英語美文摘抄（一）
Antique shops exert a peculiar fascination on a great many people. The more expensive kind of antique shop where rare objects are beautifully displayed in glass cases to keep them free from dust is usually a forbidding place. But no one has to muster up courage to enter a less pretentious antique shop. There is always hope that in its labyrinth of musty, dark, disordered rooms a real rarity will be found amongst the piles of assorted junk that litter the floors.
No one discovers a rarity by chance. A truly dedicated searcher for art treasures must have patience, and above all, the ability to recognize the worth of something when he sees it. To do this, he must be at least as knowledgeable as the dealer. Like a scientist bent on making a discovery, he must cherish the hope that one day he will be amply rewarded.
My old friend, Frank Halliday, is just such a person. He has often described to me how he picked up a masterpiece for a mere &5. One Saturday morning, Frank visited an antique shop in my neighbourhood. As he had never been there before, he found a great deal to interest him. The morning passed rapidly and Frank was about to leave when he noticed a large packing-case lying on the floor. The dealer told him that it had just come in, but that he could not be bothered to open it. Frank begged him to do so and the dealer reluctantly prised it open. The contents were disappointing. Apart from an interesting-looking carved dagger, the box was full of crockery, much of it broken. Frank gently lifted the crockery out of the box and suddenly noticed a miniature Painting at the bottom of the packing-case. As its composition and line reminded him of an Italian painting he knew well, he decided to buy it. Glancing at it briefly, the dealer told him that it was worth &5. Frank could hardly conceal his excitement, for he knew that he had made a real discovery. The tiny painting proved to be an unknown masterpiece by Correggio and was worth thousands of pounds.
古玩店對許多人來說有一種特殊的魅力。高檔一點的古玩店為了防塵，把文物漂亮地陳列在玻璃柜子里，那裡往往令人望而卻步。而對不太裝腔作勢的古玩店，無論是誰都不用壯著膽子才敢往裡進。人們還常常有希望在發霉、陰暗、雜亂無章、迷宮般的店堂里，從雜亂地擺放在地面上的、一堆堆各式各樣的破爛貨里找到一件稀世珍品。
無論是誰都不會一下子就發現一件珍品。一個到處找便宜的人必須具有耐心，而且最重要的是看到珍品時要有鑑別珍品的能力。要做到這一點，他至少要像古董商一樣懂行。他必須像一個專心致志進行探索的科學家那樣抱有這樣的希望，即終有一天，他的努力會取得豐碩的成果。
我的老朋友弗蘭克。哈利戴正是這樣一個人。他多次向我詳細講他如何只花50英鎊便買到一位名家的傑作。一個星期六的上午，弗蘭克去了我家附近的一家古玩店。由於他從未去過那兒，結果他發現許多有趣的東西。上午很快過去了，弗蘭克正準備離去，突然看見地板上放著一隻體積很大的貨箱。古董商告訴他那隻貨箱剛到不久，但他嫌痲煩不想把它打開。經弗蘭克懇求，古董商才勉強把貨箱撬開了。箱內東西令人失望。除了一柄式樣別致、雕有花紋的匕首外，貨箱內裝滿陶器，而且大部分都已破碎裂。弗蘭克輕輕地把陶器拿出箱子，突然發現在箱底有一幅微型畫，畫面構圖與紙條使他想起一幅他所熟悉的義大利畫，於是他決定將畫買了下來。古董商漫不經心看了一眼那幅畫，告訴弗蘭克那畫值50英鎊。弗蘭克幾乎無法掩飾自己興奮的心情，因為他明白自己發現了一件珍品。那幅不大的畫原來是柯勒喬的一幅未被發現的傑作，價值幾十萬英鎊。
英語美文摘抄（二）
Not until you realize that life itself is a beautiful thing will you really start to live. Although living combines tragedy with splendor, life is beautiful and even tragedies reflect something engaging. If you were simply to live, do more than that; live beautifully.
Through the sea of darkness, hope is the light that brings us comfort, faith, and reassurance. It guides our way if we are lost and gives us a foothold on our fears. The moment we lose hope is the moment we surrender our will to live. We live in a world that is disintegrating into a vicious hatred, where hope is needed more than ever but cannot be discerned. Finding that is rare while the world lives in fear, but the belief in something better, something bigger than this, is what keeps life worth living.
