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself and if you can bear the blame of betrayal2 and not betray your own soul.
你说的是真是假我不感兴趣。我想知道的是你是否为了忠实于自己而敢于令他人失望,是否敢于承担背叛的骂名而不愿违背良心,是否能做到诚实可靠从而值得信赖。
I want to know if you can be faithful, and therefore want to know if you can see beauty on the ugliest of days. I want to know if you can live with failure and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!" It doesn’t interest me where you have studied.
我想知道你是否能在最糟糕的时候懂得欣赏美，我想知道你是否愿意接受失败并仍然敢于站在湖边对着银色的满月大声回答"是"。
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else fails. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in your emptiest moments.
你学到什么我不感兴趣。我想知道的是当一切消逝之后是什么在内心支撑着你,你是否能够独自面对自己,是否真正喜欢你在空虚的时刻结交的伙伴。
中国人学习汉语要朗读,中国人学习英语更要朗读。下面是我带来的，欢迎阅读!
1
The adolescent girl from Tennessee is standing on the stage of a drama summer camp in upstate New York. It's a beautiful day. But the girl doesn't feel beautiful. She's not the leggy, glamorous Hollywood type. In fact, she describes herself as dorky.
Since she was six years old, Reese Witherspoon has wanted to be a country singer. And Dolly Parton is her idol. But this flat-chested wisp of a girl is no Dolly Parton.
Nevertheless, all of this summer she's been acting, dancing and singing---giving it her best.
Play to your strengths. If you're going to make it in this business, it's not going to be on sexy—that's not who you are. Better focus on what you're good at. Celebrate yourself.
Despite three years of lessons, at the end of camp her coaches tell her to forget about singing. They suggest she think about another career. If Reese did have talent, it was hiding under her skinny, mousy frame and her Coke-bottle glasses.
Still, she takes their words to heart. After all, why shouldn't she believe the professionals?
But back at home in Nashville, her mother — a funny, happy, upbeat person — wouldn't let her mope. Her father, a physician, encouraged her to achieve in school. So she worked hard at everything and was accepted at Stanford University.
And at age 19, she got a part in a low-budget movie called Freeway. That led to a substantial role in the movie Pleasantville. But her big break came with Legally Blonde.
Well, she decided, "if you can't sing and you aren't glamorous, play to your strengths. If you're going to make it in this business, it's not going to be on sexy — that's not who you are. Better focus on what you've good at. Celebrate yourself." And then came the offer that took her back to her Nashville roots — playing the wife of tormented country star Johnny Cash. A singing role.
All of a sudden the old fears were back. She was so nervous on the set, a reporter wrote, she "kept a sick bucket" nearby and admitted she "would go backstage after a singing scene and shake." But she didn't give up on the movie or herself.
The humor and drive she learned at home overcame the self-doubt learned on that summer stage. She spent 6 months taking singing lessons again. She learned to play the Autoharp. And the hard work built up her confidence.
Last March, Reese Witherspoon walked up on another stage, the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and accepted the Oscar as Best Actress for her heartbreaking, heartwarming singing role as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.
Finally, as you read thse accounts of Reese Witherspoon, consider the obstacles she met. The lesson of the strory, I suppose, is that instead of making dozen excuses why you can not realize your dreams, think about this story, just hold to your dream and never give up.
一名少女由田纳西州来到纽约北部，她站在戏剧夏令营的舞台上，虽然天气是那么好，她的心情却一点也不好。因为她不是那种身材颀长、丰腴美艳的好莱坞式美女，实际上她形容自己是“土里土气，还有点傻”。
从六岁开始，里斯•威瑟斯庞就梦想着成为一名乡村歌手，多莉•帕顿是她心中的偶像。但她可一点都不像多莉•帕顿，她胸部扁平，身材纤细。
然而，整个夏天她都在尽全力地表演，跳舞和唱歌.
发挥长处。如果想在这一行发展，不要走自己不擅长的性感路线。更好地专注于自己的特长，为自己喝彩。
她已经上了三年的声乐课程，但夏令营结束时，老师们还是告诉她应该忘掉唱歌这件事儿，另谋出路。如果里斯确实有天分的话，那也是给她纤细的身材和厚如可乐瓶底儿的眼镜遮盖住了。
虽然心有不甘，可她还是听从了建议，毕竟，她有什么理由怀疑专业人士呢?
