💬 新概念英语第四册

Lesson 5 Youth

Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings -- people just like their elders.

承认青年人和他们的长辈一样也是人。

Lesson 5 Youth

There is only one difference between an old man and a young one:

老年人和年轻人之间仅仅有一个不同：

Lesson 5 Youth

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。

Lesson 5 Youth

and maybe that is where the rub is.

问题的症结恐怕就在这里。

Lesson 5 Youth

When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain --

我十几岁时，总感到自己年轻，有些事拿不准 --

Lesson 5 Youth

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.

我是一所大学里的一名新生，如果我当时真的被看成像一个问题那样有趣，我会感到很得意的。

Lesson 5 Youth

For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity,

因为这至少使我得到了某种承认，

Lesson 5 Youth

and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.

这正是年轻人所热衷追求的。

Lesson 5 Youth

I find young people exciting.They have an air of freedom,

我觉得年轻人令人振奋，无拘无束。

Lesson 5 Youth

and they have not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort.

他们既不追逐卑鄙的名利，也不贪图生活的舒适。

Lesson 5 Youth

They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things.

他们不热衷于向上爬，也不一味追求物质享受。

Lesson 5 Youth

All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things.

在我看来，所有这些使他们与生命和万物之源联系在了一起。

Lesson 5 Youth

It's as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures.

从某种意义上讲，他们似乎是宇宙人，同我们这些凡夫俗子形成了强烈而鲜明的对照。

Lesson 5 Youth

All that is in my mind when I meet a young person.

每逢我遇到年轻人，脑子里就想到，

Lesson 5 Youth

He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous,

这些年轻人也许狂妄自负，举止无理，傲慢放肆，愚昧无知，

Lesson 5 Youth

but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders -- as if mere age were a reason for respect.

但我不会用应当尊重长者这一套陈词滥调来为我自己辨护，似乎年长就是受人尊敬的理由。

Lesson 5 Youth

I accept that we are equals,

我认为我和他们是平等的。

Lesson 5 Youth

and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.

如果我认为他们错了，我就以平等的身份和他们争个明白。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations,

当我听人们说体育运动可创造国家之间的友谊，

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

and that if only the common peoples of the would could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the hattlefield.

还说各国民众若在足球场或板球场上交锋，就不愿在战场上残杀的时候，我总是惊愕不已。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

Even if one didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce if from general principles.

一个人即使不能从具体的事例（例如1936年的奥林匹克运动会）了解到国际运动比赛会导致疯狂的仇恨，也可以从常理中推断出结论。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive.

现在开展的体育运动几乎都是竞争性的。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win.

参加比赛就是为了取胜。如果不拚命去赢，比赛就没有什么意义了。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise:

在乡间的草坪上，当你随意组成两个队，并且不涉及任何地方情绪时，那才可能是单纯的为了娱乐和锻炼而进行比赛。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

but as soon as a the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused.

可是一量涉及到荣誉问题，一旦你想到你和某一团体会因为你输而丢脸时，那么最野蛮的争斗天性便会激发起来。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this.

即使是仅仅参加过学校足球赛的人也有种体会。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

At the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfare.

在国际比赛中，体育简直是一场模拟战争。

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators:

但是，要紧的还不是运动员的行为，而是观众的态度，

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe --

以及观众身后各个国家的态度。面对着这些荒唐的比赛，参赛的各个国家会如痴如狂，甚至煞有介事地相信 --

Lesson 6 The sporting spirit

at any rate for short periods -- that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.

至少在短期内如此 -- 跑跑、跳跳、踢踢球是对一个民族品德素质的检验。