As food is to the body, so is learning to the mind. Our bodies grow and muscles develop with the intake¹ of adequate nutritious² food. Likewise, we should keep learning day by day to maintain our keen mental power and expand our intellectual capacity. Constant learning supplies us with inexhaustible fuel for driving us to sharpen our power of reasoning, analysis, and judgment³. Learning incessantly⁴ is the surest way to keep pace with the times in the information age, and reliable warrant of success in times of uncertainty⁵.

 

Once learning stops, vegetation sets in. It is a common fallacy to regard school as the only workshop for the acquisition of knowledge. On the contrary, learning should be a never-ending process, from the cradle to the grave. With the world changing so fast, to cease learning for just a few days will make a person lag behind. What's worse, the animal instinct dormant⁶（静止的） deep in our sub-conscious will come to life. Weakening our will to pursue our noble ideas, undermining our determination to sweep away obstacles to our success and strangling our desire for the refinement⁷ of our character. Lack of learning will inevitably⁸ lead to the stagnation⁹（停滞） of the mind, or even worse, its fossilization. Therefore, to stay mentally young, we have to take learning as a lifelong career.

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