英语的短篇美文

多阅读一些英语的美文能帮助我们更好地提升英语阅读能力。下面就随小编一起去阅读英语的短篇美文，相信能带给大家帮助。

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy.”

有这样一个故事，爸爸因为三岁的女儿浪费了一卷金色的包装纸而惩罚了她。家里很缺钱，当孩子想要用包装纸装饰一个挂在圣诞树上的盒子时，爸爸生气了。然而，第二天早上小女孩把盒子作为礼物送给了爸爸，“这是给你的，爸爸。”

The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, Daddy."

女儿的这个行为让爸爸感到尴尬。但是当他发现盒子是空的时候，他的怒火再一次燃烧了。他对女儿喊道，“难道你不知道给别人礼物的时候，里面应该放有东西吗？”多女孩抬头看着父亲，眼里含着泪水，“爸爸，盒子不是空的。我把吻放在了盒子里，都是给你的，爸爸。”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness. Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

爸爸感动极了，他搂住女儿，恳请她的原谅。之后不久，一场事故夺走了小女孩的生命。据说，父亲便将那个小金盒子放在床头，一直陪伴着他的余生。无论何时他感到气馁或者遇到难办的事情，他就会打开礼盒，取出一个假想的吻，记起漂亮女儿给予了自己特殊的爱。

In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses... from our children, family members, friends, and God. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this.

从一个非常真实的意义上说，我们每个人都被赠与过一个无形的金色礼盒，那里面装满了来自子女，家人，朋友及上帝无条件的爱与吻。人们所能拥有的最珍贵的礼物莫过于此了。

Most people need to hear those "three little words" I love you. Once in a while, they hear them just in time.

大多数人需要听到那“三个小字”——我爱你。有时他们就会在最需要的时候听到。

I met Connie the day she was admitted to the hospice ward, where I worked as a volunteer. Her husband, Bill, stood nervously nearby as she was transferred from the gurney to the hospital bed. Although Connie was in the final stages of her fight against cancer, she was alert and cheerful. We got her settled in. I finished marking her name on all the hospital supplies she would be using, then asked if she needed anything.

我在康尼住进收容所病房的那天见到了她。我在那儿当义工。把她从轮床抬上病床时，她的丈夫比尔焦虑不安地站在旁边。虽然康尼处于和癌症搏斗的晚期，但她仍然神智清醒，精神愉快。我们把她安顿好。我在医院提供给她使用的所有用品上标上她的名字，然后问她是否需要什么。

"Oh, yes," she said, "would you please show me how to use the TV? I enjoy the soaps so much and I don't want to get behind on what's happening." Connie was a romantic. She loved soap operas, romance novels and movies with a good love story. As we became acquainted, she confided how frustrating it was to be married 32 years to a man who often called her "a silly woman."

“啊，是的，”她说，“请告诉我怎么用电视好吗？我非常喜欢肥皂剧，想随时跟上进展情况。”康尼是个浪漫的'人。她酷爱肥皂剧、浪漫小说和讲述美好爱情故事的电影。随着我们越来越熟，她向我吐露说，跟一个经常叫她“傻女人”的男人生活了32年有多么沮丧。

"Oh, I know Bill loves me," she said, "but he has never been one to say he loves me, or send cards to me." She sighed and looked out the window at the trees in the courtyard. "I'd give anything if he'd say 'I love you,' but it's just not in his nature."

“唉，我知道比尔爱我，”她说道，“可是他从来不说他爱我，也不给我寄贺卡。”她叹了口气，朝窗外庭院里的树望去。“如果他说声‘我爱你’，我愿意付出一切，可这根本不是他的性格。”

Bill visited Connie every day. In the beginning, he sat next to the bed while she watched the soaps. Later, when she began sleeping more, he paced up and down the hallway outside her room. Soon, when she no longer watched television and had fewer waking moments, I began spending more of my volunteer time with Bill.