但回到位于纳什维尔的家里，她的妈妈—— 一名风趣、快乐、乐观的儿科护士——可不会让里斯感到丝毫的沮丧。她的爸爸是一名医生，他鼓励女儿在学业上有所成就。于是，她凡事努力，终于被斯坦福大学录取。
19岁那年，她出演了一部低成本电影《极速惊魂》。这为她后来在《欢乐谷》中争取到真正重要的角色奠定了基础。而她真正的破冰之作是影片《律政俏佳人》。
她暗下决心：“既然自己没有歌唱天分，又不是光彩照人，那就尽力演出。要想在这行做下去，就不要在性感上做文章了——自己不是那种型别的。最好在自己擅长的方面下功夫。要展示自己。”这时，她接到片约，邀她出演约翰尼•卡什——一个饱受折磨的乡村歌手——的妻子，这是个需要演员有唱功的角色，该片约又把她带回到纳什维尔的家乡。
突然，旧时所有的恐惧感又回来了，一名记者报道说，她在台上实在是太紧张了，甚至在一边“准备了呕吐时要用的痰盂”，她自己也承认“每唱完一幕回到后台，自己都在发抖”。但她没放弃那部电影，也没放弃自己。
她用六个月的时间重新开始学习声乐。她还学会了演奏竖琴。不懈的努力让她重拾信心。
2006年3月，里斯•威瑟斯庞走上了另一个舞台——好莱坞的柯达剧院。凭借在影片《一往无前》里饰演的琼•卡特•卡什这一歌唱角色，她获得了奥斯卡最佳女演员奖，她在片中饰演的角色令人心碎，但也让人心暖。
最后，当你读瑞茜威瑟彭斯的故事时，想想她遇到的挫折。我认为，这个故事告诉我们，与其找借口解释梦想为什么不能实现，不如想想这个故事，坚持你的梦想，永不放弃。
2
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
一位年迈的木匠准备退休了。他告诉他的老板准备离开建筑业的打算，他说他想和他的妻子过一种更休闲的生活，享受天伦之乐。他还说他会怀念这里的薪水的，但必须退休了，他的离职他们慢慢就会适应。
The contrctor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his haert was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials.
老板对他的这位优秀员工的离去感到非常遗憾，于是问他是否可以盖最后一栋房子作为私下里的帮忙。这位木匠答应了，但显而易见他做事的时候是心不在焉的。他的手工做得毛毛糙糙，用的材料也是次品。
It was an unfortunate way to end his career. When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."
这样结束他的事业是不不幸的，当木匠最后完工，老板来看房子时，他把前门的钥匙交给木匠说：“这是你的房子，是我送给你的礼物。”
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently, Now he had to live in the home hs had built none too well.
震惊!羞愧!如果他早知道他是在盖自己的房子，他肯定会做得截然不同的，现在他不得不住在自己建的糟糕透顶的房子里面。
So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized that we would done it differently.
这个道理同样适合我们。在营造生活时，我们的精力被分散到太多的地方，我们只是被动地适应而不会主动行动，而我们自己也不愿意去尽心尽力地营造我们的生活。在重要的时刻我们也没能尽自己最大的努力做好工作。仁厚我们吃惊地看到自己做的一切：发现自己处在自己建造的房子里。如果我们早意识到这一点的话，我们的做法就会完全不同。
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely.
把你自己当成那个木匠。想想你的房子。每天你都会钉个钉子，放块模板或砌一面墙。明智地建造你的房子。
It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dinity.
这是你唯一可以营造的生活。即使你只可以再活一天，你也要活得优雅、有尊严。
The plaque on the wall says, "Life ia a do-it-yourself project." Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.
