激情晨读英语美文 第二章 从一粒沙看世界:我钟爱的水果

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My Favorite Fruit
By Alan Alexander Milne
Of the fruits of the year I give my vote
to the orange. In the first place it is a perennial
— if not in actual fact, at least in
the greengrocer’s shop. On the days when dessert
is a name given to a handful of chocolates and
a little preserved ginger, when macédoine de fruits
is the title bestowed on some raisins and two prunes,
then the orange, however sour, comes nobly to the rescue;
and on those other days of plenty when cherries
and strawberries riot together upon the table,
the orange, sweeter than ever, is still there
to hold its own. Bread and butter, beef and mutton,
eggs and bacon, are not more necessary to
an ordered existence than the orange.
It is well that the commonest fruit should be
also the best. Of the virtues of the orange I have not
room fully to speak. It has properties of health giving,
as it cures influenza and establishes the complexion.
It is clean, for whoever handles it on its way to
your table but handles its outer covering, its top coat,
which is left in the hall. It is round, and forms
an excellent substitute with the young for a cricket ball.
The pips can be flicked at your enemies, and quite
a small piece of peel makes a slide for an old gentleman.
But all this would count nothing had not the orange
such delightful qualities of taste. I dare not
let myself go upon this subject. I am a slave
to its sweetness.Yet with the orange we go live
year in and year out. That speaks well for the orange.
The fact is that there is an honesty about the orange
which appeals to all of us. If it is going to be bad
— for the best of us are bad sometimes —
it begins to be bad from the outside, not from the inside.
How many a pear which presents a blooming face to the world
is rotten at the core. How many an innocent-looking apple
is harboring a worm in the bud. But the orange
has no secret faults. Its outside is a mirror
of its inside, and if you are quick you can tell the shopman
so before he slips it into the bag.