Track 8

供稿&翻譯：一沁

偉大的人永遠(yuǎn)不老

Track 8

供稿&翻譯：一沁

The Great Man Never Grows Old

你或許曾經(jīng)想過(guò)這樣一個(gè)問(wèn)題，“一個(gè)人到多少歲會(huì)開始變老？”或者“我的青春還有多少年？”。對(duì)于這些問(wèn)題，希望你能從本文中找到正確的答案。

“I1)dread coming to the end of the year,” a friend said to me recently, “It makes me realize I am growing old.”

William James注1, the great2)psychologist, said that most men are “old3)fogies at 25.” He was right. Most men at 25 are satisfed with their jobs. They have closed their minds to all new ideas—they have stopped growing.

The minute a man stops growing, he becomes old no matter what his age is. On the other hand, the really great man never grows old.

Goethe注2passed away at 83, and finished Faust only a few years earlier; Gladstone注3started to learn a new language when he was 70. Laplace注4, the4)astronomer, was still working when death caught up with him at 78. He died crying, “What we know is nothing; what we do not know is5)immense!”

And there you have the real answer to the question, “When is a man old?”

Laplace died young at 78. He was still unsatisfed, still sure that he has a lot to learn.

As long as a man can keep himself in that attitude of mind, as long as he can look back on every year and say, “I grew,” he is still young.

The minute he stops growing, the minute he says to himself, “I know all that I need to know,”—that day youth stops. He may be 25 or 75. It makes no difference.

“我懼怕臨近歲末年尾，”一位朋友最近對(duì)我說(shuō)，“它讓我意識(shí)到自己正在衰老?！?/p>

偉大的心理學(xué)家威廉·詹姆斯曾說(shuō)過(guò)，大多數(shù)人“在25歲時(shí)就成了守舊落伍之人”。他這話是對(duì)的。大多數(shù)人在25歲時(shí)就滿足于他們的工作，把所有的新思想都拒之門外——他們已經(jīng)停止成長(zhǎng)。

一個(gè)人一旦停止成長(zhǎng)——不管他年紀(jì)多大——他已開始衰老。反之，真正的偉人從來(lái)不會(huì)衰老。

歌德享年83歲，逝世前幾年才完成《浮士德》；格萊斯頓70歲開始學(xué)習(xí)一門新的語(yǔ)言；天文學(xué)家拉普拉斯78歲離世之際還在工作著。臨死前，他大聲喊道：“我們所知的太少太少；我們不知的太多太多！”

“一個(gè)人何時(shí)變老？”對(duì)這個(gè)問(wèn)題，你從這些人身上得到了真正的答案。

拉普拉斯78歲逝世時(shí)依然是年輕的——他依然不滿足，依然感到自己還有許多東西要學(xué)。

一個(gè)人，只要他能夠保持這種心態(tài)，只要他在回首過(guò)去的一年時(shí)能夠說(shuō)出“我成長(zhǎng)了”，他就依然年輕。

而一旦他停止成長(zhǎng)，一旦他對(duì)自己說(shuō)“該懂的我都懂了”，這個(gè)時(shí)候他的青春也就到頭了。無(wú)論那時(shí)他是25歲還是75歲，這都沒(méi)有區(qū)別。

詞組加油站

catch up with 追趕上……

make no difference 無(wú)關(guān)緊要，沒(méi)有影響

1) dread [dred] v. 害怕，擔(dān)心

2) psychologist [sa?'k?l?d??st] n. 心理學(xué)家

3) fogy ['f??g?] n. 守舊者

4) astronomer [?'str?n?m?] n. 天文學(xué)家

5) immense [?'mens] adj. 巨大的，無(wú)邊際的

注1：威廉·詹姆斯（William James），美國(guó)心理學(xué)之父，是美國(guó)本土第一位哲學(xué)家和心理學(xué)家。

注2：約翰·沃爾夫?qū)ゑT·歌德（Johann Wolfgang von Goethe），德國(guó)著名思想家、作家、科學(xué)家。其代表作有《少年維特之煩惱》《浮士德》等。

注3：威廉·尤爾特·格萊斯頓（William Ewart Gladstone），英國(guó)政治家，曾作為自由黨人四次出任英國(guó)首相。

注4：皮埃爾-西蒙·拉普拉斯侯爵（Pierre-Simon marquis de Laplace），法國(guó)著名的天文學(xué)家和數(shù)學(xué)家，是天體力學(xué)的主要奠基人。