約翰·羅斯金/ John Ruskin
約翰·羅斯金（1819—1900），英國作家和美術評論家。他對社會的評論使他被視為道德領路人或預言家。其著作《留給這個後來者》（Unto This Last）曾對甘地產生過影響。他先後於1870—1879年和1883—1884年兩次擔任牛津大學的美術教授。
Practicing for Better Learning
Think about the questions before you read this article.
1. Have you ever made a serious decision that you regret?
2. Write down some words to your future self.
It was New Year’s Night. An aged man was standing at a window. He raised his mournful eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake. Then he cast them on the earth, where few more hopeless people than himself now moved towards their certain goal—the tomb. He had already passed sixty of the stages leading to it, and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse. Now his health was poor, his mind vacant, his heart sorrowful, and his old age short of comforts.
The days of his youth appeared like dreams before him, and he recalled the serious moment when his father placed him at the entrance of the two roads—he leading to a peaceful, sunny place, covered with flowers, fruits and resounding with soft, sweet songs; the other leading to a deep, dark cave, which was endless, where poison flowed instead of water and where devils and poisonous snakes hissed and crawled.
He looked towards the sky and cried painfully,“O, youth, return! O, my father, place me once more at the entrance to life, and I’ll choose the better way!”But both his father and the days of his youth had passed away.
He saw the lights flowing away in the darkness. These were the days of his wasted life; he saw a star fall from the sky and disappeared, and this was the symbol of himself. His remorse, which was like a sharp arrow, struck deeply into his heart. Then he remembered his friends in his childhood, who entered on life together with him. But they had made their way to success and were now honoured and happy on this New Year’s Night.
The clock in the high church tower struck and the sound made him remember his parents’early love for him. They had taught him and prayed to God for his good. But he chose the wrong way. With shame and grief he dared no longer look towards that heaven where his father lived. His darkened eyes were full of tears, and with a despairing effort, he burst out a cry,“Come back, my early days! Come back!”
And his youth did return, for all this was only a dream, which he had on New Year’s Night. He was still young though his faults were real; he had not yet entered the deep, dark cave, and he was still free to walk on the road which leads to the peaceful and sunny land.
Those who still linger on the entrance of life, hesitating to choose the bright road, remember that when years are passed and your feet stumble on the dark mountains, you will cry bitterly, but in vain:“O youth, return! O give me back my early days!”
參考譯文
新年之夜，一位上了年紀的人佇立在窗前。他抬起充滿哀傷的眼睛，仰望著深藍色的天空，星星在那裏遊移著，如同朵朵百合散落在清澈而平靜的湖麵上。接著，他把目光投向地麵，看到幾個比他更加絕望的人正走向他們的終點——墳墓。在通往人生終點的道路上，他已經走過了六十個驛站，除了過失和悔恨之外，他一無所獲。現在，他健康欠佳，精神空虛，心情憂鬱，缺少晚年應有的舒適和安逸。
年輕的時光如夢幻般浮現在他眼前，他回想起父親將他放在人生道路的入口處時那個關鍵的時刻。當時，擺在他麵前的有兩條道路：一條通向和平寧靜、陽光燦爛的地方，那裏充滿花果，回**著柔和甜美的歌聲；另一條則通向黑暗無底的深淵，那裏流淌著毒汁而非清水，惡魔肆虐，毒蛇橫行。
