美文与经典

狗与公鸡是好邻居。晚上，公鸡跳到树枝上栖息，狗就在下面的树洞里睡觉。天亮了，有只狐狸想吃鸡，就跑到树下，恭敬地说：“您的嗓音太动听了！能下来给我唱一曲吗？”公鸡知道狐狸想吃自己，就回答：“可以啊，不过请你去叫醒树洞里的那个看门的。他打开门，我才能下去。”狐狸刚把头伸进树洞，狗突然跳起来，咬了它一口。狐狸痛得哇哇大叫，狼狈地逃走了。

狐狸与猴子同行。狐狸说它家曾是声明显赫的贵族，猴子说它祖先曾是最大的奴隶主。它们不一会儿就来到一处墓地。猴子突然放声大哭。狐狸忙问猴子为什么哭。猴子指着墓碑说：“看到这些为祖先所解放和奴役过的奴隶墓碑，怎能不伤心呢？”狐狸不以为然地说：“你就使劲地吹牛骗人吧，反正它们之中也没有谁能站起来反驳你。”

一天，驴子和狐狸遇见了狮子。狐狸立即上前，凑到狮子跟前说：“只要您不吃我，我就把那只笨驴给您骗来！”狮子答应了。狐狸又回去对驴子说：“狮子要吃我们赶快逃吧。我知道有个地方很安全，现在就带你去。”其实那个地方是一个陷阱。驴子掉进陷阱后，狮子见驴子跑不了（liǎo）了（le），就一把抓住狐狸，先把它吃掉了。

一只乌鸦口渴了，到处找水喝。乌鸦看见一个瓶子，瓶子里有水。可是瓶子里水不多，瓶口又小，乌鸦喝不着水。怎么办呢？ 乌鸦看见旁边有许多小石子。想出办法来了。 乌鸦把小石子一个一个地放进瓶子里，瓶子里的水渐渐升高，乌鸦就喝着水了。

北风和太阳为谁的能量大而争论不休。北风提议说：“谁能让路上的行人把衣服脱下来，谁就获胜。”太阳说：“好，你先来吧!”于是，北风猛烈地刮起来。行人却把衣服裹得更紧。北风以为风力不够大，就鼓起腮帮子猛吹。哪知行人冷得瑟瑟发抖，又穿了更多的衣服。这时，太阳出来了，行人越来越热，一件件地脱下衣服。北风终于认输了。

一只白鹤飞在高空中，人们看到了，禁不住赞叹说：“快看啊！那只白鹤多么高洁啊！身姿也很优美。” 孔雀听了后心里酸溜溜的，它使出浑身解数，展示出它漂亮的羽毛，色泽鲜艳、五颜六色。人们的目光又转向了孔雀，大家开始议论纷纷。 一个女孩子说：“还是孔雀的羽毛好看，五彩缤纷、金碧辉煌，哪像白鹤的就只有白色，多么单调啊，两个一比，白鹤就黯然失色了。” 另一个孩子反对说：“孔雀虽然外表美丽，但是归根到底它只能和鸡、鸭、鹅...

从前，有个马夫，他偷偷地把喂马的大麦卖掉了，但仍每天给马擦洗，用梳子梳理马毛。马对马夫说道：“如果你真心想要我长得美，就不要再卖掉喂我的大麦了。” 这是说，那些虚情假意的人用花言巧语和小恩小惠去贿赂别人，却把别人最必需的东西夺走了。

一只乌鸦叼着一大块肉停在树上休息。树下的洞中住着一只狐狸。它刚一出洞，就看见乌鸦嘴里的大肥肉，馋的口水都流了出来。 狐狸假装毕恭毕敬地对乌鸦说：“乌鸦大王，您早啊！”乌鸦觉得很奇怪，心想：“我什么时候变成大王啦？”疑惑归疑惑，受到恭维的乌鸦心里还是挺受用的，因此不自觉地对狐狸点了点头。狐狸接着说：“大王，难道您还没听到消息吗？您已经在昨晚当选为鸟类的大王啦！”乌鸦刚想张嘴问个究竟，立刻意识到自己嘴里还叼...

