长达百页的英文原版书籍，是否对刚刚接触英语的你难度有点大，但却想着通过阅读英文原版小说来提高英语水平？学霸君今天为大家推荐几本超短篇小说，坐着地铁就能读完，分分钟提高英语成绩！一起来看一下吧。
接下来学霸君还会更加努力给大家带来考试干货、学霸技能、和备考经验的！快来点击标题下方的北美学霸君关注我，么么哒！
From 中国日报双语新闻 微信号：Chinadaily_Mobile
此次，为大家推荐6篇短小精悍的英语短篇小说，这些作品篇篇经典，耐人寻味，读起来也不难。关键是每篇阅读时长都不超过10分钟！
再也不担心地铁上没事做啦！
❶
《入职介绍》
Orientation
by 丹尼尔·奥罗斯科
Daniel Orozco

阅读时长：8分钟

内容简介

这篇带有荒诞色彩的短篇小说以独白的形式（monologue），讲述了一个新员工入职时被引导参观办公室的全过程，相信能引起职场小伙伴们的共鸣。

精彩选段

小说的开篇是这样的：
Those are the offices and these are the cubicles. That’s my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle. This is your phone. Never answer your phone. Let the Voicemail System answer it. This is your Voicemail System Manual. There are no personal phone calls allowed.
那边是领导的办公室，这边是员工的办公格子间。那个格子间是我的，这个是你的。这是你的座机。电话你不用接，语音信箱系统会自动接听。这是语音信箱系统的操作指南。严禁电话私用。
之后，这位主管程式化的介绍慢慢变得私人化，开始八卦起员工们的私生活：
Amanda Pierce, who tolerates Russell Nash, is in love with Albert Bosch, whose office is over there. Albert Bosch, who only dimly registers Amanda Pierce’s existence, has eyes only for Ellie Tapper, who sits over there. Ellie Tapper, who hates Albert Bosch, would walk through fire for Curtis Lance. But Curtis Lance hates Ellie Tapper.
阿曼达·皮尔斯容忍着拉塞尔·纳什的示爱，却暗恋着那边办公室里的阿尔伯特·博施，后者基本上对阿曼达视而不见，他眼里只有坐在那边的艾丽·塔伯。可艾丽·塔伯讨厌阿尔伯特·博施，却愿意为柯蒂斯·兰斯赴汤蹈火。但是柯蒂斯·兰斯讨厌艾丽·塔伯。
八卦的内容也越来越黑暗，从办公室恋情到性虐待、连环杀手，奇闻异事层出不穷。

评论

Here are these people in close proximity, spending their time together, knowing the private details of one another’s lives and yet ignoring them, and thereby ignoring each other, retaining their isolation even within a crush of human need and longing. For them, personal intimacy creates separation rather than connection—the more intimately the characters know each other, the greater their alienation.
这群人相处在狭小亲密的空间里，一起共度大量时间，知道彼此生活的私密细节，却选择无视，进而无视彼此，尽管他们内心充满着人性的需求和渴望，却始终保持孤立。对于他们来说，距离上的亲密只造成隔离而非沟通。这些人物对彼此所知越多，就越疏离。
❷
《需求》
Wants
by 格蕾丝·佩雷
Grace Paley

阅读时长：6分钟

内容简介

这篇短篇小说非常简短，讲述了一个女人在图书馆门口与前夫短暂邂逅，两人交谈了彼此对那段婚姻的看法。之后，女人陷入沉思，并做了一个决定。
The story is so short that the experience of reading it is akin to a flashback to a forgotten memory or a dream about a stranger’s conversation overheard in passing.
这个故事非常短，阅读体验像极了对一段遗忘记忆的瞬间闪回，或是梦境中重现偶然听见的陌生人的对话。

精彩选段

I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library.
我在街上看见前夫。我当时正坐在新图书馆的台阶上。
Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified.
你好，我的人生，我说。我们有过一段27年的婚姻，所以我觉得这样叫他很合理。
He said, What? What life? No life of mine.
他说，什么？什么人生？不是我的人生。
❸
《一小时的故事》
The Story of an Hour
by 凯特·肖邦
Kate Chopin

阅读时长：5分钟

内容简介

《一小时的故事》最初名为“The Dream of an Hour”，1894年发表时改为“The Story of an Hour”，讲述了女主人公露易丝·玛拉尔德从听说丈夫死讯到发现丈夫还活着中间一小时的心理历程。
Chopin's The Awakening is a quintessential work of feminist literature, about a woman who feels restricted by the confines of her marriage. The same themes are at play here; it's more than worth a look.
肖邦的《觉醒》是女性文学的经典之作，讲述了一个深感被婚姻束缚的女人的故事。这则短篇也是类似主题，值得反复品读。

精彩选段

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
她能看到房前空地上的树梢摇曳着，充满新春的生机，空气中弥漫着雨水的芬芳。下面街上的小贩在吆喝着他的货品，远处某个人唱着歌，音符隐隐入耳。而屋檐下，有数不清的麻雀正在叽叽喳喳地叫着。
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
她知道，等她看到死者那交叉着的善良温柔的双手，那张一向含情脉脉望着她，如今却僵硬苍白、毫无生气的脸庞时，她还是会哭的。不过她知道那痛苦的时刻之后，是完完全全属于自己的来日方长，她张开双臂欢迎这岁月的到来。
❹
《一个漂浮物无序的房间》
A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room
by 乔治·桑德斯
George Saunders

阅读时长：10分钟

内容简介

这个故事出自新晋“布克奖”得主乔治·桑德斯，是他早年申请美国雪城大学文学硕士学位的作品。
It's not hard to see why; his stories, some of them science fiction, some of them literary realism, often portray the human spirit at odds with a consumerist culture. 

