英语阅读是一种吸收和转换语言信息的心理过程，英语阅读不是简单的信息输入，更重要的是对信息进行加工、处理，使其与读者头脑中已经存储的信息互相联系和重新组织。下面是小编带来的值得背诵的励志英语美文，欢迎阅读!

值得背诵的励志英语美文篇一

Divorce and Kids

离婚与孩子

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead

巴巴拉·达福·怀特黑德

Divorce is transforming the lives of American children.In the past World War 2 generation, morethan 80 percent of children grew up with both biological parents. Today only half will do so.Each year more than a million children experience family breakup: about as many are born outof wedlock.

离婚正在改变美国儿童的生活。二次世界大战后的一代人中，80%以上的儿童都在亲生父母身边长大。今天只有半数是如此。每年有一百多万儿童的家庭破裂，这与非婚生儿的数量大体相同。

At the same time, the problems associated with family disruption have grown. Overall child well-being has declined,despite historically high public spending. The teen suicide rate has almosttripled. Juvenile crime has increased and become more violent. School performance has beenpoor.

与此同时，家庭破裂带来的问题层出不穷。尽管政府的开支历来很大，儿童总的生活水平却有所下降。青少年的自杀率几乎增长了两倍。青少年犯罪率上升，而且暴力案件越来越多，而学业成绩甚差。

Given such a dramatic impact on children’s lives, one might expect today’s high divorce rate tobe viewed more widely as a national crises. Yet, those who argue that it poses a serious threatare dismissed as being pessimistic or nostalgic, unwilling to accept the new facts of life. Thedominant view in the popular culture is that the changes in family structure are, on balance,positive. And until recently there was little hard evidence to confirm or dispute thisassumption.

儿童的生活既然受到如此显著的影响，有人可能把当今的高离婚率视作一场全国性的危机。然而，持有这种观点的人却被斥之为过分悲观或怀旧，被认为是不愿接受新的生活现实。大众文化普遍认为，家庭结构的变化总的说来是积极的。但直到最近还没有什么确凿的证据可以证实或反驳这种说法。

A 1940s book on divorce asserted:” Children are entitled to the affection and association oftwo parents, not one.” In the 1950s most Americans believed parents should stay in anunhappy marriage to avoid damaging the children.

40年代的一本论述离婚的书曾称：“孩子有权享有父母双方而不是其中一方的宠爱和关怀”。50年代，多数美国人认为，做父母的即使婚姻不美满，也要维持下去，以免伤害孩子。

But by mid-1970s what had once been regarded as hostile to children’s best interests wasconsidered essential to adults’ happiness. “A two-parent home is not the only emotionalstructure within which a child can be happy and healthy,” a popular divorce book of this eraproclaimed. “The parents who take care of themselves will be best able to take care of theirchildren.”

但到70年代中期，人们的观念有所改变，原先说离婚会伤害子女们的最高利益，此时则认为离婚是关乎成人幸福的大事。当年一本论述离婚的畅销书声称：“双亲家庭并不是唯一能让孩子过得健康快乐的情感寄托所，做父母的只有照顾好自己才能更好地照顾好孩子。”

As this optimistic view took shape, many expects believed that the psychological impact ofdivorce on children was like a bad cold. There was a phase of acute discomfort, then a shortrecovery。 Kids would be back on their feet in no time, with no lasting harm.

这种乐观的看法一形成，就有许多专家认为，离异对孩子心理上的影响好比患了重感冒：开始一段时间会极不舒服，接着是短暂的恢复期。不久孩子得到康复，痛苦渐渐消失。

By the early 1980s, however, nearly two decades had passed since the changes in family life hadbegun. During the intervening years a fuller body of empirical research had emerged: studiesthat used large samples, or followed families through time, or did both. Moreover, several of thestudies offered a child’s-eye view of family disruption.

然而到80年代初，家庭生活中发生的这种婚姻变化已经历了近二十个年头。在此期间，大量以经验为依据的研究工作脱颖而出：或广泛调查大批实例，或长期跟踪家庭进行研究，或双管齐下。而且，不少研究还提供了孩子对家庭破裂的看法。

In 1971 Judith Wallerstein, a clinical psychologist, and her staff began interviewing middle-class children in the San Francisco area at the time their parents broke up. She discovered thechildren seemed to be doing worse. Five years after breakup, her research shows, more than athird of the children were experiencing moderate or severe depression. At ten years asignificant number to be troubled, drifting, underachieving. At 15 years many, now adults,were struggling to establish strong love relationships of their own.

1971年，临床心理学家朱迪斯·沃勒斯坦及其工作人员开始走访旧金山地区一些中产阶级家庭的孩子——当时他们父母的关系已破裂，有的已离异一年之久。她并没有发现孩子的感情有什么奇迹般的恢复;事实上，这些孩子的情况似乎每况愈下。

Five years after breakup, her research shows, more than a third of the children wereexperiencing moderate or severe depression. At ten years a significant number appeared tobe troubled, drifting, underachieving. At 15 years many, now adults, were struggling toestablish strong love relationships of their own.

她的研究表明，在家庭破裂5年后，三分之一以上的孩子患有中度或严重的抑郁症。10年后，有一大批孩子表现得心情苦恼，变化无常，学习成绩差，15年后，许多人都已成年了，就拼命建立自己真正心爱的牢固关系。

Research shows that girls in single-parent families are at greater risk for teenage marriage,nonmarital birth, and divorce than girls in two-parent families---and that this is true regardlessof race or income. Also, children in disrupted families are nearly twice as likely to drop out ofhigh school. Boys are at greater risk of dropping out than girls and are more prone toaggressive behavior.

