练习口语十二篇短文.doc

一、 Grow Great by Dreams
The question was once asked of a highly successful businessman, "How have you done so much in your lifetime?" He replied, "I have dreamed. I have turned my mind loose to imagine what I wanted to do. Then I have gone to bed and thought about my dreams. In the night I dreamt about my dreams. And when I awoke in the morning, I saw the way to make my dreams real. While other people were saying, 'You can't do that, it is impossible,' I was well on my way to achieving what I wanted." As Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the U.S., said: "We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers."

There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, she can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.
二、 The More Loving One
--W.H.Auden
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them ,say I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time.
三、 Power of Self Talk
To come above tougher times you have to pep yourself up, when you are feeling low, lost and confused. This can be done effectively by self-talk. Self-talk is a way of talking to oneself. It can be effectively used for soul searching. When talking to ourselves, we hardly lie as our conscience{kɔnʃəns] controls our speech. Self talk is efficient because when we are vocal about our thoughts, it makes a larger impact on our mind. Our brain then receives the same message from the mind as well as the ears. This repetition pep talks and thoughts fine tunes the performance of brain.

四、 Every Woman is Beautiful
A little boy asked god, god, why do woman cry so easily? god said when I made woman, she had to be special. I made her shoulder strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet, gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when anyone else gives up and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.I gave her thesensitivity to love her children under any in all circumstances .Even when her child has hurt her very badly, I gave her strenghth to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from her rip to protect his heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strength and her resolve to stand beside him unforcingly.
五、 Snow Season
What I love most about winter is its snow. The early snows fall soft and white and seem to heal the landscape. There are as yet no tracks through the drifts, no muddied slush in the roads. The wind sweeps snow into the scars of our harvest-time haste, smoothing the brow of hill, hiding furrow and cog and trash in the yard. Snow muffles the shriek of metal and the rasp of motion. It covers our flintier purposes and brings a redeeming silence, as if a curtain has fallen on the strivings of a year. And now we may stop, look inward, and rediscover the amber warmth of family and conversation.
六、 The Road of Life
The lives of most men are determined by their enviroment.They accept the circumstances [`sə:kəmstəns] amid [ə`mid] which fate has thrown them not only resignation but even with good will. They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails and they despise [dis`paiz] the sprightly [disˈpaiz] flitter [ˈflitə] that dashes [dæʃ] in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily [ˈdʒɔ:nti] across the open country .I respect them; they are good citizens [ˈsitizən], good husbands, and good fathers ,and of course somebody has to pay the taxes [tæks]; but I do not find them exciting. I am fascinated by the men, few enough in all conscience [ˈkɔnʃəns] , who take life in their own hands and seem to mould [məuld] it in to their own liking. It may be that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events, we have the illusion [iˈlju:ʒən] of it.
七、 Pen of Life
Suppose someone gave you a pen - a sealed [si:ld], solid [ˈsɔlid] -colored pen. You couldn't see how much ink [iŋk] it had. It might run dry after the first few tentative [ˈtentətiv] words or last just long enough to create a masterpiece [ˈmɑ:stəpi:s] (or several) that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme ski:m] of things. You don't know before you begin. Under the rules of the game, you really never know. You have to take a chance! And of what would you write: Of love? Hate? Fun? Misery [ˈmizəri]? Life? Death? Nothing? Everything? Would you write to please just yourself? Or others? Or yourself by writing for others? Would your strokes [strəuk] be tremblingly timid [ˈtimid] or brilliantly [ˈbriljənt] bold [bəuld]? Fancy with a flourish [ˈflʌriʃ] or plain [plein]? Would you even write? Once you have the pen, no rule says you have to write. Would you sketch [sketʃ]? Scribble [ˈskribl]? Doodle [ˈdu:dl] or draw? Would you stay in or on the line

