英語美文精選
引導語：下面是小編精心整理的兩篇英語美文，句子段落都特別優美，希望大家可以認真讀一讀，增加增加的詞匯量，提高自己的閱讀能力和寫作水平。
If I Rest, I Rust
The 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, agriculture---every 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 become 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 become a famous astronomer.
Labor vanquishes all---not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed 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
在一把舊鑰匙上發現了一則意義深遠的銘文——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域的大門，這些領域包括各種職業：科學，藝術，文學，農業等。
勤奮使開啟成功寶庫的鑰匙保持光亮。如果休�6�1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學家。著名數學家愛德蒙�6�1斯通如果閑暇時無所事事，就不會出版數學詞典，也不會發現開啟數學之門的鑰匙。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，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家。
勞動征服一切。這里所指的勞動不是斷斷續續的，間歇性的或方向偏差的勞動，而是堅定的，不懈的，方向正確的每日勞動。正如要想擁有自由就要時刻保持警惕一樣，要想取得偉大的，持久的成功，就必須堅持不懈地努力。
When Love Beckons You
When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to our roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
But if, in your fear, you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but it self and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a payer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
譯文：
愛的召喚
當愛召喚你時，請追隨她，盡管愛的道路艱難險峻。當愛的羽翼擁抱你時，請順從她，盡管隱藏在其羽翼之下的劍可能會傷到你。當愛向你訴說時，請相信她，盡管她的聲音可能打破你的夢想，就如同北風吹落花園里所有的花瓣。
愛會給你戴上桂冠，也會折磨你。愛會助你成長，也會給你修枝。愛會上升到枝頭，撫愛你在陽光下顫動力的嫩枝，也會下潛至根部，撼動力你緊抓泥土的根基。
但是，如果你在恐懼之中只想尋求愛的平和與快樂，那你就最好掩蓋真實的自我，避開愛的考驗，進入不分季節的世界，在那里你將歡笑，但并非開懷大笑，你將哭泣，但并非盡情地哭。愛只將自己付出，也只得到自己。愛一無所有，也不會為誰所有，因為愛本身就已自足。
愛除了實現自我別無他求。但是如果你愛而又不得不有所求，那就請期望：
將自己融化并像奔流的溪水一般向夜晚吟唱自己優美的曲調。
明了過多的溫柔所帶來的苦痛。
被自己對愛的理解所傷害;
并情愿快樂地悲傷。
在黎明帶著輕快的心醒來并感謝又一個有家的日子;
在黃昏懷著感恩之心回家;
然后為內心所愛之人祈禱，吟唱贊美之歌，并帶著禱告和歌聲入眠。
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