不难发现，他的故事中有的是科幻类，有的是现实主义，常常描绘人文精神和消费主义文化之间的矛盾冲突。

精彩选段

A velour basketball, half the size of a real basketball, hangs mid-aired over a crib. In the closet, the arms of tiny jackets and sweaters wave and salute wildly. The threads of the carpet flatten out like grass under a helicopter, and then circular waves run outward from the middle of the room. When the waves die down, it’s just a regular carpet again. The whole cycle takes three and a half minutes.
一个只有真篮球一半大的丝绒篮球漂浮在婴儿床上方；衣柜里，小夹克和毛衣的袖子乱舞，狂野地行着礼。地毯上的织线平铺开，像直升机下方的草坪一样，接着圆形波纹从屋子中间向四周涌动着。当波纹平静下来，它又成了一块寻常地毯。这整套动作一共要花上三分半。
❺
《熟路》
A Worn Path
by 尤多拉·韦尔蒂
Eudora Welty

阅读时长：10分钟

内容简介

Welty was a Pulitzer-winning author from the South, known for writing about southern life in America. The Atlantic published “A Worn Path” in 1941. It tells the story of an old woman walking a long distance from her home to the center of town. 
韦尔蒂来自美国南部，作品以描写美国南部生活为人所熟知。1941年，《大西洋月刊》发表了她的作品《熟路》。作品讲述了一个年迈的妇人从家徒步远行到市中心的故事。

精彩选段

Phoenix heard the dogs fighting, and heard the man running and throwing sticks. She even heard a gunshot. 
菲尼克斯听到狗打架的声音，听到那人跑动并抛掷木棍的声音，她甚至还听到了枪声。
But she was slowly bending forward by that time, further and further forward, the lids stretched down over her eyes, as if she were doing this in her sleep. Her chin was lowered almost to her knees. The yellow palm of her hand came out from the fold of her apron. Her fingers slid down and along the ground under the piece of money with the grace and care they would have in lifting an egg from under a setting hen. Then she slowly straightened up; she stood erect, and the nickel was in her apron pocket.
但在这个时间里，她一点一点缓慢弯下身来，眼皮耷拉着，像是在睡梦中。她的下巴几乎触到了膝盖。黄色的手掌从围裙褶里伸了出来。她的手指悄悄顺着地面摸到硬币底下，就像是从抱窝的母鸡身下取蛋似的，那么谨慎，那么从容。然后她慢慢直起腰来，直挺挺地站着，硬币早已装到了围裙口袋里。
A bird flew by. Her lips moved. 'God watching me the whole time. I come to stealing.'
一只小鸟飞过。她的嘴唇蠕动着。“上帝一直在瞧着我。我落到偷东西的地步了。”
❻
《如何成为一名作家》
How to Become a Writer
by 洛丽·摩尔
Lorrie Moore

阅读时长：10分钟

内容简介

Moore’s pithy and hilarious writing has won her both attention and critical acclaim, and “How to Become a Writer,” a story originally published in her first collection, Self Help, is no exception. It’s a funny chronicling of the hurdles an aspiring writer has to clear, including backup plans and confused college roommates.
摩尔作品的简练和幽默为她赢来关注和如潮好评。《如何成为一名作家》这则故事最初发表在她的第一部合集《自助》当中，沿袭了她简练和幽默的风格。该文讲述了那些有志于成为作家的人必须克服的障碍，比如有后备计划，有一帮糊涂的大学舍友等等。

精彩选段

It is best if you fail at an early age - say, 14. Early, critical disillusionment is necessary so that at 15 you can write long haiku sequences about thwarted desire. It is a pond, a cherry blossom, a wind brushing against sparrow wing leaving for mountain. Count the syllables. Show it to your mom. 
如果你早年失败，比如14岁，那再好不过了。失败的幻灭是必须的，这样，你到15岁就能以你挫败为灵感写出长俳句了。池塘、樱花、微风拂过飞向山间的麻雀羽翼。数数音节，让你母亲读读。
She is tough and practical. She has a son in Vietnam and a husband who may be having an affair. She believes in wearing brown because it hides spots. She'll look briefly at your writing then back up at you with a face blank as a doughnut. She'll say: ''How about emptying the dishwasher?'' Look away. Shove the forks in the fork drawer. Accidentally break one of the freebie gas station glasses. This is the required pain and suffering. This is only for starters.
你母亲是个强势且实际的人。她还有个在越南的儿子，丈夫可能有外遇。她坚信要穿棕色，因为看不清污渍。她会匆匆扫过你写的东西，然后抬起头看你，表情空洞得好像甜甜圈。她会说：“你来清理洗碗机好吗？”你要转开头，把叉子塞进橱柜，不小心摔碎一只加油站送的杯子。这是必经的痛苦和折磨，初学者独享。
如果你想多读读英文，从这些短篇入手是个好主意，读着读着，你就可以开始啃那些大部头啦！
赶快收藏转发，留着读起来吧！
本文系授权发布，From 中国日报双语新闻，微信号：Chinadaily_Mobile，未经许可不得转载，北美学霸君诚意推荐。

推荐阅读

回复［奖学金］查看：给留学生们奖学金最多的10所美帝大学，从此跟吃土说拜拜！
回复［海关］查看：中国留学生被美国海关扒到只剩内衣，留学生在机场该如何机智自保？
回复［B站］查看：你只会用B站刷剧追番？人家学霸早都用它学英语了...
还没有关注北美学霸君？搜索微信号gpamaster或长按并识别下方图片中的二维码即可1秒变身学霸！
点击左下方［阅读原文 / Read More］也可以关注北美学霸君，领取各种考试福利哦！
继续阅读
阅读原文