新概念英語第四冊
Lesson 5 Youth
1 . There is only one difference between an old man and a young one:老年人和年輕人之間僅僅有一個不同：
2 . They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things.他們不熱衷於向上爬，也不一味追求物質享受。
3 . For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity,因為這至少使我得到了某種承認，
4 . If there is one -- which I take leave to doubt -- then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves.如果這個問題存在的話 -- 請允許我對此持懷疑態度 -- 那麼，這個問題是由老年人而不是青年人造成的。
5 . and maybe that is where the rub is.問題的癥結恐怕就在這裡。
6 . He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous,這些年輕人也許狂妄自負，舉止無理，傲慢放肆，愚昧無知，
7 . I find young people exciting.They have an air of freedom,我覺得年輕人令人振奮，無拘無束。
8 . the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him:青年人有光輝燦爛的前景，而老年人的輝煌已成為過去。
9 . I accept that we are equals,我認為我和他們是平等的。
10 . People are always talking about 'the problem of youth'.人們總是在談論「青年問題」。
11 . that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem.我是一所大學裡的一名新生，如果我當時真的被看成像一個問題那樣有趣，我會感到很得意的。
12 . Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings -- people just like their elders.承認青年人和他們的長輩一樣也是人。
13 . All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things.在我看來，所有這些使他們與生命和萬物之源聯繫在了一起。
14 . All that is in my mind when I meet a young person.每逢我遇到年輕人，腦子裡就想到，
15 . and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.這正是年輕人所熱衷追求的。
16 . and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.如果我認為他們錯了，我就以平等的身份和他們爭個明白。
17 . and they have not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort.他們既不追逐卑鄙的名利，也不貪圖生活的舒適。
18 . When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain --我十幾歲時，總感到自己年輕，有些事拿不準 --
19 . It's as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures.從某種意義上講，他們似乎是宇宙人，同我們這些凡夫俗子形成了強烈而鮮明的對照。
20 . but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders -- as if mere age were a reason for respect.但我不會用應當尊重長者這一套陳詞濫調來為我自己辨護，似乎年長就是受人尊敬的理由。