【正文】
最后一天來邊,也不失為一個極好的生活法則。這種態(tài)度會使人格外重視生命的價值。我們每天都應(yīng)該以優(yōu)雅的姿態(tài),充沛的精力,抱著感恩之心來生活。但當(dāng)時間以無休止的日,月和年在我們面前流逝時,我們卻常常沒有了這種子感覺。當(dāng)然,也有人奉行“吃,喝,享受”的享樂主義信條,但絕大多數(shù)人還是會受到即將到來的死亡的懲罰。在故事中,將死的主人公通常都在最后一刻因突降的幸運(yùn)而獲救,但他的價值觀通常都會改變,他變得更加理解生命的意義及其永恒的精神價值。我們常常注意到,那些生活在或曾經(jīng)生活在死亡陰影下的人無論做什么都會感到幸福。然而,我們中的大多數(shù)人都把生命看成是理所當(dāng)然的。我們知道有一天我們必將面對死亡,但總認(rèn)為那一天還在遙遠(yuǎn)的將來。當(dāng)我們身強(qiáng)體健之時,死亡簡直不可想象,我們很少考慮到它。日子多得好像沒有盡頭。因此我們一味忙于瑣事,幾乎意識不到我們對待生活的冷漠態(tài)度。我擔(dān)心同樣的冷漠也存在于我們對自己官能和意識的運(yùn)用上。只有聾子才理解聽力的重要,只有盲人才明白視覺的可貴,這尤其適用于那些成年后才失去視力或聽力之苦的人很少充分利用這些寶貴的能力。他們的眼睛和耳朵模糊地感受著周圍的景物與聲音,心不在焉,也無所感激。這正好我們只有在失去后才懂得珍惜一樣,我們只有在生病后才意識到健康的可貴。我經(jīng)常想,如果每個人在年輕的時候都有幾天失時失聰,也不失為一件幸事。黑暗將使他更加感激光明,寂靜將告訴他聲音的美妙。 第三篇:Companionship of Books 以書為伴(節(jié)選) Companionship of BooksA man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the pany he keeps。 for there is a panionship of books as well as of men。 and one should always live in the best pany, whether it be of books or of men.A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of panions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness。 amusing and instructing us in youth, and forting and consoling us in age.Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ‘Love me, love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my book.” The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each 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 world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, bee our constant panions and forters. Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. 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 minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out the bad products。 for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is really good.Books introduce us into the best society。 they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did。 we see the as if they were really alive。 we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them。 their experience bees ours, and we feel 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 on still listens.譯文: 以書為伴(節(jié)選)通??匆粋€讀些什么書就可知道他的為人,就像看他同什么人交往就可知道他的為人一樣,因為有人以人為伴,也有人以書為伴。無論是書友還是朋友,我們都應(yīng)該以最好的為伴。好書就像是你最好的朋友。它始終不渝,過去如此,現(xiàn)在如此,將來也永遠(yuǎn)不變。它是最有耐心,最令人愉悅的伴侶。在我們窮愁潦倒,臨危遭難時,它也不會拋棄我們,對我們總是一如既往地親切。在我們年輕時,好書陶冶我們的性情,增長我們的知識;到我們年老時,它又給我們以慰藉和勉勵。人們常常因為喜歡同一本書而結(jié)為知已,就像有時兩個人因為敬慕同一個人而成為朋友一樣。有句古諺說道:“愛屋及屋。”其實“愛我及書”這句話蘊(yùn)涵更多的哲理。書是更為真誠而高尚的情誼紐帶。人們可以通過共同喜愛的作家溝通思想,交流感情,彼此息息相通,并與自己喜歡的作家思想相通,情感相融。好書常如最精美的寶器,珍藏著人生的思想的精華,因為人生的境界主要就在于其思想的境界。因此,最好的書是金玉良言和崇高思想的寶庫,這些良言和思想若銘記于心并多加珍視,就會成為我們忠實的伴侶和永恒的慰藉。書籍具有不朽的本質(zhì),是為人類努力創(chuàng)造的最為持久的成果。寺廟會倒坍,神像會朽爛,而書卻經(jīng)久長存。對于偉大的思想來說,時間是無關(guān)緊要的。多年前初次閃現(xiàn)于作者腦海的偉大思想今日依然清新如故。時間惟一的作用是淘汰不好的作品,因為只有真正的佳作才能經(jīng)世長存。書籍介紹我們與最優(yōu)秀的人為伍,使我們置身于歷代偉人巨匠之間,如聞其聲,如觀其行,如見其人,同他們情感交融,悲喜與共,感同身受。我們覺得自己仿佛在作者所描繪的舞臺上和他們一起粉墨登場。即使在人世間,偉大杰出的人物也永生不來。他們的精神被載入書冊,傳于四海。書是人生至今仍在聆聽的智慧之聲,永遠(yuǎn)充滿著活力。第四篇:If I Rest,I Rust 如果我休息,我就會生銹 If I Rest, I RustThe significant inscription found on an old key“If I rest, I rust”would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agricultureevery department of human endeavor.Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have bee a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have bee a famous astronomer.Labor vanquishes allnot inconstant, spasmodic, or illdirected labor。 but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a welldirected purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success. 譯文: 如果我休息,我就會生銹在一把舊鑰匙上發(fā)現(xiàn)了一則意義深遠(yuǎn)的銘文——如果我休息,我就會生銹。對于那些懶散而煩惱的人來說,這將是至理名言。甚至最為勤勉的人也以此作為警示:如果一個人有才能而不用,就像廢棄鑰匙上的鐵一樣,這些才能就會很快生銹,并最終無法完成安排給自己的工作。有些人想取得偉人所獲得并保持的成就,他們就必須不斷運(yùn)用自身才能,以便開啟知識的大門,即那些通往人類努力探求的各個領(lǐng)域的大門,這些領(lǐng)域包括各種職業(yè):科學(xué),藝術(shù),文學(xué),農(nóng)業(yè)等。勤奮使開啟成功寶庫的鑰匙保持光亮。如果休米勒在采石場勞作一天后,晚上的時光用來休息消遣的話,他就不會成為名垂青史的地質(zhì)學(xué)家。著名數(shù)學(xué)家愛德蒙斯通如果閑暇時無所事事,就不會出版數(shù)學(xué)詞典,也不會發(fā)現(xiàn)開啟數(shù)學(xué)之門的鑰匙。如果蘇格蘭青年弗格森在山坡上放羊時,讓他那思維活躍的大腦處于休息狀態(tài),而不是借助一串珠子計算星星的位置,他就不會成為著名的天文學(xué)家。勞動征服一切。這里所指的勞動不是斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的