通过美文的赏析,陶冶学生的思想情操,开阔视野,提高对优美散文的鉴赏能力,提高人文素养;同时培养学生的认知水平、情感态度、文化意识,激发学习英语的兴趣,为他们的跨文化交际能力和终身学习英语的能力打下良好的基础。本文是关于成功的英语美文，希望对大家有帮助!

关于成功的英语美文：最成功的投资

The Soundest Investment of All

by C. Jared Ingersoll

C.贾里德.英格索尔

I feel very presumptuous and uncomfortable about trying to explain out loud the things I believe in. But I do think that all human problems are in some way related to each other, so perhaps if people compare their experiences they may discover something in common in hunting the answers.

我想，若是大声解释我的信仰，不仅会给人一种自大的感觉，也会使我感到不安。但是我认为，从某种程度上来说，人类所有的问题都是息息相关的。因此，倘若人们比较一下他们的经历，也许就能在寻找答案的过程中发现某些共同之处。

I am a very fortunate man for I lead a full and what is for me a happy life. I say this even though I happen to have had, in the course of it, a couple of severe personal blows.

我是一个幸运的人，因为我的生活充实而幸福。不管怎样，我依然会这么说，即使曾经的多次不幸给我带来了沉重的打击。

My first wife collapsed and died one day while she and I were ice skating, after eighteen years of a most happy existence together. My only son, a sergeant in the army combat engineers, was killed in Italy in the last war. Nevertheless, these tragedies did not throw me completely and I have been able to fill my life anew with happiness.

我与第一个妻子共同度过了18年幸福的婚姻生活，然而在我们去滑冰的那天，她突然倒下，撒手人寰。我唯一的儿子是一名工兵军士，二战期间，在意大利阵亡。然而，我并没有被这些不幸彻底打倒，而是再次让我的生活充满幸福。

I do not mean to sound calloused. Those blows hurt me deeply. I guess that two basically important things helped me most to recover.

我并不是想让大家觉得我冷酷无情。这些不幸确实对我造成了很大的伤害。

One is the fact that I have come to see life as a gamble. The other is a belief in what some people call the hereafter. I try to live fully so that when and if my luck changes there will be little room for regret or recrimination over time lost or misspent.

我想我之所以能够重新振作起来，其中有两个重要的原因：一是我认为生活其实就是一场赌博，二是我对人们所说的来世深信不疑。为了在晦运时，不至于因虚度时光而后悔或自责，我努力让自己充实地生活。

My belief in the hereafter is wrapped in the intangible but stubborn thoughts of a layman. Very likely I would get lost in trying to describe or defend, by cold logic, my belief in God but nobody could argue me out of it.

作为一个普通信徒，无形而坚定的思想正是我信仰来世的来源。我信仰上帝，也许我难以用冷冰冰的逻辑来描述这个信仰或为它辩护，但谁也无法说服我放弃它。

I have come to believe that I owe life as much as it owes me, and I suppose that explains this fine satisfaction I get out of endeavoring to do a job to the best of what ability I have, and out of helping somebody else.

我相信，我对生活付出多少，就会得到多少。因此，我认为，我最大的满足正是来源于尽自己最大的努力去做一份工作或是帮助别人。

As a kid I used to ride a rake in the hayfields. I got a tremendous kick out of trying to sweep every field clean as a whistle. Here I made a surprising and happy discovery: that there could be actual enjoyment in the exercise of thoroughness and responsibility, and that duty didn’t have to be a drudge.

孩提时，我常会在干草地上开耙草机。在将每片草地耙干净的过程中，我总会获得极大的成就感，并惊奇地发现：尽心而尽责地完成一件事会为你带来真正的快乐，而尽责也并不一定是做苦工。

I don’t know exactly why, but I like to do things for other people. Not only family responsibilities, work on a hospital board, and various church organizations but also the most inconsequential things that might hardly seem worth the time.

