朱自清先生的散文集《背影》在现代散文史上具有划时代的意义,堪称现代美文的典范。下面小编整理了值得背的大学英语美文，希望大家喜欢!

值得背的大学英语美文摘抄

少年天才 迈克尔•乔丹

There were already signs that he had a good deal of talent.

迈克尔的天赋早已有所显露。

Harvest Smith, a classmate and close friend who in those days played basketball with him practically every day,

他的一位同班同学和亲密伙伴维斯特·史密斯，当时基本每天都和他一起打篮球，

thought he was the best player on their ninth-grade team — he was small, but he was every quick.

并觉得他是九年级球队中最出色的——他身材不高但非常灵活。

“You’d see him get a shot off, and you’d wonder how he did it, because he wasn’t that bit,” Smith said, “but it was the quickness.

史密斯说：“你看到他盖帽儿，就想问问他是怎么盖的，因为他没那么高大，可他身手敏捷。

The only question was how big he was going to be — and how far up he would take his skill level.”

唯一的问题是他将会长多高，会把自己的技能提高到什么程度。”

The summer after ninth grade, Jordan and Smith both went to Pop Herring’s basketball camp.

读完九年级的那个夏天，乔丹和史密斯一同参加了波谱·赫里的篮球夏令营。

Neither of them had yet come into his body, and almost all of the varsity players,

他们俩从当时还未长大成人，而当时几乎所有的校队队员都比他们大两三岁，在这个年龄，

two and sometimes three years older, seemed infinitely stronger at that moment when a year or two in physical development can make all the difference.

大一两岁在体魄上就大相径庭，因而看上去都比他们强壮得多。

In Smith’s mind there was no doubt which of the two of them was the better player—it was Michael by far. But on the day the varsity cuts were announced — it was the big day of the year, for they had all known for weeks when the list would be posted — he and Roy Smith had gone to the Laney gym. Smith’s name was on it, Michael’s was not.

在史密斯的头脑中，他们二人谁更出色是毫无疑问的——迈克尔比他强得多。但是到了宣布校运动队队员筛选名单时—— 这可是一年中的大日子，因为他们几星期前就知道名单何时会公布—— 他和罗伊·史密斯都去了兰尼体育馆，而此时名单上有史密斯的名字，却没有迈克尔。

It was the worst day of Jordan’s young life. The list was alphabetical, so he focused on where the Js should be, and it wasn’t there, and he kept reading and rereading the list, hoping somehow that he had missed it, or that the alphabetical listing had been done incorrectly.

对于年轻的乔丹来说这一天简直遭透了。因为名单是按字母顺序排的，他就注意看可能有“乔”字的地方，可是并没有。他一遍又一遍地看着，真希望是自己看漏了，或者是字母顺序排错了。

That day he went home by himself and went to his room and cried. Smith understood what was happening — Michael, he knew, never wanted you to see him when he was hurt.

那天他独自回了家进屋后便大哭起来。史密斯明白所发生的一切——当迈克尔伤心或沮丧的时候，他不愿意见人。

“We knew Michael was good,” Fred Lynch, the Laney assistant coach, said later, “but we wanted him to play more and we thought the jayvee was better for him.” He easily became the best player on the jayvee that year.

兰尼的助理教练雷德·里奇后来说：“我们知道迈克尔很出色，但我们想让他多练练，所以觉得二队更适合他。”那一年他轻松地成了二队中最出色的队员。

He simply dominated the play, and he did it not by size but with quickness. There were games in which he would score forty points. He was so good, in fact, that the jayvee games became quite popular. The entire varsity began to come early so they could watch him play in the jayvee games.

凭借着敏捷而并非身高，他在队中就已举足轻重。许多比赛他都能得到四十分。实际上他突出的表现使二队的比赛倍受欢迎。为了能看到有他参加的二队比赛，整个校队的队员都开始提早到场。

Smith noticed that while Jordan had been wildly competitive before he had been cut, after the cut he seemed even more competitive than ever, as if determined that it would never happen again.