比尔每天都来探望康尼。一开始，康尼看肥皂剧，他就坐在床旁。后来，她睡的时候多了，比尔就在屋外走廊里踱来踱去。不久，康尼不再看电视了，醒的时候也少了，我开始花更多的义工时间和比尔在一起。

He talked about having worked as a carpenter and how he liked to go fishing. He and Connie had no children, but they'd been enjoying retirement by traveling, until Connie got sick. Bill could not express his feelings about the fact that his wife was dying.

他谈到他一直是个木工，他多么喜欢钓鱼。他和康尼没有孩子，但他们四处旅游，享受着退休生活，直到康尼得病。对他妻子病危这一事实，比尔无法表达他的感受。

One day, over coffee in the cafeteria, I got him on the subject of women and how we need romance in our lives; how we love to get sentimental1 cards and love letters.

一天，在自助餐厅喝咖啡时，我设法和比尔谈起女人这个话题，谈到生活中我们多么需要浪漫，多想收到充满柔情蜜意的卡片和情书。

"Do you tell Connie you love her?" I asked (knowing his answer), and he looked at me as if I was crazy.

“你跟康尼说你爱她吗？”我明知故问。他瞧着我，就好像我有神经病。

"I don't have to," he said. "She knows I do!"

“我没有必要说，”他说道。“她知道我爱她！”

"I'm sure she knows," I said, reaching over and touching his hands rough, carpenter's hands that were gripping the cup as if it were the only thing he had to hang onto "but she needs to hear it, Bill. She needs to hear what she has meant to you all these years. Please think about it."

“我肯定她知道，”我说。我伸出手，触摸着他那双木工粗糙的手。这双手紧握着杯子，似乎它是他需要依附的惟一东西——“可是她需要听到它，比尔。她需要听到所有这些年来她对你意味什么。请你考虑考虑。”

We walked back to Connie's room. Bill disappeared inside, and I left to visit another patient. Later, I saw Bill sitting by the bed. He was holding Connie's hand as she slept. The date was February 12.

我们走回康尼的房间。比尔进了屋，我走开去看望另一个病人。后来，我看见比尔坐在床边。康尼入睡了，他握着她的一只手。那天是2月12日。

Two days later I walked down the hospice ward at noon. There stood Bill, leaning up against the wall in the hallway, staring at the floor. I already knew from the head nurse that Connie had died at 11 A.M..

两天后的中午时分，我顺着收容所病房过道向前走着。比尔站在那里，靠着墙，凝视着地面。护士长已经告诉我，康尼在上午11点故去了。

When Bill saw me, he allowed himself to come into my arms for a long time. His face was wet with tears and he was trembling. Finally, he leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath.

比尔看见我后，让我拥抱了他许久。他满脸泪水，浑身颤抖。最后，他向后靠在墙上，深深地吸了一口气。

"I have to say something," he said. "I have to say how good I feel about telling her." He stopped to blow his nose. "I thought a lot about what you said, and this morning I told her how much I loved her... and loved being married to her. You shoulda2 seen her smile!"

“我有话非说不可，”他说道。“我得说，对她说出来，感觉真是好极了。”他停下来擤鼻子。“你说的话我想了很多；今天早上我对她说我多么爱她……我多么珍惜和她结为夫妻。你真该看看她的笑容！”

I went into the room to say my own goodbye to Connie. There, on the bedside table, was a large Valentine card from Bill. You know, the sentimental kind that says, "To my wonderful wife... I love you."

我走进康尼的房间，亲自去和她告别 。我看见，床头桌上放着一张比尔给她的大大的情人节贺卡——就是那种充满柔情蜜意的贺卡，上面写着：“给我出色的妻子……我爱你。”

“Do you like my dress?"she asked of a passing stranger."My mommy made it just for me."She said with a tear in her eye.