研究表明，单亲家庭女孩的冒险性大于双亲家庭的女孩：性早熟，十几岁结婚，少年怀孕，非婚生育，离婚 —— 而且不分种族、肤色和收入，都是如此。再者，家庭分裂的孩子中学退学率几乎要高出一倍。男孩比女孩更容易退学，更好寻衅闹事。

Scholars also find significant difference in educational attainment. According to a 1980 study bythe National Association of Elementary School Principals, 30 parent of Two-parent elementarystudents ranks as high achievers, as compared with 17 percent of single-parent of single-parent students. The children in single-parent families were also more likely to be truant orreceive disciplinary action.

学者们还发现，在学业成绩上也有显著差异。根椐1980年全国小学校长协会的一项调查，在双亲家庭的小学生中，有百分之三十为优等生，而在单亲家庭的孩子中只有百分之十七为优等生。单亲家庭的子女逃学或受处分的情况也屡见不鲜。

Since most children live with their mothers after divorce, one might expect that the mother-childbond would even be strengthened. Yet research shows that only half the children whosemothers were protective before a divorce. Moreover, the mother-child relationships deterioratedover time.

由于多数孩子在父母离婚后跟母亲过，有人以为母子关系会因此而加深，但研究表明，仅有半数孩子的母亲在离婚后还能保持离婚前的那种慈幼关系。何况这种母子关系是随时间而衰退的。

Family disruption has been suggested as a central cause of many vexing social problems, aswell.

有人提出，家庭破裂还是引发许多恼人的社会问题的主要原因。

Nationally, over 70 percent of juveniles in state reform institutions come from homes withoutboth parents present. Family breakup is thought to be an important source of high crime ratesin the nation’s cities. And, according to one study, its influence is independent of race orincome.

从全国来看，在州立管教所中，有百分之七十的少年犯来自非双亲家庭。家庭破裂是全国城市犯罪率高的一个重要原因。有一项调查还说，其影响所及，非种族或收入所能限制。

Nowhere has the impact of family breakup been more profound than in our schools. Acrossthe nation, principals report a dramatic rise in the aggressive, acting-out behaviorcharacteristic of children living in single-parent families.

我们的学校受到家庭破裂的影响最大。校长们的报告指出，在全国范围内，住在单亲家庭中的孩子所特有的那种寻衅闹事的发泄行为已明显增加。

Over the past 25 years Americans have been conducting a vast natural experiment in family life.The results are becoming clear. Adults have benefited from the changes, but not children.Indeed, this may be the first generation to do worse psychologically and socially than theirparents.

在过去的25年里，美国人一直在家庭生活中进行着一项庞大而又顺乎自然的试验。其结果日见明朗。成从变化中得益，儿童则不然。说真的，这一代子女，也许是心理上、社会上都不如自己父母的第一代人。

The novelist Pat Conroy has observed that"each divorce is the death of a small civilization. "Noone feels this more acutely than children.

小说家帕特·康洛伊说过：“每一起离异都是一小点文明的泯灭。”痛感于此者，莫过于儿童了。

值得背诵的励志英语美文篇二

knowledge and Virtue

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith.

知识是一回事，美德是另一回事。好意并非良心，优雅并非谦让，广博与公正的观点也并非信仰。

Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.

哲学，无论多么富有启迪和深奥莫测，都无法驾驭情感，不具备有影响力的动机，不具有导致生动活泼的原理。文科教育并不造就基督教徒抑或天主教徒，而是造就了绅士。

It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a can did, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University.

造就一个绅士诚为美事。有教养的才智，优雅的情趣，正直、公正而冷静的头脑，高贵而彬彬有礼的举止--这些是与渊博的学识生来固有的品质, 它也是大学教育的目的。

I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them.

对此我提倡之，并将加以阐释和坚持。然而我要说的是，它们仍然不能确保圣洁，或甚至不能保证诚实。它们可以附庸于世故的俗人，附庸于玩世不恭的浪子。唉，当他们用它伪装起来时，就更增加了他们外表上的冷静、快活和魅力。

Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim.

就其本身而言，它们似乎已远非其本来面目，它们似乎一远看的美德，经久久细察方可探知。因此它们受到广泛的责难，指责其虚饰与伪善。我要强调，这绝非是因为其自身有什么过错，而是因为教授们和赞美者们一味地把它们弄得面目全非，并且还要殷勤地献上其本身并不希冀的赞颂。

值得背诵的励志英语美文篇三

让生活万事如意Make Life Happen

You don’t have to wish for things to happen, because you can make things happen.

你不必去希冀出现什么,因为你可以使其发生。

You don’t have to wonder whether something will work or not, because you can gather the resources, make efforts and find out for yourself.

你不必去怀疑事情是否可行,因为你可以集齐资源、努力发挥,进而使其顺利进行。

There’s no need to live in fear of what life might bring. You can make your life unfold in the way you’d like to see it unfold. duanwenw.com There’s no reason to worry about limitations. You can act to work your way through whatever obstacles2 or challenges are present.

没有必要活在对生活所带来的未知的恐惧中。你可以使你的生活向着你希望的方向发展。没有理由担心受限制。不管前路有任何困难或挑战,你可以用行动克服一切。

Of all the abilities you have, the most powerful ability is to use your abilities in a meaningful way. Not only can you make things happen, but you can also make things happen with purpose and intention.

在你所拥有的一切能力中,最强大的力量是将你的能力物尽其用。你不但能付诸行动使事情发生,而且还能同时实现目标和意图。

Don’t worry or wonder. Don’t beg or steal. Don’t wish or regret. Don’t envy3 or wait. Use all that energy to make life happen in the way you know best right now.

不要担忧或怀疑。不要祈求或窃取。不要希冀或后悔。不要羡慕或等待。立刻用这些精力让生活万事如意吧!