晨读英语美文100篇 Passage 77 The Fascinating Moonrise

[00:00.12]Passage 77 The Fascinating Moonrise

[00:06.01]There is a hill near my home that I often climb at night.

[00:11.37]The noise of the city is a far-off murmur.

[00:15.09]In the hush of dark I share the cheerfulness of crickets and the confidence of owls.

[00:22.31]But it is the drama of the moonrise that I come to see.

[00:27.13]For that restores in me a quiet and clarity that the city spends too freely.

[00:35.40]From this hill I have watched many moons rise.

[00:40.10]Each one had its own mood.

[00:43.06]There have been broad, confident harvest moons in autumn;

[00:48.42]shy, misty moons in spring;

[00:51.81]lonely, white winter moons rising into the utter silence of an ink-black sky

[00:59.47]and smoke-smudged orange moons over the dry fields of summer.

[01:04.94]Each, like fine music, excited my heart and then calmed my soul.

[01:11.83]But we, who live indoors, have lost contact with the moon.

[01:18.31]The glare of street lights and the dust of pollution veil the night sky.

[01:24.10]Though men have walked on the moon, it grows less familiar.

[01:29.25]Few of us can say what time the moon will rise tonight.

[01:34.07]Still, it tugs at our minds.

[01:37.35]If we unexpectedly encounter the full moon, huge and yellow over the horizon,

[01:44.02]we are helpless but to stare back at its commanding presence.

[01:48.72]And the moon has gifts to bestow upon those who watch.

[01:53.98]I learned about its gifts one July evening in the mountains.

[01:59.11]My car had mysteriously stalled, and I was stranded and alone.

[02:05.02]The sun had set, and I was watching what seemed to be the bright-orange glow of a forest fire

[02:13.01]beyond a ridge to the east.

[02:15.65]Suddenly, the ridge itself seemed to burst into flame.

[02:20.79]Then, the rising moon, huge and red and grotesquely misshapen

[02:27.47]by the dust and sweat of the summer atmosphere, loomed up out of the woods.

[02:33.27]Distorted thus by the hot breath of earth, the moon seemed ill-tempered and imperfect.

[02:41.04]Dogs at nearby farmhouse barked nervously,

[02:45.74]as if this strange light had wakened evil spirits in the weeds.

[02:50.78]But as the moon lifted off the ridge it gathered firmness and authority.

[02:57.12]Its complexion changed from red, to orange, to gold, to impassive yellow.

[03:04.45]It seemed to draw light out of the darkening earth, for as it rose,

[03:11.01]the hills and valleys below grew dimmer.

[03:14.41]By the time the moon stood clear of the horizon,

[03:18.02]full-chested and round and of the colour of ivory,

[03:22.50]the valleys were deep shadows in the landscape.

[03:26.11]The dogs, reassured that this was the familiar moon, stopped barking.

[03:32.46]And all at once I felt a confidence and joy close to laughter.

[03:38.48]The drama took an hour.

[03:41.32]Moonrise is slow and serried with subtleties.

[03:45.59]To watch it, we must slip into an older, more patient sense of time.

[03:52.92]To watch the moon move inflexibly higher is to find an unusual stillness within ourselves.

[04:00.79]Our imaginations become aware of the vast distance of space,

[04:06.70]the immensity of the earth and the huge improbability of our own existence.

[04:13.16]We feel small but privileged.

[04:16.44]Moonlight shows us none of life’s harder edges.

[04:20.71]Hillsides seem silken and silvery, the oceans still and blue in its light.

[04:28.26]In moonlight we become less calculating, more drawn to our feelings.