【精品资料】If I were a Freshman Again

【精品资料】If I were a Freshman Again If I were a Freshman Again——Thomas Arkle Clark 1) It is the habit of age to give sage advice to youth. One of the pastimes in which everyone periodically indulges is the pleasant hallucination that if he were given the opportunity to live his youth over again he would do it differently and more successfully. We are all of us, even though we have no more than reached middle age, given to regretting our neglected opportunities and our lost youth. It gives one a virtuous feeling in imagination to dodge all error but it is extremely doubtful if many of us, even if we had a second chance, would avoid many of the pitfalls into which we stumbled, or follow a straighter path than that by which we have so far come. If it is merely pleasant for us to conjecture what we should do if we had a second try at it, it may be profitable for those who are younger to listen. If only foresight could be as accurate as the backward view! Work Fewer Hours 2) If I were a freshman again I should not work so many hours as I did. I put in enough hours with my books in my hands, but I did not accomplish much. I had little concentration. Many students whom I knew, and I was one of this sort, spent a great deal of time in getting ready to work. With a book in hand they look out of the window at the clouds or at the pretty girls passing along the street, and all the time they deceive themselves with the idea that they are working. 3) Many an evening, when the work was heavy, I would determine to begin early and get it over with; but I could spend half an hour in arranging my books and getting myself seatedin a comfortable chair. All this time I imagined I was working. I spent as much time in goading myself on to duties that I should have liked to shirk or in getting ready to work as I did in actual labor. If I were a freshman I should plan my work, I should try to develop concentration ― I should work harder but not so long. Learn to Work with People about Me 4) I should learn to work with people about me. As it was I lived a somewhat isolated life. I did my reading and my studying alone, and though there were some advantages in this method, there were serious objections. Now I must often work under different conditions than those by which I was surrounded in college; there is work to be done where there is no quiet, and I do it with difficulty. As I tried on a crowded ocean steamer to put these wandering thoughts on paper I was constantly annoyed by the confusion about me and by the spasmodic attempts at conversation made by a well-intentioned but misguided young man at my side. If I had learned to work under different conversations I might have turned