高中英语值得背诵的英语文章（3）

11. Night
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 the 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(1). The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge. Then all is still save the continuous wind of the summer night. Sometimes I know not if it be the wind or the sound of the neighboring sea.(2) The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone.
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 lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf, into whose silent darkness the spirit plunges, and floats away with some 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 new one springs up behind the walker, and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill(3). 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 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 streets- angular like blocks of white marble.
夜：夜幕已笼罩着乡间。一轮红月正从树林后面冉冉升起，天上几乎看不到星星。在这苍茫的夜色中，寒气与露水降下来了。我坐在敞开的窗前欣赏着这夜色，耳边只听到那夏天的风声。大树的阴影象黑色的大船停泊在波浪起伏的茫茫草海上。虽然我见不到红色和蓝色的花朵，但我知道它们在那儿。在远处的草地上，银色的查尔斯河闪闪发光。木桥那边传来了踢嗒踢嗒的马蹄声。接着，一片寂静，留下的只是那夏夜不断的风声。有时，我根本辨别不出它究竟是风声，还是邻近的海涛声。村子里的时钟敲起来了，于是我觉得并不孤独。
城市的夜晚可是多么不同呀I夜深了，人群已经散去。你走到阳台上，躺在凉快和露水弥漫的夜幕中，仿佛你用它作为外衣裹住了你的身子。阳台下面是栽着树木的人行道，象一条深不可测的黑色海湾，飘忽的精灵就投入了这漆黑沉静的海湾，拥抱着某个所爱的精灵随波荡漾而去。漫长的大街上，街灯依然到处亮着。人们打灯下走过，拖着各种各样奇形怪状的影子，影子时而缩短，时而伸长，最后消失在黑暗中，同时，一个新的影子又突然出现在那个行路人的身后，这影子似乎象风车上的翼板一样，转到他身体的前方去了。公园的铁门当啷一声关上了。耳边可以听见脚步声和响亮的说话声，--一阵喧闹，--一阵酒醉后的吵架声，--一阵火灾的报警声，--接着，又是一片寂静。于是，城市终于沉睡，我们终于能看到夜的景色。姗姗来迟的月亮从屋顶后面探出脸来，发觉没有人在欢迎她。破碎的月光东一块，西一块地撒落在各个广场上和各条大街的开阔处--象一块块白色的大理石一样棱角分明。
(1)the Charles，美国马萨诸塞州的一条河流。
(2)Sometimes I know not if it be the wind or the sound of the neighboring sea，有时，我根本辨别不出它究竟是风声，还是邻近的海涛声。know not是古文体。not放在谓语动词后以代替动词前的do not，这形式，现在只用在诗歌和带有诗意的描写文中。宾语从句中的be是虚拟语气形式，在现代英语中也只用于上述情况。
(3)and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill：象风车上的翼板一样转到他身体的前方去了。pass him revolving中两个动词所表示的动作合成一个1类似的例子有；He came in running．
12. About Reading Books
It is simple enough to say that since books have class- es -- fiction, biography, poetry -- we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall(1) be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him(2). Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this(3), and soon you will find' that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite. The thirty-two chapters of a novel- if we consider how to read a novel first -- are an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building: but words are more impalpable than bricks; reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing. Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read, but to write; to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words. Re- call, then, some event that has left a distinct impression on you- how at the corner of the street, perhaps, you passed two people talking. A tree shook; an electric light danced; the tone of the talk was comic, but also tragic; a whole vision, an entire conception, seemed contained in that moment.
谈读书：
既然书籍有不同的门类，如小说、传记、诗歌等，我们就应该把它们区分开来，并从每种书中汲取它应当给我们提供的正确的东西，这话说起来固然容易，然而，很少有人要求从书籍中得到它们所能提供的东西。通常我们总是三心二意带着模糊的观念去看书：要求小说情节真实，要求诗歌内容虚构，要求传记阿谀奉承，要求历史能加深我们自己的偏见。如果我们读书时能抛弃所有这些成见，那将是一个极可贵的开端。我们对作者不要指手划脚，而应努力站在作者的立场上，设想自己在与作者共同创作。假如你退缩不前，有所保留并且一开始就批评指责，你就在妨碍自己从你所读的书中得到最大的益处。然而，如果你能尽量敞开思想，那么，书中开头几句迂回曲折的话里所包含的几乎难以觉察的细微的迹象和暗示，就会把你引到一个与众不同的人物的面前去。如果你深入下去，如果你去认识这个人物，你很快就会领悟作者正在给你或试图给你某些明确得多的东西。倘若我们首先考虑怎样读小说，那么，一部小说中的三十二章就是企图创造出象一座建筑物那样既有一定的形式而各部分又受到控制的东西：不过词汇要比砖块难以捉摸，阅读的过程要比看一看更费时、更复杂。理解小说家创作工作的各项要素的捷径也许并不是阅读，而是写作，而是亲自试一试遣词造句中的艰难险阻。那么，回想一下给你留下鲜明印象的某些事---比如，你怎样在大街的拐角处从两个正在交谈着的人身边走过。树在摇曳，灯光在晃动，谈话的语气既喜又悲，这一瞬间似乎包含了一个完整的想象，一个整体的构思。
(1)shall：应该，必须。用于陈述句的第三人称中，表示说话人的意愿。
(2)try to become him：应努力站在作者的立场上。become在这里用作及物动词，解作(“配合”、“适应”)。
(3)acquaint yourself with…； 使(你)自己认识(了解)……。
13. Work
It is physically impossible for a well-educated, intellectual, or brave man to make money the chief object of his thoughts; as physically impossible as it is for him to make his dinner the principal object of them. All healthy people like their dinner, but their dinner is not the main object of their lives. So all healthy-minded people like making money- ought to like it and to enjoy the sensation of winning it; but the main object of their lives is not money; it is something better than money.
