新概念英语第四册自学导读：四:第五课青年(上)

Lesson 5 Youth
第五课青年

by FIELDEN HUGHES
from Out of the Air, The Listener

5-1. People are always talking about 'the problem of youth'.

【译文】人们总是在谈论“青年问题”。

5-2. If there is one—which I take leave to doubt—then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves.

【译文】假如确有这个问题的话——我冒昧对此表示怀疑——那么这个问题是由老年人而非青年人臆造的。

【讲解】 if there is one中的one指a problem of youth。which I take leave to doubt系插入语。the young意为“年轻人”。the＋形容词表示具有某种性质的一类人。

【单词和短语】

take leave to do sth.:冒昧做某事，擅自做某事。

5-3. Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings—people just like their elders.

【译文】让我们来认真研究一些基本事实：承认青年和他们的长辈一样终究也是人。

【讲解】people just like their elders作the young的同位语，对其进一步解说。

【单词和短语】

fundamentals：基本原则（或原理），根本法则（或规律）；基础。

例如：
master the fundamentals of a trade 掌握某行业的基本规律

5-4. 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.

【译文】老年人和年轻人只有一个区别：青年人有光辉灿烂的前景，而老年人的辉煌已成为过去。问题的症结恐怕就在于此。

【讲解】a young one中one替代man以避免重复。关于句中的两个冒号，前一个介绍difference的同位语，后一个引出说明性内容。

【单词和短语】

the rub：困难，障碍。

例如：
There’s the rub. 难就难在这儿。
We’d like to travel, but the rub is that we have no money.
我们喜欢旅行，问题是没有钱。

5-5. 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.

【译文】我十几岁时，总觉得自己年轻，懵懵懂懂——我感到我就像一所大学校里的新生，假如我当时真的极为有趣地被人看作是个问题，我真会感到非常得意。

【讲解】that I was a new…problem作felt的宾语，破折号表示引出被强调的部分。

请注意句中的暗喻（metaphor）修辞手法，作者把社会比作a huge school，把自己比作a new boy。I would have been very pleased是表示与过于事实不符的虚拟结构。to be regarded as…a problem相当于if anyone regarded me as…a problem，表示条件，作原因状语，修饰pleased。汉语的条件句一般位于主句之前，所以这里的to be regarded as…a problem译成汉语时应前移。so interesting as a problem作something的定语。

【单词和短语】

uncertain的名词形式是uncertainty。

5-6. 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.

【译文】因为这至少使我具有某种个性，这正是年轻人孜孜以求的事情之一。

【讲解】that指being a problem gives you a certain identity。

【单词和短语】

identity：个性，特性（the qualities and attitudes that a person or group of people have, that make them different from other people），

例如：

The planners decided to enlarge the four villages and preserve their distinct identities.
设计者们决定扩大这4个村庄并保留它们各自的特色。

The struggle of people in that area to maintain their own identities is continuing.
那地区人民维护自身独特性的斗争仍在继续。

5-7. I find young people exciting.

【译文】我觉得年轻人令人振奋。