英語(yǔ)背誦文選

1、1. The First Snow The first snow came. How beautiful it was, falling so silently all day long, all night long, on the mountains, on the meadows, on the roofs on the living, on the graves of the dead! All white save the river, that marked its course be a winding black line across the landscape; and t

2、he leafless tress, that against the leaden sky now revealed more fully the wonderful beauty and intricacies of their branches. What silence, too, came with the snow and what seclusion! Every sound was muffled; every noise changed to something soft and musical. No more tramping hoofs, no more rattlin

3、g wheels! Only the chiming of sleigh-bell, beating as swift and merrily as the hearts of children.(118 words) From Kavanagh By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 2. The Humming-birdOf all animals being this is the most elegant in form and the most brilliant in colors. The stones and metals polished by our a

4、rts are not comparable to this jewel of Nature. She has placed it least in size of the order of birds. “maxime Miranda in minimis.” Her masterpiece is this little humming-bird, and upon it shehas heaped all the gifts which the other birds may only share. Lightness, rapidity, nimbleness, grace, and r

5、ich apparel all belong to this little favorite. The emerald, the ruby, and the topaz gleam upon its dress. It never soils them with the dust of earth, and in its aerial life scarcely touches the turf an instant. Always in the air, flying from flower to flower, it has their freshness as well as their

6、 brightness. It lives upon their nectar, and dwells only in the climates where they perennially bloom. (149 words) From Natural History By George Louise Buffon 3. PinesThe pine, placed nearly always among scenes disordered and desolate, bring into them all possible elements of order and precision. L

7、owland trees may lean to this side and that, though it is but a meadow breeze that bends them or a bank of cow lips from which their trunks lean aslope. But let storm and avalanche do their worst, and let the pine find only a ledge of vertical precipice to cling to, it will nevertheless grow straigh

8、t. Thrust a rod from its last shoot down the stem; it shall point to the center of the earth as long as the tree lives. It may be well also for lowland branches to reach hither and thither for what they need, and to take all kinds of irregular shape and extension. But the pine is trained to need not

9、hing and endure everything. It is resolvedly whole, self-contained, desiring nothing but rightness, content with restricted completion. Tall or short, it will be straight. (160 words) From Modern Painters By John Ruskin 4. Reading Good BooksDevote some of your leisure, I repeat, to cultivating a lov

10、e of reading good books. Fortunate indeed are those who contrive to make themselves genuine book-lovers. For book lovers have some noteworthy advantages over other people. They need never know lonely hours so long as they have books around them, and the better the books the more delightful the compa

11、ny. From good books, moreover, they draw much besides entertainment. They gain mental food such as few companions can supply. Even while resting from their labors they are, through the books they read, equipping themselves to perform those labors more efficiently. This albeit they may not be deliber

12、ately reading to improve their mind. All unconsciously the ideas they derive from the printed paged are stored up, to be worked over by the imagination for future profit. (135 words) From Self-Development By Henry Addington Bruce 5. On EtiquetteEtiquette to society is what apparel is to the individu

13、al. Without apparel men would go in shameful nudity which would surely lead to the corruption of morals; and without etiquette society would be in a pitiable state and the necessary intercourse between its members would be interfered with by needless offences and troubles. If society were a train, t

14、he etiquette would be the rails along which only the train could rumble forth; if society were a state coach, the etiquette would be the wheels and axis on which only the coach could roll forward. The lack of proprieties would make the most intimate friends turns to be the most decided enemies and t

15、he friendly or allied countries declare war against each other. We can find many examples in the history of mankind. Therefore I advise you to stand on ceremony before anyone else and to take pains not to do anything against etiquette lest you give offences or make enemies. (160 words) By William Ha

16、zlitt 6. An Hour before SunriseAn hour before sunrise in the city there is an air of cold. Solitary desolation about the noiseless streets, which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely shut buildings which throughout the day are warming w

17、ith life. The drunken, the dissipated, and the criminal have disappeared; the more sober and orderly part of the population have not yet awakened to the labors of the day, and the stillness of death is over streets; its very hue seems to be imparted to them, cold and lifeless as they look in the gra

18、y, somber light of daybreak. A partially opened bedroom window here and there bespeaks the heat of the weather and the uneasy slumbers of its occupant; and the dim scanty flicker of a light through the blinds of yonder windows denotes the chamber of watching and sickness. Save for that sad light, th

19、e streets present no signs of life, nor the houses of habitation. (166 words) From Boz By Charles Dickens 7. The Importance of Scientific ExperimentsThe rise of modern science may perhaps be considered to date as far as the time of Roger Bacon, the wonderful monk and philosopher of Oxford, who lived

20、 between the years 1214 and 1292. He was probable the first in the middle ages to assert that we must learn science by observing and experimenting on the things around us, and he himself made many remarkable discoveries. Galileo, however who lived more than 300 years later (1564 to 1642), was the gr

21、eatest of several great men, who in Italy, France, Germany or England, began by degrees to show how many important truths could be discovered by well-directed observation. Before the time of Galileo, learned men believed that large bodies fall more rapidly towards the earth than small ones, because

22、Aristotle said so. But Galileo, going to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, let fall two unequal stones, and proved to some friends, whom he had brought there to see his experiment, that Aristotle was in error. It is Galileos sprit of going direct to Nature, and verifying our opinions and theorie

23、s by experiment, that has led to all the great discoveries of modern science. (196 words) From Logic By William Stanley Jevons 8. Address at GettysburgFourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are