八、 Empty Your Cup
A university professor went to visit a famous Zen [zen] master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured [pɔ:] the visitor's cup to the brim [brim], and then kept pouring.　 The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain [ris`trein] himself. "It's overfull! No more will go in!" the professor blurted [blə:t]. "You are like this cup," the master replied, "How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup."　
九、 A lifelong career
Once learning stops, vegetation [ˌvedʒiˈteiʃən] sets in. It is a common fallacy [ˈfæləsi] to regard school as the only workshop for the acquisition [ˌækwiˈziʃən] of knowledge. On the contrary, learning should be a never-ending process, from the cradle [ˈkreidl] to the grave. With the world changing so fast, to cease [si:s] learning for just a few days will make a person lag [læɡ] behind. What's worse, the animal instinct [ˈinstiŋkt] dormant [ˈdɔ:mənt] deep in our sub-consciou [ˈkɔnʃəs] s will come to life. weakening our will to pursue [pəˈsju:] our noble ideas, undermining our determination to sweep away obstacles [ˈɔbstəkl] to our success and strangling our desire for the refinement [riˈfainmənt] of our character. Lack of learning will inevitably [inˈevitəbli] lead to the stagnation [stæɡˈneiʃən] of the mind, or even worse, its fossilization [ˈfɔsilaiz]. Therefore, to stay mentally [ˈmentəli] young, we have to take learning as a lifelong career.
十、 Kiss of Reality
To talk of illusions [iˈlju:ʒən], aren’t they great? illusion or day dreaming help us to think of what we want to become in life. We literally [ˈlitərəli] see how life revolves [riˈvɔlv] us in that position [pəˈziʃən] . It's an entirely different world of pleasure, comfort and imagination.
Most of our day dreaming or illusions make us more and more egocentric [ˌi:ɡəuˈsentrik]. The word ego ˈeɡəu] means self. Hence [hens] by dreaming and visualization [ˌvizjuəlaiˈzeiʃən] we become self-centered. We never realize that things we dream of can be achieved by us by programming ourselves to work for it. But somehow the pleasure of dreaming ourselves as someone important takes us away from the realistic approach to achieve that level of self-satisfaction and self-accomplishment
中文翻译
幻想对于我们来说不美妙吗？在我们一生中，是幻想，或者是说，是白日梦，让我们去思考成为什么样的人．我们认真的观察我们的生命是循着怎样的一条轨道．那时严格完全不同的世界，它充满了愉悦＼轻松和创意．我们的大多数幻想和白日梦会使得我们越来越以自我为中心．＂ＥＧＯ＂这个词的意思是自我．由于幻想，我们变得以自我为中心．我们从未有意识到，我们所梦想的事情是可以通过我们周详的计划去实现的．但不知何故，幻想成为某个著名人物的愉悦，却使我们远离了能够与满意和成就真实接触的机会．
十一、 The Blue Days
Everybody has blue days.
These are miserable [ˈmizərəbl] days when you feel lousy [ˈlauzi], grumpy [ˈɡrʌmpi], lonely, and utterly [ˈʌtəli] exhausted [iɡˈzɔ:stid]. Days when you feel small and insignificant [ˌɪnsiɡˈnifikənt], when everything seems just out of reach. You can’t rise to the occasion [əˈkeiʒən]. Just getting started seems impossible. On blue days you can become paranoid [ˈpærənɔid] that everyone is out to get you. This is not always such a bad thing. You feel frustrated [frʌˈstreitid] and anxious, which can induce [inˈdju:s] a nail-biting frenzy [ˈfrenzi] that can escalate [ˈeskəleit] into a triple [ˈtripl] -chocolate [ˈtʃɔkəlit] -mud-cake-eating frenzy in a blink of an eye! On blue days you feel like you’re floating in an ocean of sadness. You’re about to burst into tears at any moment and you don’t even know why. Ultimately [ˈʌltimitli], you feel like you’re wandering through life without purpose.
中文翻译
那些日子真是惨透了，你觉得心里乱糟糟的、怨气丛生、寂寞、整个人彻底的精疲力竭。那些日子总会让你感到自己的渺小和微不足道，每件事情似乎都够不着边。你根本无法振作起来。
根本没有力气重新开始。 在忧郁的日子里，你可能变成偏执狂，觉得每个人都想要吃定你。 其实情况并不总是那么糟。你感到灰心、焦虑，可能开始神经质地拼命咬指甲，然后不可救药地陷入一眨眼吃掉三大块巧克力蛋糕的疯狂！ 在忧郁的日子里，你会觉得自己在悲伤的海里沉沉浮浮。不论在什么时候，你总有种想哭的冲动，却不知道为了什么。最后，你觉得自己犹如行尸走肉，失去生活目标。
Cultural events will unfold each year, from 2005 to 2008. We will stage multi-disciplined cultural programs, such as concerts, exhibitions, art competitions and camps which will involve young people from around the world. During the Olympics, they will be staged in the Olympic Village and the city for the benefit of the athletes.
Our Ceremonies will give China's greatest-and the world's greatest artists a stage for celebrating the common aspirations of humanity and the unique heritage of our culture and the Olympic Movement
 Choose Optimism
If you expect something to turn out badly, it probably will. Pessimism is seldom disappointed. But the same principle also works in reverse. If you expect good things to happen, they usually do! There seems to be a natural cause-and-effect relationship between optimism and success.

Optimism and pessimism are both powerful forces, and each of us must choose which we want to shape our outlook and our expectations. There is enough good and bad in everyone’s life — ample sorrow and happiness, sufficient joy and pain — to find a rational basis for either optimism or pessimism. We can choose to laugh or cry, bless or curse. It’s our decision: From which perspective do we want to view life? Will we look up in hope or down in despair?
中文翻译
假如你预期某事会有不妙的结果，结局也许就真的不妙——悲观的想法很少落空。但这个法则反过来也同样成立：如果你自感鸿运当头，通常就会有好运降临！在乐观与成功之间似乎有一种天然的因果关系。

乐观和悲观都是强大的力量，我们每个人都必须在这两者之间做出选择，从而给我们对未来的展望和预期染上或明或暗的色彩。每个人的生命中都有足够多的幸与不幸——数不清的哀伤和喜悦，欢欣与痛苦——给我们乐观或悲观的理由。我们可以选择哭或是笑，祝福或是诅咒。我们可以选择用什么样的眼光去看待生活——是昂首去寻找希望抑或垂头在绝望中逡巡。