拓展模块U11 课文-1只读版 ~ The Delight of Books 读书的喜悦

拓展模块 Unit 11 On Reading Books 论读书

拓展模块 U11 课文-1只读版The Delight of Books读书的喜悦

The Delight of Books

1. Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages;they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature,help us in our difficulties,comfort us in sorrow and in suffering,change hours of weariness into moments of delight,store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts,and lift us out of and above ourselves.

2. There is an oriental story of two men: one was a king, who every night dreamt he was a beggar,the other was a beggar,who every night dreamt he was a prince and lived in a palace.Imagination is sometimes more vivid than reality.But,however this may be,when we read we may not only(if we wish it) be the king and live in palaces,but, what is better,we may transport ourselves to mountains or the seashore,and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth,without fatigue, inconvenience,or expense.

3. Macaulay had wealth and fame,rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books.In a charming letter to a little girl, he says:“Thank you for your very pretty letter.I am always glad to make my little girl happy,and nothing pleases me so much as to see that she likes books, for when she is as old as I am, she will find that they are better than all the candies and cakes, toys and plays, and sights in the world.If anyone would make me the greatest king that ever lived,with palaces and gardens and fine dinners,and wines and coaches,and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants,on condition that I should not read books,I would not be a king.I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”

4. Books,indeed,endow us with a whole enchanted palace of thoughts.In one way,they give us an even more vivid idea than the actual reality,just as reflections are often more beautiful than real nature.

5. Without stirring from our firesides we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth,or sore into realms where Milton's angels peal in our ears the coral hymns of paradise.Science, art, literature, philosophy,—all that man has thought，all that man has done,—the experience that has been bought with the sufferings of a hundred generations,—all are stored for us in the world of books.

读书的喜悦

1. 书与人类的关系等于记忆和个人的关系。书籍记载了我们民族的历史，我们的发现，许多年来的知识和经验的积累；它们向我们描述大自然的奇妙和美丽，在我们困难时帮助我们，在我们悲伤或遭遇痛苦时安慰我们，把枯燥的时光变成愉快的时刻，用思想充实我们的头脑，把美好和愉快的想法保存在我们的心里，使我们摆脱自我并超越自我。

2. 有一则东方故事，说的是两个人，一个是国王，他每天晚上梦见自己是个乞丐；另一个是个乞丐，每天晚上他梦见自己是个王子并且住在官殿里。想像有时比现实更生动。但是，很可能，当我们阅读时，我们可能不仅仅是（假如我们希望的话）国王和住在宫殿里，甚至更好，我们可能让自己来到高山或海边，访问世界上大多数美丽的地方而不感到疲倦、不便，也不花分文。

3. 迈考雷有钱、有名，又有地位和权势,但是，他在他的传记中告诉我们，他一生最幸福的时刻是在读书之时。在他的一封给一个小女孩的令人高兴的信中，他说：“感谢你非常美好的来信。我总是愿意让我的小女孩高兴，没有什么能比看到她喜欢读书使我更喜悦的了，因为当她到我这把年纪的时候，她就会发现书比所有的糖果、点心、玩具、游戏和世上一切景观都要好。如果有人让我当世上最伟大的国王，拥有宫殿、花园、佳肴、美酒、马车、漂亮的衣服、成百上千的侍从，而条件是不准我读书，那我不会去当这个国王。我宁愿当个穷人住在阁楼，拥有很多书，也不愿做一个不爱读书的国王。”

4. 的确,书赋予我们一整座神奇的思想殿堂。在某种方式上，书所给予我们的思想比现实更惟妙惟肖，就像回忆往往比真的现实更加美丽一样。

5. 我们不用麻烦离开壁炉就可以漫游到世界上最远的地方，或升到弥尔顿所描述的境界，在那里天使们在我们耳边唱起天堂的圣歌。科学、艺术、文学、哲学——所有那些人类所想的，所有那些人类所做的——那些经过世代人们用痛苦磨难换来的经验——都为我们珍藏在书的世界里。