英语阅读理解美文材料.docx

Theremembranceoflilacs紫丁香的回忆The family had just moved to Rhode Island, and the young woman was feeling a little melancholy on that Sunday in May. After all, it was Mothers Day - and 800 miles separated her from her parents in Ohio.She had called her mother that morning to wish her a happy Mothers Day, and her mother had mentioned how colorful the yard was now that spring had arrived. As they talked, the younger woman could almost smell the tantalizing aroma of purple lilacs hanging on the big bush outside her parents back door.Later, when she mentioned to her husband how she missed those lilacs, he popped up from his chair. I know where we can find you all you want, he said. Get the kids and cmon.So off they went, driving the country roads of northern Rhode Island on the kind of day only midMay can produce: sparkling sunshine, unclouded azure skies and vibrant newness of the green growing all around. They went past small villages and burgeoning housing developments, past abandoned apple orchards, back to where trees and brush have devoured old homesteads.Where they stopped，dense thickets of cedars and ju nipers and birch crowded the roadway on both sides. There wasnt a lilac bush in sight.Come with me, the man said. Over that hill is an old cellar hole，from somebodys farm of years ago, and there are lilacs all round it. The man who owns this land said I could poke around here anytime. Im sure he wont mind if we pick a few lilacs.Before they got halfway up the hill, the fragrance of the lilacs drifted down to them, and the kids started running. Soon, the mother began running, too, until she reached the top.There，far from view of passing motorists and hidden from encroaching civilization, were the towering lilacs bushes, so laden with the huge, cone-shaped flower clusters that they almost bent double. With a smile, the young woman rushed up to the nearest bush and buried her face in the flowers, drinking in the fragrance and the memories it recalled.While the man examined the cellar hole and tried to explain to the children what the house must have looked like, the woman drifted among the lilacs. Carefully, she chose a sprig here, another one there, and clipped them with her husbands pocket knife. She was in no hurry, relishing each blossom as a rare and delicate treasure.Finally, though, they returned to their car for the trip home. While the kids chattered and the man drove, the woman sat smiling, surrounded by her flowers, a faraway look in her eyes.When they were within three miles of home, she suddenly shouted to her husband, Stop the car. Stop right here!The man slammed on the brakes. Before he could ask her why she wanted to stop, the woman was out of the car and hurrying up a nearby grassy slope with the lilacs still in her arms. At the top of the hill was a nursing home and, because it was such a beautiful spring day, the patients were outdoors strolling with relatives or sitting on the porch.The young woman went to the end of the porch, where an elderly patient was sitting in her wheelchair, alone, head bowed, her back to most of the others. Across the porch railing went the flowers, in to the lap of the old woman. She lifted her head, and smiled. For a few moments, the two women chatted, both aglow with happiness, and then the young woman turned and ran back to her family. As the car pulled away, the woman in the wheelchair waved, and clutched the lilacs.Mom, the kids asked, who