爱华网现代美文90年的发展历程,可以分为五个阶段。在不同的历史发展阶段,美文呈现出不尽相同的文体特征。下面是小编带来的高中生英语美文阅读，欢迎阅读!
高中生英语美文阅读精选
Application and Perseverance
实践与坚持
The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities. The common life of every day, affords ample opportunities for acquiring experience of the best kind.
人生最大的收获往往是通过最简单的方法或对常识的准确应用而获得的。每一个平凡的日子都会为我们提供许多机会， 并使我们的阅历有所增强。
Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful,such as common sense, attention, application, and perseverance.
人们常常认为：机会是可遇而不可求的。而那些懂得细心观察生活的人往往会发现：机会总是更偏向于勤勉的人，正如海风与波浪经常会与航海家做伴一样。哪怕是在对人类事业的最高追求上，实践也是最有效的途径之一。当然，顽强的毅力也是必不可少的。
Genius may not be necessary, though even genius of the highest sort does not disdain the use of these ordinary qualities. The very greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of genius, and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the commoner sort. Some have even defined genius to be only common sense intensified. A distinguished teacher and president of a college spoke of it as the power of making ef forts. John Foster held it to be the power of lighting one's own fire.
天赋并不是获取成功的制胜法宝，即便是天才也同样会意识到常识的重要性。事实上，一些伟大人物往往是那些最不相信天赋的人。真正的智者和成功人士也并非在哪一方面特别出众，甚至他们曾被认为是缺少天赋的人。没错，他们之所以能够获得成功正是凭借着扎实的基本功，对基本常识的强化训练。一位校长兼优秀教师曾说过，他的成功源自不懈的努力。约翰•福斯特则把这种力量称之为“点燃生活的火焰”。
Newton's was unquestionably a mind of the very highest order, and yet, when asked by what means he had worked out his extraordinary discoveries, he modestly answered, "By always thinking unto them." At another time he thus expressed his method of study: "I keep the subject continually before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly by little and little into a full and clear light." It was in Newton's case, as in every other,only by diligent application and perseverance that his great reputation was achieved.
无可争议，牛顿的头脑是最高才智的头脑，但当我们问及他是通过什么方法取得了如此重大的发现时，他非常谦虚地答道：“全靠对那些问题不断地深思。”另一次，他这样表述他的研究方法：“我从未停止探索的脚步，当我看到第一缕曙光后，坚定的信念支 持着我最终看到了清晰的世界。”正是通过勤奋和实践，牛顿才最 终获得了不朽的名誉和伟大的成就。
Dalton,the chemist,repudiated the notion of his being "a genius," attributing everything which he had accomplished to simple industry and accumulation. John Hunter said of himself, "My mind is like a beehives; but full as it is of buzz and apparent confusion, it is yet full of order and regularity, and food collected with incessant industry from the choiceset stores of nature. "
英国化学家道尔顿对世人称他为“天才”的做法进行了批判。 他认为自己之所以能获得成功完全凭借自身的不懈努力和对知识的不断积累。约翰•亨特也曾说过：“我的思想如同一个蜂箱，常常嗡嗡作响，甚至还会出现混乱，但通过不懈的努力，嗡嗡声已经消失了，蜜蜂们也都恢复了正常的秩序，而且还学会了如何从大自 然的宝库中寻找食物。”
We have, indeed, but to glance at the biographies of great men to find that the most distinguished inventors, artists, thinkers, and workers of all kinds, owe their success, in a great measure, to their indefatigable industry and application.
我们同样可以在诸多人物传记中看到：大多数杰出人物，无论是发明家、艺术家、思想家、工人，还是社会各界人士，都无一例外地将自己的成就归功于勤奋和实践。
高中生英语美文阅读阅读
We Are on a Journey
人在旅途
Wherever you are,and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike, at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence. We are not at rest; we are on a journey. Our life is not a mere fact; it is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal. We are gaining something, or losing something, every day. Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing. For the mere advance of time is a change. It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. The season makes the difference. The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man.
