英语美文短篇初中

美文对我国文学创作的繁荣和现代文化建设做出了巨大的贡献。现代传媒的兴盛,促进了美文的传播;而美文也在文化普及方面起着无可替代的作用。我整理了适合初中生的英语美文，欢迎阅读!

Collectibles

收藏品

Collectibles have been a part of almost every culture since ancient times.

从古代开始，收藏品就是文化的一部分。

Whereas some objects have been collected for their usefulness, others have been selected for their aesthetic beauty alone.

一些物品因它们的有用性被收藏，而另一些则纯粹因为它们的美被收藏。

In theUnited States, the kinds of collectibles currently popular range from traditional objects

在美国，当今流行的收藏品种类从传统物件，

such as stamps, coins, rare books, and art to more recent items of interest like dolls, bottles, baseball cards, and comic books.

如邮票、硬币、珍本书籍、艺术品，到更近期一些的有趣的东西，如布娃娃、瓶子、垒球卡、连环漫画册。

Interest in collectibles has increased enormously during the past decade, in part because some collectibles have demonstrated their value as investments.

对收藏品的兴趣在过去十年中大大地增长，部分原因是一些收藏品显示出了它们的投资价值。

Especially during cycles of high inflation, investors try to purchase tangibles that will at least retain their current market values.

尤其在高通货膨胀时期，投资者尽量购买那些至少会保持他们现有市场价值的有形资产。

In general, the most traditional collectibles will be sought because they have preserved their value over the years, there is an organized auction market for them,

一般来说，最传统的收藏品受青睐，因为它们多年后仍保持其价值。它们拥有完善的拍卖市场，

and they are most easily sold in the event that cash is needed. Some examples of the most stable collectibles are old masters,

在需要现金的时候最容易被卖掉。一些最稳当的收藏品是古老的画作、

Chinese ceramics, stamps, coins, rare books, antique jewelry, silver, porcelain, art by well-known artists, autographs, and period furniture.

中国陶器、邮票、硬币、珍本书籍、古代珠宝、银器、瓷器、著名艺术家的作品、亲笔签名和有时代特征的家具。

Other items of more recent interest include old photograph records, old magazines, post cards, baseball cards, art glass, dolls, classic cars, old bottles, and comic books.

其它更近期的物品有旧唱片、旧杂志、明信片、垒球卡片、彩色玻璃、布娃娃、早期汽车、古瓶和连环画册。

These relatively new kinds of collectibles may actually appreciate faster as short-term investments, but may not hold their value as long-term investments.

作为短期投资这些相对说来较新颖的收藏品的确可能更快地增值，但作为长期投资则可能不能保值。

Once a collectible has had its initial play, it appreciates at a fairly steady rate, supported by an increasing number of enthusiastic collectors competing

一旦一件收藏品有了它第一次交易，它便以一个相当稳定的比率增值，这个增值率受到越来越多的热情的收藏者的支持，

for the limited supply of collectibles that become increasingly more difficult to locate.

他们为有限的而且越来越难找到的收藏品而竞争。

Sleep

Sleet is part of a person’s daily activity cycle. There are several different stages of sleep, and they too occur in cycles. If you are an average sleeper, your sleep cycle is as follows. When you fist drift off into slumber, your eyes will roll about a bit, you temperature will drop slightly, your muscles will relax, and your breathing well slow and become quite regular. Your brain waves slow and become quite regular. Your brain waves slow down a bit too, with the alpha rhythm of rather fast waves 1 sleep. For the next half hour or so, as you relax more and more, you will drift down through stage 2 and stage 3 sleep. The lower your stage of sleep. slower your brain waves will be. Then about 40to 69 minutes after you lose consciousness you will have reached the deepest sleep of all. Your brain will show the large slow waves that are known as the delta rhythm. This is stage 4 sleep.

You do not remain at this deep fourth stage all night long, but instead about 80 minutes after you fall into slumber, your brain activity level will increase again slightly. The delta rhythm will disappear, to be replaced by the activity pattern of brain waves. Your eyes will begin to dart around under your closed eyelids as if you were looking at something occurring in front of you. This period of rapid eye movement lasts for some 8 to 15 minutes and is called REM sleep. It is during REM sleep period, your body will soon relax again, your breathing will slip gently back from stage 1 to stage 4 sleep----only to rise once again to the surface of near consciousness some 80 minutes later.