was that? Why did you give her our flowers? Is she somebodys mother? The mother said she didnt know the old woman. But it was Mothers Day，and she seemed so alone，and who wouldnt be cheered by flowers? Besides, she added，I have all of you, and I still have my mother, even if she is far away. That woman needed those flowers more than I did.This satisfied the kids, but not the husband. The next day he purchased half a dozen young lilacs bushes and planted them around their yard, and several times since then he has added more.I was that man. The young mother was, and is, my wife. Now, every May, our own yard is redolent with lilacs. Every Mothers Day our kids gather purple bouquets. And every year I remember that smile on a lonely old womans face, and the kindness that put the smile there.一家人刚移居罗德岛。5月的那个星期天，年轻女人感到有点儿忧伤。毕竟，这一天是母亲节而她却与俄亥俄州的父母亲遥距800英里。她那天早上给母亲打去电话，祝母亲节日愉快。随后，她的母亲向她提起，因为春天已经来临，所以院子里的色彩是多么绚丽。在她们通话的当儿，年轻女人几乎可以闻到悬垂在父母亲后门外大灌木丛上的紫丁香醉人的芬芳。后来，她向丈夫说起她是如何怀念那些紫丁香时，他突然从椅子上跃起。“我知道在哪儿能找到你想要的东西，”他说，“带上孩子，走吧。”于是，他们就出发了，驱车行驶在罗德岛北部的乡村小路上，那种天气只有5月中旬才会有：闪亮的阳光、蔚蓝色的晴空以及生机勃勃、随处可见的绿意。他们穿过一座座小村庄和一座座拔地而起的房屋，穿过废弃的苹果园，来到了树林和灌木丛掩映的老农场。他们停下车。车道两边长满了茂盛的雪松、杜松和白桦树。眼前没有一棵紫丁香。“随我来，”那个男人说，“翻过那座小山，有个老地窖，几年前是一个人的农场，四周长满了紫丁香。这块地的主人说我可以随时到这儿来闲逛。我相信，要是我们采几束紫丁香，他不会介意。”还没等他们到达半山腰，紫丁香的芬芳已经向他们飘了过来。于是，孩子们开始奔跑。不久，那位母亲也开始跑起来，直至到达山顶。那里，远离了过往司机的视野，避开了纷扰的文明世界，高耸的丁香花丛开满了硕大的圆锥形的串串花束，几乎把花茎压成了两折。那个年轻女人微笑着冲到最近的一处花丛，把脸埋在鲜花中，啜饮着芳香，陶醉在重新唤起的记忆中。在那个男人察看地窖试图向孩子们解释这座房子必定是什么样子的当儿，那个女人不由自主地走进了紫丁香花丛。她小心翼翼地从这儿摘一枝，那儿挑一束，然后用丈夫的袖珍小刀将它们剪下来。她不慌不忙，像欣赏稀有珍宝似地欣赏着每一朵花。然而，他们终于还是返回了汽车，走上了回家的路。孩子们叽叽喳喳说个不停，那个男人驾着车，那个女人坐在那儿面带微笑，她周围放满了鲜花，眼睛里充满着向往。当他们离家不足3英里时，她突然向丈夫大声喊道：“停车，就在这里停车！”那个男人嘎地刹住车。还没等他问为什么，女人就已经下了车，匆匆走向附近的草坡，怀里仍抱着紫丁香。山顶上是一家疗养院，因为这是一个美丽的春日，所以病人正在室外和亲友溜达或坐在门廊上。那个年轻女人走到门廊的尽头，只见那里有一个上了年纪的病人正坐在轮椅里，独自一人，低着头，背对着其他人。年轻女人越过门廊栏杆，将鲜花放在了老太太的膝间。老太太抬起头，露出了笑脸。两个女人聊了一会儿，都兴高采烈。随后,那个年轻女人转身跑回到家人的身边。当汽车开动时，坐在轮椅里的那个女人挥动着手，手里紧紧地握着那束紫丁香花。“妈妈，”孩子们问，“那人是谁呀？你为什么把我们的花送给她？她是谁的母亲呀？”他们的母亲说，她不认识那个老太太，但今天是母亲节，她看起来是那么孤独，而鲜花会给任何人带来好心情。“再说，”她补充道，“我拥有你们，而且我还有自己的母亲，即使她离我很远。那个女人比我更需要那些鲜花。”孩子们得到了满意的答案，但她的丈夫却没有。第二天，他买了半打紫丁香幼苗，栽到了院子四周；而且从那以后，每隔一段时间，他就会增加一些。我就是那个男人，那个年轻母亲是我妻子。如今，每年5月，我们自家的院子都会散发出浓烈的紫丁香的芬芳。每逢母亲节，我们的孩子都要采撷紫丁香花束。而且每年我都会记起一位孤独的老太太脸上露出的笑容，以及笑容里呈现出的那种慈祥。Cherishtherestofyourlife珍爱余生What would you do if you only had a short time to live?我们似乎每天都被琐事缠身，有忙不完的事情，以至于在忙忙碌碌之中迷失了自己，分辨不清什么才是生活中最重要的东西。停下来问问自己，如果你仅剩半年时光，你将如何处理生活的轻重缓急，你将如何度过？Its hard, from within the storm of every day life, to see things with real perspective, to know whats important and whats simply pressing on our consciousness right now, demanding attention.We have people emailing us for information and requesting action, we have phone calls and visitors and a long to-do list and a million chores and errands to run and all of the slings and arrows of our daily reality and yet, what is important?Ask yourself this: if you suddenly found out you only had 6 months to live (for whatever reason), would the thing in front of you matter to you?Would those 20 emails waiting for a response matter? Would the paperwork waiting to be processed matter? Would the work youre doing matter? Would the meetings youre supposed to have matter? Would a big car and nice house and high-paying job and cool computer and mobile device and nice shoes and clothes matter?Im not saying they wouldnt matter but its important to ask yourself if they would.What would matter to you?For many of us, its the loved ones in our lives. If we dont have loved ones maybe its time we