常春藤名家散文背诵选
A Great Friend      Anonymous
As I am now a senior high school student, I have a great many friends, but there is one whom I prize over all the rest. I first made his acquaintance when I began to go to school. He has been my constant companion ever since. Though he is serious in appearance, he never fails to be interesting. Often he is clever, sometimes even merry and gay. He is the most knowledgeable friend a person could have. He knows virtually every language of the world, all the events of history, and the words of all the great poets and philosophers. A kindly benefactor, he is admired and enjoyed by everyone who makes his acquaintance. To me, he has been a great teacher as well as a friend. He first taught me the secrets of my own language and then those of others. With these keys he showed us how to unlock all the arts and sciences of man. My friend is endlessly patient. Dull though I may be, I can return to him again and again, and he is always ready to teach me. When I am bored, he entertains me. When I am dispirited, he
lifts me up. When I am lonely, he keeps me company. He is a friend not only to me but to millions around the world. Shall I tell you his name? His name is “reading”.
The Joy of Labor      Anonymous
Wise men of ancient times and successful men of today have told us that labor is sweet. Its reward is not material gain but what one becomes by it. Work does much more for us than just giving us a living; it gives us our life and the reason for living. The real joys of life come from doing something and doing it well. All of us hope for success, but it is illusive and hard to keep. It nearly always slips away from one like sand through the fingers, like water through a leaky pail, unless it is held tight but hard work, day by day, night by night, year in year out. Everyone who fears failure should work harder and harder with a faithful heart as long as he lasts.
We’re Just Beginning      Charles F Kettering
“We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite…
” I do not know who wrote these words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone. We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all. I want the future to be better than the past. I don’t want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of out lives. The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our businesses, if we will only recognize them. We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.
我们正在阅读一本页数无限的书的第一章的第一节……。”
  我不知道这段文字是谁写的，我一直很喜欢并用它们来提醒自己，那就是未来操之在我。我们可以掌握神秘而不可知的未来，从中创出我们所能想象的任何东西，一如雕刻家可以将未成型的石头刻出雕像一样。
  我们每个人都是农夫。我们若种下好种子，就会有丰收。倘若种子长的不良且长满杂草，我们就会徒劳无获。如果我们什么也不种，就根本不会有什么收获。我希望未来会比过去更好。我不希望未来会被那些充斥在历史中的错误所污染。我们应关心未来，因为往后的余生都要在未来中度过。
  往昔已一去不复返而且是静止的。任凭我们怎么努力都不能改变过去。未来就在我们眼前而且是动态的。我们的所作所为都会影响未来。只要我们体会的出来，每天都可以发现新的知识领域伴随而生，可能是在家里，也可能是在我们的事业中。我们正处在人类所努力钻研的每个领域中进步的起点。
第四弹 父辈箴言 Advice to a Young Man Rohert Jones Burdette
Remember, my son, you have to work. Whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheel-b
arrow of a set of books. If you look around, you will wee the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who work the hardest. Don’t be afraid of killing yourself with overwork. It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny side of thirty. They die sometimes, but it is because they quit work at six in the evening, and do not go home until two in the morning. It is the interval that kills, my son. The work gives you an appetite for your meals; it lends solidity to your slumber; it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday. There are young men who do not work, but the world is not proud of them. It does not know their names, even. Nobody likes them; the great, busy world does not know that they are there. So find out what you want to be and do, and take off your coat and make a dust in the world. The busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays, and the better satisfied will the world be with you.
第五弹solidity 快乐相伴 The Happy    Door Mildred Cram
Happiness is like a pebble dropped into a pool to set in motion an Ever-widening circle of ripples. Ad Stevenson has said, being happy is a duty. There is no exact definition of the word happiness. Happy people are happy for all sorts of reasons. The key is not wealth or physical well-being, since we find beggars, invalids and so-called failures who are extremely happy. Being happy is a sort of unexpected dividend. But staying happy is an accomplishment, a triumph of soul and character. It is not selfish to strive for it. It is, indeed, a duty to ourselves and others. Being unhappy is like an infectious disease; it causes people to shrink away from the sufferer. He soon finds himself alone, miserable and embittered. There is, however, a cure so simple as to seem, at first glance, ridiculous: if you don’t feel happy, pretend to be! It works. Before long you will find that instead of repelling people, you attract them. You discover how deeply rewarding it is to be the center of wide circles of good will. Then the make-believe becomes a reality. You possess the secret of peace of mind, and can forget yourself in being of service to others. Being happy, once it is realized as a duty and established as a habit, opens doors into unimaginable gardens thronged with grateful friends.

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