英语语音考试朗读材料

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1. I Have as Much Soul as You
“I tell you I must go!” I retorted, roused to something like passion. “Do you think I
can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine
without feelings? I can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and
my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor,
obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as
much soul as you, — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some
beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is
now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom,
conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; —it is my spirit that addresses your spirit;
just as if both has passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, — as
we are!”

2. American Dream
To Americans, industriousness, thrift and ambition are positive values. We
encourage our children to be competitive, to get ahead, to make money, to acquire
possession. In games and in business alike, the aim is to win the game, the trophy,
the contract. We go in for laboursaving devices, gadgets, speed and shortcuts. We
think every young couple should set up a home of their own. And we pity the couple
who must share their home with their parent, let alone with other relatives. Actually, of
course, not all Americans hold all these values. And those who do may hold other and
at times contradictory values that affect their ways of behaving. In the main, however,
the collective expectation of our society is that these are desirable goals, and the
individual, whatever his personal inclination, is under considerable pressure to
conform.

3. Three Days to See
Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but
usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death
is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista.
So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken
blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would
make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see.
Recently I was visited by a very good friend who had just returned from a long walk in
the woods, and I asked her what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she
replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such reposes,
for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.