2017年12月英语四级美文：No More Heroes?

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　　2017年12月英语四级美文100篇汇总

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　　No More Heroes?

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　　Many articles have appeared in recent years,

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　　claiming that there are no more heroes in the Western world.

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　　The authors say that,

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　　particularly in Europe and North America,

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　　the young now refuse to admire anyone;

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　　that we are living in a world too well informed,

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　　too curious and critical for hero worship.

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　　The press, books, and television

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　　keep showing us the faults of the public figures

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　　who could become today’s stars,

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　　until we lose faith

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　　and start looking for defects in any person who seems worthy of respect.

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　　In a neighbor or a statesman,

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　　we try to discover the weaknesses, failures,

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　　or ugly motives that are surely hiding behind his noblest actions.

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　　Is it true that we know too much?

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　　Were our ancestors lucky to be only partly informed?

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　　Those who read the first biographies of Charlemagne,

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　　George Washington, Joan of Arc,

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　　or other great men and women of the past

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　　were not told that their hero had bad breath or disliked his mother;

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　　they only found a description of his great accomplishments

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　　and their admiration was strengthened.

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　　In fact, early biographers didn’t hesitate

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　　to make up an admirable story or two about their hero.

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　　The man who wrote the first biography of Washington,

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　　for instance, invented the cherry tree;

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　　he admitted later that there was no truth in it,

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　　but he said that it was in character

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　　and that it would give young men a good example to follow.

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　　His readers didn’t seem to object;

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　　the book was reprinted eighty times —

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　　a tremendous success in those days.

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　　Modern biographers do not invent such stories,

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　　they respect the facts,

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　　as indeed they should.

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　　But we pay a price for their truthfulness,

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　　for in their efforts to show “the whole person,”

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　　they tell us more than we really need to know about private lives,

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　　family secrets, and human weaknesses.

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　　The true greatness of a fine man is often forgotten in the display;

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　　and people lose not only their admiration for him,

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　　but their willingness to trust any other “star” completely.

　　2017年12月英语四级美文100篇汇总

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