史密斯发现在乔丹被筛选掉之前是不甘于人后的，而在落选之后他的好胜心似乎有过之而不及，好像决心不让历史再次重演。他的教练们也注意到了这一点。

His coaches noticed it, too. “The first time I ever saw him, I had no idea who Michael Jordan was.

罗·康利说：“我一直帮忙在兰尼的运动队做教教练，当我第一次看到迈克尔·乔丹时，还不知道他是谁。

I was helping to coach the Laney varsity,” said Ron Coley. “We went over to Goldsboro, which was our big rival, and I entered the gym when the jayvee game was just ending up. There were nine players on the court just coasting, but there was one kid playing his heart out.

我们去与劲敌哥尔兹保罗队打比赛，当我进到体育馆时，二队的比赛就要结束了。场上的九名队员都已无心恋战，只剩下一个孩子还在竭尽全力。

The way he was playing I thought his team was down one point with two minutes to play. So I looked up at the clock and his team was down twenty points and there was only one minute to play. It was Michael, and I quickly learned he was always like that.”

看他打球的样子我想他们队在剩下的两分钟里一定只落后了一分，可当我抬头看计时钟时，他们队在最后的一分钟里竟落后了二十分。这就是迈克尔，我很快就得知他一贯如此。”

Between the time he was cut and the start of basketball in his junior year, Jordan grew about four inches.

从乔丹少年时开始打篮球到被筛选掉的这段时间，他长了四英寸。

The speed had always been there, and now he was stronger, and he could dunk .

他的速度仍然是那么快，只是现在他健壮了许多并且也能扣篮了。

His hands had gotten much bigger, Smith noticed. He was as driven as ever, the hardest-working player on the team in practice.

史密斯注意到，他的手也大了不少。他一直都充满着紧迫感，他是队中最勤于练球的队员。

If he thought that his teammates were not working hard enough, he would get on them himself, and on occasion he pushed the coaches to get on them.

倘若他发现队友不够努力，他就会亲自去说服他们，或者鼓动教练去。

Suddenly Laney High had the beginning of a very good basketball team, and its rising star was Michael Jordan.

一时间兰尼中学出了一个非常优秀的篮球队，迈克尔·乔丹成了冉冉升起的明星。

值得背的大学英语美文鉴赏

灰色晨曦中那通往彩虹的路

J.K.Rowling,author of Harry Potter Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling'slife has the luster of a fairy tale.

J.K.罗琳的生活展现出童话般的光芒，如同她所创造的魔法小巫师—哈利·波特。

Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowlingwrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a cafe during her daughter's naps —and it was Harry Potter that rescued her.

经历了一次失败的婚姻后，这个靠救济金过日子，独自抚养女儿的单亲妈妈和出生不久的女儿搬到了爱丁堡的一个狭小的公寓里。为了逃离又小又冷的房间，她常待在住家附近的咖啡馆里，待女儿熟睡后开始写作，女儿睡多久，她就写多久。就在这个小咖啡馆里，她写出了《哈利·波特与魔法石》，塑造了那个将她带离窘境的小巫师。

Joanne Kathleen Rowling entered the world in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital in Bristol,England, a fitting beginning for someone who would later enjoy making up strange names forpeople, places and games played on flying broomsticks. Her younger sister Di was born justunder two years later.

乔安·凯瑟琳·罗琳出生在英格兰的一家综合医院里，这对一个喜欢给别人起奇怪名字，喜欢坐着扫帚满场飞奔的小姑娘来说，是个合适的开始。她的妹妹两年后来到这个世上。罗

Rowling remembers that she always wanted to write and that the first story she actually wrotedown, when she was five or six, was a story about a rabbit called Rabbit.

