Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure¹（诱惑） of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what's next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless² station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

 

An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately³ past boulders⁴（岩石，大卵石） and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede⁵（后退，减弱）, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged⁶ in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

 

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity,of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

 

Years may wrinkle the skin,but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

点击收听单词发音