【正文】 h snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you?ve grown old, even at 20。 it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions。 it is a state of mind。1 生而為贏 —— 新東方英語背誦美文 80 篇 第一篇： Youth 青春 Youth Youth is not a time of life。 it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees。 it is the freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love 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, selfdistrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust. Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being?s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for 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。 but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there?s hope you may die young at 80. 4 silence would teach him the joys of sound. 6 for there is a panionship of books as well as of men。 amusing and instructing us in youth, and forting and consoling us in age. Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ?Love me, love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my book.” The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They live in him together, and he in them. A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out。 for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is really good. Books introduce us into the best society。 we see the as if they were really alive。 their experience bees ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe. The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which on still listens. 7 but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a welldirected purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success. 8 that achievement counts for a great deal。 nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about. 9 第 七篇： When Love Beckons You 愛的召喚 When Love Beckons You When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to our roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. But if, in your fear, you would seek only love?s peace and love?s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love?s threshingfloor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but it self and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love。 To rest at the noon hour and meditate love?s ecstasy。 And then to sleep with a payer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. 11 never enter a bar room。 never speculate。 make the firm?s interest yours。 concentrate。 expenditure always within revenue。 第九篇： On Meeting the Celebrated 論見名人 On Meeting the Celebrated I have always wondered at the passion many people have to meet the celebrated. The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account. The celebrated develop a technique to deal with the persons they e across. They show the world a mask, often an impressive on, but take care to conceal their real selves. They play the part that is expected from them, and with practice learn to play it very well, but you are stupid if you think that this public performance of theirs corresponds with the man within. I have been attached, deeply attached, to a few people。 kings, dictators, mercial magnates are from our point of view very unsatisfactory. To write about them is a venture that has often tempted writers, but the failure that has attended their efforts shows that such beings are too exceptional to form a proper ground for a work of art. They cannot be made real. The ordinary