睡眠

睡眠是人每天日常活动循环的一部分。人的睡眠分几个阶段，而这些阶段也是循环发生的。如果你是一个正常的睡眠者，你的睡眠循环会这样进行。

在你开始昏昏入睡时，你的眼睛会滚动几下，体温略有下降，肌肉放松，呼吸变得缓慢而有节奏。除了开始几分钟比较快的α节奏外，脑电波也稍有减缓。

这被称为第一阶段睡眠。在随后约半小时内，你进一步放松，进入第二和第三阶段睡眠。睡眠越深入，脑电波就越缓慢。大约在开始睡眠后的40到

60分钟，你将进入沉睡状态。这时的脑电波表现为巨大的缓波，被称为δ节奏。这就是第四阶段睡眠。但你并不是整夜都保持这种沉睡状态。入睡后约

80分钟左右，你的大脑运动水平会再度略有提高。δ节奏消失，并被脑电波的运动图形取代。你的眼睛会

在闭着的眼睑下迅速转动，就好象你在看着眼前发生的什么事情。这种迅速的眼球运动持续约8～15分钟，这一阶段睡眠被称之为快速眼动(REM)睡眠。

在REM睡眠阶段，你的肢体会很快再度放松，呼吸也再次放慢并变得有节奏，你会轻松地从第一阶段滑入第四阶段睡眠-直到大约80分钟后重新接近清醒状态。

Bacteria

Bacteria are extremely small living things. While we measure our own sizes in inches or centimeters, bacterial size is measured in microns. One micron is a thousandth of a millimeter: a pinhead is about a millimeter across. Rod-shaped bacteria are usually from two to four microns long, while rounded ones are generally one micron in diameter. Thus if you enlarged a rounded bacterium a thousand times, it would be just about the size of a pinhead. An adult human magnified by the same amount would be over a mile(1.6 kilometer) tall.

Even with an ordinary microscope, you must look closely to see bacteria. Using a magnification of 100 times, one finds that bacteria are barely visible as tiny rods or dots. One cannot make out anything of their structure. Using special stains, one can see that some bacteria have attached to them wavy-looking “hairs” called flagella. Others have only one flagellum. The flagella rotate, pushing the bacteria through the water. Many bacteria lack flagella and cannot move about by their own power, while others can glide along over surfaces by some little-understood mechanism.

From the bacteria point of view, the world is a very different place from what it is to humans. To a bacterium water is as thick as molasses is to us. Bacteria are so small that they are influenced by the movements of the chemical molecules around them. Bacteria under the microscope, even those with no flagella, often bounce about in the water. This is because they collide with the watery molecules and are pushed this way and that. Molecules move so rapidly that within a tenth of a second the molecules around a bacteria have all been replaced by new ones; even bacteria without flagella are thus constantly exposed to a changing environment.

细菌细菌是极其微小的生物体。我们用英寸或厘米来测量自己的大小，而测量细菌却要用微米。一微米等于千分之一毫米。针头直径大约一毫米。

棒状细菌通常有2～4微米长，而圆形细菌的直径一般只有1微米。因此，即使你把一个圆形细菌放大1000倍，它也不过一个针头那么大。

可是如果把一个成年人放大1000倍，就会变成1英里(或1.6公里)多高。用一般的显微镜观察细菌时，你必须仔细观察才能看见它们。使用

100倍的显微镜时，你会发现细菌不过是隐约可见的小细棒或小点点，而它们的结构你却根本看不出来。使

用特殊的着色剂后，你会发现有的细菌上长着不少波状的"毛发"即鞭毛，而有的细菌只有一根鞭毛。鞭毛的旋转可以推动细菌在水中行进。

不少细菌没有鞭毛，因而不能自己行进。还有些细菌却能通过某些鲜为人知的机制沿物体表面滑动。我们所熟知的世界在细菌眼中完全是另一个样子。

对于细菌来说，水就同糖浆之于人类一样稠密。细菌是如此的微小，周围化学分子的一举一动都会对它们产生影响。在显微镜下，细菌，甚至包括那些没有鞭

毛的细菌，经常在水中跳来跳去。这是因为它们与水分子相撞后，被弹向各个方向。分子移动很迅速，仅0.1

秒之隔，一个细菌周围的分子就会完全更新。因此，即使是没有鞭毛的细菌也暴露在一个不断变化的环境中。