在一座房子里，有许多老鼠，一只猫来到这里，吃了好几只老鼠，老鼠们被吓得不敢出来了，于是猫想了个办法。它把自己挂在一个钩子上，一动也不动。老鼠们以为猫死了，纷纷钻出了洞。结果，猫纵身一跃，又抓住了几只老鼠。没多久，猫又故技重施，这一次它还往身上涂满了白粉，就像是穿了一件白大褂。被派来侦察的老鼠见了，就对猫说：“嘿，伙计，就算你变成一袋面粉，我们也绝不会再上当啦！”

有个农夫养了一只能每天下一个金蛋的鹅，他靠卖金蛋赚了不少钱。没过多久，农夫开始觉得鹅一天只下一个蛋实在太少了。他认为这只鹅的肚子里一定有许多金子，便决定将它宰了，将金子全部取出来。可是，当他剖开鹅的肚子以后，却发现这只生金蛋的鹅与一般的鹅没什么两样，肚子里根本没有金子。就这样，他没能成为暴发户，反而失去了每天一个金蛋的收入。

狐狸看到山脚下有一大片绿的透亮的葡萄，馋的直流口水，就连忙跑了过去。葡萄架很高，狐狸站直身子去摘葡萄，却怎么也够不着。于是它摆好了架势，使劲儿一蹦，结果，不仅没摘到葡萄，还差点儿闪了腰。狐狸气坏了，一边揉着腰，一边自言自语：“我为什么一定要吃那些葡萄呢？那些葡萄颜色青青的，根本没有熟，肯定又酸又涩，不吃也罢。”

狮子睡着了，有只老鼠不小心跳到它身上。狮子猛地站起来，把老鼠抓住，准备吃掉。老鼠请求狮子开恩，并说以后一定报答它。狮子轻蔑地笑了笑，把老鼠放走了。不久，狮子被猎人用绳子捆在一棵树上。老鼠听到狮子的哀号，趁猎人不注意，咬断绳索，放走了狮子。老鼠说：“当时你嘲笑我，不相信能得到我的报答，现在你明白了吧——老鼠也有自己的本事！”

‘It’s silly, isn’t it, Ellen,’ he muttered, ‘that I have worked all my life to destroy these two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons. I’ve got their money and their land. Now I can take my final revenge on the last Earnshaw and the last Linton, I no longer want to! There’s a strange change coming in my life. I’m in its shadow. I’m so little interested in daily events that I even forget to eat...

They were not railway children at the beginning. They lived with their father and mother in London. There were three of them. Roberta – she was always called Bobbie, and was the oldest. Next came Peter, who wanted to be an engineer when he grew up. And the youngest was Phyllis, who was always trying to be good. Mother was almost always at home, ready to play with the children, or to read to them....

When Mr Crewe left London, he was very sad. Sara was very sad too, but she did not cry. She sat in her room and thought about her father on the ship back to India. ‘Father wants me to be happy,’ she said to her new doll.‘I love him very much and I want to be a good daughter, so I must be happy.’ It was a very big, and very beautiful doll, but of course it could not answer. Sara soon made new frien...

The soldier walked on alone, taking his own road home. He did not think about the other soldiers, or about the war. He thought only about the long road back to his home. ‘Home,’ thought the soldier. ‘I know my home is at the end of this road. I just need to go on walking.’ The road felt hard under his boots, and the only sound was the noise of his boots on the road – tramp, tramp, tramp. He was ti...

你以为我会无足轻重的留在这里吗？你以为我是一架没有感情的机器人吗？你以为我贫穷、低微、不美、缈小，我就没有灵魂，没有心吗？你想错了，我和你有一样多的灵魂，一样充实的心。如果上帝赐予我一点美，许多钱，我就要你难以离开我，就像我现在难以离开你一样。我现在不是以社会生活和习俗的准则和你说话，而是我的心灵同你的心灵讲话。 ——节选自夏洛蒂·勃朗特《简爱》

As the night was fast falling, and as the moon, being past the full, would not rise early, we held a little council: a short one, for clearly our course 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 house. Thus we held on, speaking little, for four or five dull miles. It was very cold, and, a collier coming by us,...

The Doer of Deeds 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, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; bu...

Thoughts in a grave yard When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, even inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents of themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see ki...

Life is never just being. It is a becoming, a relentless flowing on. Our parents live on through us, and we will live on through our children. The institutions we build endure, and we will endure through them. The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death. Our flesh may perish, our hands will wither, but that which they create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don’t...

Three Passions Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy－ec...

Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing: character, conduct, and capacity and everything…. There would be great people and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be those who had done great things, and never the idiots whose mothers had spoiled them and whose be persons of small minds and mean character...

Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth — something instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young; for it is in one’s tender early years that such things will best take root and be...

Love Your Life However mean your life is, meet it and live it, do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you're richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house...