the conversation aside as a steep roof sheds the rain. I believe it is a great advantage for a young man to do his work himself, but he should not subject himself to the slavery of doing it alone. Take More Difficult Work 5) I should take as a freshman, if I had my work to do over again, more work that I have noespecial fondness for or that I find difficult. I like an easy time as well as any one, and I donot wish to give the impression that I think it an error for a student to follow the profession he enjoys or to do the work he likes. In point of fact I believe that a student should choose those lines of work along which his tastes lead him. I think it very likely that those things we do most easily we shall do best; but I have found that training comes through struggle, and that those people are developed most who resist most, or who struggle against difficulty and opposition and overcome. I had known a good many geniuses, but they generally had the most commonplace careers because they never learned to do difficult or disagreeable things. 6) Students come into my office every day who want to get out of work or to drop a subject,or to cut a class exercise for no better reason than that they find the duty difficult or the instructor or the subject dull. Much of the work of life is not pleasant. Half the things I amforced to do during the busy days of the college year are unpleasant things and things I dislike doing. I have been forced to learn to give these things my best attention whether I like them or not. I wish I had learned in my freshman year to do more such things. 7) Just yesterday as I was sitting at the breakfast table talking to a young freshman, in whom I have a rather vital interest, as to next year's course, I suggested a subject which I thought good for him to take. "Is it easy?" was his first question, and when I answered in the negative his interest waned. In the world in which we must in time work there are few easy roads, few snap courses. We shall be forced to do a great many hard things. If I were a freshman I should learn to do such things early. Become A Ready Speaker 8) Like a great many people, I suppose I am not now doing the work that as a college student I planned to do. I am in no sense a fatalist, but I am convinced that men have their work chosen for them quite as often as they themselves choose it. If I had supposed that I should be called upon to speak on the most unforeseen occasions and upon the most unfamiliar topics, I should have given myself while in college the practice which I believe isthe method everyone must employ if he is to become a ready speaker. I have learned that, sooner or later, every intelligent man is called upon publicly to express his ideas, and no matter how abundant these thoughts may be, he will suffer much pain and have little success unless he has had pretty regular and persistent practice. 