英语名篇背诵精华01 Life is a chess-board 人生是一盘棋
说人生是一出戏也好，是一盘棋也罢，只不过是对人生的一种理解，因人而异。
The chess-board is the world: the pieces are the phenomena of the univer; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.
By Thomas Henry Huxley
注释
overlook[¸əuvə´luk]: to fail to e or notice忽视
海苔花生make allowance for: 考虑到……（而原谅）
作者简介
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), English biologist and educator. Huxley gave up his own biological
rearch to become an influential scientific publicist and was the principal exponent of Darwinism in England. An agnostic, he doubted all things not immediately open to logical analysis and scientific verification. He held up truth as an ideal and spoke and wrote frequently on its tool, the scientific method, and its yield, the evolutionary theory. He placed human ethic outside the scope of the materialistic process of evolution; he believed that civilization is man’s protest against nature and that progress is achieved by the human control of evolution. 托马斯.亨利.赫胥黎，英国著名博物学家，达尔文进化论学说最杰出的代表。
棋盘宛如世界：一个个棋子仿佛世间的种种现象：游戏规则就是我们所称的自然法则。竞争对手藏于暗处，不为我们所见。我们知晓，这位对手向来处事公平，正义凛然，极富耐心。然而，我们也明白，这位对手从不忽视任何错误，或者因为我们的无知而做出一丝让步，所以我们也必须为此付出代价。
英语名段背诵精华 02 Best of times 最好的时代
狄更斯在《双城记》一书开头就说，“这是一个最好的时代，也是一个最坏的时代”。妙哉斯言！这段文字因含有多个平行句（句子结构相同）而打动读者。文中句型上的反复、形式上的对偶、内容上的对比、总体结构上的平行，都值得仔细体会。
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the ason of light, it was the ason of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
注释
wisdom[´wizdəm]: 智慧，明智的行为，学识
epoch[´i:pɔk, ´e pɔk]: age, era, period新纪元，时代，时期病毒的基本结构
incredulity[¸inkri´dju:liti]: the state or quality of being incredulous; disbelief怀疑
despair: to lo all hope绝望，失望
作者简介
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist and one of the most popular writers in the history of literature. In his enormous body of works, Dickens combined masterly storytelling, humor, pathos, and irony with sharp social criticism and acute obrvation of people and places, both real and imagined.
His works have been translated into practically every language and his novels have been adapted to plays, films, musicals and so on. 查尔斯.狄更斯，英国大名鼎鼎的作家，是19世纪英国现实主义文学的
主要代表人物之一。他笔耕一生，靠勤奋和汗水创造出《双城记》、《大卫.科波菲尔》等世界文学名著。其作品在艺术上以妙趣横生的幽默、细致入微的心理分析，以及现实主义描写与浪漫主义气氛的有机结合而著称。
这是一个最好的时代，也是一个最坏的时代；这是明智的年代，这是愚昧的年代；这是信任的纪元，这是怀疑的纪元；这是光明的季节，这是黑暗的季节；这是希望的春日，这是失望的冬日；我们面前应有尽有，我们面前一无所有；我们都将直上天堂，我们都将直下地狱……
王东儿
英语名段背诵精华 03 Equality and greatness 平等与伟大
Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing: character, conduct, and capacity are everything. Instead of all the workers being leveled down to low wage standards and all the rich leveled up to fashionable income standards, everybody under a system of equal incomes would find her or his own natural level. There would be great people and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be tho who had done great things, and never the idiot who mothers had spoiled them and who fathers had left a hundred thousand a year; and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters, and not poor persons who had never had a chance. That is why idiots are always in favour of inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favour of equality.
By George Bernard Shaw
注释
distinction[dis´tiŋkʃən]: the condition or fact of being dissimilar or distinct; difference 区别，差别
merit[´merit]: 功绩，荣誉，价值
eminence[´eminəns]: a position of great distinction or superiority卓越
作者简介
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish-born playwright, pamphleteer and music and theater critic.
