英语美文欣赏

时间:2024.3.20

It could happen

One day, overnight, the world turned violet. Just abouteverything turned violet from the sky and ocean andmountains to the trees and animals and people and from the tallest skyscrapers to the tiniest ant.People sat around looking at one another wondering if they were dreaming. But nobody woke upand things stayed violet, all except for a single Blue Jay who hadn't changed color and stayed thebrightest blue.

Being the only thing in the world that wasn't violet, he was caught and put in a cage. Peoplewere shocked. Some were afraid and some were amazed and a few thought it funny, becausealong with everyone else, the President was very violet. Whole families were violet as wereteachers, movie stars, doctors, nurses, gas station attendants, the Queen of England, thePresident of Mozambique, taxi-drivers, everybody. They went from place to place in their violetcars and buses and rode violet bikes and sat on violet furniture and ate violet food. EvenHershey's candy bars had turned all violet as had Skittles and M&M's. Girls generally thought thisyucky, but some boys thought it was pretty neat.

The smartest scientists in the world gathered to figure it out. Was something wrong withpeople's eyes or was it a trick of nature? They did studies and tests and analyzed and evaluatedand debated and wrote article after article, but couldn't explain it.

And no longer could people say they felt "blue" or were "green" with envy or had a "green"thumb. So what they said and how they said it began to change. Some people said violet wasnow the most important color in the world because it was everywhere. Others said that violet hadno importance at all because there was too much of it. They discussed and argued, joined clubs,held debates, wrote books, and produced movies all about the issue of the importance orunimportance of the color violet.

The color of the Blue Jay became a big issue because he had such a little bit of blue and theworld had such a whole lot of violet. People argued about the importance of that. Some said theBlue Jay must be a very special bird or maybe not a bird at all because he alone had kept his truecolor. Others said this was silly, that the Blue Jay ate bird seed and drank water and fluffed hisfeathers and that other than his special color he was still just a bird.

It was exactly one year to the day after the world had turned violet that people awoke to findthe world had turned yellow. All except the Blue Jay.

In some ways a yellow world isn't any different than a violet world. People simply said yellowinstead of violet when they talked about things. Only now the Blue Jay was more important thanever because he alone had stayed the color blue and people argued about what that meant. Theylined up for miles just to take a look at him.

For the next two years, exactly on the day the world had turned violet and then yellow, itturned new colors: first orange and then pink. Still the Blue Jay stayed blue, causin

g ever greaterdisagreement—until in the fifth year the whole world turned blue.

The first thing people asked was what about the Blue Jay. Had he stayed blue? Yes, he was stillthe same color. No longer were there two colors in the world, but just one—the color blue. Andbecause the Blue Jay was a color like everybody and everything else people began to lose interest.Now that he was neither more nor less important crowds stopped coming and one day, sixmonths into the year that the world had turned blue, somebody let him out of his cage and heflew off looking happy to be free.

The very next morning the world regained its rainbow of colors as if nothing had everhappened. At first this was a novelty but soon people forgot the world had once been all violet.They forgot the world had once turned yellow, then orange, then pink, and then blue. Theyreturned to saying they felt "blue" or were "green" with envy or had a "green" thumb.

But on occasion they wondered where the Blue Jay had gone and how he was doing and,most of all, if he was still the color blue and what it had all meant.

Companionship of Books

A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well asby the company he keeps; for there is a companionship ofbooks as well as of men; and one should always live in the bestcompany, whether it be of books or of men.

A good book may be among the best of friends.It is the sametoday that it always was, and it will never change. It is the mostpatient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity ordistress. It always receives us with the same kindness,amusing and instructing us in youth, andcomforting and consoling us in age. Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book --- just astwo persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. Thereis an old proverb,

“Love me, and love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, lovemy book.” The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize witheach other through their favorite author. They live in him together, and he in them.

A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the worldof a man's life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books aretreasures of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become ourconstant companions and comforters.

Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of humaneffort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts,which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author's mi

nds, ages ago. Whatwas then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The onlyeffect of time has been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive butwhat is really good.

Books introduce us into the best society they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds thathave ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see them as if they were really alive; wesympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and wefeel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.

The great and good do not die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad.The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.


