Youth

People are always talking about ‘the problem of youth’. If there is one – which I take leave to doubt – then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves. Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings – people just like their elders. There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.

When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain – that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.

I find young people exciting. They have an air of freedom, and they not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things. All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things. It’s as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures. All that is in my mind when I meet a young person. He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders – as if mere age were a reason for respect. I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.

单词

leave n. permission允许，许可

He did it without my leave.
The senator asked leave to take the floor. 起立发言

I take leave to do sth. 请允许我冒昧地…
forgive me for doing …
I take the liberty of doing
I venture to do

I take leave to say / doubt / think …
Forgive me for saying so, but what you said is nonsense.
I take the liberty of asking you a question.
I venture to say that you are making a dangerous mistake.

fundamentals n. 基本原理，基本规则
basic rules, ideas or principles

the fundamentals of philosophy / economics

原则，基础 the basics the rudiments the first principles
fundamental a. basic, essential 根本的

the fundamental difference
the fundamental cause of the problem

glorious a. 光辉灿烂的，荣耀的，辉煌的

a glorious achievement
All the Chinese compatriots should take concerted efforts to create a glorious future of the Chinese nation.
美好的未来 a rosy / brilliant / splendid / magnificent future

glory
glory days 光辉岁月

rub n. 难题，困难，困境
a problem or difficult situation

Here is the rub.
That’s where the rub is.

rub sb. the wrong way 惹到 … 了
get on one’s nerves

commitment n. 信奉，信仰；承诺
commitment to sth. 对 … 的信仰

have a sincere commitment to religion / communism 对宗教/共产主义的信仰

make a commitment to do, promise 承诺

She promised to stand by him, and once you make that commitment you have to see it through.

honor / fulfill one’s commitment 履行对 … 的承诺

We must honor our commitments to small nations.

devotion n. 热爱
devotion to sb. / sth.
love

devotion to the cause of education 献身教育事业

affection 慈爱，柔情。
parental affection, maternal / paternal affection for … 父母的、母亲的、父亲的爱
affectionate 充满柔情的（NCE3 飞猫）

infatuation （不理性的）爱

Their infatuation with each other won’t last.

cosmic a. 宇宙的
cosmos 宇宙 comic 喜剧的，可笑的 comet 彗星
cosmetics （商场上瓶瓶罐罐的）化妆品
make-up （涂抹在脸上的）化妆品

She doesn’t wear make-up. (right)
She doesn’t wear cosmetics. (wrong)

universal 普遍的、全人类的，一般不翻译为“宇宙的”

(3-29课) Certain funny situations have a universal appeal.

suburban a. 郊区的；见识不广的，偏狭的
suburban 郊区的
provincial （首府之外的）+目光短浅的
rural （中性）农村的 pastoral （褒义）田园的
suburban <= sub-（在下面；在周围） + urban 城市
metropolitan a. 大都会的 metropolis n. 主要城市
cosmopolitan a. 世界性的 cosmopolis n. 国际大都市

课文

第一句：People are always talking about ‘the problem of youth’.
（复习 3-2课）Our vicar is always raising money for on cause or another.

第二句：If there is one – which I take leave to doubt – then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves.
it is / was … that / who … 强调
then 和 if 隔着较远，体现逻辑关系，可不加。

If … – which I take leave to doubt – then it is … that / who …, not …

造句：如果真有天堂的话（请允许我对此表示怀疑），那么也是有钱有势的人（the rich and powerful）去的地方，而不是穷人自己可以去的地方。
If there is heaven – which I take leave to doubt – then it is then rich and powerful who can enter, not the poor themselves.

第三句：Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings – people just like their elders.
get down to sth. / doing: to start doing sth. seriously

Let’s get down to business.
Let’s get down to discussing the details.

agree v. accept / admit / acknowledge / recognize / concede

All these countries recognize / concede that there is only one China.

第四句：There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.

only
just / merely / no more than one difference, a single / solitary difference (复习, 3课)

antithesis 对比

When poverty comes in at the door, love leaps out at the window.
A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman takes twenty minutes to make a fool of him.

That’s where

That’s where you and I differ.
That’s where I draw the line. 这是我的底线。

第五句：When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain – that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem.
adolescent n. & adj. 青少年
adolescence n. 青春期

When I was an adolescent, …
my adolescent daughter

juvenile n. （法律上的）青少年
juvenile delinquency 青少年犯罪
juvenile delinquent 少年犯

regard / see / count A as B
think of / look on / conceive of A as B
consider A (to be) B
deem / reckon A to be B
be recognized / acknowledged as …

(3-23课) If you lived in the Mediterranean, for instance, you would consider octopus a great delicacy.
Heifetz was recognized / acknowledged as the greatest violinist of the 20^th century.

第六句：For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.
for one thing … (for another …)

“Why won’t you come to New York with me?”
“For one thing, I don’t like flying, and for another, I can’t afford it.”
（这里 for another 是介词短语，不能引导句子。）

on the one hand … on the other (hand) … （矛盾、转折）

On the one hand I’d like a job which pays more, but on the other (hand) I enjoy the work I’m doing at the moment.

not that …, but that …

Not that I love Caesar less, but that I love Rome more. – Shakespeare ‘’
吾爱吾师，吾更爱真理
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth. => Not that I love my teacher less, but that I love truth more.

It is not that … but (that) … 不是因为，但是

(3-57课) It was not that I actually remembered anything at all. But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, …
(考研英译汉) It is not that the scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, differ in the principles of their construction or manner of working; but that the latter is a much finer apparatus and of course much more accurate in its measurement than the former.

be engaged in sth. / doing

(复习 2课) How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf?

第十一句：It’s as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures.
as if … / as though … （虚拟语气）

Don’t act as if you were the only pebble on the beach. 别自以为是。

in some sense 某种意义上来说
to some degree / extent 某种程度上
in some measure 有一点

I think he may be right in some sense.
I agree with you to some degree / extent.
The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self. – 爱因斯坦
一个人真正的价值主要取决于他在什么程度和什么意义上从自我中解脱了出来。

human being, intelligent being … 这里 being 指一种存在
creature 这里作者指人类

in / by contrast to / with …
in / by comparison to / with …
compared to / with …

第十二句：All that is in my mind when I meet a young person.
be in one’s mind 记在心中
be on one’s mind 牵挂着…

第十三句：He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders – as if mere age were a reason for respect.
ill- : badly
ill-mannered, ill-tempered, ill-advised 不明智的, ill-bred 没有教养的, ill-educated

(28课) Nor is it only the ignorant and ill-educated person who was such faith in the bottle of medicine.

turn to … for …

The child turned to his mother for comfort.
The refugees turned to the embassy for protection.
He had to turn to his brother for help, because his brother is the only person he could trust.
=> He had to turn for help to his brother, the only person the could trust.

age 老年时期

An idle youth, a needy age. 少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲。

本文思路
claim
response
reasons for response
relevant example(s)
reaffirmation

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新东方《新概念英语（第四册）》（李延隆老师）课程来源于 YouTube.

Coding 的痕迹

新概念英语4-5 Youth

Youth

单词

课文

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