started figuring out why, and addressing that. Maybe we havent made time for others, for getting out and meeting others and helping others and being compassionate and passionate about others. Maybe we have shut ourselves in somehow. Or maybe we do have loved ones in our lives, but we dont seem to have the time we want to spend with them.When was the last time you told your loved ones you loved them? Spent good quality time with them, being in the moment?For many of us, doing work that matters would matter. That might mean helping others, or making a vital contribution to society, or creating something brilliant and inspiring, or expressing ourselves somehow. Its not the money that matters, but the impact of the work. Are you doing work that matters?For many of us, experiencing life would matter really being in the moment, finding passion in our lives, seeing the world and traveling, or just seeing the world thats around us right now, being with great people, doing amazing things, eating amazing food, playing.These are just a few ideas but what would matter to you?I highly recommend that you spend at least a little time now, and regularly, thinking about this question figuring out what really matters and living a life that shows this.How do you live a life that puts a great emphasis on what matters? Start by figuring out what matters, and what doesnt. Then eliminate as much as you can of the stuff that doesnt matter, or at least minimize it to the extent possible. Make room for what does matter.Make the time for what does matter today. Put it on your schedule, and dont miss that appointment. Make those tough decisions because choosing to live a life that is filled with the important stuff means making choices, and theyre not always easy choices. But it matters.Spend time with your significant other, show them how important they are. Take the time to cuddle with your child, to read with her, to play with her, to have good conversations with her, to take walks with her. Take time to be in nature, to appreciate the beauty of the world around us. Take time to savor the little pleasures in life.Because while you might not have only 6 months to live, Im here to break the news to you: you really do only have a short time to live. Whether thats 6 months, 6 years or 60 its but the blink of an eye.The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it. Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.学会接受这个世界，生活将更快乐 我们能让这世界变得更美好么？这句话本身就是一个错误的假设，认为这世界不好。反过来，我们应该说世界就是这样的，没有什么绝对的好与不好。这是我们选择的生活方式，也是我们喜欢的生活方式。换个角度看待事物：接受并试着理解。接受这世界，你会快乐。“There is nothing either good or bad,but thinking makes it so.”William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”One of the greatest sources of unhappiness, in my experience, is the difficulty we have in accepting things as they are.Without judgment, without wishing for otherwise.When we see something we dont like, we wish it could be different we cry out for something better. That may be human nature, or perhaps its something thats ingrained in our culture.The root of the unhappiness isnt necessarily that we want things to be different, however: its that we decided we didnt like it in the first place. Weve judged it as bad, rather than saying, Its not bad or good, it just is.An example: In my recent post, A Beautiful Method to Find Peace of Mind, quite a few commenters thought my outlook was negative, pessimistic, or fatalistic because I said you should expect people to