第二篇:英语美文欣赏:不要贩卖你的灵魂


双语美文:不要贩卖你的灵魂

卡莉-费奥瑞娜(Carly Fiorina)是惠普公司前CEO,这是她在美国北卡罗来纳州农业技术州立大学毕业典礼上发表的演讲。在讲演中,卡莉说,回想起在惠普的5年,自己没有丝毫的后悔,她现在的心境非常“宁静安稳”。50岁的卡莉幽默的表示,她现在开始重新准备简历,等待面试的机会。 卡莉在这场题为“你的天分是上帝馈赠的,你的成就是对上帝的回报”的讲演中,告诫即将走入社会的毕业生们,“不要放弃你的内在本性,千万不要贩卖你的灵魂,因为没有人能够支付得起”。

Here's what she told the graduates and their guests at the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University on May

英语美文欣赏不要贩卖你的灵魂

7

My fellow job seekers: I am honored to be among the first to congratulate you on completing your years at North Carolina A&T. But all of you should know: as Mother's Day gifts go, this one is going to be tough to beat in the years ahead.

亲爱的毕业生们,我很荣幸成为首批恭贺你们顺利完成学业的人之一。大家必须明白:随着母亲节礼物的远离,在未来的岁月里,等待你们的将是艰难坎坷的日子。

But as you may have heard, I don't have that job anymore. After the news of my departure broke, I called the school, and asked: do you still want me to come and be your commencement speaker?

无论如何,我要感谢大家听我的演讲,这是我离开惠普之后的首次公开露面。我非常希望来到这里,因为这个学校由于我所坚信的一些东西而显得与众不同,这些东西把我带回到我生命中最初的记忆中去。

Chancellor Renick put my fears to rest. He said, "Carly, if anything, you probably have more in common with these students now than you did before." And he's right. After all, I've been working on my resume. I've been lining up my references. I bought a new interview suit. If there are any recruiters here, I'll be free around 11.

I want to thank you for having me anyway. This is the first public appearance I've made since I left HP. I wanted very much to be here because this school has always been set apart by something that I've believed very deeply; something that takes me back to the earliest memories I have in life.

One day at church, my mother gave me a small coaster with a saying on it. During my entire childhood, I kept this saying in front of me on a small desk in my room. In fact, I can still show you that coaster today. It says: "What you are is God's gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God." 记得有一天,在教堂,母亲给了我一个小盘子,上面有一条谚语。在我整个童年时期,我将那条谚语摆放在房间的小书桌上,今天还可以把那个盘子拿给你们看。上面写着:“你是什么由上帝的天赋注定,而你成为什么则是你献给上帝的礼物。”

Those words have had a huge impact on me to this day. What this school and I believe in very deeply is that when we think about our lives, we shouldn't be limited by other people's stereotypes or bigotry. Instead, we should be motivated by our own sense of possibility. We should be motivated by our own sense of accomplishment. We should be motivated by what we believe we can become. Jesse Jackson has taught us; Ronald McNair taught us; the Greensboro Four taught us; that the people who focus on possibilities achieve much more in life than people who focus on limitations.

这些话至尽仍然对我有着巨大的影响。这个学校与我同样深信的是,当我们思考自己的生命时,不应该受到其他人的陈词滥调或偏见好恶的限制;相反,我们应该坚持自己对未来发展的判断,坚持自己对成就大业的把握,坚持对自己能有所作为的信念。Jesse Jackson的经历告诉我们,Ronald McNair的经历告诉我们,Greensboro Four的经历也告诉我们,注重发展性的人比注重局限性的人在生活中获得的要多得多。

The question for all of you today is: how will you define what you make of yourself?

To me, what you make of yourself is actually two questions. There's the "you" that people see on the outside. And that's how most people will judge you, because it's all they can see ?what you become in life, whether you were made President of this, or CEO of that, the visible you.

But then, there's the invisible you, the "you" on the inside. That's the person that only you and God can see. For 25 years, when people have asked me for career advice, what I always tell them is don't give up what you have inside. Never sell your soul? Because no one can ever pay you back.

大家现在面对的问题是:如何定义自己成为什么样的人?对我而言,这实际上是两个问

题:一个是人们从外表上看到的“你”,这是大多数人判断你的方式,因为那是他们所能看到的全部,例如:你在生活中是什么人,是某个国家的总统,还是某个企业的CEO;但是,还有一部分的你是看不到的,这就是内在的“你”,是只有自己和上帝才明白的人性本质。25年来,当人们向我询问职业生涯的意见时,我常常告诉他们,不要放弃你的内在本性,千万不要贩卖你的灵魂,因为没有人能够支付得起。

What I mean by not selling your soul is don't be someone you're not, don't be less than you are, don't give up what you believe, because whatever the consequences that may seem scary or bad -- whatever the consequences of staying true to yourself are -- they are much better than the consequences of selling your soul.