琳从小就喜欢写作，五、六岁时就写了一篇跟兔子有关的故事。

Many of her favorite memories center around reading—hearing The Wind in the Willows readaloud by her father when she had the measles , enjoying the fantastic adventure stories of E.

小时候美好的记忆似乎总是围绕阅读的—得麻疹时听爸爸大声讲故事，读奇异的冒险故事，沉浸在奇妙的故事世界里。

Nesbit, reveling in the magical world of C. S. Lewis's Narnia, and her favorite story of all, TheLittle White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. At Exeter University Rowling took her degree in Frenchand spent one year studying in Paris.

大学里，罗琳主修法语，在巴黎留学一年。毕业后，她搬去伦敦担任调查员和双语秘书。

After college she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher andbilingual secretary. The best thing about working in an office, she has said, was typing upstories on the computer when no one was watching.

罗琳回忆说，那段时间最有趣的事情就是趁没人的时候在电脑上打小说。

During this time, on a particularly long train ride from Manchester to London in the summer of1990, the idea came to her of a boy who is a wizard and doesn't know it. He attends a schoolfor wizardry--she could see him very plainly in her mind.

1990 年，时值 24 岁的罗琳坐在由曼撤斯特出发前往伦敦的火车上，哈利·波特闯入了她的生命。她可以在脑海里清晰地勾画他的模样，看到他进入魔法学校。

By the time the train pulled into King's Cross Station four hours later, many of the charactersand the early stages of the plot were fully formed in her head. The story took further shape asshe continued working on it in pubs and cafes over her lunch hours.

四小时后，当火车驶入王十字车站时，大部分人物和故事的前期框架已经在她的脑海里形成了。当她午餐时间坐在咖啡馆里继续构思时，故事的结构变得更加清晰。

In 1992 Rowling left off working in offices and moved to Portugal to teach English as a SecondLanguage. In spite of her students making jokes about her name (this time they called her"Rolling Stone"), she enjoyed teaching. She worked afternoons and evenings, leaving morningsfree for writing. After her marriage to a Portuguese TV journalist ended in divorce, Rowlingreturned to Britain with her infant daughter and a suitcase full of Harry Potter notes andchapters.

1992 年，罗琳结束了白领生涯，前往葡萄牙做英语教师。尽管学生们常拿她的名字开玩笑，叫她滚石(英语中 Rowling 与 rolling 同音)，她仍然非常喜欢教书。她在下午和晚上去学校工作，上午用来写作。不久后，她与一名葡萄牙的电视台记者结婚，但这段婚姻最终以离婚告终。离婚后，罗琳带着女儿和满满一箱子哈利·波特的笔记与手稿回到了英国。

She settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister and set out to finish the book before looking fora teaching job.

为了能住得靠近妹妹，罗琳在爱丁堡定居下来，准备在找新工作前完成这部小说。

Wheeling her daughter's carriage around the city to escape their tiny, cold apartment, shewould duck into coffee shops to write when the baby fell asleep.

她常常推着女儿的手推车四处闲逛，只是为了逃离又小又冷的公寓。她会躲到咖啡馆里，趁女儿睡着时写作。

In this way she finished the book and started sending it to publishers.

就这样，罗琳在咖啡馆里完成了哈利·波特的创作，开始寻找出版商。

It was rejected several times before she found an London agent, chosen because she liked hisname--Christopher Little, who sold the manuscript to Bloomsbury Children's Books.

但她的稿件被多次退回，直到她找到了一个伦敦的经纪人。罗琳之所以会找到他，仅仅是因为喜欢他可爱的名字—克里斯多夫·里特(Christopher Little)。

Rowling was working as a French teacher when she heard that her book about the boy wizardhad been accepted for publication.

当罗琳得知这本关于小巫师的小说被出版商接受时，她正在一所学校教法语。

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in June 1997 and achieved almostinstant success.