mess up, expect things to go differently than you planned, and that you should embrace that.Its too negative to expect things to go wrong, they said. However: its only negative if you see it as negative. If you judge it as bad.Instead, you could accept it as the way the world works as the way things actually are. And try to understand why that is, and embrace it. As it is.This can be applied to whatever you do: whether it be how other people act at work, how politics works and how depressing the news media can be. Accept these things as they are, and try to understand why theyre that way.Itll save you a lot of grief, because youll no longer say, Oh, I wish things didnt suck!Does it mean you can never change things? Not at all. But change things not because you cant accept things as they are, but because you enjoy the process of change, of learning and growing.Can we make this world a better place? Again, thats assuming that its a bad place right now. But instead, you could say the world is just what it is and thats neither good nor bad. You can say that youll continue to try to do things to help others, to grow as a person, to make a difference in this world not because youre such a bad person now, or the world sucks, but because thats the path you choose to take, because you enjoy that path.As you catch yourself judging, and wishing for different and we all do it try a different approach: accept, and understand. It might lead to some interesting results.AGiftfromHeart来自内心的礼物双语The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.世界上最难的算术题是如何清点我们的祝福。According to legend, a young man while roaming the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet, he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher.据传说，一个年轻的男子在漫游沙漠途中看到一泉如水晶般清澈而可口的水。水的味道非常甜美，于是他灌满了他的皮水壶，这样就可以带一些回去，送给曾经是他老师的部落长老。After a four-day journey he presented the water to the old man who took a deep drink, smiled warmly and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a happy heart.经过四天的旅程，他把水呈献给老人。老人深饮一口，和蔼地笑了笑，并深切感激学生赠予他甜美的水。年轻人怀着愉快的心情回到了村庄。Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He spat it out, saying it was awful. It apparently had become stale because of the old leather container.后来，老师让他的另一个学生品尝水。学生吐了出来，说水太难喝了。它显然已经因为陈旧的皮革容器而变得不再新鲜。The student challenged his teacher: “Master, the water was foul. Why did you pretend to like it?”学生质疑他的老师：“师父，水是臭的，你为什么要假装喜欢它？”The teacher replied, “You only tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of loving-kindness and nothing could be sweeter.”老师回答说，“你只品尝了水的味道，我却是在品尝礼物的味道。水仅仅是装载善与爱之行为的容器，而没有什么东西比善与爱更甜美了。”I think we understand this lesson best when we receive innocent gifts of love from young children. Whether its a ceramic tray or a macaroni bracelet, the natural and proper response is appreciation and expressed thankfulness because we love the idea within the gift.我认为当我们从天真的孩子们那里收到爱的礼物时，能够最透彻地明白这个道理。无论它是一个陶瓷托盘或通心粉手镯，我们自然而恰当的反应是欣赏，并表示感激，因为我们喜欢礼物所包含的心意。Gratitude doesnt always come naturally. Unfortunately, most children and many adults value only the thing given rather than the feeling embodied in it. We should remind ourselves and teach our children about the beauty and purity of feelings and expressions of gratitude. After all, gifts from the heart are really gifts of the heart.感恩并不总是自然而来的。不幸的是，大多数儿童和成人只看重被赠予的东西本身，而不是它体现的情谊。我们应该提醒自己，并教导我们的孩子，感情和对感激之情的表达是美丽而纯洁的。毕竟，发自内心给与的礼物才是真正的礼物。英语单词：roam rm vi. 漫游，漫步；流浪lavishly lvili adv. 丰富地；浪费地stale stel adj. 陈腐的；不新鲜的foul fal adj. 