我很喜欢为人服务。我不仅为家庭负责，在一家医院的理事会及各种教会组织中工作，我还会去做一些看似浪费时间的最无关紧要的琐事。

My office happens to be on Independence Square and now and then I have occasion to direct a tourist to the Liberty Bell or fill him in on a little of the history of Philadelphia. The tourist doesn’t seem to mind and it makes me feel good. I’m afraid

我的办公室正好在独立广场，因此我偶尔会为去独立钟的游客带路，一路上给他讲一些费城的历史。虽然游客并不在乎这些，但我却乐此不疲。

I’m not very profound. that I have found it a good investment. It has paid me a very high return, undoubtedly more than I deserve.I have tried to comprehend why something so simple and so sound as the Golden Rule is so often forgotten or held in disrepute. I can only say—and I say this quite selfishly—

我自己并非知识渊博之人。我常常想弄明白，像黄金定律那样简单而合理的箴言为何总被人们遗忘或不屑一顾。我只能说，也自私地说，我发现为人服务是一项最成功的投资。毫无疑问，它给予我的回报远远高于我的应得。

关于成功的英语美文：走出歧路，获得成功

In 1899, when Einstein studied at the Swiss Federal University of Technology in Zurich, his tlltor was Minkevsky, a mathematician.

1899年，爱因斯坦在瑞士苏黎世联邦理工大学就读时，他的导师是数学家明可夫斯基。

Once Einstein asked Minkevsky, "How can a person, like me, leave his distinct footprints on the road of life and make an outstanding contribution in the scientific field?" It was a "sophisticated" problem. Minkevsky said that he had to think about it better and then gave him an answer.

有一次，爱因斯坦问明可夫斯基：“一个人，比如我吧，究竟怎样才能在科学领域、在人生道路上，留下自己的问光足迹、做出自己的杰出贡献呢?”这是个“尖锐”的问题，明可夫斯基说他要好好想一下再给他答案。

Three days later, Minkevsky told Einstein that the answer was coming! He pulled Einstein to walk toward a building site and straight set foot on the cement ground that the construction workers had just paved.

三天后，明可夫斯基告诉爱因斯坦说有答案了!他拉着爱因斯坦朝一处建筑工地走去，而且径直踏上了建筑工人刚刚铺好的水泥地。

In the workers' scolding, Einstein was confused to ask Minkevsky，"Sir, don't you lead me astray?"

在建筑工人的呵斥声中，爱因斯坦被弄的一头雾水，不解的问明可夫斯基：“老师，您这不是在误导我?”

"Right, exactly!" Minkevsky said. "Have you seen it? Only the old road surface that have long solidified and on those place that have been passed by countless steps, you cannot tread out your footprint.

“对，就是这样!”明可夫斯基说。 “看到了吧?只有尚未凝固的水泥面，才能留下深深的足迹。那些凝固很久的老路面，那些被无数脚步走过的地方，你别想再踩出脚印。”

Hearing that, Einstein thought long and nodded significantly, Since then, a very strong sense of innovation and pioneering consciousness began dominating Einstein's thinking and action. He said, "I never memorize and reflect what dictionaries and manuals carry, for my brain only memorize those things that are not included in books." It was such a reason that Einstein left his deep sparkling footprints in the history of science.

听到这里，爱因斯坦沉思了良久，意味深长地点了点头。从此，一种强力的创新和开拓意识，开始主导着爱因斯坦的思维和行动，他说：“我从不记忆和思考词典、手册里的东西，我的脑袋只用来记忆和思考那些还没载入书本的东西。”正因如此，爱因斯坦才在科学史上留下了深深的、闪光的足迹。

关于成功的英语美文：成功之路

People often want something for nothing. They want to workfor a year, and be rich for a lifetime, diet for a month, and beskinny for years, work hard for a season, and become CEO. Butreal change…requires a life style change!

人总想不劳而获。他们想工作一年，余生富庶;节食一月，苗条数载;努力一季，升为CEO。但是真正的变化需要生活方式的改变。

Tell me how you spend your time and I will predict your future, because the secret of your futurelies hidden in your daily routine.

我能预测你的未来，若你告知我你怎样使用你的时间。皆因未来之谜暗藏于你的日常生活中。

There are no short-cuts! You can’t cheat the system. In fact, the more you try to cheat thesystem, the farther away from your goals you get. There are no back roads to success; everyonehas to climb the same mountain.

