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.新概念英语培训班

【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.