污秽的；淤塞的ceramic srmk n. 陶瓷macaroni ,mkrn n. 通心粉embody mbd vt. 体现，使具体化母亲的双手双语美文| 文章来源：网络| 文章录入：随心飞扬 | 收集整理：嘉兴英语教学网 | 更新时间：2013-3-21 | Night after night, she came to tuck me in, even long after my childhood years.Following her longstanding custom, shed lean down and push my long hair out of the way, then kiss my forehead.夜复一夜，她总是来帮我来盖被子，即使我早已长大。这是妈妈的长期习惯，她总是弯下身来，拨开我的长发，在我的额上一吻。I dont remember when it first started annoying me her hands pushing my hair that way. But it did annoy me, for they felt work-worn and rough against my young skin. Finally, one night, I lashed out at her:Dont do that anymore your hands are too rough! She didnt say anything in reply.But never again did my mother close out my day with that familiar expression of her love.Lying awake long afterward, my words haunted me.But pride stifled my conscience, and I didnt tell her I was sorry.我不记得从何时起，她拨开我的头发令我非常不耐烦。但的确，我讨厌她长期操劳、粗糙的手摩擦我细嫩的皮肤。最后，一天晚上，我冲她叫： “别再这样了你的手太粗糙了!”她什么也没说。但妈妈再也没有象这样对我表达她的爱。直到很久以后，我还是常想起我的那些话。但自尊占了上风，我没有告诉她我很后悔。Time after time, with the passing years, my thoughts returned to that night.By then I missed my mothers hands, missed her goodnight kiss upon my forehead.Sometimes the incident seemed very close, sometimes far away.But always it lurked, hauntingly, in the back of my mind.时光流逝，我又想到那个晚上。那时我想念我妈妈的手，想念她晚上在我额上的一吻。有时这幕情景似乎很近，有时又似乎很遥远。但它总是潜伏着，时常浮现，出现在我意识中。Well, the years have passed, and Im not a little girl anymore.Mom is in her mid-seventies, and those hands I once thought to be so rough are still doing things for me and my family.Shes been our doctor, reaching into a medicine cabinet for the remedy to calm a young girls stomach or soothe a boys scraped knee. She cooks the best fried chicken in the world gets stains out of blue jeans like I never couldand still insists on dishing out ice cream at any hour of the day or night.一年年过去，我也不再是一个小女孩，妈妈也有70多岁了。那双我认为很粗糙的手依然为我和我家庭做着事。她是我家的医生，为我女儿在药橱里找胃药或在我儿子擦伤的膝盖上敷药。她能烧出世界上最美味的鸡 将牛仔裤弄干净而我却永远不能而且可以在任何时候盛出冰激凌。Through the years, my mothers hands have put in countless hours of toil, and most of hers were before automatic washers!这么多年来，妈妈的手做了多少家务!而且在自动洗衣机出现以前她已经操劳了绝大多数时间。Now, my own children are grown and gone. Mom no longer has Dad, and on special occasions, I find myself drawn next door to spend the night with her. So it was that late on Thanksgiving Eve, as I drifted into sleep in the bedroom of my youth, a familiar hand hesitantly stole across my face to brush the hair from my forehead.Then a kiss, ever so gently, touched my brow.现在，我的孩子都已经长大，离开了家。爸爸去世了，有些时候，我睡在妈妈的隔壁房间。一次感恩节前夕的深夜，我睡在年轻时的卧室里，一只熟悉的手有些犹豫地、悄悄地略过我的脸，从我额头上拨开头发，然后一个吻，轻轻地印在我的眉毛上。In my memory, for the thousandth time, I recalled the night my surly young voice complained:Dont do that anymore your hands are too rough! Catching Moms hand in hand, I blurted out how sorry I was for that night.I thought shed remember, as I did.But Mom didnt know what I was talking about.She had forgotten and forgiven long ago.在我的记忆中，无数次，想起那晚我粗暴、年青的声音：“别再这样了你的手太粗糙了!”抓住妈妈的手，我冲口而出因为那晚，我是多么后悔。我以为她想起来了，象我一样。但妈妈不知道我在说些什么。她已经在很久以前就忘了这事，并早就原谅了我。That night, I fell asleep with a new appreciation for my gentle mother and her caring hands.And the guilt I had carried around for so long was nowhere to be found.那晚，我带着对温柔母亲和体贴双手的感激入睡。这许多年来我的负罪感已经消失无踪。Lifethrowsabrickatyourhead放慢你的脚步| 文章来源：网络| 文章录入：随心飞扬 | 收集整理：嘉兴英语教学网 | 更新时间：2012-11-1 |A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street， going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out fro