无论你现在身处何方,也无论你是何等人物，此时此刻，以及我们生命中的任一瞬间，你我之间都有一点相同之处。那就是，我们并未停歇，而仍在旅途。我们的人生并不仅仅是一种存在的事实,而是一种运动，一种趋势，一种坚定不移而没有停息地朝向某个看不见的目标前行的过程。每一天，我们都有所得,也有所失。即使我们的地位和品性看似与原来无异，但实际上它们正在改变，因为时间的推移本身就是一种改变。同一片荒野，在一月和七月是不同的，季节造成了这种差异。智能上的不足，在孩子身上被视为天真无邪，而对于成人来说则是一种幼稚的表现。
Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. It sets us forward or backward. The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline is to accept the other alternative.
我们所做的每件事都是朝着某一个方向迈出的一步。甚至无为，其本身也是一种作为，它使我们前进或后退。一根磁针的磁极作用，无论正负都是一样的真实。拒绝也是一种接受，只不过是另外一种选择罢了。
Are you richer today than you were yesterday? No? Then you are a little poorer. Are you better today than you were yesterday? No? Then you are a little worse. Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? Yes, you must be a little nearer to some port or other; for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life you have never been still for a single moment; the sea is too deep, you could not find an anchorage if you would; there can be no pause until you come into port.
你今天比昨天富有吗?没有，那说明你变穷了点。你今天比昨天过得好吗?没有，那么你的情况变糟了一点。你今天比昨天更接近你的港口了吗?是的，那么你一定距某个港口更近了。因为，自从你驶入人生之海，你的航船至今尚未停歇片刻。这片海洋太深了，纵使你想找到一个抛锚停泊之处也难以求得。因此，在驶入港口之前，你无法稍作歇息。
高中生英语美文阅读学习
The Choice of Companion
选择朋友
A good companion is better than a fortune, for a fortune cannot purchase those elements of character which make companionship a blessing. The best companion is one who is wiser and better than ourselves, for we are inspired by his wisdom and virtue to nobler deeds.
一个好友胜过一笔财富，因为钱财买不到人的某些品德因素，而正是这些因素，使友情成为一种恩惠。最好的朋友是那些比我们更睿智、更出色的人，我们会受到他们的智慧和美德的激励，从而使我们的行为更加高尚。
"Keep good company,and you shall be one of the number," said George Herbert. "A man is known by the companion he keeps. " Character makes character in the associations of life faster than anything else. Purity begets purity, like begets like; and this fact makes the choice of companion in early life more important even than that of teachers and guardians.
“与优秀者为伍，你也会成为优秀者中的一员。”乔治•赫伯特曾说，“从一个人所交的朋友可知其为人。”在社会交往中，品性对品性的塑造胜过其他任何因素。纯洁的品格会培养纯洁的品格，爱好会引发相同的爱好。这一事实使得在年少时选择朋友甚至比选择老师和监护人还要重要。
It is true that we cannot always choose all of our companions, some are thrust upon us by business or the social relations of life, we do not choose them, we do not enjoy them; and yet, we have to associate with them more or less. The experience is not altogether without compensation, if there be principle enough in us to bear the strain. Still, in the main, choice of companions can be made, and must be made. It is not best or necessary for a young person to associate with "Tom, Dick, and Harry" without forethought or purpose. Some fixed rules about the company he or she keeps must be observed. The subject should be uttermost in the thoughts, and canvassed often.
事实上，并非所有的朋友都是我们选择的，有些是生意或社会关系强加于我们的。我们没有选择他们，也不喜欢他们，可是我们不得不或多或少地与他们交往。不过，在情势的压力之下,只要我们自有主张，这样的交往也并非全无益处。大多数情况下，我们还是可以而且必须要选择朋友的。一个年轻人无所考虑、无所目的地随意与张三李四交往是不好的，也是没必要的，他/她必须遵循一些交友的定例，择友时应首先考虑这些定例，并经常加以审视。
Companionship is education, good or not; it develops manhood or womanhood, high or low; it lifts the soul upward or drags it downward; it ministers to virtue or vice. Sow virtue, and the harvest will be virtue, Sow vice, and the harvest will be vice. Good companionships help us to sow virtue;evil companionships help us to sow vice.
无论是有益还是有害，友谊就是一种教育。它可以培育高贵或卑微的品格;它可以升华灵魂，也可以使之沉沦;它可以滋生美德，也可以助长邪恶。播种美德，就会收获美德;播种邪恶,就会收获邪恶。有益的友谊帮助我们播种美德，而有害的友谊则使我们播种邪恶。
