關(guān)于經(jīng)典英語美文摘抄
關(guān)于經(jīng)典英語美文摘抄
古今中外的經(jīng)典美文是知識的結(jié)晶,是智慧的源泉。開展經(jīng)典美文誦讀,能拓寬學生視野,開發(fā)學生智力,培養(yǎng)學生美好情操,對提高全民族人民的素質(zhì)也能起到積極的作用。下面是學習啦小編帶來的關(guān)于經(jīng)典英語美文摘抄，歡迎閱讀!
關(guān)于經(jīng)典英語美文摘抄篇一
埃及艷后Three centuries later, shortly before the birth of Christ, Egypt was still ruled by a living goddess, Cleopatra, a Greek descended from one of Alexander's generals. She looked back to the Golden Age of Alexander's world empire and was determined to do even better herself.
Alexander died at the age of 32. By the time Cleopatra was 23, she had gone ever further than Alexander making her entrance into Rome as Queen of Egypt and consort of Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in the world.
These were complex times. To keep your throne, you had to be adaptable, ruthless, intelligent and a great politician. Cleopatra had all these traits which is why history has provided us with lots of interpretations of Cleopatra. Renaissance poets saw her as a heroine dying for love. And painters alluded to her eroticism in their bare breasted portrayals of the dying queen. Hollywood reinforced the image of Cleopatra as a vamp starting with Theda Bara's seductive portrayal in 1917.
But who was the real Cleopatra? What did she really look like?
We're in Berlin because this is the best portrait of Cleopatra in the world. There are very few ancient sculptures that are existing. So this is probably as close as we're ever going to get to how she really looked. She's rather plain looking, isn't she? Look at her hair. It's tied up in a simple bun. It's a classical Greek hairstyle. It's practical but not exactly designed to captivate a Roman general.
We know from ancient sources that her hair was a reddish color, wavy. But look at her nose. It's a little bit too long and hooked at the end. And her mouth, is not exactly sensual. She's not wearing any jewelry. There are no earrings, no necklace. This is not the portrait of a femme fatale.
The ancient sources tell us she was intelligent, witty, charming, a linguist and along with this, she had a tremendous determination. It was this amazing combination of abilities that made Cleopatra the most famous woman in history. It wasn't her beauty.
Women in Egypt had always been powerful: Queen Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and now Cleopatra. But during the era of the Ptolemy's, the role of Greek women had changed. They gained an identity apart from that of their husbands or families. Women participated in the arts and civic life and marriage became a union of two people, not just two houses. The portraits of the women of this period show strong individuals looking back at you with confidence. They're almost haunting. Women would not have this power again until the 20th century. Cleopatra was well educated, strong minded with ideas of her own and a female.
As a intellectual, Cleopatra would have been heartbroken: when during fighting between Egyptians and Caesar's Roman troops, there occurred one of the greatest tragedies of the ancient world - the burning of the library of Alexandria. It's sad to think about what was lost in the fire at Alexandria. There are the missing manuscripts of Aristotle and Plato. They were probably there. There was an entire room with editions of Homer. Maybe even there were early manuscripts of the Old Testament, which could probably help settle Biblical questions today.
Cleopatra was eventually able to replace 200,000 of the manuscripts. Books were very important to her. It's ironic that today everybody knows her for her beauty, but it was her intelligence that was most important asset she had.
耶穌誕生的三百年后，埃及依然在克莉奧帕卓女王的統(tǒng)治下，她是亞歷山大大帝手下一名將領(lǐng)的后代。她一面追懷著亞歷山大帝國的黃金時期，一面決意自己做得更出色。
亞歷山大于32歲駕崩，當時埃及艷后僅23歲，她遠行得疆界比亞歷山大更遠，她以埃及王后和世界上最有權(quán)力的人——朱利安·愷撒情人的身份走進羅馬。
當時局面非常復雜。要保住王位則必須是一名靈活，無情、機智兼出色的政客。這些特點埃及艷后全部具備，這也解釋了為什么我們會從歷史上看到關(guān)于她的多種不同說辭。文藝復興時期的詩人將她視成為愛情獻身的女英雄。畫家們把她描繪為裸胸垂死的貪欲的女王。好萊塢的電影強化了她的蕩婦形像——第一部始于桑德·芭拉在1917年媚人的扮演。
可是埃及艷后究竟是什么樣的人?她的外貌是怎樣的呢?