墙上的匾写着：“生活就是一个自己动手工程。”谁能比这个说得更明白?你今天的生活就是你过去的生活态度和所作选择的结果。你明天的生活就是你今天的生活和所作选择的结果。
英语现在已经发展成为一个在世界范围内使用最广泛的语言。英语作为英美 文化 信息的载体和表现形式,一度深深地烙上了英美独有的文化印记。下面是我带来的优秀英语 文章 朗读，欢迎阅读!优秀英语文章朗读篇一 The silent village In this much-travelled world, there are still thousands of places which are inaccessible to tourists. We always assume that villagers in remote places are friendly and hospitable. But people who are cut off not only from foreign tourists, but even from their own countrymen can be hostile to travellers. Visits to really remote villages are seldom enjoyable--as my wife and I discovered during a tour through the Balkans. We had spent several days in a small town and visited a number of old churches in the vicinity. These attracted many visitors for they were not only of great architectural interest, but contained a large number of beautifully preserved frescoes as well. On the day before our departure, several bus loads of tourists descended on the town. This was more than we could bear, so we decided to spend our last day exploring the countryside. Taking a path which led out of the town, we crossed a few fields until we came to a dense wood. We expected the path to end abruptly, but we found that it traced its way through the trees. We tramped through the wood for over two hours until we arrived at a deep stream. We could see that the path continued on the other side, but we had no idea how we could get across the stream. Suddenly my wife spotted a boat moored to the bank. In it there was a boatman fast asleep. We gently woke him up and asked him to ferry us to the other side. Though he was reluctant to do so at first, we eventually persuaded him to take us. The path led to a tiny village perched on the steep sides of a mountain. The place consisted of a straggling unmade road which was lined on either side by small houses. Even under a clear blue sky, the village looked forbidding, as all the houses were built of grey mud bricks. The village seemed deserted, the only sign of life being an ugly-looking black goat tied to a tree on a short length of rope in a field nearby. Sitting down on a dilapidated wooden fence near the field, we opened a couple of tins of sardines and had a picnic lunch. All at once, I noticed that my wife seemed to be filled with alarm. Looking up I saw that we were surrounded by children in rags who were looking at us silently as we ate. We offered them food and spoke to them kindly, but they remained motionless. I concluded that they were simply shy of strangers. When we later walked down the main street of the village, we were followed by a silent procession of children. The village which had seemed deserted, immediately came to life. Faces appeared at windows. Men in shirt sleeves stood outside their houses and glared at us. Old women in black shawls peered at us from door-ways. The most frightening thing of all was that not a sound could be heard. There was no doubt that we were unwelcome visitors. We needed no further warning. Turning back down the main street, we quickened our pace and made our way rapidly towards the stream where we hoped the boatman was waiting. 在这个旅游频繁的世界上，仍有成千上万个游人足迹未至的地方。