大学英语每日美文
大学英语每日美文阅读篇一
Letters of yester years
When did you last write - I mean in the real sense, i.e. a handwritten letter - to your parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives or friends who live apart from you? To this question, most people would answer "years ago".
I know I would be jeered by a number of my regular critics, who would say: "Listen, this old foggy is harping on the good old days again."
Wait a minute. Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming modern technology for the disappearance of handwritten letters; instead, I'm blaming modern men of becoming lazy and less attached to kinship while enjoying the ease and convenience afforded by modern technology.
Take greetings between family members and friends at festivals. Chinese people wrote letters to their kinfolk and friends to express good wishes during traditional festivals before the telephone became popular in the early 1990s in cities and about a decade later in rural areas.
E-mails were soon bypassed as mobile phone text messaging began to sweep across the nation as the dominant carrier of festival correspondence in the early 2000s. The fast, ubiquitous, low-cost messenger prevails over any other form of communication where speed is concerned. And the broadcasting function of a cell phone makes it easy to send one message to a number of receivers with just a click.
The new technology even created a new occupation. In 2002, "professional writers of short messages", appeared producing ready text passages for various occasions: New Year greetings, marriage congratulations, sickness condolences, and so on.
At first, people were attracted by the witty, metaphorical and philosophical messages written by the "professional writers". But they soon got bored because they often received the same message from their colleagues, friends and family members. The identical texts ruined the sincerity of the greetings. Now people have resumed writing their own messages - with a statement that it is their "own creation".
However, for people who used to communicate through handwritten letters, neither an e-mail nor a cell phone message can match a traditional letter. The lifeless print characters on the screen of a computer or cell phone never conveys an affectionate association as is described by a traditional Chinese saying: "The seeing of the handwriting is like seeing the writer him/herself." The modern "letters" may even cause a sense of unreality on the part of the receiver: "Is this really written by him/her?"
In the just past Mid-Autumn Festival, the Nanjing Normal University urged its students to hand write a letter to their parents. It was the first ever handwritten letter the students had sent to their parents. They felt great pleasure in doing so and their parents were greatly moved. A mother wrote back to her daughter saying that the day she received the letter was "the happiest day in my life".
All Chinese who have read Tang Dynasty verses remember this line of the great poet Du Fu: "A letter from home is worth 10,000 liang in gold "
A "letter from home" has served as an emotional bond between family members and friends. It is also part of Chinese culture for it is a carrier of etiquette, calligraphy and literature. We should not abandon this part of our culture. At least we can urge young people to regularly write to their parents like what the Nanjing university did.
大学英语每日美文阅读篇二
Happy Father's Day
In a class I teach for adults, I recently did the “unpardonable.” I gave the class homework! The assignment was to “go to someone you love within the next week and tell them you love them.It has to be someone you have never said those words to before or at least haven't shared those words with for a long time.” Now that doesn't sound like a very tough assignment, until you stop to realize that most of the men were over 35 and were raised in the generation of men that were taught that expressing emotions is not “macho.”Showing feelings or crying was just not done.So this was a very threatening assignment for some.
At the beginning of our next class,I asked if someone wanted to share what happened when they told someone they loved them.I fully expected one of the women to volunteer, as was usually the case,but on this evening one of the men raised his hand.He appeared quite moved and a bit shaken. As he unfolded out of his chair,he began by saying, "Dennis, I was quite angry with you last week when you gave us this assignment.I didn't feel that I had anyone to say those words to, and besides, who were you to tell me to do something that personal? But as I began driving home my conscience started talking to me.It was telling me that I knew exactly who I needed to say I love you to."
"You see, five years ago, my father and I had a vicious disagreement and really never resolved it since that time.We avoided seeing each other unless we absolutely had to at Christmas or other family gatherings.But even then, we hardly spoke to each other. So last Tuesday by the time I got home I had convinced myself I was going to tell my father I loved him.It’s weird, but just making that decision seemed to lift a heavy load off my chest.''
