Youth

　　Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of pink cheeks, red lips and flexible knees; it is a matter of will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotion, it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

　　Youth means a dispositional control of courage over cowardice, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. 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.

　　Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human beings’ heart the looking forward to wonder, the endless child-like appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living.① In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it is receiving messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from God, you are young.②

　　When the aerials are down,and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.

　　詞匯斟酌

　　imagination n. 想象力，幻覺

　　dispositional a. 有某種性情的

　　cowardice n. 怯懦 膽小

　　appetite n. 胃口，食欲

　　enthusiasm n. 熱情，積極性

　　wrinkle n. 皺紋;v. 起皺

　　aerial n. 天線

　　cynicism n. 憤世嫉俗，玩世不恭

　　pessimism n. 悲觀，悲觀主義

　　optimism n. 樂觀，樂觀主義

　　電腦科技的發展體現在社會生活的方方面面，教育作為創造智慧的第一生產線也受到了這種普遍趨勢的影響。筆記本電腦已經悄悄進軍大學校園。

　　Laptops Enter into Campus

　　Laptop computers are popular all over the world. People use them everywhere. They connect people to their work place. In the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.

　　Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program allowing students to study schoolwork anywhere they want. Within five years, each of the 1500 students at the college will receive a laptop. The laptops are a part of a $10 million computer program at Westlake. Students with laptops will also have access to the Internet.① In addition, they will be able to use e-mail to “speak” with their teachers, classmates, or families.② However, the most important part of the program is that students will be able to use computers without going to computer labs. They can work with it anywhere they like!

　　Because of the many changes in computer technology, laptop use in higher education is workable. As laptops become more powerful, they become more similar to desktop computers. In addition, portable computers can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources. State higher education officials are studying how laptops can help students.

　　At Westlake College, more than 60 percent of the staff uses the computers. The laptops will allow all teachers to use computers in their lessons. As one Westlake teacher said, “He ere we are in the middle of Virginia and we’re giving students a window on the world. They can see everything and do everything.”

　　詞匯斟酌

　　?laptop n. 膝上型電腦，便攜式電腦，筆記本電腦

　　?workable a. 可使用的

　　?desktop n. 桌上型電腦

　　?portable a. 手提的，便攜的