常春藤名家散文背诵文选

1、.常青藤名家散文背诵文选unit 1a great friendas i am now a senior high school student, i have a great many friends, but there is one whom i prize over all the rest. i first made his acquaintance when i began to go to school. he has been my constant companion ever since.though he is serious in appearance, he neve

2、r fails to be interesting. often he is clever, sometimes even merry and gay. he is the most knowledgeable friend a person could have. he knows virtually every language of the world, all the events of history, and the words of all the great poets and philosophers. a kindly benefactor, he is admired a

3、nd enjoyed by everyone who makes his acquaintance.to me, he has been a great teacher as well as a friend. he first taught me the secrets of my own language and then those of others. with these keys he showed us how to unlock all the arts and sciences of man.my friend is endlessly patient. dull thoug

4、h i may be, i can return to him again and again, and he is always ready to teach me. when i am bored, he entertains me. when i am dispirited, he lifts me up. when i am lonely, he keeps me company. he is a friend not only to me but to millions around theworld. shall i tell you his name? his name is“

5、reading” .unit 2the joy of labourwise men of ancient times and successful men of today have told us that labor is sweet. its reward is not material gain but what one becomes by it. work does much more for us than just giving us a living; it gives us our life and the reason for living. the real joys

6、of life come from doing something and doing it well.all of us hope for success, but it is illusive and hard to keep. it nearly always slips away from one like sand through the fingers, like water through a leaky pail, unless it is held tight by hard work, day by day, night by night, year in year out

7、. everyone who fears failure should work harder and harder with a faithful heart as long as he lasts.;.unit 3we re just beginningcharles f. kettering“ we are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pagesare infinite”i do not know who wrote these words, but i have always liked th

8、em as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. we can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone.we are all in the position of the farmer. if we plant a good seed, we reapa good ha

9、rvest. if our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop.if we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.i want the future to be better than the past. i don t want it contamiby the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. we should all beconcerned about the future because

10、that is where we willspend theremainder of our lives.the past is gone and static. nothing we can do will change it. the future is before us and dynamic. everything we do will affect it. each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our businesses, if we will only recognize them. we are

11、just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.unit 4advice to a young manrobert jones burdetteremember, my son, you have to work. whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheel-barrow or a set of books, you must work. if you look around, you will see the men who are the most ab

12、le to live the rest of their dayswithout work are the men who work the hardest. don t be afraid of k yourself with overwork. it is beyond your power to do that on the sunnyside of thirty. they die sometimes, but it is because they quit work at six in the evening, and do not go home until two in the

13、morning. it is the interval that kills, my son. the work gives you an appetite for your meals; it lends solidity to your slumbers; it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday.there are young men who do not work, and the world is not proud of;.them. it does not know their names, eve

14、n. nobody likes them; the great, busy world does not know that they are there. so find out what you want to be and do, and take off your coat and make a dust in the world. the busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your hol

15、idays, and the more satisfied will the world be with you.unit 5the happy doormildred cramhappiness is like a pebble dropped into a pool or set in motion an ever-widening circle of ripples. as stevenson has said, being happy is a duty.there is no exact definition of the word happiness. happy people a

16、re happy for all sorts of reasons. the key is not wealth or physical well-being, since we find beggars, invalids and so-called failures who are extremely happy.being happy is a sort of unexpected dividend. but staying happy is an accomplishment, a triumph of soul and character. it is not selfish to

17、strive for it. it is, indeed, a duty to ourselves and others.being unhappy is like an infectious disease; it causes people to shrink away from the sufferer. he soon finds himself alone, miserable and embittered. there is, however, a cure so simple as to seem, at first glance,ridiculous: if you don t

18、 feel happy, pretend to be!it works. before long you will find that instead of repelling people, youattract them. you discover how deeply rewarding it is to be the centerofwider and wider circles of good will.then the make-believe becomes a reality. you possess the secret of peace of mind, and can f

19、orget yourself in being of service to others.being happy, once it is realized as a duty and established as a habit, opens doors into unimaginable gardens thronged with grateful friends.unit 6friendshiporison swett mardenno young man starting lifecould have better capital than plenty of;.friends. the

20、y will strengthen his credit, support him in every great effort, and make him what, unaided, he could never be. friends of the right sort will help him moreto be happy and successfulthan much money or great learning.friendship is no one-sided affair. there can be no friendship without reciprocity. o