《哈利·波特》才一出版，就大获成功。

With the publication of the American edition, retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in1998, Rowling's books continued to make publishing history. Harry Potter climbed to the top ofall the bestseller lists for children's and adult books.

随着哈利·波特 1998 年在美国的出版，罗琳的书继续创造着出版界的历史。哈利·波特登上了儿童与成人书籍的最佳销售榜的首位。

Indeed, the story of the boy wizard, his Cinderlad childhood, and his adventures at HogwartsSchool of Witchcraft and Wizardry caught the imagination of readers of all ages.

确实，这个小巫师的故事，他灰姑娘一样的童年，和他在霍格华兹魔法学校的历险引发了各个年龄读者的丰富想象力。

In Britain a separate edition of the first book appeared with a more "adult" dust jacket so thatgrown-ups reading it on trains and subways would not have to hide their copy behind anewspaper.

在英国，出版商出版了一种更成人化封面的版本，使得大人们能在火车或者地铁里阅读而不用把书藏在报纸后面。

Jo Rowling lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her daughter Jessica and continues to work onwriting the seven-book saga of Harry Potter.

现在，J.A.罗琳和她的女儿捷西卡住在苏格兰的爱丁堡，继续完成哈利·波特的冒险故事。

值得背的大学英语美文赏析

生活是一个自己动手的项目

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer contractor of his plans to leavethe house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extendedfamily.

一位年迈的木匠准备退休了。他告诉他的老板他准备离开建筑业的打算，他说他想和他的妻子过一种更休闲的生活，享受天伦之乐。

He would miss the paycheck,but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor wassorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personalfavor.

他还说他会怀念这里的薪水的，但他必须退休了，他的离职他们慢慢就会适应的。老板对他的这位优秀员工的离去感到非常遗憾，于是问他是否可以盖最后一栋房子作为私下里的帮忙。

The carpenter said yes,but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. Heresorted to shooddy workmanship and used inferior materials.

这位木匠答应了，但显而易见他做事的时候是心不在焉的，他的手工做得毛毛糙糙，用的材料也是次品。

It was an unfortunate way to end his career. When the carpenter finished his work and thebuilder came to inspect the house,the contractor handed the front door key to the carpenter.

这样结束他的事业是不幸的，当木匠最后完工，老板来看房子时，他把前门的钥匙交给木匠说，

"This is your house,"he said,"my gift to you." What a shock! What a shame!

“这是你的房子，是我送给你的礼物。” 震惊!羞愧!

If he had only known he was building his own house,he would have done it all so differently.Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

如果他早知道他是在盖自己的房子，他肯定会做得截然不同的，现在他不得不住在自己建的糟糕透顶的房子里面。

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way,reacting rather than acting,willing to putup less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort.

这个道理同样适合我们，在营造生活时，我们的精力被分散到太多的地方，我们只是被动地适应而不会主动行动，而我们自己也不愿意去尽心尽力地营造我们的生活。

Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living inthe house we have built.

在重要的时刻我们也没能尽自己最大的努力做好工作。然后我们吃惊地看到自己所做的一切：发现自己就处在自己营建的房子里。

If we had realized that we would have done it differently. Think of yourself as the carpenter.Think about your house.

如果我们早意识到这一点的话，我们的做法就会完全不同。 把你自己当成那个木匠。想想你的房子。

Each day you hammer a nail,place a board or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you willever build.

每天你都会钉个钉子，放块木板或砌一面墙。明智地营造你的房子。这是你唯一可以营造的生活。

Even if you live it for day more that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.

即使你只可以再活一天，你也要活得优雅、有尊严。

The plaque on the wall says,"Life is a do-it-yourself project." Who could say it more clearly?

墙上的匾写着，“生活就是一个自己动手的项目”。谁能比这个说得更明白?

Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tommorrow willbe the result of your attitudes and choices you make today.

你今天的生活就是你过去的生活态度和所作选择的结果。你明天的生活就是你今天的生活态度和所作选择的结果。