After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to three a.m. in reading popular science.

她过了八十以后，常睡不着觉，所以从午夜到凌晨三点总要读些科普读物。

I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old.

我相信她从来没有工夫去注意自己是不是在日益衰老。

This, I think, is the proper recipe for remaining young.

我认为，要想永葆青春，这是最好的办法。

If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of your future.

你要是有广泛的爱好和强烈的兴趣，而且还有能力参加一些活动，你就没有理由去考虑自己已经活了多少岁这样的具体数字，更没有理由去考虑自己的余年大概是很有限的了。

As regards health, I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness.

谈到健康问题，我就没有什么可说的了，因为我没怎么生过病。

I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep awake.

我想吃什么就吃什么，想喝什么就喝什么，眼睛睁不开了就睡觉。

I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.

我从来不为对身体有益而摘什么活动，然而，实际上，我喜欢做的事大多是有助于增进身体健康的。

Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age.

从心理方面来说，到了老年，有两种危险倾向需要注意防止。

One of these is undue absorption in the past.

一是过分地怀念过去。

It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead.

老想着过去，总觉得过去怎么好怎么好，或者总是为已故的朋友而忧伤，这是不妥的。

One's thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which there is something to be done.

一个人应当考虑未来，考虑一些可以有所作为的事情。

This is not always easy; one's own past is a gradually increasing weight.

要做到这一点并非总是很容易的;自己过去的经历就是一个越来越沉重的包袱。

It is easy to think to oneself that one's emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one's mind more keen.

人们往往会对自己说，我过去感情多么丰富，思想多么敏锐，现在不行了。

If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true.

如果真是这样的话，那就不要去想它，而如果你不去想它，情形就很可能不是这样了。

The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality.

另一件需要避免的事就是老想和年轻人待在一起，希望从青年的活力中汲取力量。

When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous.

孩子们长大以后，就希望独立生活，如果你还像在他们年幼时那样关心他们，你就会成为他们的累赘，除非他们特别麻木不仁。

I do not mean that one should be without interest in them, but one's interest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional.

我不是说一个人不应当关心孩子，而是说这种关心主要应该是多为他们着想，可能的话，给他们一些接济，而不应该过分地动感情。

Animals become indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves, but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.

动物，一旦它们的后代能够自己照料自己，它们就不管了；但是人，由于抚养子女的时间长，是难以这样做的。

责任编辑：admin