Shaw was a ruthless social critic and irreverent toward institutions. By forging a drama that combined moral passion and intellectual conflict and experimenting with symbolic farce, Shaw helped to reshape the stage of his time and to mold the thought of his own and later generations. His play The Devil’s Disciple became a success in the United States, and Shaw’s next work, Man and Superman(1903) helped establish Shaw’s reputation in London. Among the plays that followed was Saint Joan(1923), for which Shaw received the 1925 Nobel Prize in literature. 萧伯纳，英国戏剧家，1856年7月26日生于爱尔兰都柏林。1885年萧伯纳开始戏剧创作。到1949年为止，共完成剧本51部。1925年获得诺贝尔文学奖。
收入相当的人除了品性迥异以外没有社会差别。金钱不能说明什么：性格、行为、能力才代表一切。在收入平等制
度下，每个人将会找到她或他正常的地位，而不是所有的工人被划到应拿低工资阶层，所有的富人被划到应得高收
入的阶层。人有卓著伟人，平庸之辈和碌碌小人之别，然伟人总是那些有所建树之人，而非从小深受母亲溺爱、父
亲每年留下一大笔钱之人；碌碌小人总是那些心胸狭窄，品德卑劣之人，而不是那些从未获取机会的穷人。愚蠢之
众总是赞成收入不平等（他们职能凭借这种机会才能为人所知），而真正伟大之人则主张平等相待，原因就在于此。
英语名篇名段背诵精华 04 Great expectation 远大前程
下面这段文字选自查尔斯.狄更斯的《远大前程》（1860-1861），这是他比较晚期的作品。狄更斯经历了丰富的人
间生活后，对人、对周围环境、对自己的生活经历都有了深刻的认识，而所有他成熟的思想认识都汇总在《远大前程》一书中。
这部作品的语言可谓是出神入化，要学习英国语言，这是一部典范。狄更斯的作品不矫揉造作，不选用那些华而不
实的词语。他的用词都简单明了，朴实易懂，所以文字读来朴实无华，如行云流水。
骆强
北京喜讯到边寨
As the night was fast falling, and as the moon, being past the full, would not ri early, we held a little council: a short one, for clearly our cour was to lie by at the first lonely tavern we could find. So, they plied their oars once more, and I looked out for anything like a hou. Thus we held on, speaking little, for four or five dull miles. It was very cold, and, a collier coming by us, with her gallery-fire smoking and flaring, looked like a comfortable home. The night was as dark by this time as it would be until morning; and what light we had, emed to come more from the river than the sky, as the oars in their dipping stuck at a few reflected stars.
Except from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
注释
council[´kaunsil]: an asmbly of persons called together for consultation, deliberation or discussion讨论，会议
tavern[´tævə(:)n]: 酒馆，客栈
piled their oars: 使劲划起桨来
collier[´kɔliə]: 运煤船
gallery-fire: 厨房
Great expectations, 原意是指一笔遗产，中文译为《远大前程》（也有的译作《孤星血泪》）。这个译名给读者一种印象，即作品的主人翁是有远大前程的。而事实上，这个“远大前程”是带有讽刺意义的。这部作品的主题决非仅仅是写孤儿皮普想当上等人的理想幻灭的故事，如果这样理解，就领会错了狄更斯创作这部作品的意义。皮普生活在姐姐家里，生活艰苦，他的理想是当一名像姐夫一样的铁匠，他没有想当上等人。后来他之所以想当上等人是因为环境的改变。狄更斯的哲学思想之一是环境对人思想的影响。不同的环境可以造就不同的人。皮普的人生发展过程是符合一般人性理论的。
天黑得很快，偏巧这天又是下弦月，月亮不会很早升起。我们就稍稍商量了一下，可是也用不着多讨论，因为情况是明摆着的，再划下去我们一遇到冷落的酒店就得投宿。于是他们又使劲打起浆来，我则用心寻找岸上是否隐隐约约有什么房屋的模样。这样又赶了四五英里路，一路上好不气闷，大家简直不说一句话。天气非常冷，一艘煤船从我们近旁驶过，船上厨房里生着火，炊烟缕缕，火光荧荧，在我们看来简直就是个安乐家了。这时夜已透黑，看来就要这样一直黑到天明，我们仅有的一点光亮似乎不是来自天空，而是来自河上，一桨又一桨的，搅动着那寥寥几颗倒映在水里的寒星。
英语名篇名段背诵精华05 The Doer of Deeds 有作为的人
美国前总统尼克松在他的《领导者》（Leader）一书中引用了如下的话：
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again; becau there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himlf in a worthy cau, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with tho cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Except from The Honorable People by Theodore Roovelt
注释
arena[ə´ri:nə]: 竞技场，舞台
valiantly: 勇猛地，英勇地
enthusiasm[in´θju:ziæzəm]: great excitement for or interest in a subject or cau狂热，热心，积极性
作者简介
Theodore Roovelt (1858-1919), 26th president of the USA (1901-1909), Republican, Nobel Peace Prize winner. He brought new excitement and power to the Presidency, as he vigorously led Congress and the American public towards progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy.
西奥多.罗斯福，政治家，经济学家，美国第26届总统。罗斯福总统是一个热衷于户外生活的人，而在他的全部政策中，保护美国自然资源的政策具有最持久的意义。
真正令人尊敬的并非那些评论家和那些指出强者是如何跌倒、实干家本该做得更好的人。
荣誉属于那些亲临竞技场，满脸污泥、汗水和鲜血的人。他们不懈地努力，他们曾犯过过错，并一再失败。因为付
种莲藕
出即意味着犯错和失败。他们满怀激情地努力做事，执着不懈，将生命奉献于崇高的事业。他们为经过艰辛努力最
终取得的伟大成就而自豪，如果失败，他们也败得荣耀。因而，这样的人永远不应与那些不知道胜利、也从未失败
过的冷淡而胆怯的灵魂相提并论
英语名篇名段背诵精华06 American dream 美国梦
美国梦是一个被众多美国人普遍信仰的信念，即通过努力的工作，非凡的勇气与意志力，每个人都可以致富，实现
自己的梦想。机会均等是美国梦的灵魂。聪明、勤奋与坚忍不拔是实现美国梦的必要条件。
To Americans, industriousness, thrift and ambition are positive values. We encourage our children to be competitive, to get ahead, to make money, to acquire posssion. In games and in business alike, the aim is to win the game, the trophy, the contract. We go in for labor-saving devices, gadgets, speed and shortcuts. We think every young couple should t up a home of their own. And we pity the couple who must share their home with their parent, let alone with other relatives. Actually, of cour, not all Americans hold all the values. And tho who do may hold other, and at times contradictory, values that affect their ways of behaving. In the main, however, the collective expectation of our society is that the are desirable goals, and the individual, whatever his personal inclination, is under considerable pressure to conform.
