關於英語經典美文誦讀
在大學英語教學中，英語閱讀理解是教學的重要活動，是大學生學習英語的手段和目的。下面是本站小編帶來的關於英語經典美文誦讀，歡迎閱讀!
A Tale of Two Smut Merchants
兩個淫穢照片商的故事
Mike Royko
邁克·羅伊科
In simpler times, there lived a self-employed photographer in Chicago who worked weddings,anniversaries, graduations and other family events. He also padded his income with goods hedidn’t advertise in the neighborhood paper. He sold nude photos—the kind we used to calldirty pictures.
那年頭比較純樸，芝加哥有一名個體照相師，專營結婚照、週年紀念照、畢業照和其他家庭大事照。有的貨色他並沒在當地報紙上做廣告，他也拿來湊數，添點收入。他出售裸體照——就是我們過去常說的下流照片。
His model was usually his wife, an empty-faced woman who tended their second-floor flat andtwo small kids and did what her husband told her to do. Other than having a big chest, therewasn’t much to recommend her as a model, except that she was wilLing to pose inembarrassingly revealing positions.
他的模特兒通常是他的妻子——一個面孔毫無表情的婦女。她照管着他們在二樓的那套房間和兩個小孩，凡事都聽她丈夫的。她當模特兒，無非是有一個高高挺起的胸脯，旁的沒什麼好說的，不過她很樂意擺出各種露得叫人看不下去的姿勢就是了。
The photographer would sell stacks of the wallet-size photos to guys he knew in factoriesand taverns, and they would sell them to guys they knew. That’s the way such things circulatedin the days before porn stores and national smut magazines.
照相師把皮夾子大小的照片成批賣給他在工廠和酒館裏的熟人，這些人再賣給他們的熟人。那年頭還沒有賣淫穢東西的商店和全國性的黃色雜誌，這類東西就是這麼流傳的。
The photographer’s neighbors didn’t know about his dirty-picture business because he soldthem outside the neighborhood. But then he made the mistake of asking a teenage girl fromthe next block if she would be interested in making some money as a model.
照相師的街坊們對他賣下流畫的勾當一無所知，因爲他是在別的街區乾的。但是後來出了紕漏：他竟問隔壁街區的一個十幾歲的小女孩想不想當模特兒掙錢。
When he told her exactly what he had in mind, she told her mother. The mother told the father,who owned a corner tavern. And the father and his large son, carrying baseball bats, went tothe photog’s home and banged on the door. Not being a dummy, he wouldn’t open the the father yelled that if he ever came near the girl again, they’d kill him.
他把想法向小女孩原原本本說了，上女孩告訴了她的母親。她母親又告訴了她父親，他在街角上開有一小酒館。於是他父親帶上大個頭兒子，提着棒球棍，跑到照相師家，把房門敲得砰砰響。照相師又不傻，哪能開門。做父親的於是大喊大叫，說他要是再接近他的女兒，他們就宰了他。
A few weeks later the tavern keeper was at the local grammar school, attending the graduationof one of his other children. During the ceremony, he glanced around and saw thephotographer with a camera in his hand. “What’s that creep doing here?” he shouted.
幾個星期過後，酒館老闆到當地的初級中學，參加他另外一個孩子的畢業典禮。典禮正在進行，他四下瞅瞅，一眼看到那個照相師，手拿一架照相機。他喊到：“那混蛋來這兒幹嗎?”
It turned out that the creep was the official photographer of the graduation. “He ain’t takingmy kid’s picture,” said the tavern keeper. He got up and bashed the creep in the jaw, and thephotographer fled.
那混蛋原來是來拍畢業典禮的正式攝影師。“不許他給我的孩子照相。”酒館老闆說。他站起身來，朝那混蛋下巴上猛揍一拳，照相師一溜了事。
The tavern keeper then explained to parents and teachers that he had driven a degeneratefrom their midst, so someone else was called to take the class picture. Within two days, thephotog had moved from the neighborhood and was never again seen.