没有捷径!你不能欺骗“成功系统”，实际上，你越试图欺骗，你离目标越远。成功之路没有小道，每人都要攀登同一座山峰。

Success Is Simple, But Hard成功，简单也困难

What deceives most people is the fact that success looks so simple, and it is simple. Simple tounderstand that is. But success is also very hard…and it’s hard because it requires you to beconsistent; it requires you to change your lifestyle (your daily actions, thinking, and habits).

蒙蔽众人的是成功看起来如此简单，它的确简单。但成功同时也很困难，它难在需要你坚持，难在需要你改变生活方式(你的日常行为、思考和习惯)。

…Never forget that your habits will take you farther than your desires!

不要忘了比起欲望，习惯能带你走更远。

Desire can only take you so far…before you burn out, you must rely on the train tracks of habit toget you to your destination.

在你欲望灼尽时，它只能带你走这么远，而习惯却能带你到终点。

You have to Change Your Lifestyle改变你的生活方式

It is your lifestyle that produces rewards. A lifestyle of working hard every day produces certainrewards; a lifestyle of learning everyday produces certain rewards; a lifestyle of eating righteveryday produces certain rewards; a lifestyle of focusing on your passion every day, producescertain rewards.

是你的生活方式产生回报。每日努力必有所回报。每日学习必有所回报，每日健康饮食必有所回报，每日专注于你的激情必有所回报。

A lifestyle of trying to cheat the system and get something for nothing, also produces, but itdoesn’t produce rewards, it produces confusion.

试图欺骗“成功系统”、不劳而获的生活方式也会产生结果，但却不是产生回报，它产生了困惑。

It produces confusion because you don’t understand why you can’t have the results that othershave. After all, you’ve been working hard for six months, why aren’t you rich yet. You’ve workedout every day this month, why aren’t you skinny.

它产生出困惑因为你不懂为何人有你无。毕竟，你勤奋工作6个月，为何不能富有。你本月每天锻炼，为何不能苗条。

Question 问题

Do people gather apples from an orange tree, or coconuts from a peach tree? No, every treeproduces after its kind. To produce success, you must have the roots of success; you must havethe lifestyle that produces the fruit that you want to enjoy.

人能否从橘子树上采摘苹果?或从桃子树上采摘椰子?不能，每棵树结它自己的果，为了收获成功，你须具备成功之源;你须有能结出收获之果的生活方式。

Change改变

You have to change your lifestyle, this bears repeating because this is the key to success. To getthe results you want, you must adopt the lifestyle (i.e. habits and thinking patterns) of the peoplewho currently have those results.

重申一遍你要改变你的生活方式，因为这是成功的关键。想成功，你须采用成功人士的生活方式(例如，习惯与思维模式)。

When I say “adopt the lifestyle,” I’m saying that you have to live it every single day. Otherwiseyou end up chasing a mirage in the desert of life. The “mirage” is a shortcut to your goal, and soyou run after it, but it’s just a mirage, and it puts you further into the desert, and so you chaseanother mirage, only to put yourself that much farther into the desert.

当我说“采用这种生活方式”，我是指将这种生活方式用于你生活的每一天。否则，你最终追寻的不过是沙漠中的海市蜃楼。“海市蜃楼”犹如你目标的捷径，你追寻它，结果发现只是一场幻境，反而让自己陷入沙漠深入，然后你又继续追寻另一个海市蜃楼，结果在沙漠中迷失得更远。

Decide today to live a life that produces the rewards you desire. Decide to change your habits!Decide to change your thinking! Decide to learn from those who have already succeeded! (Dowhat the successful do; if you don’t know what they do – then find someone who’s successful andask them to mentor you.)

今天就痛下决心，过一种能实现你梦想的生活。改变你的习惯!改变你的思维!向成功人士学习!(做成功人士所做，如果你不知道他们是怎么做的——找到某成功之人，请他赐教)

Use what self-discipline you have…to think and act like the successful; use your discipline to createthe right habits, and in time, you will be successful.

自律，总像成功的人一样的思考和行动。通过自律来形成对的习惯，假以时日，你也会成功。