经典美文,经得起时间的考验,被历史证明是最有价值、最重要的文化精髓,思想宏远,构思巧妙,语言精美。本文是简短的英语美文，希望对大家有帮助!

简短的英语美文：Believe in yourself 相信自己

A professor stood before his class of 20 senior organic biology students, about to hand out the final exam.

"I want to say that it's been a pleasure teaching you this semester. I know you've all worked extremely hard and many of you are off to medical school after summer. So that no one gets their GPA messed up because they might have been celebrating a bit too much this week, anyone who would like to opt out of the final exam today will receive a 'B' for the course."

There was much rejoicing amongst the class as students got up, passed by the professor to thank him and sign out on his offer. As the last taker left the room, the professor looked out over the handful of remaining students and asked, "Any one else? This is your last chance." One final student rose up and took the offer.

The professor closed the door and took attendance of those students remaining. "I'm glad to see you believe in yourself." he said. "You all have 'A' s."

一位有机生物学教授站在20名高年级的学生面前，正准备发期末考试的试卷。

“我要说的是，这个学期能够教你们我感到非常荣幸。我明白你们都很努力，你们中的许多人在暑假之后就要去医学院深造了。为了避免同学们因为参与本周末过多的庆祝活动而影响了学习成绩，所以有谁愿意放弃这次考试，就可以得‘B’。”

许多学生异常惊喜，一个接一个地站了起来，从教授身边走过，对他表示感谢，并在纸上签了名。等到最后一个选择放弃的学生走出教室后，教授看着剩下的同学问：“还有吗?这是你们的最后机会了。”终于，还是有一名同学站了起来，接受了建议。

教授关上门，清点了一下剩余的同学，说道：“我非常高兴看到你们能够相信自己，你们都得‘A’。”

简短的英语美文：The Athenian and the Theban 雅典人和底比斯人

An Athenian and a Theban were on the road together, and passed the time in conversation, as is the way of travelers. After discussing a variety of subjects they began to talk about heroes, a topic that tends to be more fertile than edifying. Each of them was lavish in his praises of the heroes of his own city, until eventually the Theban asserted that Hercules was the greatest hero who had ever lived on earth, and now occupied a foremost place among the gods; while the Athenian insisted that Theseus was far superior, for his fortune had been in every way supremely blessed, whereas Hercules had at one time been forced to act as a servant. And he gained his point, for he was a very glib fellow, like all Athenians; so that the Theban, who was no match for him in talking; cried at last in some disgust, "All right, have your way; I only hope that, when our heroes are angry with us, Athens may suffer from the anger of Hercules, and Thebes only from that of Theseus."

一个雅典人和一个底比斯人一同走在路上，就像其他旅行者一样，他们用聊天来打发时间。聊了一些其他话题之后，他们开始谈起英雄，虽然没有什么教育意义，但这可是一个颇有谈资的内容，一提到赞美各自城市的英雄，两个人侃侃而谈。后来，底比斯断言，赫拉克勒斯是地球上曾经存在过的最伟大的英雄，现在占据了众神之中的首要位置。而雅典人则坚持认为，提修斯远远超过了赫拉克勒斯，因为他的命运在各方面都得到了充分的眷顾，而赫拉克勒斯曾一度被迫充当奴隶。他达到了自己的目的，因为他像所有雅典人一样，是一个非常圆滑的家伙。而底比斯人在谈话中根本不是他的对手，最后有些反感地大吼道：“好吧，随便你，我只希望，当我们的英雄对我们生气时，雅典人会从赫拉克勒斯的愤怒中遭殃，而底比斯人则从提修斯的愤怒中受苦。”

简短的英语美文：The Tale of the Sun

A long, long time ago, the earth was in complete darkness. There was no sun, only the moon and some stars. This was before people, when giant animals roamed the earth. They were much bigger than animals today. Dinewan the Emu and Bralagah the Brolga were two such animals.

One day, they were arguing and fighting over some silly little thing. Bralagah got angry and grabbed one of Dinewan's large eggs and hurled it into the sky. It landed on a pile of firewood where the yellow yolk burst into flames. The flames were so bright, that the world was lit up.

One of the good spirits who lived in the sky was watching this and saw how bright and beautiful the world looked. Maybe if a fire was lit everyday, there would always be light.

So the good spirit collected wood every night. When the pile was big enough, his friend, the morning star, would come out to let everyone know that the fire was about to start. But what about anyone sleeping? How would they know that the fire was lit? The good spirit thought about this. Then, somewhere in the distance, came a loud laugh.

Gugurrgaagaa, gugurrgaagaa

The sound of the cackling kookaburra rang out across the earth.

'That's it, that's the noise I want,' The good spirit was jumping up and down with excitement. At last he had found a way to wake the world.

So now, every morning, just as the dawn is breaking, the laugh of Gugurrgaagaa the Kookaburra can be heard all across Australia, bringing in the new day.