他仰望著天空，痛苦地叫喊：“啊，青春，請回來吧！啊，父親，請把我重新放到人生道路的起點上吧，我將會作出更好的選擇。”然而，父親和他的青春都已離他遠去。
他看著燈光被黑暗吞沒，那就是他虛度的時光；他看見一顆星星從空中隕落、消逝，那正是他自身的寫照，悔恨如同利箭深深刺進他的心髒。然後，他回想起兒時的朋友，他們曾與他一同踏上人生的旅程，現在已走在成功的道路上，受到人們的尊敬，此時正沉浸在歡度新年的幸福中。
教堂高塔上的鍾聲敲響了，這讓他回憶起父母早年對他的愛，他們曾給予他諄諄教誨，曾為他的幸福向上帝祈禱。但他偏偏選擇了人生的歧途。羞愧和憂傷使他再也不敢正視他父親所在的天堂。他雙眼無神，飽含著淚水，在絕望中，他奮力高喊：“回來吧，我那逝去的歲月！回來吧！”
他的青春真的回來了，因為上麵所發生的一切隻不過是他在新年所做的一場夢。他依然年輕，當然他也曾真的犯過錯誤，但還不至於墮入黑暗深淵，他仍然可以自由地走在通向寧靜和光明的道路上。
正在人生路口徘徊，正在猶豫是否要選擇光明大道的年輕人啊，你們一定要記住：當你青春已逝，在黑暗的群山中舉步維艱、跌跌撞撞的時候，你才會痛心疾首、徒勞無功地呼喊：“啊，回來吧，青春！啊，把我美好的年華還給我吧！”
心靈小語
人生沒有彩排，每天都是現場直播。當我們站在人生路口時，更應該仔細斟酌，走一條無悔的道路。
Ace in the Hole
Keywords and expressions
burst[b:st]
作動詞，譯為“(使)爆炸；突然發作；破裂”
作名詞，譯為“爆炸”
短語：burst into (= rush into)突然爆發
burst out突然激動地喊叫；突然開始做
burst forth突然出現
burst with充滿
a burst of laughter突發的笑聲
a sudden burst of anger怒火的迸發
例：1. His appearance on the platform was greeted with a burst of applause.
他一登上台就博得了一陣熱烈的掌聲。
2. The storm burst and we all got wet.
暴風雨突然襲來，我們都淋濕了。
Chunks in Practice
Grammar analysis
He raised his mournful eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake.
他抬起充滿哀傷的眼睛，仰望著深藍色的天空，星星在那裏遊移著，如同朵朵百合散落在清澈而平靜的湖麵上。
注：句中用比喻的手法描述景色，十分有畫麵感，這也是散文的一大特點。
Show Window
Write a sentence that imitates the sentence in the above activity.
_______________________________________________________________
快樂吧！
Be Happy!
勞埃德·莫裏斯/ Lloyd Morris
勞埃德·莫裏斯（1613—1680），英國作家，作品富於機智幽默，著有《格言集》等。本文以演繹的手法論述快樂對人的影響。作者先借梅斯菲爾德的詩引出“快樂”與“智慧”的關係，接著以人在快樂時的種種心理反應，點出快樂無處不在。最後再給予肯定的結論：快樂是智慧的開端。
Ace in the Hole
Understand these new words before you read this article.
1. startle ['stɑ:tl] v. 使嚇一跳；使驚奇
2. arrest [?'rest] v. 吸引
3. bud [b?d] n. 芽，萌芽
"The days that make us happy make us wise."
——John Masefield
When I first read this line by England’s Poet Laureate, it startled me. What did Masefield mean? Without thinking about it much, I had always assumed that the opposite was true. But his sober assurance was arresting. I could not forget it.
Finally, I seemed to grasp his meaning and realized that here was a profound observation. The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception, not fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom, and without the blind spots caused by fear.
Active happiness—not mere satisfaction or contentment—often comes suddenly, like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what kind of wisdom has accompanied it. The grass is greener, bird songs are sweeter, the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable. Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision.
Nor are the insights of happiness limited to what is near around you. Unhappy, with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is cut short as though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles.
The long vista is there for the seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about you—people, thoughts, emotions, pressures—are now fitted into the larger scene. Everything assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the beginning of wisdom.