接着，酒館老闆向家長和老師們說明，他是替大夥趕走了一個壞分子，於是另請了一個人給全班照相留念。不到兩天，那個照相師就從這條街搬走了，再也沒露面。
I thought of that incident while watching Bob Guccione, owner of Penthouse magazine, beinginterviewed some time ago on a network news show, and it occurred to me what remarkablechanges have occurred in only a few decades.
不久前一家新聞電視網播放了採訪《藏春閣》雜誌的老闆鮑勃·古西翁的實況，我看後不禁想起這件往事。我在想，時隔不過幾十年，竟是世事滄桑啊。
The neighborhood pornographer was punched around and had to move away in ione, a multimillionaire, wears gold chains, travels the world in jets and is invited to thebest parties in New York City.
那個街道上的黃色販子捱了揍，不得不夾起尾巴走人。古西翁卻是腰纏萬貫，穿金戴銀，坐着噴氣式飛機周遊世界，應邀蒞臨紐約市首屈一指的集會。
If the photog tried to explain why he did what he did, nobody would have cared. They wouldhave just punched him some more. But Guccione speaks with great seriousness about thejournalistic necessity of publishing nude photos of a well-known woman. And there are peoplewho take him seriously.
那個照相師要是想解釋一下他的所作所爲，沒人會聽他的。人們只會對他揍得更狠。古西翁卻是在一本正經地談論報章雜誌有必要刊登什麼名媛的裸照。而且還有一個一本正經地聽信他。
Actually, there’s little difference between that neighborhood pornographer and Guccione, themagazine publisher, other than financial success. The only significant one is that the photogwas born before his time.
其實，那位街道上的黃色販子與雜誌出版商古西翁之間並沒有什麼兩樣，他倆無非財運不同罷了。唯一值得注意的不同倒是那位照相師生不逢辰。
Maybe, I prefer to think that it was the tavern keeper, unfortunately, who was born before histime.
也許是吧。可我倒以爲正是那位酒館老闆——說來可嘆——他才生不逢辰呢。
關於英語經典美文誦讀篇二A Visit with the Folks
探訪故親
periodically i go back to a churchyard cemetery on the side of an Appalachian hill in northernVirginia to call on family elders. it slows the juices down something marvelous.
弗吉尼亞北部阿巴拉契亞山脈的一個小山坡上， 有一處教堂墓地。每隔一段日子，我都要回到那裏探望先輩們。這種 探訪有一種奇妙的力量，能讓人的心境歸於平靜。
they are all situated right behind an imposing brick church with a tall square brick bell-towerbest described as honest but not flossy. some of the family elders did construction repair workon that church and some of them, the real old timer, may even have helped build it ,but icounldn't swear to that because it's been there a long, long time.
先輩們的墓地全都在一座莊嚴醒目的磚石教堂後面。高高聳立的方形鐘樓也是磚石結構的，說它“樸實而不粗糙”在再合適不過了。家族先輩中有些參與過教堂的修繕工作，另一些人，那些真正的老祖宗們，或許還爲教堂的建造出過力，但對此我可沒有絕對把握，因爲教堂建在那裏畢竟已經很久很久了。
The view, especially in early summer, is so pleasing that it’s a pity they can’t enjoy it. Wildroses blooming on fieldstone fences, fields white with daisies, that soft languorous air turningthe mountains pastel blue out toward the West.
那兒的景色非常怡人，尤其是在初夏時節。石柵籬上的野薔薇競相開放，田野被雛菊染成一片白色，微醺的和風給羣山抹上淡淡的藍色，一直向西邊延伸而去。先輩們無法欣賞這些美景，真是一樁憾事。
The tombstones are not much to look at. Tombstones never are in my book, but they do helpin keeping track of the family and, unlike a family, they have the virtue of never chafing at you.
那些墓碑倒是沒什麼看的。在我看來，墓碑從來就沒有什麼好看的。但它們確實有助於尋根問祖，而絕不會像現在的家人，總跟你嘮叨個沒完。
This is not to say they don’t talk after a fashion. Every time I pass Uncle Lewis’s I can hear itsay, “Come around to the barber shop, boy, and I’ll cut that hair.” Uncle Lewis was a barber. Heleft up here for a while and went to the city. Baltimore. But he came back after the end. Almostall of them came back finally, those that left, but most stayed right here all along.