A good soldier, for instance, mainly wishes to do his fighting well. He is glad of his pay- very properly so, and justly grumbles when you keep him ten months without it; still, his main notion of life is to win battles, not to be paid for winning them.
So of doctors. They like fees no doubt- ought to like them; yet if they are brave and well educated, the en- tire object of their lives is not fees. They, on the whole, desire to cure the sick, and--if they are good doctors, and the choice were fairly put to them --would rather cure their patient and lose their fee than kill him and get it. And so with all other brave and rightly trained men; their work is first, their fee second, very important always, but still second.
But in every nation, there is a vast class of people who are cowardly, 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.
And this is no small distinction. It is the whole distinction. It is the whole distinction in a man. You can- not serve two masters; you must serve one or the other. If your work is first with you, and your fee second, work is your master.
Observe, then, all wise work is mainly threefold 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. 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 watchword also, fair work, and another hatred also , foul work ?
工作：
一个受过良好教育，有知识或有胆识的人实在不可能把金钱作为他孜孜以求的主要目标，正如他不可能把吃饭当作最主要的目标一样。一切健康的人都吃得很香，但是吃饭并不是他们生活的主要目标。同样道理，一切思想健康的人都想得到收入--理所当然，并且为得到收入而由衷地高兴，然而他们生活的主要目标并不是钱，而是比钱更有价值的东西。
例如，一个优秀的士兵总是想把仗打好。他为自己的薪饷感到高兴--完全合乎情理，如果你扣发他十个月军饷，他当然要抱怨。然而他的生活要旨仍然是夺取战斗的胜利，而不是为了薪饷去打胜仗。
医生也是这样。他们当然都喜欢收诊费--理所当然，然而，如果他们是有胆识的、受过良好教育的，那他们生活的全部目标就不是为了收费。总的说来，他们都想把病人治好，而且--如果他们是好医生，同时公平地要他们作出选择的话--他们宁愿把病人治愈而得不到诊金，也不愿为了诊金却把病人治死。所有其他有胆识的、受过正当培养的人也都是这样，对他们来说，工作是第一位的，报酬则是第二位的，虽然报酬总是非常重要的，但终究是第二位的。
可是，在每一个国家里都有一大批怯懦的，多少有点愚蠢的人。对于这些人来说，报酬是第一位的，工作是第二位的，正如刘于有胆识的人说来工作是第一位的，而报酬则是第二位的。这决不是细微的差异。这是至关重要的根本差异。这是区别一个人的根本差异。你不能侍奉两个主人，你必须择一而从。如果你的工作是第一位的，报酬是第二位的，那么工作就是你的主人。
要知道，一切明智的工作大都具有三重性：诚实、有用和令人愉快。我几乎不知道还有比你在娱乐中讲究诚实而在工作上却不讲诚实更为奇怪的事了。在最轻松的游戏中你也总要有人支持你所说的"公正比赛"。拳击时，你必须按照比赛规则去打，赛跑时，起跑要符合规定。你的口号是公正比赛，你所憎恨的是不公正比赛。你可曾想到对待工作你也要有一条口号，那就是老老实实，而你该憎恨的是寡廉鲜耻?
(1) as physically impossible as...: 是 it is as physically impossible for a well-educated，ntellectual，or brave man to make money the chief object of his thoughts as.．．的省略形式，实际上当然不会采用这种累赘的说法。后面的as所引出的是一个比较状语从句。physically impossible作"违反自然法则的，不可能的"解。
(2) very properly so：感到高兴是合乎情理的。so代替前面的glad。
(3)if...the choice were fairly put to them：如果他们是好医生，同时公正地要求他们作出选择的话。这句中用be的虚拟语气形式Were，因为作者认为治病收费是理所当然的，因此所谓公正地要求医生作出下列选择的情况基本上是不存在的。
(4)do not in work：do not后省略了recognize honesty。