參考譯文
“快樂的日子，使我們聰明。”
———約翰·梅斯菲爾德
第一次讀到英國桂冠詩人梅斯菲爾德這行詩的時候，我非常驚訝，它真正的寓意是什麽呢？不仔細考慮的話，我一直認為這句詩倒過來才對。不過他的冷靜與自信卻俘獲了我，所以我一直無法忘記這句詩。
終於，我好像領會了他的意思，意識到其中蘊涵著深刻的觀察思考。快樂帶來的智慧存在於清晰的心靈感覺中，不因憂慮、擔心而困惑，不因絕望、厭煩而遲鈍，不因惶恐而出現盲點。
跳動的快樂——不僅是滿足或愜意——會突然到來，就像四月的春雨或是花蕾的綻放，然後你發覺智慧已隨快樂而來。草兒更綠，鳥兒的歌聲更加美妙，朋友的缺點也變得更加可以理解、原諒。快樂就像一副眼鏡，可以修正你精神的視力。
快樂的視野並不受你周圍事物的局限。隻不過當你不快樂的時候，思想便轉向你感情上的苦惱，眼界也就被心靈之牆隔斷了。而當你快樂的時候，這道牆便崩塌了。
你的眼界更寬了。腳下的大地，身旁的世界——人們、思想、情感、壓力——現在都溶進了一個更加宏偉的情境中，每件事都恰如其分。這就是智慧的開端。
Seize Your Time
According to the article, match each of the following words or phrases
with its meaning.
(1) shortcominga. belong to a particular group
(2) fit intob. show great intellectual depth and understanding
(3) forgivablec. fault or weakness which someone or something hase
(4) profoundd. understand something bad
Practicing for Better Learning
Read the passage carefully and then answer the following questions.
1. What can you learn from Masefield’s words?
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What will happen if you feel unhappy?
Now a Try
Translate the following sentences into English.
1.快樂就像一台淨化器，可以淨化我們的內心世界。
_____________________________________________________________________________
2.他離去時悲傷絕望的眼神，使我對那天發生的事無法忘懷。
_____________________________________________________________________________
3.露西好像心事重重。
愛是艱難的
Love Is Difficult
勒內·馬利亞·裏爾克/ Rainer Maria Rilke
勒內·馬利亞·裏爾克（1875—1926），奧地利詩人。大學攻讀哲學、藝術與文學史。裏爾克的詩歌盡管充滿孤獨痛苦情緒和悲觀虛無思想，但藝術造詣很高。本篇節選自他的書信集《給一位青年詩人的十封信》。
Ace in the Hole
Understand these new words before you listen to this article.
1. entrust [in'tr?st] v. 委托，信托
2. solitude ['s?litju:d] n. 孤獨；隱居
3. inducement [in'dju:sm?nt] n. 誘因
It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginner sin everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning-time is always a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, is solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent). it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves (“to hearken and to hammer day and night”), may young people use the love that is given to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them (who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves); it is the ultimate, is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.
參考譯文
愛，很好。因為愛是艱難的。當一個人去愛另一個人，這也許是神給予我們的最艱難、最重大的任務，是最後的考驗與測試，是最崇高的工作，別的工作都不過是為此而做的準備。所以那些一切都還剛剛開始的青年們還不能去愛，他們必須要學習。必須用他們整個的生命，用一切的力量，用集聚了他們寂寞、痛苦和榮譽感的心去學習愛。在學習時期這個長久而專注的過程中，愛就會永遠地銘刻心扉——深深的寂寞中孤獨地等待，是為了所愛的人。愛的要義並不是什麽傾心、獻身，或二人的結合（那會是怎樣的一種結合呢？是一種糊塗的、不負責任的、輕率的結合）。它對於個人是一種崇高的動力，是去成熟並實現自身的圓滿，去完成一個世界，是為了另一個人而完成一個自己的世界，這是一個艱巨的、不可妥協的目標，用堅定的信念，向遠方召喚。青年們應把愛當做他們的課業、他們工作的意義，並在其中（“晝夜不停地探索、錘煉”）使用那些給予他們的愛。至於傾心、獻身以及結合，還不是他們所能做的（他們還需長時間地克製、積累），那是最後的終點，也許是我們現在還幾乎不能達到的境界。
Learning for Better Understanding
Listen to the article, and then try to answer the following questions.
1. Why should young people make great efforts on studying?
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What is the final destination of learning and working?
Chunks in Practice
Listen to the following passage twice and then fill
in the blanks with appropriate words.
1.It is also good to love: because love is______. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult______that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the______and proof, the work for which all other work is merely______.
2.But______is always a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, is solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of______for the person who loves.
Now a Try
Listen to the article again, and then try to write a summary
that is no more than 25 words.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________