9) I ran across an old classmate last spring, an engineer of no little repute, whom I had not met since the day of our graduation. "How would you change your course," I said to him, expecting that he would long for more mathematics, "if you had it all to do over again?" 10) "I should learn to write and I should learn to speak," he answered, "and I should begin as a freshman. As it was I avoided every opportunity to do either, with the idea that only ministers and lawyers have need of such practice, and I suffer for it every day. My boy is to be an engineer, but I am going to see that he does not make the mistake that I made. " 11) When I am called upon unexpectedly to speak, and my knees shake, and my voice falters, and the word that I long for comes with difficulty, or fails to come at all, I agree with my classmate, and I feel sure that if I were a freshman again I should learn to speak correctly and without notes. 【精选】《假如我再是大学一年级生》——托马斯?克拉克 老年人一般都好对青年人作聪明指点。我们每个人都不免不时坠入的一种消遣方式 便是做如意梦:假如我们再有可能将自己的青春重过一次，那我们准会过得不同和 过得更好。我们几乎人人都好迫悔过去，惋惜自己那些错过的良机，逝去的年华， 尽管我们自己也不过刚到中年。能在想象之中避去一切过失，倒也能予人以一种圣 洁之感。不对，真的机会重来，我们中许多人是否便都能不再陷入过去的失误，不 再重走自己一向未能避开的弯路，这事也还大可怀疑。但即使这类再有机会便再试 再干的假设对于我们仅是一点安慰，这些话让年轻人听听也会不为无益。只要是这 前瞻能和那后顾一样地不失正确～ 假如我再是大学一年级生，我一定不再工作那么长的时间。过去我在书本上费去的 工夫不少，但取得的成效不大。我往往心思不够集中。我的不少同学——我自己也 是一样——往往工作前准备的时间太长。他们一书在手，心思却已跑开，不是望望 窗外浮云，就是看看街头女郎，而这工夫却自以为是在埋头苦干。 不少晚上，功课繁重，而我也想早点开始，把它赶完;但光是整理书和弄个舒适座 位就能化去半个小时。 而我还以为已经是在工作。 结果下决心 (以便担负起一件 自己本来有心躲避的责任)和作准备的时间竟与我实际工作的时间相等。假如我再 是大学一年级生，我一定要工作订出计划，干活学会专心——工作要更加勤奋努 力，但时间却不求其过长。 我一定要学会与周围的人共事合作。事实上我过去的生活不免有些与世隔绝。我的 读书学习往往只是独自进行。这种方法有它一定的长处，但也不无严重缺点。目前 我所居处的工作环境已和我过去上大学时的条件不大相同;往往有不少事要在缺乏 安静的地方去做，因而工作起来颇感吃力。比如当我此刻想把我的许多飘浮思想在 这十分拥挤的甲板之上写下来时，这周围的混乱糟杂，特别是我身边一名好心但不 懂事的青年的阵阵谈话声音，就使得我不堪其扰。如果我过去学会在不同的环境下 进行工作，我便能把这些声音驱散，仿佛屋顶挡住雨水那样。我认为，一个年轻人 能依靠自己做好工作乃是一件有益的事，只是他不可以完全陷入单干的束缚。 假如我有可能将自己的工作重做一遍，那么作为一名大学一年级生，我一定要多去做一点在我并无特殊爱好，或者感觉困难的工作。好逸恶劳，我也难免，另外我也不想留给人这样的印象，仿佛我会认为一个学生选择了他的心爱行业，或做了他爱做的事，便是错的。事实上我倒一向认为，他应当选择那些他个人的兴趣可以引导他前进的工作。我还认为，我们做起来最感轻松的事也就最能做好。但我又发现，本领来自奋斗;那些得到最充分发展的人便是最能抵制困难的人，便是能向困难和阻力进行斗争并将其克服的人。我自己就遇到过不少很有才分的人，但他们后来的成就大都极其平庸，这主要因为他们不曾学会去做艰苦或不顺心的工作。 每天到办公室来找我的学生当中，要求解除工作者有之，要求免休课程者有之，要求消减练习课者有之，而理由不外是他们感觉某项工作太难，或某位教师、某个学科缺乏趣味。其实生活当中不愉快的工作往往是大量的。我自己在学校每年最繁忙的时候被迫去做的不少工作便都属于这类不愉快或不爱做的工作。不论我爱做与否，我都不能不强迫自己对这些事务给予极大关注。我真巴不得我在大学一年级时便已学会更多地做些这类工作。就在昨天，我在早餐桌上曾和一个我很感兴趣的一年级生谈起下一年的课程。我提到某门学科，认为修一修对他极为有益。“这课容易吗,”他一下便提出这个问题，而当他听到我的回答是否定的，他的兴趣马上降了下来。在这个我们迟早总要工作于其间的现实世界当中，所谓的捷径近便路向来不多。我们总不免要被迫去干不少头痛事情。假如我再是大学一年级生，我一定要早点学会办理这类事务的本领。 正像不少其他人的情形那样，我认为我现在所从事的工作也并不是我在大学时就曾计划做的。我并不相信宿命，但是我却不免觉得，人们按照自己意愿去选择工作的事固然有之，不是出于爱好，而是因为环境使然而做起某种事来的情形也同样不少。