但這兒並不是說他們總是“一聲不吭”。每次走過劉易斯大叔的墓前，我都能聽見這樣的話：“回頭到理髮店來，孩子，我給你剪剪頭。”劉易斯大叔是個理髮的，有一段時間他曾離開家鄉，到大都市巴爾的摩謀生，但最後還是回來了。幾乎所有的人，我是說那些離開過的人們，最終都回來了，但大多數人——一輩子都呆在這裏。
Well, not right here in the churchyard, but out there over the fields, two, three, four milesaway. Grandmother was born just over that rolling field out there near the woods the year theCivil War ended, lived most of her life about three miles out the other way there near themountain, and has been right here near this old shade tree for the past 50 years.
對了，“這裏”當然不是指這片墓地，而是鄉間那邊，離墓地二三英里或三四英里的地方。內戰結束那年，祖母就出生在樹林子附近那片起伏不平的地頭。她大半輩子都在離林子大約三英里的大山邊生活，如今安躺在這棵綠蔭如蓋的老樹下也有50年了。
We weren’t people who went very far. Uncle Harry, her second child, is right beside her. Acarpenter. He lived 87 years in these parts without ever complaining about not seeing Paris. Toget Uncle Harry to say anything, you have to ask for directions.
先輩們都不大出遠門兒。就拿哈里大伯來說吧，他是祖母的二兒子，就葬在她的墓旁。他是個木匠，一輩子87年都在這一帶度過，從未抱怨過自己沒去過巴黎，見識見識外面的世界。要想讓哈里大伯開口說點什麼，你得向他問路才行。
“Which way is the schoolhouse?” I ask, though not aloud of course.
“去學堂走哪條路呀?”我問道，當然聲音不大。
“Up the road that way a right good piece,” he replies, still the master of indefinite navigationwhom I remember from my boyhood.
“沿那條道一直走就行，還得走好一陣子呢。”他回答道。在我兒時的記憶中，他一直就是這個樣子，總是那副好給別人之路卻又指不清的含餬口氣。
It’s good to call on Uncle Lewis, grandmother and Uncle Harry like this. It improves yourperspective to commune with people who are not alarmed about the condition of NATO orwhining about the flabbiness of the dollar.
像這樣探訪劉易斯大叔、祖母和哈里大伯，感覺真好。他們既不會因爲北約現狀而憂心忡忡，又不會因爲美元疲軟而牢騷滿腹，同這樣的人傾心交談能使你更加明察事理。
The elders take the long view. Of course, you don’t want to indulge too extensively in thatlong a view, but it’s useful to absorb it in short doses. It corrects the blood pressure and putsthings in a more sensible light.
先輩們大都看得開，想得遠。當然，你並不想沉迷於用太長遠的目光去看問題，但偶爾合理地用上一次卻大有裨益。這樣可以使你心平氣和，更加理智地看待各種事物。
After a healthy dose of it, you realize that having your shins kicked in the subway is not thegravest insult to dignity ever suffered by common humanity.
學會適當地把目光放開一點之後，你就會明白，在地鐵裏被人踹了一腳並不算是普通人所受的什麼奇恥大辱。
Somewhere in the vicinity is my great-grandfather who used to live back there against themountain and make guns, but I could never find him. He was born out that way in 1817—JamesMonroe was President then—and I’d like to find him to commune a bit with somebody of bloodkin who was around when Andrew Jackson was in his heyday.
就在這附近哪個地方埋着我的一個曾祖父。生前他依山而居，還造過槍，但我一直沒能找到他的墓。1817年他就出生在那裏——當時的總統是詹姆斯·門羅——我極想找到他，好跟這位親眼目睹了安德魯·傑克遜鼎盛時期的親人好好聊上幾句。
After Jackson and Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, he would probably not be very impressedabout much that goes on nowadays, and I would like to get a few resonances off histombstone, a cool frisson of contempt maybe for a great-grandchild who had missed all thereally perilous times.
