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People are always talking about' the problem of
youth '. If there is one--which
I take leave to doubt--then it is older people who create it, not
the young themselves.
Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after
all
human beings--people just like their elders. There is only one
difference between
an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future
before
him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that
is where
the rub is.
When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and
uncertain--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. For one thing, being a
problem gives
you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are
busily engaged
in seeking.
I find young people exciting. They have an air of freedom, and they
have not a
dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. They are not
anxious
social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things. All
this seems to
me to link them with life, and the origins of things. It's as if
they were in some
sense cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban
creatures.
All that is in my mind when I meet a young person. He may be
conceited, illmannered,
presumptuous of fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary
clichés about respect for elders--as if mere age were a reason for
respect. I
accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal,
if I think he
is wrong.
New words and expression 生詞和短語
leave
n. 允許
fundamentals
n. 基本原則
glorious
adj. 光輝燦爛的
splendid
adj. 燦爛的
rub
n. 難題
identity
n. 身份
dreary
adj. 沉郁的
commitment
n. 信奉
mean
adj. 吝嗇，小氣
social climber
追求更高社會地位的，向上爬的人
devotion
n. 熱愛
cosmic
adj. 宇宙的
suburban
adj. 見識不廣的，偏狹的
conceited
adj. 自高自大的
presumptuous
adj. 自以為是的，放肆的
fatuous
adj. 愚蠢的
cliche
n. 陳詞濫調
參考譯文
人們總是在談論“青年問題”。如果這個問題存在的話
-- 請允許我對此持懷疑態(tài)度 --
那么，這個問題是由老年人而不是青年人造成的。讓我們來認真研究一些基本事實：承認青年人和他們的長輩一樣也是人。老年人和青年人只有一個區(qū)別：青年人有光輝燦爛的前景，而老年人的輝煌已成為過去。
問題的癥結恐怕就在這里。
我十幾歲時，總感到自己年輕，有些事拿不準 --
我是一所大學里的一名新生，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。因為這至少使我得到了某種承認，這正是年輕人所熱衷追求的。
我覺得年輕人令人振奮，無拘無束。他們既不追逐卑鄙的名利，也不貪圖生活的舒適。他們不熱衷于向上爬，也不一味追求物質享受。在我看來，所有這些使他們與生命和萬物之源聯(lián)系在了一起。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。每逢我遇到年輕人，腦子里就想到這些年輕人也許狂妄自負，舉止無理，傲慢放肆，愚昧無知，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。我認為我和他們是平等的。如果我認為他們錯了，我就以平等的身份和他們爭個明白。
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