【晨读美文四级篇】我惧怕岁末年关（1/2）

英语自学网

一杯香醇的文化美酒
集生活与艺术于一身
经典美文，听写——让心情舒畅！
每天上午10点准时与大家相见。
今日名言：He who neglects today will be neglected by tomorrow. 忽视今天的人将被明天所遗忘。
Hints:
William James
"Principles"
Goethe
Faust
Gladstone
Laplace"I dread to come to the end of the year," said a friend to me recently, "It makes me realize I am growing old."

William James, the great psychologist, said that most men are old fogies at 25. He was right. Most men at 25 are satisfied with their jobs. They have accumulated the little stock of prejudices that they call their "Principles" and closed their minds to all new ideas. They have ceased to grow.

The minute man ceases to grow – no matter what how old he is – is the minute he begins to be old. On the other hand, the really great man never grows old.

Goethe passed out at 83, and finished his Faust only a few years earlier. Gladstone took up a new language when he was 70. Laplace, the astronomer, was still at work when death caught up with him at 78. He died crying, "What we know is nothing. What we do not know is immense."“我惧怕临近岁末年尾”，一位朋友最近对我说：“它使我意识到我正在变老。”

伟大的心理学家威廉?詹姆斯就曾说过，大多数人“25岁时就成了守旧落伍者”。他的话是对的。大多数人25岁时就满足于他们的工作。他们已经积累了一些他们称之为“原则”的偏见，对所有新的思想关闭心灵之门；他们已经停止成长。

一个人一旦停止成长--不管他年龄多大--他就开始衰老。反之，真正的伟人从来不会衰老。

歌德享年83岁，逝世前几年才完成《浮士德》；格莱斯顿70岁时又开始学习一门外国语；法国天文学家拉普拉斯78岁死时还在工作着。临死前，他大声喊道：“我们所知的太少太少，我们所不知的太多太多。”