這位曾祖父生活在傑克遜、亞伯拉罕·林肯當政時期，又經歷了內戰，對時下發生的事兒可能不會有太大的感觸。但我仍想從墓碑中聽他講上幾句，哪怕他會對我這個沒經歷過真正危難時世的曾孫表示出冷漠和不屑，會令我不寒而慄。
Unfortunately, I am never able to find him, but there is Uncle Irvey, grandmother’s oldest unabashed Hoover Republican. “Eat all those string beans, boy,” I hear as I nod at histombstone.
遺憾的是，我始終沒能找到他的墓，卻碰到了祖母大兒子歐維大伯的墓。他是個鐵桿胡佛派共和黨人。“孩子，把那些菜豆全吃了。”我朝他的墓碑點頭時，聽見他這麼說。
And here is a surprise: Uncle Edgar. He has been here for years, but I have never bumped intohim before. I don’t dare disturb him, for he is an important man, the manager of the baseballteam, and his two pitchers, my Uncle Harold and my Cousin-in-law Howard, have both beenshelled on the mound and Uncle Edgar has to decide whether to ask the shortstop if he knowsanything about pitching.
這可是個意外的發現：埃德加大叔的墓，他埋在這裏已有好些年了。可今天還是我第一次看見他的墓。我沒敢驚動他，因爲他是個大人物，棒球隊經紀人。記得有一次，他的兩個投手——我的哈羅德大叔和霍華德表姐夫，在投球區被對方連連安打得分，他只得決定去找游擊手，問他有沒有信心上場充當投手去投球。
My great-grandfather who made guns is again not to be found, but on the way out I pass thetombstone of another great-grandfather whose distinction was that he left an estate of$3.87. It is the first time I have passed this way since I learned of this, and I smile his way, butsomething says, “In the long run, boy, we all end up as rich as Rockefeller,” and I get into thecar and drive out onto the main road, gliding through fields white with daisies, past fencesperfumed with roses, and am rather more content with the world.
造槍的曾祖父的墓還是沒找到，但離開墓地的時候我卻發現了另一個曾祖父的墓。他的與衆不同之處就是隻留下了3.87美元的遺產，這是我聽說這樁事後第一次從這兒經過，我笑他的寒酸，卻聽見有個聲音在說：“從長遠看，孩子，到最後我們都會跟洛克菲勒一樣有錢的。”於是我鑽進汽車，穿過被雛菊染白的田野，經過薔薇飄香的石柵籬，把車開到大路上。此刻，這對這個世界又多了幾許滿足。
關於英語經典美文誦讀篇三Canadian Eskimo Lithographs
加拿大愛斯基摩人的石版畫
Hela Goetz
海拉·戈也茲
Since the Eskimos of Cape Dorset began making prints in 1959, their graphics have continuedto delight art lovers around the world. Interest has spread, not only in the south but to Arcticcommunities as well. Currently,four other Eskimo settlements are producing prints.
自從1959年多塞特角的愛斯基摩人開始創作版畫以來，他們的作品一直爲全世界的藝術愛好者所喜聞樂見。這種創作的興趣已經不限於“南部”，而是遍及北極各個村落。現在，其他四個居住地的愛斯基摩人也在製作版畫了。
Cape Dorset is probably the best known of the printmaking communities. For a dozen years,prints of consistently high quality have been produced; successful experiments with stencils,etchings and engravings have addedvariety and interest; individual artists are receivingrecognition and acclaim. As modern technology encroaches upon these formerly isolatedpeople, the prints have become a record of an earlier life style.
多塞特角可能是最有名的版畫創作之鄉了。多年來，這地方不斷出有高質量的版畫;不論蠟刻、蝕刻、雕刻，都是成果累累，作品豐富多彩，趣味橫生;各路藝人都備受重視，爲人讚許。現代技術逐漸滲入這些昔日與世隔絕的人們中間，這些版畫也就成了他們早期生括方式的寫照。
When one considers the limited means available to these artists, both in obtaining materialsand being exposed to print-making techniques, their success is indeed phenomenal. Graphicimages had been made by Eskimo artists prior to the advent of printmaking in the Arctic,usually in the form of incised figures and designs on ivory carvings, but the idea of reproducingan image many times on paper was totally new. James Houston, then Northern AffairsAdministrator at Cape Dorset, and himself an artist, guided the Eskimo artists in their firstexperiment, and gradually a cooperative print shop was established.
