晨读英语美文100篇 Passage 68 The Pain of Youth(Ⅱ)
 音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.33]Passage 68 The Pain of Youth(Ⅱ)[00:05.69]There is no test of character more severe or difficult to bear than the suspense of waiting. [00:14.66]The man who can act eases his soul under the greatest calamities; [00:20.79]but he who is compelled to wait, unless he be of hardy fibre, eats his heart out in a futile despair. [00:30.75]If the troops were compelled to halt under the relentless guns of masked batteries, [00:37.75]they would be caught up in the stir of charge. [00:41.47]It will lead to the demoralisation and scatter of the troop, which would result in great loss. [00:49.90]Now, the characteristic trial of youth is this experience of waiting at a moment [00:58.42]when the whole nature craves expression and the satisfaction of action. [01:03.90]The greater the volume of energy in the man who has yet to find his vocation and place, [01:12.32]the more trying the ordeal. [01:14.73]There are moments in the life of the youth [01:18.23]when it seems impossible to realise any of its dreams [01:22.83]and the splendour of the dreams filled the young soul with despair. [01:27.53]The clearer the consciousness of the possession of the power, [01:32.34]the stronger the fear that he could not find ways to contribute to the society. [01:38.58]The reality of this crisis in spiritual experience [01:43.84]—the adjustment between the personality and the physical, [01:48.43]social, and industrial order in which it must find its place and task [01:54.67]—is the measure of its possible painfulness. [01:58.27]His pain has its roots in his ignorance of his own powers and of the world. [02:06.04]He strives again and again to put himself in touch with organised work; [02:14.03]he takes up one task after another in a fruitless endeavour to succeed. [02:20.48]He does not know what he is fitted to do, [02:24.31]and he turns helplessly from one form of work for which he has no faculty [02:30.77]to another for which he has less. [02:33.94]His friends begin to think of him as a ne'er-do-well; [02:37.99]and, more pathetic still, the shadow of failure begins to darken his own spirit. [02:45.65]And yet it may be that in this halting, stumbling, ineffective human soul, [02:52.70]vainly striving to put its hand to its task, [02:57.18]there is some rare gift, some splendid talent, [03:01.71]waiting for the ripe hour and the real opportunity! [03:05.83]In such a crisis sympathetic comprehension is invaluable, [03:11.58]but it is rarely given, [03:13.77]and the youth works out his problem in isolation. |