于是我們來到了柏林，這兒有全世界最好的埃及艷后的肖像。現(xiàn)在僅存的古代雕像已是鳳毛麟角，所以這一尊也許能幫助我們盡多地了解她的外貌。她長得挺平常的，是不是?看看他的頭發(fā)，結(jié)的是個簡單的髻。這是希臘古典發(fā)型。風格樸實，并非特別設(shè)計來俘獲羅馬將領(lǐng)的愛情。
我們從古代資料了解到她的頭發(fā)是淺紅色的，有波紋的。可瞧她的鼻子，是稍有點長的鷹鉤鼻。嘴也算不上性感。她不飾帶任何珠寶。沒有耳環(huán)，沒有項鏈。這并非一個性感尤物的相貌。
古代資料還告訴我們，她聰明、詼諧、迷人、精通多種語言，而且，她還具有驚人的毅力。正是集合了這種種才華而決非美貌，才使得埃及艷后成為歷史上最負盛名的女性。
過去，埃及婦女的勢力向來不弱，如：哈特謝普蘇特女王、奈費爾提蒂女王，以及想在這位克莉奧帕卓女王。但在托勒密王朝時期，希臘婦女的角色改變了。她們?nèi)〉锚毩⒂谡煞蚝图彝ネ獾纳矸?，參與到藝術(shù)和市民生活中，并以兩個個人而不是兩家人的名義締結(jié)婚姻。這一時期的婦女形象表現(xiàn)除了強烈的個性與自信。那令人印象深刻。21世紀以前婦女們都沒有再擁有過這種權(quán)力。埃及艷后便是受過良好教育、意志堅強、有自己思想的一位女性。
在埃及人與愷撒的羅馬軍隊作戰(zhàn)期間發(fā)生了古代一大慘劇——亞歷山大圖書館的焚毀。作為一位知識人士，這一悲劇定曾讓埃及艷后為之哀慟不已。要說亞歷山大圖書館在那次火災(zāi)中的損失是令人傷心的。遺失的亞里土多德和伯拉圖手稿估計就在其中。有一整個房間里放的是荷馬的作品。如果《圣經(jīng)舊約》的早期文稿沒有在那時遺失的話，也許今日我們對《圣經(jīng)》的許多疑惑已經(jīng)解開了。
埃及艷后最后找回了二十萬冊文稿。書籍對她太重要了。諷刺的是她以美貌蜚聲于今日世界，而其實智慧才是她最最可貴的資產(chǎn)。
關(guān)于經(jīng)典英語美文摘抄篇二
猶太女孩譜寫別樣《神曲》Book on Divine Comedy does Dante differently
What's a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey whose first language was Yiddish doing writing a book about history's greatest Catholic poet, Dante?
Perhaps trying to convince the world that his epic poem, the Divine Comedy, is not just for Ivy League intellectuals but for the common man and woman on life's journey.
Harriet Rubin's "Dante in Love," published by Simon and Schuster, may not become required reading in the hallowed halls of Oxbridge academia. But that's just fine with her.
"This book is aimed at people in hell," said Rubin. "And how do you get out of hell if there is no exit sign anywhere? The book is aimed at people who are in some kind of quandary. People with passion."
Quandary? Passion? Dante ate them for breakfast.
Banned from returning to his beloved Florence in 1302, Dante roamed from city to city in Italy and France, from noble court to grubby back streets until he died in Ravenna in 1321.
Through the exile, the wandering and the angst, he created The Divine Comedy -- divided into Hell, Purgatory and Paradise -- a poem many consider the greatest ever written.
Rubin, the daughter of a window cleaner and housewife from New Jersey, already had experience in writing about an Italian luminary from centuries past.
She is author of the highly provocative and acclaimed 1998 book "The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women," in which she discusses how to become powerful without becoming like a man.
Now she is doing Dante differently from many previous works on the poet considered to be the father of the Italian language.
It is by no means a "Divine Comedy for Idiots."
But in its own way it does take Dante off the pedestal of poetic sanctity and explain as simply as possible the immense tapestry of religion, art, architecture, cosmology, theology and history that provided the backdrop for the work.
猶太女孩譜寫別樣《神曲》
一個來自新澤西、母語為依地語的猶太女孩創(chuàng)作了一本關(guān)于歷史上最偉大的天主教詩人但丁的書，不覺得她很可愛嗎?
