the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him:

青年人有光辉灿烂的前景，而老年人的辉煌已成为过去。

Many firms, for instance, have great difficulty in obtaining technical or scientific books from libraries

比如，很多公司向图书馆借阅科技书籍时感到很困难，

Audiences in the second decade of the twentieth century found it pleasant to escape to a time when life, though hard, was relatively simple.We still do;

生活在20世纪20年代的观众认为，逃到一个即使艰苦但比较简朴的时代中去是件愉快的事，我们今天仍有这种感觉。

its action depends on the surface, water or ground, over which it rides.

它的飞行取决于它所悬浮的水面或地面。

and to exercise such initiative as falls within their sphere,

在各自的工作范围内发挥主动性，

like adolescents they stand before the mirror,

犹如希腊神话中那位漂亮少年，