Advice to Youth忠告年輕人
Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth-something didactic, instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young; for it is in one’s tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then. I will say to you my young friends—and I say it beseechingly, urgingly— Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.
被告知將要在此演講，我詢問應該說什么話才合時宜。他們說我演講的內容應該適合年輕人——具有教育意義，或者能提出些善意的忠告。正好，我腦中有一些想法，一直希望能表達出來，對年輕人進行教育;因為在年輕時，這些事情最能深扎心底，最為持久，最為珍貴。首先，我要告訴你們，我年輕的朋友——我懇切地說，父母在世時，永遠遵從他們的要求，從長遠來看這是法則，因為你不這樣做，他們也會迫使你去做。大部分父母認為，他們比你明白事理，一般來說，相信這一點會比照自己的判斷行事更奏效。
Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and say you didn’t mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined.
若有上級，要尊敬他們，尊重陌生人，有時也要尊重其他人。如果有人攻擊你，你要考慮清楚人家是有意還是無意的，不要采取極端措施;僅僅看準時機，用磚頭予以回擊，這樣足矣。如果你發(fā)現他并非有心攻擊你，那么你坦率地承認自己打他是不應該的;像個男子漢承認自己并不是有意的。是的，應該避免訴諸暴力行為;在與人為善、厚道謙和的年代，為這種事情計較，時 時間也會慢慢流逝。讓身份低賤，沒有受過教育的人去動手動腳吧。
Go to bed early, get up early- this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the sun; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid reputation with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time—it’s no trick at all.
早睡早起——這是明智之舉。有些權威人士說日出而起，有些人說與這樣事物同起，有些人說與那樣事物同起。但是百靈鳥真的是的同起之物。所有人知道你伴著百靈鳥起床，你會因此聲名鵲起;如果你得到合適的百靈鳥，用正確的方法調教，那么可以輕易地訓練它在九點半起床，每次——它都不會做惡作劇。
單詞講解
beseechingly adv. 懇求地 英語詞意：
imploringly superstition n. 迷信 英語詞意：
an irrational belief dynamite n. 炸藥，充滿火藥味的事物 英語詞意：
a powerful explosives lark n. 云雀，百靈鳥 英語詞意：
rise with the lark(習語)早起