人们总是以为偏僻的地方的村民们热情好客。但是，那些不但与外国旅游者隔绝，而且与本国同胞隔绝的人们有可能对游客抱有敌意。到真正偏僻的村庄去旅游并不是一件愉快的事情。我与妻子在一次周游巴尔干半岛时对此深有体会。 我们在一座小镇上逗留了几天，参观了附近的许多古老的教堂。这些教堂吸引大量游客，不仅是因为建筑风格奇特，而且还有大量保存完好的壁画。我们离开小镇的前一天，镇上来了几辆满载游客的公共汽车。人多得使我们难以忍受，于是我们决定利用最后一天去乡间一游。我们走上了一条出镇的小路，穿过几块农田，来到一片茂密的树林。我们原以为小路会到此突然终止。没想到它到树林中继续向前延伸。我们在树林中跋涉了两个多小时，到了一条深溪边。我们可以看到小路在深溪对岸继续向前伸展，但却不知如何越过这道深溪。突然，妻子发现岸边泊着一条小船，船上有一船夫在呼呼大睡。我们轻轻地把他唤醒，请他把我们摆渡过溪。一开始，他很不愿意，但经劝说，终于同意了。 顺着小路，我们来到一个座落在陡峭山坡上的小村庄。这儿有一条未经修筑的弯弯曲曲的道路，路两边排列着一些矮小的农舍。农舍全用灰色的土坯建成，因此，即使在晴朗的蓝天底下，村庄看上去也会令人感到难以亲近。村里似乎无人居住，唯一的生命迹象是附近田里一只面目可憎的黑山羊，用一截短绳拴在一棵树上。我们在田边一堵东倒西歪的篱笆墙上坐下来，打开几听沙丁鱼罐头，吃了一顿野外午餐。突然，我注意到妻子十分惊恐。我抬头一看，发现我们被一群衣衫褴褛的小孩团团围住了，他们在默不作声地看着我们吃饭。我们给他们东西吃，客客气气地同他们交谈，但他们却一动也不动。我认为这不过是他们在陌生人面前表现出的害羞。后来，我们在村里的主要街道上行走的时候，一队默不作声的孩子跟在我们后头。刚才还似乎空荡荡的村庄一下子活跃了起来，窗口露出了一张张面孔，只穿着衬衣的男人们站在屋子外面凶狠地盯着我们，披黑纱巾的老妇人站在门口偷偷地瞅着我们。最令人害怕的是到处没有一点声音。毫无疑问，我们的来访是不受欢迎的。我们不需要进一步的警告了。便掉转身子，沿着那条主要街道加快步伐，快速地朝深溪边走去，希望船夫还在那儿等着我们。 优秀英语文章朗读篇二 The Ideal Servant It is a good thing my aunt Harriet died years ago. If she were alive today she would not be able to air her views on her favourite topic of conversation: domestic servants. Aunt Harriet lived in that leisurely age when servants were employed to do housework. She had a huge, rambling country house called 'The Gables'. She was sentimentally attached to this house, for even though it was far too big for her needs, she persisted in living there long after her husband's death. Before she grew old, aunt Harriet used to entertain lavishly. I often visited The Gables when I was a boy. No matter how many guests were present, the great house was always immaculate. The parquet floors shone like mirrors; highly polished silver was displayed in gleaming glass cabinets; even my uncle's huge collection of books was kept miraculously free from dust. Aunt Harriet presided over an invisible army of servants that continuously scrubbed, cleaned, and polished. She always referred to them as' the shifting population', for they came and went with such frequency that I never even got a chance to learn their names, Though my aunt pursued what was, in those days, an enlightened policy in that she never allowed her domestic staff to work more than eight hours a day, she was extremely difficult to please. While she always decried the fickleness of human nature, she carried on an unrelenting search for the ideal servant to the end of her days, even after she had been sadly disillusioned by Bessie. Bessie worked for aunt Harriet for three years. During that time she so gained my aunt's confidence, that she was put in charge of the domestic staff. Aunt Hariet could not find words to praise Bessie's industry and efficiency. In addition to all her other qualifications, Bessie was an expert cook. She acted the role of the perfect servant for three years before aunt Harriet discovered her 'little weakness'. After being absent from The Gables for a week, my aunt unexpectedly returned one afternoon with a party of guests and instructed Bessie to prepare dinner. Not only was the meal well below the usual standard, but Bessie seemed unable to walk steadily. She bumped into the furniture and kept mumbling about the guests. When she came in with the