You have been tested mightily in your life to get to this moment. And all of you know much better than I do: from the moment you leave this campus, you will be tested. You will be tested because you won't fit some people's pre-conceived notions or stereotypes of what you're supposed to be, of who you're supposed to be. People will have stereotypes of what you can or can't do, of what you will or won't do, of what you should or shouldn't do. But they only have power over you if you let them have power over you. They can only have control if you let them have control, if you give up what's inside.

I speak from experience. I've been there. I've been there, in admittedly vastly different ways -- and in many ways, in the fears in my heart, exactly the same places. The truth is I've struggled to have that sense of control since the day I left college.

我所说的“不要贩卖自己的灵魂”,就是不要违背自己的本性,不要掩盖你的天赋,也不要放弃你的信念。无论结果看起来可能多么的可怕或糟糕,无论保持自己本性的结果是什么,总比出卖灵魂好很多。

在到达今天之前,大家经历了无数的检验和测试,你们比我更清楚地知道:从你们离开校园的这一刻起,还要不断接受测试。接受这些测试的原因,是你们或许不适合某些人对你们应该做什么工作、成为什么人的预想或模式化的观念。人们对于你们能做什么不能做什么、应该做什么不应该做什么有着模式化的概念,但是,只有当你们愿意让他们影响你们时,他们才能影响你们,只有当你们愿意他们控制你们时,当你们放弃自己的内在本性时,他们才能控制你们。

我的这些感想来自自己的经验。在毕业离校的那一天,我曾经很害怕,担心别人会怎么想,担心我不符合要求,担心做出错误的选择,担心让辛辛苦苦工作供我念大学的人失望。 I like big challenges, and the career path I chose for myself at the beginning was in one of the most male-dominated professions in America. I went to work for AT&T. It didn't take me long to realize that there were many people there who didn't have my best interests at heart.

I began my career as a first level sales person within AT&T's long lines department. Now, "long lines" is what we used to call the long distance business, but I used to refer to the management team at AT&T as the "42 longs" ?which was their suit size, and all those suits ?and faces ?looked the same.

I'll never forget the first time my boss at the time introduced me to a clie

nt. With a straight face, he said "this is Carly Fiorina, our token bimbo." I laughed, I did my best to dazzle the client, and then I went to the boss when the meeting was over and said, "You will never do that to me again."

In those early days, I was put in a program at the time called the Management Development Program. It was sort of an accelerated up-or-out program, and I was thrown into the middle of a group of all male sales managers who had been there quite a long time, and they thought it was their job to show me a thing or two. A client was coming to town and we had decided that we were getting together for lunch to introduce me to this customer who was important to one of my accounts.

Now the day before this meeting was to occur, one of my male colleagues came to me and said, "You know, Carly, I'm really sorry. I know we've had this planned for a long time, but this customer has a favorite restaurant here in Washington, D.C., and they really want to go to that restaurant, and we need to do what the customer wants, and so I don't think you'll be able to join us." 我喜欢挑战,一开始为自己选择的职业生涯,恰好是在美国最受男权控制的行业,——我进入AT&T,不久就意识到,这家企业中很多人,都不是我心底感兴趣的人。我作为了一名AT&T长话部的一级销售员,开始了自己的职业生涯。现在,“长话”指的是长途电话业务,不过我当时用“42英寸”来形容AT&T的管理团队,这是他们的西服号码,所有的西服——以及他们的脸——看起来也一样。

我永远忘不了第一次我的老板向客户介绍我时,板着脸说:“这是卡莉?费奥瑞娜,我们的这儿的小妞。”我笑着,尽力讨好客户,在会面结束后我找到老板,说道:“以后再也不许这样对我。”

在工作初期,我参加了一个项目,当时称作“管理发展计划”。那是一种强化项目,我被中途扔进一堆已工作相当长时间的男性销售经理当中,他们认为应该给我点颜色瞧瞧。当一位客户前来拜访时,我们本来决定一起吃午餐,趁此机会向这位对我的业务非常重要的客户介绍我。会面前一天,我的一位男同事对我说:“瞧,卡莉,非常抱歉,我知道我们早已计划好了,但是这位客户在华盛顿特区有一家最中意的餐厅,他们非常希望去那家餐厅,因此我想你可能不能跟我们一起去了。”

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