暑假过后，新初三生们迎来了初中最重要的一年——初三。为方便2013年中考考生及家长查询相关信息，出国留学网中考频道特别搜集汇总了中考英语阅读素材以供参考：
THE SNOW QUEEN 雪之女王
FIRST STORY: Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters
第一个故事：关于一面镜子和它的碎片
Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know more than we know now: but to begin.
请注意!现在我们就要开始讲了。当我们听到这故事的结尾的时候，我们就会知道比现在还要多的事情。
Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most mischievous of all sprites.
从前,有一个很坏的小魔鬼，他是所有妖魔中最坏的家伙。
One day he was in a very good humor, for he had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but that which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified and increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole, you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose and mouth.
??有一天他心情很好，因为他制造出了一面镜子。这镜子有一个特点：那就是，一切好的和美的东西，在里面一照，就缩作一团，变成乌有;但是，一些没有价值和丑陋的东西都会显得突出，而且看起来比原形还要糟。最美丽的风景在这镜子里就会像煮烂了的菠菜;最好的人不是现出使人憎恶的样子，就是头朝下，脚朝上，没有身躯，面孔变形，认不出来。如果你有一个雀斑，你不用怀疑，它可以扩大到盖满你的鼻子和嘴。
??"That's glorious fun!" said the sprite. If a good thought passed through a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed heartily at his clever discovery.
魔鬼说：这真够有趣。当一个虔诚和善良的思想在一个人的心里出现的时候，它就在这镜子里表现为一个露齿的怪笑。于是魔鬼对于他这巧妙的发明就发出得意的笑声来。
All the little sprites who went to his school--for he kept a sprite school--told each other that a miracle had happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be possible to see how the world really looked.
那些进过魔鬼学校的人――因为他开办一个学校――到处宣传说有奇迹发生了。他们说，人们第一次可以看到世界和人类的本来面目。
They ran about with the mirror; and at last there was not a land or a person who was not represented distorted in the mirror. So then they thought they would fly up to the sky, and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the mirror, the more terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when suddenly the mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of their hands and fell to the earth, where it was dashed in a hundred million and more pieces.
他们拿着这面镜子到处乱跑，弄得每一个国家或民族都在里面被歪曲过。现在他们居然想飞到天上去，去讥笑一下安琪儿或“我们的上帝”。这镜子和他们越飞得高，它就越笑得怪异。他们几乎拿不住它。他们越飞越高，飞近上帝和安琪儿;于是镜子和它的怪笑开始可怕地抖起来，弄得它从他们的手中落到地上，跌成几亿，几千亿以及无数的碎片。
And now it worked much more evil than before; for some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they flew about in the wide world, and when they got into people's eyes, there they stayed; and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye for that which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart became like a lump of ice.
这样，镜子做出了比以前更加邪恶的事情，因为有许多碎片比沙粒还要小。它们在世界上乱飞，只要飞到人们的眼睛里去，便贴在那儿不动。这些人看什么东西都觉得不对头，或者只看到事物坏的一面，碎片虽小但仍然具有整个镜子的魔力。有的人甚至心里都藏有这样一块碎片，结果不幸得很，这颗心就变成了冰块。
Some of the broken pieces were so large that they were used for windowpanes, through which one could not see one's friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles; and that was a sad affair when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then the wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked, for all this tickled his fancy. The fine splinters still flew about in the air: and now we shall hear what happened next.
??有些碎片很大，足够做窗子上的玻璃，但透过这样的玻璃却看不到自己真正的朋友。有些碎片被做成了眼镜,如果人们戴上这样的眼镜去正确地看东西或公正地判断事物，会感觉不对头。魔鬼笑得肚子都痛了，这就是他的爱好.不过外边还有几块碎片在空中乱飞。现在让我们听听接下来发生了什么吧!
词汇:
see the world 通晓人情世故, 富有生活经验
have a joke 说笑话, 开玩笑
much more adv. 更加
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