如果我会想到将来我有可能要在许多完全预想不到的情况下和就完全不熟悉的问题去讲这说那，那么我在当年上学时候就应当对自己进行这方面的训练，因我确信这乃是一切想要具有即席讲话能力的人都不能不采取的作法。我认识到，每一位稍有头脑的人迟早总不免要在公众场合去达他的思想意见，但是不管这些思想意见如何丰富，他仍然会感到痛苦万端和效果不佳，除非他在过去便曾做过经常和持续的努力。 去年春天我偶然遇到了一位旧日同窗，如今已是位名气不小的工程专家，而我们自毕业后彼此便再没见过。我问他道，“假如你有可能将你的事业重做一过，那你将会作点什么改变,”我讲这话时是指望他说他会多搞一点他心爱的数学。 但他的回答却是:“我会要练习写作，我会要学习讲话，我会要像个大学一年级生那样一切从头开始。但过去遇到写作或讲话机会，我总是避之唯恐不及，错误地认为那只是牧师和律师的事，结果使我后来天天为此苦恼。我的儿子就要做工程师了，我一定要使他不再重犯我以前的错误。” 而现在，当我有时不免要在无准备的情形下起来讲话时，我往往会感到膝头打颤，语言支吾，要用的词不是根本不来，就是来得过于吃力，这时我就越发感到我那同 学的话确实不错，越发确信假如我再是大学一年级生，我一定要学会准确使用语言，学会不用稿子讲话。 我还希望，如果再是大学一年级生，我能搞好一两项体育活动。这倒并非是因为我必曾或必将从其中获得多大乐趣，事实上我这样做时确实能感到乐趣，而这已经是很大收获了。一旦一个人在事业上取得某种成就(而我们人人都巴不得能够这样)，他所将面临的事务必然异常繁重，于是他也就得找点娱乐，以资排遣。对我来说，那种一打便又弹回，弹回便又再打的沙囊拍击，或者举起便又放下，放下便又再举的举重运动都不是什么乐趣。我宁愿到园中去锄锄杂草，锯锯木头，或把后院凉衣绳上的地毯拍拍干净。另外，我对一些聪明人设计发明出来的种种据说可以使人保持最佳工作状态的器械、“系统”等等，也都一概看不出多大妙处。如果我一定要从体育中寻点乐趣，那么我做这种运动时将不止是从义务观点出发;这种运动一定要具有某种体力竞赛性质，这样才能有具体的结果可得，明确的目标可循和强劲之敌可以应付。我将宁可去认真打上一局网球，也不愿对我们基督教国中的全部体操器械动一指头。我以为最能使人保持青春健壮和最有助于他适应平日生活斗争的因素再莫过于一副健全体魄，而竞赛活动就最能造成这种状态。 当然一个人到了他的大学时代后期甚至出校以后再学体育也是有可能的;但那时不仅费用较高，身体也将不如过去灵便，加之种种杂务缠身，也会使你锻炼不成。因此一个人如果在大学一年级时不曾学到某种运动技巧，只怕他以后更难学到。 假如我再是大学一年级生，我一定要至少把一个方面的工作做好。今天回想起来，我从前所关心的只是能“交代过去”。我自信，在学业方面，我还不致完全像下面一位青年那样毫无抱负，因为不久以前他竟对我讲过，对他来说，何必要求满分，六十分也尽够了。但至少我没有在课程的某个方面竭尽自己的最大努力。事实是，几乎每个大学生，包括一年级生在内，在自己的学习上都有敷衍了事的毛病。不是做功课时浪费的时间过多，就是不能按时完成作业，因而即使做了，也是做得潦草马虎。大学一年级生当中十有八九拖欠作业。我甚至听到过这种说法，即落下功课正是妙计一条，因为如若不然，一个人岂不要多做不少功课,或许是妙计吧，但是这样匆忙赶出的东西一定会粗糙肤浅之极，几乎遮掩不住。当然我也认为，确有一些工作只要做得大体不差，也就是了。但是至少在某门功课上我总是应该费些时间认真思考，并竭尽全力将它做好。一个人日后在生活中要求事事精细确实也难办到;唯其如此，能够至少在一个时期把一件工作尽心竭力地认真做好，这样将来回忆起来，也总会不失为一种欣慰吧。 我一定要比过去更加努力去熟悉亲近我的授课老师。一般一年级生头脑中的老师往往是，他们只是些古怪家伙，有时倒还很有学识，但是他们对于每个学生则是既不了解，又乏同情。有些老师确实是这样的;我在一年级时的老师当中就有这样的人。那时我的认识是，这些老师我是越少麻烦他们越好，因而如果哪天侥幸他们竟因病未来或者有事出城，那真将是好事一桩，值得大大感谢。但后来我终于认识到，我的旧日老师——包括那些起初看来很难接近的老师——乃是极其可爱的人，不仅学识丰富，而且心地宽厚，乐于助人。这种隔膜的造成主要出自我这方面。我 至今认为，我在大学期间的最大乐趣与最大收获便是我总算至少熟识了一位老师，而这件事给我带来的启示之大几乎胜过任何其他学习。如果我后来能和与我一道工作的男女同事也有更多的了解接触，那我所获取的教益又将何止目前这些～ 假如我再是大学一年级生，我一定要一有机会就去听听名人讲演，因为这些人总会由于某种原因要到各个大学城来的。那时我手头常不宽裕，所以不常去听讲演，不去听音乐或看戏倒也不无理由。但现在我很惋借这种机会难再来了。过去我一直想听听亨利?瓦德?比契尔?的讲话，但后来他真的来了，我却又嫌入场费过高而逡巡不前，想等下次再说。但这下次却永不来了，比契尔此后不久便逝世了。失掉聆听这样一位伟人讲话的机会实在是我大学生活中的一大憾事。 过去每逢我对刚入校的新生发表讲话时，我总是强调第一学年的第一要事便是学习——其余似乎都无关紧要;然而假如我再是大学一年级生，我一定要注意更多参加一些学生活动。另外我还认为，对于一年级学生来说，社交当中涉及到年轻女性的那一部分，则以推迟至以后几年为好。情感方面的事不妨等等。当然学习应当是最主要的，但也不该是独一无二的;一个一年级生如果除了上课之外再没有培养起一点别的兴趣，未必便是好事。一个只知钻书本的人将来在社会上往往不及一些活跃学生成就显著。曾经在毕业典礼上作告别演说的优秀学生日后在事业上并不一定能出人头地。这主要因为他们的兴趣过于狭窄，另外对人情世故太不了解。假如我再是大学一年级主，我一定要在正常学习之外至少培养一项爱好——以便使我在每日繁忙之余得到一点轻松，另外也好与其他人保持紧密联系。 至于这种业余爱好到底应是什么，当然只能视每个一年级生个人的情形而定。它可以是体育，如他本人对此擅长;也可以是宗教、演说或政治等等;但是不论哪种，我相信一个人总会因此而获益匪浅，只要这种爱好不仅使他能了解事，而且能了解人。 一个人能在大学里住上四年诚然是个可喜经历与绝好机会，只可惜我今生再无此福分了。我办过不止一桩错事，失掉过不止一次机会;但无论如何，我还是认为我之所得毕竟多于所失，因此即便我能再有机会把这一切重做一遍，我也许仍然缺乏头脑使自己比过去做得更好，所以一切也就只好听其自然了。