By Corinne Brown
共筑中国梦手抄报
注释
positive[´pɔzətiv]: 积极的，却有助益的
gadget[´gædʒit]: 小器具，小配件
conform[kən´fə:m]: 一致，符合
作者简介
Corinne Brown has her master degree in history. The author of children’s books is also a poet and playwright. Her stories demonstrate that children from diver backgrounds can choo to get along even when adults are hostile to each other. Brown is the author of Let’s Keep This Secret.
科林娜.布朗，儿童作家、诗人及剧作家。
大相径庭
对美国人而言，刻苦努力、勤俭节约、胸怀大志都是积极向上的美德。我们鼓励子女敢于竞争、力争上游、自谋营生、积累财富。在比赛中，在商务往来中，目标就是要赢得比赛，获得奖品，签订合约。我们孜孜不倦地追求省力
的工具、灵巧的装置，提高速度，寻求捷径。我们认为每对年轻夫妇都应该有属于自己的家，我们同情那些必须和
父亲或者母亲住在一起的年轻夫妇，更不用说与其他亲戚住在同一屋檐下的人了。当然，事实上并不是所有的美国
人都具有这些品质，拥有这些品质的人可能同时还具备一些影响他们行为方式的品质，或者相反的品质。但是，总
的来说，我们的社会普遍期望这些品德是我们的既定目标，无论每个人的自我倾向是什么，他都承受着一定压力去
实现这些目标。
英语名篇名段背诵精华 07 Shakespeare 莎士比亚
威廉.莎士比亚（1564-1616）是欧洲文艺复兴时期英国最伟大的剧作家和卓越的人文主义思想的代表。
Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpracticed by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or
temporary opinions: they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and obrvation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influence of tho general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole system of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in tho of Shakespeare it is commonly a species.
Except from The Major Works (The Preface to Shakespeare) by Samuel Johnson
注释
transient[´trænziənt]: passing with time; transitory短暂的，一时的
progeny[´prɔdʒini]: 子孙，后代
agitate[´ædʒiteit]: to stir up public interest in a cau 鼓动，使不安定
作者简介
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was an English poet, essayist, critic, journalist, lexicographer, and conversationalist. He was regarded as one of the outstanding figures of 18th-century life and letters.
塞缪尔.约翰逊，伦敦18世纪大名鼎鼎的批评家、随笔作家、辞典编纂家、诗人和传记家，是《刺塞拉斯》、《诗人列传》等著作的作者，编写巨著《英文字典》。
莎士比亚的才华高于一切作家，至少高于当今的所有作家。他是一位自然的诗人，他的作品将人间百态真实地展现在读者眼前。他的人物塑造并不拘泥于只为一部分人所遵循的某个特定地区的习俗，也不局限于一小部分人所从事的特定的研究或职业，也不追随短暂的潮流或暂时的思想观点：他们据有人们一贯具备的、普遍的人性特点。就像世界能永不竭地供应，眼睛能永不停地发现。他笔下人物的一言一行都受那些能够触动所有人的大众化的情感和能使整个生命体系得以延续的普遍原则所影响。在其他诗人的作品中，一个人物往往就是一个个体，而莎翁笔下的人物通常代表着一类人。
英语名篇名段背诵精华08 Heart of a stranger 陌生者之心
每位作家在滚滚红尘中，大概都渴望有一个宁静恬适的地方，在那里不但可以思考、写作，也可以让疲惫的心灵能够停泊在避风的港湾。虽然有些作家相信“大隐隐于市”，因此并不刻意想在大自然中寻觅隐居之所，然而自然总是具有某种不可抗拒的魔力，当自然喃喃细语、含情轻诉之时，恐怕没有哪个作家，可以对它野性多情的呼唤充耳不闻。
The most loved place, for me, in this country has in fact been many places. It has changed throughout the years, as I and my circumstances have changed. I haven't really lost any of the best
places from the past, though. I may no longer inhabit them, but they inhabit me, portions of memory, prences in My best place at the moment is very different, although I guess it has some of the attributes of that long-ago place. It is a small cedar cabin on the Otonabee river in southern Ontario. I've lived three summers there, writing, birdwatching, riverwatching. I sometimes feel sorry for the people in speedboats who spend their weekends zinging up and down the river at about a million miles an hour. For all they're able to e, the riverbanks might just as well be green concrete and the river itlf flowing with molten plastic.
By Margaret Laurence
注释
circumstance[´sə:kəmstəns]: 环境
inhabit[in´hæbit]: to live or reside in居住于，栖息
attribute[ə´tribju(:)t]: 品质，特性
