60 My Favorite Fruit

名称：60 My Favorite Fruit
内容简介：
晨读英语美文 文化百科
[00:01.58]Of the fruits of the year
[00:04.23]I give my vote to the orange.
[00:06.59]In the first place it is a perennial—if not in actual fact,
[00:11.83]at least in the greengrocer's shop.
[00:14.08] On the days when dessert is a name
[00:17.42] given to a handful of chocolates
[00:18.97] and a little preserved ginger ,
[00:21.23]when macédoine de fruits
[00:25.85] is the title bestowed on some raisins and two prunes,
[00:28.43]then the orange, however sour,
[00:30.33] comes nobly to the rescue;
[00:31.59] and on those other days of plenty
[00:34.00] when cherries and strawberries
[00:36.14] riot together upon the table,
[00:38.67] the orange, sweeter than ever,
[00:40.50] is still there to hold its own.
[00:42.56]Bread and butter, beef and mutton, eggs and bacon,
[00:46.56]are not more necessary to an ordered existence
[00:49.95]than the orange.
[00:51.67]It is well that the commonest fruit should be also the best.
[00:55.50]Of the virtues of the orange I have not room fully to speak.
[01:00.37]It has properties of health giving,
[01:02.96]as it cures influenza and establishes the complexion.
[01:06.79]It is clean, for whoever handles it on its way to your table
[01:11.53] but handles its outer covering,
[01:14.12] its top coat, which is left in the hall. It is round,
[01:17.96] and forms an excellent substitute
[01:20.64]with the young for a cricket ball.
[01:22.32]The pips can be flicked at your enemies,
[01:24.82]and quite a small piece of peel makes a slide for an old gentleman.
[01:29.95]But all this would count nothing
[01:32.46]had not the orange such delightful qualities of taste.
[01:35.99]I dare not let myself go upon this subject.
[01:39.23] I am a slave to its sweetness.
[01:41.59]Yet with the orange we go live year in and year out.
[01:45.82] That speaks well for the orange.
[01:48.35]The fact is that there is an honesty about the orange
[01:51.70] which appeals to all of us.
[01:53.60]If it is going to be bad—for the best of us are bad sometimes—
[01:57.89]it begins to be bad from the outside,
[02:00.57] not from the inside.
[02:02.11]How many a pear
[02:03.46]which presents a blooming face to the world
[02:06.22] is rotten at the core.
[02:08.02] How many an innocent-looking apple
[02:10.52] is harboring a worm in the bud.
[02:12.82] But the orange has no secret faults.
[02:15.76] Its outside is a mirror of its inside,
[02:18.64]and if you are quick
[02:20.45] you can tell the shopman so
[02:22.44]before he slips it into the bag.