想想這些藝術家工作受到多麼大的限制——搞不到設備，不懂印刷技術，竟然能有如此成就，確實非同小可。愛斯基摩藝人在印刷術傳到北極之前，就已有各種雕像之作，通常是把人物和圖案雕刻在象牙上，但要在紙上多次複製同一圖像，卻是前所未聞。當時駐多塞特角的北部事務行政官詹姆斯·豪斯頓，本人就是一位藝術家，他指導愛斯基摩藝人初試其道，後來他們逐步建立起了一家合作性質的版畫店。
Carving of the image on to a flat stone block was a natural step for artists accustomed toproducing stone carvings; drawing the images to be repro-duced was more radical. Many ofthe women, who were far ouf flumbered as carvers by the men, took readily to the newmedium, and soon drawingsfor possible translation into prints became a major artistic le began to take a great interest in recording everyday activities on paper, realisticallyreproducing the animals and birds which were the objects of the hunt and played such a centralrole in their existence, and drawing images of the spirits and strange creatures which peopledtheir mythology. Economic aspects played an important part, too, in the development of thisnew medium of artistic expression. For a people entering a new phase of civilization, it becamean absolute necessity to replace the older hunting economy with a new form of sale of carvings had, for thepast ten years, been an increasing source of income; thedevelopment of print-making techniques promised another means to survive economically.
把圖像刻在平石板上，是製作石雕的藝術家習以爲常的一個步驟：把圖像描畫下來，再複製出來，就非同尋常了。拿雕刻師來說，男人的數量本來遠遠超過婦女，但這時許多婦女也欣然從事這種新的工藝，於是描圖製版很快成爲一種主要的藝術活動。大家都開始熱衷於把日常的活動記錄在紙上：他們逼真地再現了各種飛禽走獸，這些都是獵物，在他們的生活中起着簡直是核心的作用;他們還畫出了許多精靈鬼怪的形象，這些又都是棲息在他們神話裏的生靈。在這種新的藝術表現手段的發展過程中，經濟方面也起了重要的作用。一個民族在進入文明的一個新階段時，勢必要用一種新的生存方式來取代舊的狩獵經濟。在過去的十年中，出售雕刻品一直是增加收入的一個財源;發展製版工藝，提供了又一種賴以生存的經濟手段。
The possibility of recording the old ways of life and the world of the spirits appealed especiallyto the older generation.
老一代人特別感興趣的是如今可以把古老的生活方式和鬼怪世界記錄下來了。
The recurring theme of monsters and spirits is not entirely the choice of theartiststhemselves. They have been encouraged to draw the old ways andto let their imagination runfree in conjuring up spirits, as these subjects areintensely interesting to southerners. Still, theidea of these fantastic crea-tures is a very real part of the Eskimo's spiritual heritage, andthey are asmuch a part of the old ways as was the nomadic existence in igloos andsHn tents.
精靈鬼怪的主題反覆出現，並非完全出自藝術家本人的選擇。。南方人”對這類題材極有興趣，藝術家因而也受到鼓舞，情願畫。古老的方式”，任憑自己的想像力呼風喚雨，自由馳騁。不過，構思出這批稀奇古怪的生靈，正是愛斯基摩人精神生活中的一個極爲真實的傳統，它們構成了“古老的方式”的一個部分，猶如圓頂茅屋和獸皮帳篷體現了遊牧生活一樣。
Strange species of birds are another favourite subject of the Cape Dorsetartists.
千奇百怪的飛禽是多塞特角的藝術家所鍾愛的又一個題材。
One of the marvellous things about carving and print maHng activities inthe Arctic is the numberof artists who take part-from young children tothe very old.
在北極，從事雕刻和版畫創作活動的藝術家，下自少年兒童，上至耄耋老人，其人數之衆多，蔚爲一大奇觀。
The old ways are all but gone, but the community spirit remains, support-ing new ideas andwelcoming new art forms without forgetting the heritageof the past.
“古老的方式”已經消失殆盡，但他們那種羣體精神今猶長存，它不斷支持新的思想，迎來新的藝術形式，而又保住往昔的傳統，並不忘本。
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