last course—a huge pudding-she tripped on the carpet and the pudding went flying through the air, narrowly missed my aunt, and crashed on the dining table with considerable force. Though this occasioned great mirth among the guests, aunt Harriet was horrified. She reluctantly came to the conclusion that Bessie was drunk. The guests had, of course, realized this from the moment Bessie opened the door for them and, long before the final catastrophe, had had a difficult time trying to conceal their amusement. The poor girl was dismissed instantly. After her departure, aunt Harriet discovered that there were piles of empty wine bottles of all shapes and sizes neatly stacked in what had once been Bessie's wardrobe. They had mysteriously found their way there from the wine-cellar! 我的姑妈哈丽特好多年前就去世了，这倒是件好事。如果她活到今天，她将不能就她热衷的话题“佣人”发表意见了。哈丽特生活在一个悠闲的年代，家务事都由雇来的佣人代劳。她在乡下有一幢巨大杂乱的房子，叫作“山墙庄园”。她对这幢房子在感情上难舍难分。房子实在太大了，但在丈夫去世多年后，她仍然执意长年住在那儿。哈丽特姑妈年轻时，喜欢大摆宴席，招待宾客。我小时候常去“山墙庄园”作客。不管去多少宾客，大房子里总是收拾得干干净净。镶木地板洁如明镜，擦得发亮的银器陈列在明亮的玻璃柜里，连姑夫的大量藏书也保存得很好，奇迹般地一尘不染。哈丽特姑妈统率着一支看不见的佣人大军，他们不停地擦拭、清扫、刷洗。她称这些佣人叫“流动人口”，因为他们来匆匆，所以我甚至都没有机会知道他们的姓名。姑妈待佣人在当时算是开明的，从来不让佣人每天工作超过8小时，但他们很难使她称心如意。她一方面总是批评人的本性朝三暮四，另一方面她又持之以恒地寻找一个理想的佣人。即使在贝西大大地伤她的心之后，她还在找，一直到她死去。 贝西在哈丽特家干了3年。在此期间，她赢得了姑母的赏识，甚至当上了大管家。哈丽特不知该用什么言辞来赞扬贝西的勤奋与高效。贝西除了有各种本领以外，还是一个烹饪大师。她担任“理想仆人”角色3年之后，哈丽特终于发现她有“小小的弱点”。一次，姑妈有一个星期没在“山墙庄园”住。一天下午，她出其不意地回来了，带来一大批客人，吩咐贝西准备晚饭。结果，不仅饭菜远不如平时做得好，而且贝西走起路来似乎东倒西歪。她撞到了家具上，嘴里还不断咕咕哝哝议论客人。当她端着最后一道菜——一大盘布丁——走进屋来时，在地毯上绊了一跤。布丁飞到半空，从姑母身边擦过，然后狠狠地砸在餐桌上。这件事引起了客人们的欢笑，但哈丽特却着实吓了一跳。她不得不认定贝西是喝醉了。客人们自然从贝西为他们开门那一刻起就看出来了，在好长一段时间里，即最后这个乱子发生前，他们努力克制才没笑出声来。贝西当即被解雇了。贝西走后，哈丽特姑妈发现在贝西以前用过的衣柜里整整齐齐地放着一堆堆形状各导、大小不一的酒瓶子。这些酒瓶神不知鬼不觉地从酒窖来到了这里。 优秀英语文章朗读篇三 New Year Resolutions The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of ' do's' and' don'ts '. The same old favourites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year's Eve, provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task. The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living-room for two days before anyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book, one night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just bought a book entitled 'How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute'. Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it! 新年是下决心的时候，至少在大多数人的心里会编排出一份“应做什么”和“不应做什么”的令人生畏的单子。相同的决心以单调的规律年复一年地出现。我们决心每天早晨起得早些;吃得少些;多花点时间与孩子们一起做游戏;做大量的家务;对不喜欢的人友善一些;小心驾车;每天都要带着狗散步;等等。以往的 经验 告诉我们有些事是办不到的。如果我们烟瘾大，戒不掉，那是因为屡戒屡败，失去信心。我们大多数人想自我完善却遭到失败，这是因为我们的规划过于宏大，而又根本没有时间去实施。我们还犯有一个根本性的错误，即把我们的决心向大家宣布。这样一旦滑回到那些老习惯上去，我们在别人的眼里会显得更加难堪。我深知这些问题，于是，今年我对自己的计划要严加保密，只给自己定下两项适中的任务;每天早上锻炼身体，每天晚上多看点书。新年 除夕 举办的一次通宵晚会，使我理直气壮地在新年头一天免去了这两项任务。不过，新年第二天，我全力以赴地照着去做了。 早锻炼一共只有11分钟，我打算在别人起床之前进行。这就要求我比平时早11分钟把自己从床上拽起来，这种自我约束是很艰苦的。不过开头两天我还是成功地蹑手蹑脚地来到楼下起居室，被谁也没发现。我在地毯上跳来蹦过去，扭曲身子，摆出各种姿势，弄得浑身不舒服，然后坐到桌边吃早饭，一副筋疲力尽的样子。正是这副模样泄露了我的秘密。第二天早晨全家人结队来到起居室看我表演。这真叫人不好意思，但我心平气和地顶住全家人的嘲笑和奚落。不久，大家对我习以为常了，而这时我的热情却减退了。我花在锻炼上的时间逐渐减少，慢慢地从11分钟减到了零。到了1月10日，我恢复了原来的作息时间。我辩解说，早晨少耗费精力锻炼，晚上下班回家看书时头脑更清醒些。有几天晚上，我极力摆脱了电视的诱惑，坐在自己的房间里，两眼盯在书上。可是，有一天夜里，我感到又冷又孤单，便来到楼下坐在电视机前假装看书。这下我可完了，因为不一会儿，我就恢复了以前的坏习惯，在屏幕前打起瞌睡来。但我还没有放弃多看些书的决心。事实上，我刚买来一本叫《一分钟读一千字的诀窍》的书。也许这本书能解决我的问题，但我一直还没时间去看这本书!
