驕傲，是斷了引線的風箏，稍縱即逝;自卑，是剪了雙翼的'飛鳥,難上青天.這兩者都是成才的大忌。 以下是小編為大家搜尋整理的2017年公共英語pets三級閱讀素材，希望能給大家帶來幫助!更多精彩內容請及時關注我們應屆畢業生考試網!
Three Passions I Have Lived for
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life:
the longing for love, the search for knowledge,
and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither,
in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish,
reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy
—ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life
for a few hours for this joy.
I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness
—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness
looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss.
I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen,
in a mystic miniature,
the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.
This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life,
this is what—at last—I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of men.
I have wished to know why the stars shine ...
A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens.
But always pity brought me back to earth.
Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart.
Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people
—a hated burden to their sons,
and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life.
I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again
if the chance were offered me.
section 2“Packing” a Person
A person, like a commodity, needs packaging.
But going too far is absolutely undesirable.
A little exaggeration, however, does no harm
when it shows the person's unique qualities to their advantage.
To display personal charm in a casual and natural way,
it is important for one to have a clear knowledge of oneself.
A master packager knows how to integrate art and nature without any traces of embellishment,
so that the person so packaged is no commodity but a human being, lively and lovely.
A young person, especially a female, radiant with beauty and full of life,
has all the favor granted by God.
Any attempt to make up would be self-defeating.
Youth, however, comes and goes in a moment of doze.
Packaging for the middle-aged is primarily to conceal the furrows ploughed by time.
If you still enjoy life's exuberance enough to retain self-confidence
and pursue pioneering work, you are unique in your natural qualities,
and your charm and grace will remain.
Elderly people are beautiful if their river of life has been,
through plains, mountains and jungles, running its course as it should.
You have really lived your life which now arrives at a complacent stage of serenity
indifferent to fame or wealth.
There is no need to resort to hair-dyeing;
the snow-capped mountain is itself a beautiful scene of fairyland.
Let your looks change from young to old synchronizing with the natural ageing process
so as to keep in harmony with nature, for harmony itself is beauty,
while the other way round will only end in unpleasantness.
To be in the elder's company is like reading a thick book of deluxe edition
that fascinates one so much as to be reluctant to part with.
As long as one finds where one stands, one knows how to package oneself,
just as a commodity establishes its brand by the right packaging.