24、created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, ca n long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their l

25、ives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicatewe cannot consecratewe cannot hallowthis ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, heave consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract

26、. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great

27、 task remaining before usthat form these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that gove

28、rnment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (268 words) By Abraham Lincoln 9. A Little Girl (1)Sitting on a grassy grave, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one

29、 of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was

30、 shi in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy could was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seeme

31、d like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she uncommonly lovely. (159 words) 10. A Little Girl (2)Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows,

32、 and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat and were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lippe

33、d mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed tome a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my loveliest dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me. (129 words) From Aylwin By Theodore Watts-Dunton 11. Choosing a

34、n OccupationHodeslea, Eastbourne, November 5, 1892 Dear Sir, I am very sorry that the pressure of other occupations has prevented me form sending an earlier reply to your letter. In my opinion a mans first duty is to find a way of supporting himself, thereby relieving other people of the necessity o

35、f supporting him. Moreover, the learning to so work of practical value in the world, in an exact and careful manner, is of itself, a very important education the effects of which make themselves felt in all other pursuits. The habit of doing that which you do not dare about when you would much rathe

36、r be doing something else, is invaluable. It would have saved me a frightful waste of time if I had ever had it drilled into me in youth. Success in any scientific career requires an unusual equipment of capacity, industry, and energy. If you possess that equipment, you will find leisure enough afte

37、r your daily commercial work is over, to make an opening in the scientific ranks for yourself. If you do not, you had better stick to commerce. Nothing is less to be desired than the fate of a young man who, as the Scotch proverb says, in trying to make a spoon spoils a horn,” and becomes a mere han

38、ger-on in literature or in science, when he might have been a useful and a valuable member of Society in other occupations. I think that your father ought to see this letter. (244 words) Yours faithfully T.H. Huxley From Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley By Leonard Huxley 12. An Important Aspe

39、ct of College LifeIt is perfectly possible to organize the life of our colleges in such a way that students and teachers alike will take part in it; in such a way that a perfectly natural daily intercourse will be established between them; and it is only by such an organization that they can be give

40、n real vitality as places of serious training, be made communities in which youngsters will come fully to realize how interesting intellectual work is, how vital, how important, how closely associated with all modern achievementonly by such an organization that study can be made to seem part of life

41、 itself. Lectures often seem very formal and empty things; recitations generally proved very dull and unrewarding. It is in conversation and natural intercourse with scholars chiefly that you find how lively knowledge is, how it ties into everything that is interesting and important, how intimate a

42、part it is of every thing that is interesting and important, how intimate a part it is of everything that is “practical” and connected with the world. Men are not always made thoughtful by books; but they are generally made thoughtful by association with men who think. (195 words) By Woodrow Wilson

43、13. Night (1)Night has fallen over the country. Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen. In the vast shadow of night the coolness and the dews descend. I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind. Like black hulks, the shadows of th

44、e great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass. I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there. Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles. The tramp of horses hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the n

45、eighboring sea. The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone. (128 words) 14. Night (2) How different it is in the city! It is late, and the crowd is gone. You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool, dewy night as if you folded her garments about you. Beneath l

46、ies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf, into whose silent beloved spirit clasped in its embrace. The lamps are still burning up and down the long street. People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened, and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing, while a n

47、ew one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill. The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang. There are footsteps and loud voices; -a tumult; -a drunken brawl; -an alarm of fire; -then silence again. And now at length the city is asleep, and

48、 we can see the night. The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her. The moonlight is broken. It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streetsangular like blocks of white marble. (195 words) (323 words) By Nathanial Hawthorne 15. An October Sunrise (1)I

49、was up the next morning before the October sunrise, and away through the wild and the woodland. The rising of the sun was noble in the cold and warmth of it; peeping down the spread of light, he raised his shoulder heavily over the edge of gray mountain and wavering length of upland. Beneath his gaz

50、e the dew-fogs dipped and crept to the hollow places, then stole away in line and column, holding skirts and cling subtly at the sheltering corners where rock hung over grass-land, while the brave lines of the hills came forth, one beyond other gliding. The woods arose in folds, like drapery of awak

51、ened mountains, stately with a depth of awe, and memory of the tempests. Autumns mellow hand was upon them, as they owned already, touched with gold and red and olive, and their joy towards the sun was less to a bridegroom than a father.(152 words) 6. An October Sunrise (2)Yet before the floating im

52、press of the woods could clear itself, suddenly the gladsome light leaped over hill and valley, casting amber, blue, and purple, and a tint of rich red rose, according to the scene they lit on, and the curtain flung around; yet all alike dispelling fear and the coven hoof of darkness, all on the win

53、gs of hope advancing, and proclaiming, “God is here!” Then life and joy sprang reassured from every crouching hollow; every flower and bud and bird had a fluttering sense of them, and all the flashing of Gods gaze merged into soft beneficence. So, perhaps, shall break upon us that eternal morning, w

54、hen crag and chasm shall be no more, neither hill and valley, nor great unvintaged ocean; when glory shall not scare happiness, neither happiness envy glory; but all things shall arise, and shine in the light of the Fathers countenance, because itself is risen. (153 words) (305 words) By Richard D.

55、Blackmore 17. Of Studies (1)Studies serve for delight, for ornamental, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particula

56、rs, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect n

57、ature, natural plants, that need proyning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without th

58、em, and above them, won by observation. (157 words) 18. Of Studies (2)Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted; others to swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is,

59、 some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of

60、 books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; an if he read little,