"你喜欢我的连衣裙吗？“她问一位正走过她身边的陌生人。”我妈妈专给我做的。”她说道，眼里冒出了泪珠。

"Well,I think it's very pretty,so tell me little one,why are you crying?"

“嗯，我认为你的裙子真漂亮。告诉我，小姑娘，你为什么哭呢？”

With a quiver in her voice the little girl answered."After Mommy made me this dress,she had to go away."

小姑娘声音有些颤抖，回答道：“我妈妈给我做完这条裙子后就不得不离开了。”

"Well,now,"said the lady,"with a little girl like you waiting for her,I'm sure she'll be right back."

“哦，是这样，”陌生的女士说，“有你这样一个小姑娘等着她，我敢肯定她很快就会回来的。”

"No Ma'am ,you don't understand,"said the child through her tears,"my daddy said she's up in heaven now with Grandfather."

“不，女士，您不明白，”女孩透过泪水说，“我爸说她现在和我爷爷在天堂里。”

Finally the woman realized what the child meant,and why she was ling down she gently cradled the child in her arms and together they cried for the mommy that was gone.

女士终于明白孩子的意思了，也明白她为什么哭泣。她跪下，温柔地把女孩搂在怀里，她们一起为离去的妈妈哭泣。

Then suddenly the little girl did something that the woman thought was a bit stopped crying,stepped back from the woman and began to sang so softly that it was almost a whisper. It was the sweetest sound the woman had ever heard,almost like the song of a very small bird.

忽然小姑娘又做了件让女士感到有点奇怪的事。她停住了哭泣，从女士怀抱中抽出身，向后退了一步，然后开始唱歌。她唱得如此轻柔，几乎像章晨低语。这是女士听到过的最甜美的声音，简直就像一只非常小的小鸟在吟唱。

After the child stopped singing she explained to the lady,"My mommy used to sing that song to me before she went away,and she made me promise to sing it whenever I started crying and it would make me stop."

小女孩唱完后解释说：“妈妈离去前经常给我唱这支歌，她让我答应她我一哭就唱这支歌，这样我就不哭了。”

"See,"she exclaimed,"it did,and now my eyes are dry!"

“您瞧，”她惊叫道，“真管用，现在我的眼睛里没有眼泪了！”

As the woman turned to go,the little girl grabbed her sleeve,"Ma'am,can you stay just a minute?I want to show you something."

女士转身要走时，小女孩抓住她的衣袖：“女士，您能再停留一小会儿吗？我想给您看点东西。”

"Of course,"she answered,"what do you want me to see?"

“当然可以，”她回答，“你想要我看什么呢？”

Pointing to a spot on her dress,she said,"Right here is where my mommy kissed my dress,and here,"pointing to another spot,"and here is another kiss, and here,and y said that she put all those kisses on my dress so that I would have her kisses for every booboo'that made me cry."

小女孩指着裙子上的一处，说：“就在这里，我妈妈亲了我的裙子，还有这里，”她指着另外一处，“这里有另外一个吻，还有这里，这里。妈妈说她把所有这些吻都留在我的连衣裙上，这样我遇到什么事哭了，就会有她的亲吻。”

Then the lady realized that she wasn't just looking at a dress,no,she was looking at a mother…who knew that she was going away and would not be there to kiss away the hurts that she knew her daughter would get.

这时，女士意识到在她眼前的不是一件连衣裙，不是的，她在凝视一位母亲……这位母亲知道她将离去，无法随时守候在女儿身边，吻去她知道女儿必然会遇到的种种伤心事。

So she took all the love she had for her beautiful little girl and put them into this dress,that her child now so proudly wore.

所以她将所有对她美丽女儿的爱倾注在这件连衣裙上。现在，女儿如此骄傲地穿在身上。

She no longer saw a little girl in a simple dress. She saw a child wrapped…in her mother's love.

她看到的不再是身穿一件简单的连衣裙的小女孩。她看到的是一个……被妈妈的爱裹着的孩子。