精彩英文短文

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Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and suppleknees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over thelove of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what's next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.

青春

青春不是年华，而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏的想象，炙热的恋情;青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进取压倒苟安。如此锐气，二十后生而有之，六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并非垂老，理想丢弃，方堕暮年。

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤;热忱抛却，颓废必致灵魂。忧烦，惶恐，丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

无论年届花甲，拟或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线，只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号，你就青春永驻，风华常存。

一旦天线下降，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生，即使年方二十，实已垂垂老矣;然则只要树起天线，捕捉乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。

A punctual person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keepingan appointment. The unpunctual man，on one hand，never does what he has to do at theproper time. He is always ina hurry and in the end loses both time and his good name. There isa proverb that says, "Time flies never to be recalled". This is very true. A lost thing may befound again，but lost time can never be regained. Time is more valuable than material things.

In fact，time is life itself. The unpunctual man is for ever wasting and mismanaging his mostvaluable assets as well as the assets of others'. The unpunctual person is always complainingthat he finds no time toanswer letters or return calls or keep appointments promptly. But theman who really has a great deal to do is very careful with his time and seldom complainsbecause he lacks it. He knows that he can not get through his huge amount of work unless hefaithfully attends to every piece of work when it has to be attended to ...

Failure to be punctual in keeping one's appointments is a sign of disrespect towards others. Ifa person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time，he keeps all the otherguests waiting for him.Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and allother guests present. Unpunctuality，moreover，is very harmful when it comes to doing one'sduty，whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge ofimportant tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time.A man who is known tobe habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men.And the unpunctual manis a source of annoyance both to others and to himself.

论守时

一个守时的人养成了按时做事的习惯，这样的人言必信，行必果。 另一方面，不守时的人却从不按时完成他应该做的事情。他总是匆匆忙忙的，到头来却既浪费了时间、又败坏了自己的名誉。 有句谚语说道："光阴一去不复返。" 此话千真万确。 一件东西丢了可能找回来，而弄丢了时间可就永远找不回来了。 时间较之财富更加珍贵。

实际上，时间本身就是生命! 因此，那些不守时的人是在不停地浪费自己的宝贵财富，同时也是在浪费他人的珍贵财产。那些不守时的人总是在抱怨，说自己没有时间去写回信、没有时间回电话、或者没有时间按时赴约。 然而那些真正有大量事情要处理的人则会非常仔细地安排时间，很少抱怨说时间不够用。 他们知道，除非自己按时处理好应处理的每一件事情，否则他们是不可能做完这一大堆事情的…… 赴约不守时是对他人极大的不尊重。

如果一个人应邀去参加晚宴，却没有按时出席，就会让其他的客人等他一个人。 这是对主人和其他客人极大的不尊重。 履行义务的时候--无论是公事还是私事--不守时是非常有害的。设想一下，如果把一件重大使命委托给一个不守时的人，结果他没有在恰当的时间和地点完成这项任务，那么结果会怎么样呢? 如果一个人以不守时而"闻名"，他怎么可能得到朋友和同事的信任! 不守时的人既惹别人生气，又弄得自己不快活。

To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and theymust all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I will take an interest in this or that.”Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire greatknowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief.It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, humanbeing may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worriedto death, and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual laborer, tiredout with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseballon Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or businessman, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worryabout trifling things at the weekend.

It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into twoclasses: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, thosewhose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have theircompensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, notonly the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and mostmodest forms. But Fortune’s favored children belong to the second class.Their life is a naturalharmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday,andordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbingvacation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, ofa diversion of effort, isessential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasureare those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.

工作和娱乐

要想真正生活得幸福和平安，一个人至少应该有两三种业余爱好，而且必须是真正的爱好。到了晚年才开始说“我要培养这个或那个兴趣”是毫无用处的，种这种尝试只会增加精神上的负担。在与自己日常工作无关的领域中，一个人可以获得渊博的知识，但却很难有所收益或得到放松。做自己喜欢的事是无益的，你得喜欢自己所做的事。广而言之，人可以分为三个类别：劳累而死的人，忧虑而死的人和无聊而死的人。对于那些体力劳动者来说，一周辛苦的工作使他们精疾力竭，因此在周六下午给他们提供踢足球或者打棒球的机会是没有意义的。对于政界人士，专业人士或者商人来说，他们已经为棘手的事务操劳或者烦恼了六天，因此在周末请他们为琐事劳神同样毫无意义。

或者可以这么说，理智的，勤奋的，有用的人可以分为两类：对第一类人而言，工作就是工作，娱乐就是娱乐;对于第二类人而言，工作和娱乐是合二为一的。很大一部分人属于前者。他们可以得到相应的补偿。在办公室或工厂里长时间的工作，不仅带给他们维持生计的金钱，还带给他们一种渴求娱乐的强烈欲望，哪怕这种娱乐消遣是以最简单，最淳朴的方式进行的。而第二类人则是命运的宠儿。他们的生活自然而和谐。在他们看来，工作时间永远不够多，每天都是假期;而当正常的假日到来时，他们总会抱怨自己有趣的休假被强行中断。然而，有一些东西对于这两类人来说都十分必要，那就是变换一下视角，改变一下氛围，尝试做点不同的事情。事实上，那些把工作看作娱乐的人可能是需要以某种方式将工作不时地驱赶出自己的大脑。