''When I got home, I rushed into the house to tell my wife what I was going to do. She was already in bed, but I woke her up anyway. When I told her, she didn’t just get out of bed, she catapulted out and hugged me, and for the first time in our married life she saw me cry. We stayed up half the night drinking coffee and talking. It was great!"
“The next morning I was up bright and early. I was so excited I could hardly sleep. I got to the office early and accomplished more in two hours than I had the whole day before."
“At 9:00 I called my dad to see if could come over after work. When he answered the phone, I just said, ‘Dad, can I come over after work tonight? I have something to tell you.’ My dad responded with a grumpy, ‘Now what?’ I assured him it wouldn’t take long, so he finally agreed.
“At 5:30, I was at my parents’ house ringing the doorbell, praying that Dad would answer the door. I was afraid if Mom answered that I would chicken out and tell her instead. But as luck would have it, Dad did answer the door."
“I didn’t waste any time – I took one step in the door and said, ‘Dad, I just came over to tell you that I love you.’
“It was as if a transformation came over my dad. Before my eyes his face softened, the wrinkles seemed to disappear and he began to cry. He reached out and hugged me and said, ‘I love you too, son, but I’ve never been able to say it.’
“It was such a precious moment I didn’t want to move. Mom walked by with tears in her eyes. I just waved and blew her a kiss. Dad and I hugged for a moment longer and then I left. I hadn’t felt that great in a long time.
“But that’s not even my point. Two days after that visit, my dad, who had heart problems, but didn’t tell me, had an attack and ended up in the hospital, unconscious. I don’t know if he'll make it.
“So my message to all of you in this is: Don’t wait to do the things you know need to be done. What if I had waited to tell my dad – maybe I will never get the chance again! Take the time to do what you need to do and do it now!”
大学英语每日美文阅读篇三
Try to become a quitter
I'm one of those people who's terrible at saying no. I take on too many projects at once, and spend too much of my time doing things I'd rather not be. I get stuff done, but it's not always the best I can do, or the best way I can spend my time.
That's why my newest goal, both as a professional and a person, is to be a quitter.
Being a quitter isn't being someone who gives up, who doesn't see important things through to the end. I aspire to be the opposite of those things, and think we all should. The quitter I want to be is someone who gets out when there's no value to be added, or when that value comes at the expense of something more important.
I want to quit doing things that I'm asked to do, for no other reason than I'm asked to do it. I want to be able to quit something in mid-stream, because I realize there’s nothing good coming from it.
A friend of mine once told me that "I knew I was an adult when I could stop reading a book, even after getting 500 pages into it." Odd though it sounds, we all tend to do this. We get involved in something, realize we don't want to be a part of it, but keep trucking through. We say "well, I've already invested so much time in this, I might as well stick it out."
I propose the opposite: quit as often as possible, regardless of project status or time invested. If you're reading a book, and don't like it, stop reading. Cut your losses, realize that the smartest thing to do is stop before your losses grow even more, and quit. If you're working on a project at work that isn't going anywhere, but you've already invested tons of time on it, quit. Take the time gained by quitting the pointless project, and put it toward something of value. Instead of reading an entire book you hate, read 1/2 a bad one and 1/2 a good one. Isn't that a better use of your time?
If you're stuck doing something, and don't really want to do it anymore, step back for a second. Ask if you really have to do this, and what value is being produced from your doing it. Don't think about the time you've put into it, or how much it's taken over your life. If you don't want to do it, and don't have to do it, don't do it.
By quitting these things, you'll free up time to do things that actually do create value, for yourself and for others. You'll have time to read all the great books out there, or at least a couple more. You’ll be able to begin to put your time and effort into the things you'd actually like to do.
Let's try it together: what are the things you're doing, that you're only doing because you've been doing them for so long? Quit. Don't let time spent dictate time you will spend. Let's learn how to say "no" at the beginning, or in the middle, and free up more of our time to do the things we’d like to be doing, and the things actually worth doing.
Saying no is hard, and admitting a mistaken yes is even harder. But if we do both, we'll start to make sure that we're spending our time creating value, rather than aggravating our losses. Let's be quitters together.
What do you think? What in your life can you quit?
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