来这里让你的英语每天进步一点，
china daily, BBC ,foxnews, CNN, TED, SAE, wiki 等等, 不过最有用的还是软件自带的技术性帮助文件, 如 hyperworks, matlab , java 只有经常用到的才会更熟悉 ,生看一堆字符是很没意思的事情,能在阅读的同时学到知识和技术才是赚到了,看看 新闻和 TED 是个不错的选择，时事更新，写作素材上也会用的上
你好，这里有五个英语网站，前两个是有双语文章的网站：21英语网，（词汇难度在大学四六级之内，阅读难度适宜个人认为能够增加词汇量并锻炼阅读能力）普特听力网，（以前在这个网站里下载了一些听力材料，其实对提高听力有一定的帮助。也有双语阅读的文章，难度一般）其他三个网站是全英文的，适合了解世界时事，开拓视野，用词也很严谨：经济学家 电讯报卫报本人其实非常喜欢咱们国家的21世纪报，特别适合英语学习（词汇，语言都用的非常好），只可惜它的网站不支持全文阅读，不过允许的话在图书馆里借阅或是买一本合刊都是不错的选择。发布于 2013-02-02作者：邱雪凤链接：来源：知乎著作权归作者所有。商业转载请联系作者获得授权，非商业转载请注明出处。
爱词霸 大耳朵英语 就这两个就够用了 里面内容很多。。。。
wokankan. rongshu.
首先要推荐 CHINA DAILY. 即能每天你读新闻，还能学习英语。 其他的 VOA 上面有PDF 可以下载下来的 听力材料，也很不错。 个人认为 无需太多，只要在一个网站上坚持下来，就能有很大的提高。
沪江外语论坛。
沪江网不错 我学习日语的软体就是从那当下来的 有音讯 还有学习文字
god is a girl my love we well rock your never say good by
在规则被发现之前。 让我的嘴唇干燥 偷摄你游泳时的镜头。总之，把以往 因羞愧而浑身灼热。 翻开一段青葱岁月 就让怯生的生放的苞的心悸吧哈哈
:tuku./ : :
qqgexing. 看看吧，绝对好
沪江英语，有听说读，记单词的练习，不枯燥 普特英语，VOA练习多，多用来训练听力和阅读 听力课堂，英语资料免费下载，涉及英语的很多方面，听力，阅读。口语。名著。 希望可以帮到你！
英语阅读免费软件app推荐有英语读书（安卓）多练英语习题库（安卓/iOS）靠谱背单词（安卓/iOS）单词随身听（安卓/iOS）英语四级单词（安卓）百词斩等。
1、英语读书（安卓）它是一款颜值比较高、界面比较简洁、功能比较强大的英语阅读软件，也是一款很好的英语学习软件。
2、多练英语习题库（安卓/iOS）它绝对是一个非常良心且免费的宝藏英语学习软件，软件支持安卓和iOS；安卓的名字叫：多练英语习题库，iOS的名字叫：英语练习题。
3、靠谱背单词（安卓/iOS）它是一个界面简洁大方、设计精美的高颜值英语学习软件，整体看上去还有点小清新风格。
4、单词随身听（安卓/iOS）原名叫边走边听背单词，最新版改为了单词随身听。英语四级单词（安卓）它是一个完全免费的英语四级学习软件，只支持安卓，无需注册登录，但有些许广告。
5、百词斩，把音形义结合起来，有图片有音频，加深记忆。主打特色是象形单词和看图背词。词汇量测试，个性化单词包。
阅读英语文章的app有：道e读、扇贝阅读、ZoReader、爱洋葱和各大英文网站的应用，这些APP提供的英文文章资源和阅读体验都不错。手机上还有很多英文报刊和博客的应用可以下载，可以根据自己的关注方向搜索对应的权威网站下载APP。
道e读，这款软件可以根据你的英语水平推荐适合你阅读的资讯。它还支持导入功能，可以在网上下载英文电子书或者输入网站链接，很方便地在这个APP中阅读你感兴趣的内容并随时查看不认识的单词的翻译；
