美文多自改中來,許多古今中外的文學大家在創作中都非常重視文章的修改,有的 力求一字穩,耐得半宵寒 ,有的講究 兩句三年得,一吟雙淚流 ,還有的追求 語不驚人死不休。下面是小編帶來的英語雙語美文，歡迎閱讀!
你愛我什麼What do you love me for
John was waiting for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the rose. Thirteen months ago, in a Florida library he took a book off the shelf and found himself intrigued with the notes in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind.
約翰正在等一個帶着玫瑰花的女孩，他和她深交已久，卻素未謀面。13個月前，在佛羅里達的圖書館裏他從書架上拿下一本書。寫在書的空白處的批註引起了他的興趣。從柔和的字跡可以看出，這是自一位有思想、有見解的人。
In front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond.
他從書皮上發現了這本書原來主人的名字——哈里斯·瑪尼爾小姐。他花了一些時間和精力，最後終於找到了她的地址。他給她寫了一封信，信中做了自我介紹，並邀請她回信。
During the next year and one-month the two grew to know each other through the mail. A Romance was budding. John requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like. Later they scheduled their first meeting—7:00 pm at Grand Central Station in New York.
在隨後的一年零一個月裏，兩個人通過信件加深了彼此之間的瞭解。一段浪漫的故事正在慢慢孕育。約翰要求她寄一張照片來，但她卻拒絕了。她覺得如果他真的在乎她，那麼她長相如何並不重要。後來他們安排了他們的第一次見面——晚上七點鐘在紐約中心火車站。
"You’ll recognize me, ” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.” So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for the girl with the red rose.
“你會認出我的，”她寫道，“我會把一朵紅玫瑰別在衣領上。”所以那天晚上七點鐘他就在車站尋找那位帶着紅玫瑰的女孩。
A young woman in a green suit was coming toward him, her figure long and slim and her eyes were blue as flowers. Almost uncontrollably he made one step closer to her, and just at this moment he saw Hollis Maynell—a woman well past 40. The girl was walking quickly away. He felt as though he split in two, so keen was his desire to follow her, and yet so deep was his longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned him and upheld his own.
一位身穿綠色衣服的年輕女子向他走來，她身材修長而苗條，眼睛藍藍的，美如鮮花。他幾乎是不由自主地向她走進近。就在那時，他看見了——哈里斯·瑪尼爾 ——一位年過40的女人。女孩很快地走開了。他感覺自己好像被分裂成了兩半——他是多麼強烈地想跟隨這位年輕女子，然而又是如此深深地嚮往這位在心靈上陪伴他、鼓舞他的女人。
He did not hesitate. He squared his shoulders and said, “I’m John, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?”
他沒有遲疑，挺起胸膛，說道，“我是約翰，你一定是瑪尼爾小姐吧。我很高興你來和我相見，我能請你吃飯嗎?”
The woman smiled, “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”
女人笑了笑，回答說：“孩子，我不知道這是怎麼回事，但是那位穿綠衣的年輕女子請求我把這朵玫瑰別在我的外套上面。她說如果你邀請我吃飯的話，我就告訴你她在馬路對面的餐廳等你。她說這是一種考驗!”
It’s not difficult to admire Miss Maynell’s wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in it’s response to the unattractive.
瑪尼爾小姐的智慧讓人敬佩。一個人對那些平淡無奇的事物的表現恰恰反映出他內心的本質。
英語雙語美文篇二一個信封的故事The small white envelope
It's just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. He didn't hate the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it; overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma and the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church, mostly black.
These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.
As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears.
It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat.
Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them."
Mike loved kids-all kids-and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came.
That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.
On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years.
For each Christmas, I followed the tradition, one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.
The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.
As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there.
You see, we lost Mike due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, three more joined it. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad.
The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.
我家的聖誕樹上掛着一張小小的白色信封。上面既沒有收信人的名字和寄信人的簽名、也沒有任何提示。它掛在我家的聖誕樹上已經十多年了。
一切都因丈夫邁克對聖誕的憎恨而起。他並不憎恨聖誕節本身的意義，但他討厭聖誕被商業化了。人們大把大把地花錢;在除夕夜的最後一分鐘，圍着圈不顧一切地跑去爲哈里大叔搶些綵帶，爲外祖母手搶些彩粉;瘋狂地瓜分禮物，把一切都拋在腦後。
正是因爲知道他的這種感受，於是有一年我決定打破常規(平時都送些襯衣呀、毛衣或是領帶等禮物)。我爲邁克準備了一些特別的東西。靈感是有來歷的。
那年我們的兒子凱文十二歲，在學校摔跤隊的初級班裏接受訓練。聖誕節前夕，學校安排了一場非聯賽的比賽，對手是本市教會資助的一隻隊伍，他們大部分隊員都是黑人。
這些小夥子們穿着破爛不堪的運動鞋，唯一能夠綁在腳上的彷彿只有那條鞋帶。而與之形成鮮明對比的是我們的孩子，他們身披金藍相間的制服，腳蹬嶄新的摔跤鞋，顯得分外耀眼。
比賽開始了，我驚異地發現對方選手在摔跤的時候沒有帶專業頭盔，只有一種好象質地很薄的帽子保護着選手的耳朵。
對貧民隊來說買一頂頭盔顯然是一種奢侈。毫無疑問我們以絕對的優勢獲勝，並取得了每個級別的冠軍。比賽結束了，他們隊的每個男孩從地毯上爬起來，在潰敗的失意中昂首闊步裝出一副獲勝的`樣子，流露出像街頭地痞一樣的驕橫和蠻不講理。
坐在我身旁的邁克傷心地搖搖頭說道：“我真希望他們其中一個可以贏。他們很有潛力，但是就這樣輸掉了比賽就等於輸掉了他們的信心。”
邁克愛孩子——所有的孩子。他曾帶過小型的聯賽橄欖球隊，棒球隊和長曲棍球隊，所以他了解他們。而我的靈感也由此而發。
當天下午，我就到本地的一家運動用品商店買了摔跤專用的頭盔和鞋子，並以匿名的形式把禮物送到了本市的教會。
那個聖誕夜，我把一個信封掛在聖誕樹上，裏面寫着我做的事情，並告訴邁克這是我送給他的禮物。他的笑容是那年聖誕節最明亮的飾物，多少年來那笑容還一直延續着。
每年的聖誕節，我都沿襲了這個傳統。我曾送給一羣智障兒童一副曲棍球，也曾送給一對年老的兄弟一張支票，因爲聖誕節的前一個星期大火燒燬了他們的房子。等等，等等。
在我家，拆信成了聖誕節的亮點。聖誕節的早晨，那封信總是我們最後拆開的禮物，孩子們甚至忘記了他們自己的玩具，站在一旁，瞪着大大的眼睛，滿心希望地看着父親從樹上取下信封，然後打開看裏面的內容。
孩子們漸漸長大，玩具開始給更具有實用性的禮物讓位了，但是信封從未失去它的吸引力。我們的故事永遠都不會結束。
現在我們失去了邁克，他患了癌症先我而去。而聖誕依然年年到來，我仍沉浸在失去他的悲傷中，雖然我幾乎扶不起聖誕樹，但是聖誕夜我仍放一封信在樹上。清晨，我看見有三四封信掛在樹上。每封都是孩子們掛上去的，對大家都保密，都放了一封信在樹上獻給他們的父親。
這個傳統在延續，有一天會被我們的孫子傳得更遠，當他們瞪着大大的眼睛，滿懷希望地等待着他們的父親從樹上取下信封。邁克的精神，像聖誕的精神將永遠伴隨着我們。
