英语名篇名段背诵精华 30 Advice to Youth
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Advice to Youth
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.
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.
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.
by Mark Twain
听说期望我来谈谈，我便询问应该发表什么样的谈话。他们说应当宜于青年的话题──教诲性的、启发性的话题，或者实质上是良言忠告之类的话题。好吧。关于开导青年人，我心里倒是有几件事时常想说的；因为正是在人幼小时，这些事最适合扎根，而且最持久、最有价值。那么，首先呢，我要对你们、我的年轻朋友们说的是──我恳切地、迫切地要说的是──
永远服从你们的父母，只要他们在堂的时候。长远看来这是上策，因为你们要是不服从的话，他们也非要你们服从。大多数家长认为比你们懂得多，一般说来你们迁就那种迷信的话，比起你们根据自以为是的判断行事，你们会建树大些。
对待上司要尊重，要是你们有了上司；对待陌生人，有时还有别人，也要尊重。如果有人得罪了你们，你们要犹豫一番，看看是存心的还是无意的，不要采取极端的做法；只要看好机会用砖块打他一下，那就足够了。如果你们发现他并非故意冒犯，那就坦然走出来，承认自己打他不对；像个男子汉认个错，说声不是故意的。况且，永远要避免动武；处于这个仁慈和睦的时代，此类举动的年代已经过去了。“炸药”留给卑下而无教养的人吧。
早睡早起──这是聪明的。有的权威讲，跟着太阳起床；还有的讲，跟着这样东西起床，又有的讲，跟着那样东西起床。其实跟着云雀起床才是再好不过的。这样你就落个好名声，人人都知道你跟着云雀起床；如果弄到一只那种适当的云雀，在它身上花些功夫，你就很容易把它调教到九点半起来，每次都是──这可决不是欺人之谈。