這或許是為了向世人證明，但丁的史詩《神曲》并不僅僅是寫給長青藤聯(lián)盟的學者看的，同樣也適合跋涉在生命旅程中的普通男女。
哈里特·魯賓的《愛中的但丁》一書由西蒙和舒斯特出版集團發(fā)行，這本書可能并不會成為牛津和劍橋大學神圣廳堂里的必讀書，但對她來說這樣已經(jīng)很好了。
魯賓說：“這本書的受眾對象是那些在苦難中掙扎的人們。如果在任何地方都找不到出口標志，你怎樣才能脫離困境呢?這本書是專為那些陷入某種困境、卻仍懷有激情的人們而寫的。”
困境?激情?但丁拿它們當家常便飯。
1302年，但丁被禁止回到他深愛的佛羅倫薩，于是他周游意大利和法國，從一個城市游蕩到另一個城市，從高雅的宮廷徘徊到骯臟的后街，直到1321年，他死于拉文納(意大利東北部港市)。
在流放、游蕩和痛苦中，他創(chuàng)作了《神曲》，這部被很多人視為有史以來最偉大的詩篇分為《地獄》、《煉獄》和《天堂》三部。
魯賓，一個新澤西的擦窗工人兼家庭主婦的女兒，在寫作方面已小有經(jīng)驗，她曾寫過一本關(guān)于幾個世紀前的一位意大利大師的書。
1998年，她創(chuàng)作的《女君王論: 女人獲取權(quán)力的戰(zhàn)略、戰(zhàn)術(shù)與武器》一書出版了，這本書非常富有煽動性、贏得了很高的評價。在書中她討論了(女人)怎樣才能變得強大，卻不必像男人一樣。
現(xiàn)在，她正在用一種和以往許多描寫但丁的著作不同的方式來詮釋這位被認為是意大利語言之父的詩人。
這決不是一本“為愚人而作的神曲”。
但是，她獨有的寫作手法確實使但丁的圣潔詩歌不再那么高高在上，她盡可能用最簡單直白的方式來闡釋這部作品深厚的背景，那是宗教、藝術(shù)、建筑、宇宙哲學、神學和史學共同編織出的巨大織錦。
關(guān)于經(jīng)典英語美文摘抄篇三
Macho, insensitive bosses share certain characteristics. Their behavior is arrogant, quick-tempered and controlling. Their motives are typically selfish and manipulative. They show little concern for others and few signs of understanding why others don’t trust them. Most of all, they are quite unaware of their failings and the impact they have on their subordinates. No only do they see no need to change, they often make their high-handed behavior a source of pride.
That’s why you can trust them to be some of your best teachers about productivity and success.
Before you decide that I’ve lost my mind, I'll explain.
Most human beings are amazingly consistent in the way they behave. That’s why we can say of some action, “That isn’t like you,” or “It’s so out of character.” Without that consistency, such a remark would be pointless. And amongst the most consistent groups of all are those who spend least time in any kind of introspection: the extreme extroverts, the loud, slap-you-on-the-back hearty types, the arrogant, the pompous, the selfish and the self-centered — the people who, if they become bosses, are most likely to prove to be bad ones.
Powerful lessons from powerful people
Bad bosses can become useful teachers precisely because their behavior tends to be so consistently bad. You can be fairly sure of their motives and intentions, which allows you to compare cause with effect .
The pompous boss, convinced of her superiority and the rightness of whatever she does; the lazy boss, sure that status confers the right to live off other people’s efforts; the rigid, controlling boss, firm in his belief that all subordinates are incompetent without his oversight; all of these hold to their actions so tenaciously — and are so blind to what they are doing — that they will provide some of the best lessons in what not to do that you will ever be offered.
Here are seven of the lessons you might come across, beginning with productivity:
See how much effort bad bosses have to use to make things happen their way; effort that would be unnecessary if they behaved better — all that time spent micro-managing and checking; all the ranting and raving to reduce others to obedience; all the lies and stratagems needed to manipulate others instead of asking them openly.
See how others react to them; how people become adept at sabotaging their efforts and undermining their success. Even when they dare not oppose the boss openly, subordinates will show great ingenuity in finding other ways to frustrate them.
Look at the effect bad bosses have on trust — how this type of behavior ruins relationships with customers as well as employees. Once discovered, as it always is in the end, cynical manipulation renders future trust impossible too.
What about the impact on motivation? Consider how you feel if you find yourself going along with the boss’s bad behavior. Do you feel motivated or depressed? Does it make you want to exert yourself or limit your output to no more than is needed to preserve your safety and career prospects?
Rigidity next. Most macho bosses see changing a poor decision as an unacceptable sign of weakness. How many times have you seen a bad leader produce disaster from what could have been a triumph, simply because he or she refused to admit to — and change — a bad decision?
Take some time to consider what survival in the lifestyle of a bad boss demands. Is that how you would be willing to live? Are the rewards they get worth what they have to do to get them?
Most important, observe the way bad bosses are regarded by those above them. Are they genuinely fooling the top dogs about their weaknesses? Or are those executives simply playing the same game — but far better — manipulating middle and junior managers to enhance their own positions, then throwing them to the wolves when they become too much of an embarrassment? I’m sure you can think of many more situations where a bad boss has taught you a valuable lesson. Observing and learning from others’ mistakes is as important as learning from your own — and a good deal less painful.
Besides, the macho tough guys can never admit to being wrong. They can’t learn from their own mistakes. Since you can, it’s an advantage you can use for all it’s worth.
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