扇贝阅读，这是一款很好的阅读软件，它自身有强大的翻译功能，生词表功能，每中不足的是内置英文资源少，并且不支持导入文件。
西梅，这个APP还有一大亮点在于支持双语对照阅读，而且不只是英语，还有日语、德语、法语、西班牙语等等21种语言，对于学习小语种的人来说是很友好的。
点击查词，添加生词本这些功能基本是英语阅读类APP的标配了，但是西梅还有很特别的一点是，一打开生词本的时候会只显示单词和音标，可以先自行回忆一下TA的意思，然后再点击显示答案。
英语读物app推荐如下：
一、英语读书
【书城推荐】会把每个栏目的书推荐给你几本，比如名著部分是《傲慢与偏见》、《简爱》、《呼啸山庄》等。
【书城分类】很明晰。如果习惯那种按照英语分级来看书的，那么这个app不要错过！选择英语等级，雅思or考研orblabla，就可以看到当前英语水平最适合的原版书！
在里面可以看到一些中文书的英译版。
其他优点：
1、查词方便，点击就显示单词意思了。
2、可以自由切换全英文、双语、中文。
二、有道e读
在资讯栏目，可以阅读到一些关注领域的文章，会按照备考等级显示分级（如IELTS），尤其是对于GRE备考者，与其每天狂刷The New Yorker等以为获取艺术文化评论类文章，不如直接用这个软件来看了。书城同样有分级，是按照入门、初级、中级、高级、进阶，分成了五类。
【优点】：
1、同样点击即可翻译单词意思。
2、可以听原文。
三、Serial Reader
这个app的创立者希望读者可以用“追连载”的感觉来看名著，所以创立了这个app。
游戏感和可视化做得很好，一个章节一个章节的，可以知道自己看了多少书。选书的部分主要是按内容来区分的，美国文学、俄国文学、Poetry、Children’s、Religion等。点击某个单词不会直接跳出翻译，而是一排选项，查单词、做笔记、分享。
四、My Books
这个app书很全了。
几个特点：
1、点击单词不能直接查，要再点一下跳出来的define然后进入手机内置词典
2、可以调整水平阅读or垂直阅读。
3、可以调字体，昼夜模式。
4、可以用不同颜色做单词或者句子的highlight。
五、eBook Search
里面有英文书，也有部分中文书和其他语言的书籍。打开书籍页，点击中间的【下载书籍】，就会跳出电子书格式的选择。如果想打开你下载的书，点菜单栏的那个小房子就会进入主页，点一下就可以选择用什么软件来阅读。
不收费的英语点读软件推荐如下：
1、《点读通》这款app是专门为学生打造的点读软件，软件主要是以点读学习为特点，集合了教学视频、趣味课堂、工具查找、交流互助为一体的纯绿色软件，软件内不含任何广告，也没有任何的特殊限制，真正的给孩子们一个良好的学习环境。
2、《每日英语听力》这款app主要是为了英语的听力练习，软件中可以点读也可以跟读，选择一些听力文章来进行阅读，对英语的听力或者阅读都有一定的提升。
3、《扇贝阅读》扇贝阅读这款app是一款专门阅读与点读的软件，这款软件会有不同的方式让你享受到阅读英语文章的乐趣，在学习中能轻松跟读收获学习与成长。
4、《新标准英语三上点读》新标准英语三上点读这款应用比较适合苏教版和浙教版的学生，针对小学和初中的英语点读以及语法要点，能够让学生们轻松的巩固自己学到的口语点读知识。
5、《冀教版英语三年级下册》冀教版英语三年级下册这款APP比较适合河北上学以及其他地区使用冀教版课本的学生，由于隔离在家期间，很多小学生都需要自己学习英语，这款应用则可以为简单的课本带来课文解析，也可以提供标准的英语点读。