Then you hear a baby speaking her first word, you see seniors holding hands, you feel the first spring rain, or smell the pine tree at Christmas, and remember that no matter how awful it is, there is always hope. No matter how weak we are, we will always survive.
只有在你了解了人生的真諦後，才能真正地生活。雖然人生苦憂參半，但依舊美妙，而且即使在悲劇中也藏著迷人之處。如果你只是活著，那就再努力點吧，試著活得精彩。
在潮水般的黑暗之中，希望是光。它帶來舒適、信仰和信心。它在我們迷失時給予指引，在我們恐懼時給予支持。而在我們放棄希望的那一刻，也就放棄了生命。我們生活的世界正瓦解成一個充滿惡意和仇恨的地方，在這裡我們就更需要希望，卻又難以尋得。在這充滿恐懼的世界裡，找到希望談何容易，但是，對更好、更有意義的人生的信仰才會讓生命有意義。
然後，你聽到嬰兒說出第一個字、看到老年夫婦挽起對方的手、感受到第一場春雨或是聞到聖誕節松樹的味道，你要明白，無論現在多麼糟糕，希望永在；無論我們多麼脆弱，我們終將是人生的倖存者。
英語美文摘抄（三）
The word justice is usually associated with courts of law. We might say that justice has been done when a man's innocence or guilt has been proved beyond doubt. Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law. Those who seek it, undertake an arduous journey and can never be sure that they will find it. Judges, however wise or eminent, are human and can make mistakes.
There are rare instances when justice almost ceases to be an abstract conception. Reward or punishment are out quite independent of human interference. At such times, justice acts like a living force. When we use a phrase like it serves him right, we are, in part, admitting that a certain set of circumstances has enabled justice to act of its own accord.
When a thief was caught on the premises of a large fur store one morning, the shop assistants must have found it impossible to resist the temptation to say 'it serves him right'. The shop was an old-fashioned one with many large, disused fireplaces and tall, narrow chimneys. Towards midday, a girl heard a muffled cry coming from behind one of the walls. As the cry was repeated several times, she ran to tell the manager who promptly rang up the fire-brigade. The cry had certainly come from one of the chimneys, but as there were so many of them, the firemen could not be certain which one it was. They located the right chimney by tapping at the walls and listening for the man's cries. After chipping through a wall which was eighteen inches thick, they found that a man had been trapped in the chimney. As it was extremely narrow, the man was unable to move, but the firemen were eventually able to free him by cutting a huge hole in the wall. The sorry-looking, blackened figure that emerged, at once admitted that he had tried to break into the shop during the night but had got stuck in the chimney. He had been there for nearly ten hours. Justice had been done even before the man was handed over to the police.
"正義"這個詞常常是同法庭連在一起的。當某人被證據確鑿地證明無罪的時候，我們也許會說正義得到了伸張。正義是複雜的法律機器組成部分。那些尋求正義的人走的是一條崎嶇的道路，從來沒有把握他們最終將到正義。法官無論如何聰明與有名，畢竟也是人，也會出差錯的。
在個別情況下，正義不再是一種抽象概念。()獎懲的實施是不受人意志支配的。在這種時候，正義像一種有生命的力量行使其職能。當我們說"他罪有應得"這句話的時候，我們部分承認了某種特定的環境使得正義自動地起了作用。
一天上午，當一個小偷在一家大型珠寶店裡被人抓住的時候，店員一定會忍不住說："他罪有應得。"那是一座老式的、經過改造的房子，店裡有許多廢置不用的大壁爐和又高又窄的煙囪。快到中午的時候，一個女售貨員聽見從一堵牆裡傳出一種悶聲悶氣的叫聲。由於這種喊叫聲重複了幾次，她跑去報告經理，經理當即給消防隊掛了電話。喊叫聲肯定是從煙囪里傳出來的，然而，因為煙囪太多，消防隊員無法確定到底是哪一個。他們通過叫擊煙囪傾叫聲而確定傳出聲音的那個煙囪。他們鑿透了18英寸厚的牆壁，發現有個人卡在煙囪里。由於煙囪太窄，那人無法動彈。消防隊員在牆上挖了個大洞，才終於把他解救出來。那個看來滿臉沮喪、渾身漆黑的傢伙從煙囪里一出來，就承認頭天夜裡他企圖到店裡行竅，但讓煙囪卡住了。他已經在煙囪里被困了將近10個小時。甚至在那人還沒被送交給警察之前，正義就已得到了伸張。