2019年12月英语四级美文：Companionship of Books

　　新东方在线英语四级频道为大家整理了2019年12月英语四级美文：Companionship of Books，希望可以为大家带来帮助，预祝大家高分通过大学英语四级考试!

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　　Companionship of Books

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　　A man may usually be known by the books he reads

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　　as well as by the company he keeps;

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　　for there is a companionship of books as well as of men;

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　　and one should always live in the best company,

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　　whether it be of books or of men.

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　　A good book may be among the best of friends.

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　　It is the same today that it always was,

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　　and it will never change.

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　　It is the most patient and cheerful of companions.

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　　It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress.

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　　It always receives us with the same kindness,

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　　amusing and instructing us in youth,

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　　and comforting and consoling us in age.

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　　Books possess an essence of immortality.

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　　They are by far the most lasting products of human effort.

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　　Temples and statues decay, but books survive.

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　　Time is of no account with great thoughts,

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　　which are as fresh today

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　　as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago.

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　　What was them said and thought still speaks to us

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　　as vividly as ever from the printed page.

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　　The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products;

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　　for nothing in literature can long survive but what is really good.

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　　Books introduce us into the best society;

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　　they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived.

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　　We hear what they said and did;

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　　we see them as if they were really alive;

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　　we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them;

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　　their experience becomes ours,

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　　and we feel as if we were in measure actors with them

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　　in the scenes which they describe.

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　　The book is a living voice.

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　　It is an intellect to which one still listens.

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　　Hence we ever remain under the influence of the great men of old.

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　　The greatest intellects of the world

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　　are as much alive now as they were ages ago.