21、ne cannot receive all and give nothing, or give all and receive nothing, and expect to experience the joy and fullness of true companionship.those who would make friends must cultivate the qualities which are admired and which attract. if you are mean, stingy and selfish, nobody will admire you. you

22、 must cultivate generosity and large-heartedness; you must be magnanimous and tolerant; you must have positive qualities, for a negative, shrinking, apologizing, roundabout man is despised. you must believe in yourself. if you do not, others will not believe in you. you must look upward and be hopef

23、ul, cheery, and optimistic. no one will be attracted to a gloomy pessimist.unit 7you are what you domayling soongif the past has taught us anything, it is that every cause brings effect-every action has a consequence. this thought, in my opinion, is the moral foundation of the universe; it applies e

24、qually in this world and the next.we chinese have a saying:“ if a man plants melons, he will reap melons;if he sows beans, he will reap beans. ” and this is true ofseverylif: man good begets good, and evil leads to evil.true enough, the sun shines on the saint and sinner alike, and too often it seem

25、s that the wicked wax and prosper. but we can say with certitude that, with the individual as with the nation, the flourishing of the wicked is an illusion, for, unceasingly, life keeps books on us all.in the end, we are all the sum total of our actions. character cannot be counterfeited, nor can it

26、 be put on and cast off as if it were a garment to meet the whim of the moment. like the markings on wood which are;.ingrained in the very heart of the tree, character requires time and nurture for growth and development.thus also, day by day, we write our own destiny, for inexorably we become what

27、we do. this, i believe, is the supreme logic and the law of life.unit 8youthsamuel ullmanyouth is not just a stage of life; it is a state of mind. it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions. it is th

28、e freshness of the deep spring of life.youth means the predominance of courage over timidity, of adventure over the love of ease. this often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy of twenty. nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. we grow old by deserting our ideals.years may wrink

29、le the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair these bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.whether sixty or sixteen, the re is in every human being s heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement of the stars and the starlike t

30、hings, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what-next and the joy of the game of living.you are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.unit 9true nobilityern

31、est hemingwayto regret one serrors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance. there is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. the true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.;.unit 10life is too short to be little 人生苦短休计较orison swett mardenwe men are imperfect be

32、ings, so conflicts among us are unavoidable. inevitably, we sometimes feel injured, insulted, or slighted. perhaps we put our faith in another, and were disappointed; perhaps we felt we deserved one s gratitude, and were denied; perhaps we wished to join our efforts to those of a group, and were rej

33、ected.such experiences are painful indeed, but is it not foolish to let them occupy our thoughts and precious time? for what does it profit us to dwell on trivial matters? the priceless days must be spent meaningfully, joyfully. how thoughtless to waste the irreplaceable hours reviewing insignifican

34、t incidents, bearing a grudge or pitying oneself? far better to embrace with gratitude the gift of each day to make the most of every moment by fillingit with purpose or appreciation.consider this thought when next you feel tempted to nurse a grievance:that life is too short to be little!unit 11we a

35、re on a journeyhenry van dykewherever you are, and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and i are just alike at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence. we are not at rest; we are on a journey. our life is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an un

36、seen goal. we are gaining something, or losing something, every day. even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing, for the mere advance of time. it is not the same thing to have a bare field in january and in july. the season makes the difference. the

37、 limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man.unit 12self-controlself-control is essential to happiness and usefulness. it is themaster ofall the virtues, and has its root in self-respect. let a man yield to hisimpulses and passions, and fromthat moment he gives up his moral;.

38、freedom.it is the self-discipline of a man that enables him to pursue success with superior diligence and sobriety. many of the great characters in his illustrate this trait. in ordinary life the application is the same. he who would lead must first command himself. the time of test is when everybod

39、y is excited or angry, then the well-balanced mind comes to the front.there is a very special demand for the cultivation of this trait at present. the young men who rush into business with no good education or drill will do poor and feverish work. endurance is a much better test of character than ac

40、t of heroism.a fair amount of self-examination is good. self-knowledge is a preface to self-control. too much self-inspection leads to morbidity; too little conducts to careless and hasty action. there are two things which will surely strengthen our self-control. one is attention to conscience; the

41、other is a spirit of good will. the man who would succeed in any great undertaking must hold all his faculties under perfect control; they must be disciplined and drilled until they quickly and cheerfully obey the will.unit 13lincoln s gettysburg addressabraham lincolndelivered on 19 november 1863fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this conti